{"id":27071,"date":"2014-02-21T08:40:48","date_gmt":"2014-02-21T14:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=27071"},"modified":"2014-02-22T15:42:14","modified_gmt":"2014-02-22T21:42:14","slug":"vault-review-necas-lava-planet-predator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=27071","title":{"rendered":"Vault Review: NECA\u2019s
Lava Planet Predator"},"content":{"rendered":"

NECA was definitely up there with my favorite showings at this week\u2019s Toy Fair.\u00a0 Their Godzilla and Aliens figures looked great, and getting the rights to Sigourney Weaver\u2019s license was the cherry on top. \u00a0But what literally surprised me the most was the Predator\u2019s Blade Fighter vehicle.\u00a0 Repaints with some new tooling is what I expect from these Kenner inspired figures, but NECA is actually making an entirely new vehicle.\u00a0 Truly amazing.<\/p>\n

So to celebrate the occasion, I thought I\u2019d end out the week with the Lava Planet Predator.<\/p>\n

\"lprd1\"<\/p>\n

There wasn\u2019t a lot of story for those original Kenner figures.\u00a0 You\u2019d just have to extrapolate a play pattern from their names and unique looks.\u00a0 But NECA is filling in some of those gaps with a back-story on the box.\u00a0 Apparently the Lava Predator Clan lives in a volcanic region that\u2019s highly radioactive.\u00a0 They leave their cloaks on constantly, which offers some protection from the environment.\u00a0 They also have specific weapons to hunt the Vy\u2019drach insects of that region.<\/p>\n

Those NECA folks did a great job of tying Lava\u2019s look into a story that makes sense.\u00a0 But they even took it a step farther by mentioning the Vy\u2019drach, which are actually from the expanded Predator universe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"lprd2\"<\/p>\n

Lava Pred uses the City Hunter body as a base, but his new pieces and paint apps do a lot to give him a unique look.\u00a0 I\u2019m particularly fond of his mask and right arm.\u00a0 Both pieces are designed to look like the Kenner version, but they also have a very specific insect-like look.\u00a0 The mask\u2019s exoskeleton look with pincers hanging off the bottom really hit this point home.<\/p>\n

\"lprd3\"<\/p>\n

His arm blade also has that buggy feel with its thin and flat double pronged look.\u00a0 This could have easily been a claw or tip of a tail.\u00a0 He\u2019s also got this interesting cable running from the back of his armor into the mechanical part of the wrist blade.\u00a0 I\u2019m not really sure what that would be for, but it definitely adds to his unique look.\u00a0 Continue to page 2…<\/a><\/p>\n

\"lprd4\"<\/p>\n

Lava Pred\u2019s body and almost all the additional armor is molded in a translucent red for that cool cloaking look, but there are still plenty of paint apps on the figure.\u00a0 His mask, wrist blade, and other bits of armor were done in a dark metallic red.\u00a0 This makes all those parts look like they came from the Vy\u2019drach carcass.\u00a0 But it\u2019s not all bug.\u00a0 There are also some silver armor and dreadlock beads.\u00a0 Probably the neatest effect is the tampoed swirling patterns from where his cloak isn\u2019t covering.<\/p>\n

\"lprd5\"<\/p>\n

Even though he has a shoulder canon and wrist blade, Lava only comes with one accessory.\u00a0 This long machete-like blade has an interesting patter with some deadly looking grooved cuts.\u00a0 The hilt looks like a piece of bone with fabric wrapped around it.\u00a0 It also has the same metallic red paint job as his mask, knocking home the point that this weapon was also fashioned out of bug carcass.<\/p>\n

\"lprd6\"<\/p>\n

If you can\u2019t tell by now, I\u2019ve got a pretty big crush on these Kenner figures.\u00a0 Rarely does a figure appeal to my adult collector and nostalgic kid mentality at the same time.\u00a0 I can\u2019t wait to get the Blade Fighter in person, or see their upcoming Aliens inspired figures.\u00a0 Heck, I\u2019d even love if they\u2019d expand into Kenner Terminator territory also.\u00a0 Either way, NECA\u2019s pretty much secured my wallet for the next few years if they keep this up.<\/p>\n

-Vault<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[1986,34,10],"tags":[2196,2262,128,1827,2263],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/lprdFP.jpg?fit=480%2C195","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pObc6-72D","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":26030,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=26030","url_meta":{"origin":27071,"position":0},"title":"NECA Predator: Hive Wars Predator Review","date":"December 8, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Film & TV"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29607,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=29607","url_meta":{"origin":27071,"position":1},"title":"Even More NECA in the News! Predator, Alien, GOTG, POTA!","date":"November 11, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "News"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26064,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=26064","url_meta":{"origin":27071,"position":2},"title":"Top Ten: Figures We Hope Are on NECA’s Radar","date":"December 12, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Top Ten"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":26104,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=26104","url_meta":{"origin":27071,"position":3},"title":"Vault Review: NECA\u2019s Nightstorm Predator","date":"December 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/nspd4.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":26721,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=26721","url_meta":{"origin":27071,"position":4},"title":"Vault Review: NECA Alien Xenomorph (Big Chap)","date":"January 30, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Film & TV"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/axbc4.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":26662,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=26662","url_meta":{"origin":27071,"position":5},"title":"NECA Predator: Wasp Predator Review","date":"January 26, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Film & TV"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27071"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27071"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27249,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27071\/revisions\/27249"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}