For my last NECA review this week, I’m taking a look at Crimson Typhoon. So far, this is the final figure in the seven inch Pacific Rim line. I definitely wouldn’t label this figure as perfect, but out of the three, he’s by far my favorite.
Like the other figures, Crimson Typhoon’s strongest selling point is his unique design. I’m particularly happy that the armor plating doesn’t cover the entire figure. Where Gipsy Danger was a very basic and human looking robot, Typhoon stretches the imagination with his combination of asymmetric design and animal-like characteristics. Seeing a good amount of gritty mechanical gears and pistons makes him look like an actual robot and adds a more realistic flavor to the design.
There are very few figures out there with three arms, and having one that is twice the size of the other two brings a bit of a Frankenstein feel to the figure. This is reinforced with the addition of the cylindrical head and backwards chicken legs. The films tag line is: “To fight monsters, we created monsters.” Crimson Typhoon design really backs up this statement.
Although the three arms and chicken legs are visually interesting, I think CT’s head is my favorite part. The cylindrical-like design is more visually interesting than the average humanoid shape. Also, with his large glowing eye and beefy left arm, the character reminds me a lot of Shockwave. Sure they don’t look exactly alike, but there’s enough of a similarity that I wouldn’t be surprised if the Transformer’s design helped influence this character. Continue to page 2…
the balance on those legs is just a killer for me, as was the lack of range in the ankles… thanks to those, you basically have one standing pose he can hit IF you can keep him standing… total fail as a nerd hummel.
as a play fig, if you’re posing and moving him around, it’s less exhausting cuz you’re holding the figure, but in those cases, the front arm just screams “ball joint my shoulder dammit!” it’s a damned shame that articulation woes, and not omissions, just failures of execution, doom this figure.
that said, i completely agree he’s the prettiest of the three to look at. can’t wait to see him in the film.
looks cool, even tho I never was a fan of the asymmetrical designs popularized by Spawn’s One Big Ass Boot in the 90s.
btw, the “continue to p2” link appears broken. the “2” link works, however.
Nerd time!
This reminds me a LOT of the description of the aliens in the novel ‘The Mote in God’s Eye. One thing about that novel, they went into the engineering of the Moties quite a bit, about how you can’t have as flexible a spine and the need for huge muscle attachment area for the ‘big’ arm and so on. So to my mind this robot isn’t asymmetrical ENOUGH to work properly.
But if it isn’t a ‘normal bi-ped’ in outline it won’t look ‘right’ to most person’s innate pattern recognition coding.
Neat toys, wish they were cheaper and there were more of them. I’m assuming NECA saw the debacle of the ‘Real Steel’ toys and decided not to go that far.
naw, there’s a second set coming w/ a battle damaged (and be-weaponed) gipsy danger, jaeger striker eureka, and kaiju leatherback
http://www.figures.com/forums/news/34022-necas-pacific-rim-series-2-lineup-revealed.html
as for cheaper… man, 18 bucks, in today’s market? how much cheaper do you think you can realistically go for a 7 inch action figure? you can’t even sneeze on an import in that scale for less than 70 bucks. i had my issues w/ these figs, but i certainly don’t feel like i overpaid for them.