Like Noisy, NECA has been gunning for my toy funds since the beginning of the year. There are enough Aliens and Predators alone to make a man poor, but something a little more special was thrown on top of that lot this month: ED-209. I may not own a proper Robocop figure (I bought the Kenner inspired Night Fighter and NES version), but there was no hesitation when this giant chicken-legged killing machine came up for preorder.
First thing I’ve got to gush about is the box art. ED comes packed in a nice little cardboard square that shows off the figure with pictures of the toy in a couple different poses, but it’s the front that really caught my eye. Instead of your standard toy pic, NECA had a fantastic new piece of art created. Done by Jason Edmiston, we get a great shot of ED standing triumphantly in front of the future Detroit, gun barrels smoking and surrounded by hundreds of spent shells. This picture really reminds me of the good ol’ days when companies used original art instead of photos.
Right away I was pretty amazed by just how big this guy is. He’s far from the biggest toy I own, but with his wide shoulders and huge backwards chicken legs he’s got a really imposing presence on a shelf.
His size is even more daunting when you consider he’s been scaled for seven inch figures. He’s intended to be an intimidating threat to Robocop. My poor six inch figures are dwarfed next to him, and anything smaller just doesn’t stand a chance.
When it comes to sculpt, this figure is damned near perfect. I’m always impressed by the sculpt of a toy that can show me things I never even noticed in the movie. Starting with the bulky body, he has a textured pattern covering the black visor area. Underneath that is the inlaid grill that’s been sculpted with wires and metal plates on all four sides.
The back of ED’s body is a little plainer than the front, but there’s still some nice detailing. A lot of the panel work is visible here. There are also exhaust vents, wiring, and various hydraulic parts.
ED’s arms are probably my favorite part because his articulation was worked into the design of the figure. The elbow is a large looking gear that actually moves. It really annoys me when there’s a sculpted gear in the proper place for articulation, but it doesn’t move. So this functional joint on ED really makes me happy. What are even better are the sculpted wires that bend and move with the joint. Continue to page 2…
My own is on the way and all your pics did was make me even more excited for the toy to arrive.
On box art, I agree WITH an important note: Hasbro has been creating some nice original artwork for their Transformers Generations toys. Some VERY nice art.
I was hoping those blast effects were a surprise pack-in I was unaware of… Drats. Anyway, mine should be here tomorrow,then I’ll need to figure out where to display him.
P.S. You mentioned you had the NES Robo, where did you get him from? Mine is still on preorder from BBTS.
Shweeeeet.
I’d buy that for a dollar!
(or sixty.)
}Sigh.{ I am destined never to own an ED-209.
Great review, though!
You had me looking to pick one of these up until the “no articulation in the ankles or toes” part. I’d much rather have these articulation points over the sound feature. One of the best scenes of ED-209 in the movie is when he’s trying to go down the stairwell and wiggles his toes before falling down. This just seems like a misstep (pun intended) for NECA and it results in a lost sale.
Unless they come back later and retool the feet and release a variant with different feet and no sound feature. Then it’s called planning!
to be fair, articulated toes would blow. there’s no way, as heavy as the toy is, that the toes would enable anything even passingly resembling stability, so you’d have a shelf diving 60 dollar toy with extended guys and plastic wires on his bits… see any problem there? i know, it would look cool while you’re holding him in the air inspecting him, but there’s no logistical way to pose the ED coming down a flight of stairs with his toes in mid-“find purchase” without having a giant train wreck on your floor, so what good would articulated toes really be?
the only real way you could articulate the toes and keep stability would be to release a steel display slab and embed four or five strong earth magnets in each foot… and you’d be encouraged by the rest of the community to enjoy you’re 100 dollar ED and the rest of us would bemoan that price point. 🙂 you win some, you lose some, but i truly think passing over articulated toes is like not buying the HML black cat because she doesn’t have a working vagina.
I think it was a great idea to include sound clips. One of the things I fondly remember about ED was the noises he makes, especially during the stairwell fall scene that was mentioned.
the folks over at NECA really knocked this one out of the park, didn’t they? alas, much like spider gremlin i can really only admire from afar.
it’d kind of funny — to give a sense of scale, the pic with mp soundwave makes EDdie look pretty big here, but when he’s next to the other figures it looks smaller.