We’ve been waiting for months for the HIGHLY anticipated Sideshow Collectibles full-size Wolf Predator bust, a replica of the main Predator character from AvP:Requiem, and at last he has arrived! Today we pop him under the lights and break it down for you.

First off, as you may expect the box is absolutely HUMONGOUS and weighs over 50 pounds. The FedEx guy didn’t look too happy to be hauling that sucker up my steps. The packaging is the usual bit with the plain outer shipping box with a retail box inside. The retail box is also a plain brown box with some Wolf artwork stuck on one side. Inside we get the foam shell, and each side has a little compartment you open to pull out the dreads. You can already see the Wolf’s jaws sticking out! You then remove the top foam cover and you can see the Wolf in all his glory with more dreads on either side of him. I then lifted out the bust and found that the base is actually already glued/attached to the bust itself, it’s not two pieces. The bust is also surprisingly light, kind of making you wonder why the box weighs so much. So I popped that on the floor and started taking out the dreads.

Each dread is packaged in it’s own plastic sleeve and they almost feel gooey! Once out of the sleeve, the flexible dreads are still moist with oils from the casting and painting process and have that sweet “New Toy” smell to them. The dreads are numbered from 1 to 6, with 1 being the small dreads and 6 being the biggest. You can see the number is cast right in to the flat, fat end of the dread. And sticking out of each dread on the same side is the end of a threaded bolt. So all you do is look in each hole on the bust and you’ll find a number on the inside rim. Simply match the numbers on the dreads and push each one in… the threads will stop the dreads from falling out. Some go in very easily, a couple you might have to push a bit to get it in all the way. Once you’re done, your bust is ready to rock!

At this point I picked it up to put it in the photo booth, and THAT’S where you get the surprise… the dreads weigh a ton, and once they are all attached to the bust, the thing goes from 25lbs to 50lbs! Some of the dreads are also somewhat bent, but this will straighten out over time as they hang, or you can use a hair dryer to heat them up a bit and straighten them. Personally I’d rather let gravity do the work, just in case the heat does funny stuff to the dreads. The dreads appear to be some kind of foam cast dreads with some kind of rubber coating. They’re super smooth and oily, but look awesome! The dread rings are cast right in to the dreads, they are not separate pieces.

So, once I have it all assembled and up on the stand with the studio lights on, I can get a good luck at this and it’s VERY impressive in person. The bust is about the same size as the Sideshow Predator 1 bust, but this one taller due to the base. The paint job is OK for a pre-paint but I don’t feel it looks very close to the the prototype photos on Sideshow’s site, which has always impressed me with their big ticket Predator items so far. The P1 bust and the P1 Maquette both have production pieces that look very close to the prototype photos, but the Wolf seems to lack the paint details we see in their promotional photos. The main difference between the prototype photos and the real thing is there is no extra green detailing on the scars on the production piece. I really only have 2 major complaints with the paint job and that’s the scar tissue on the side of the face, and the the mouth.

I just feel that the scarring on the side of the face should be a different color than the rest of the skin and I think more attention to detail would have been good here. The sculpt is dead on gorgeous like the original prop, but the scarring could have used better paint detail. As for the veins in the mouth, it’s as though it was the last thing to do on the bust and they just wanted to get it over it. The P1 bust from Sideshow has awesome veins on the mouth, with layered effects. On the Wolf, they basically painted the entire mouth, then just with with a pinkish grey paint and just made lightning bolt patterns with a fine brush and that was it. It looks very sloppy and not realistic at all. They should have used purples and blues, then built up the inner mouth colors, then added a few more veins again for a realistic layered effect. I also think they overdid it with the pink in the mouth… So basically, the veins suck and it’s a tad too pinkish overall. Other than that, it looks pretty damn cool!

The sculpt is gorgeous and straight from the ADI molds… I actually saw the original casting ADI sent to Sideshow, so this sculpt is dead on. I have to admit I would have preferred static resin dreads though in a cool pose rather that these rubber foam ones, but it still looks great! I am SO glad Sideshow fixed the posing of the dreads. The quills look great too, and they are flexible as though made from a similar material as Bake and Blend, which is a type of clay medium used by guys that make mask quills for costumes. The material is very tough and flexible, which helps avoid damage in shipping and handling.

I also noticed a lot of people were concerned about painted eyes vs acrylic eyes… meaning were the eyes painted on the bust, or did they insert fake acrylic eyeballs in to the bust. I’m happy to report they used the superior method, acrylic eyes, and they look awesome!

So overall, I am EXTREMELY happy with this purchase and is definitely a keeper in my collection. I’m not 100% happy with the paint, I felt they did a better job on the Predator 1 bust, but this is still a MUST HAVE for Predator fans. Just make sure you have a sturdy table to put it on!

I took a TON of photos of this badboy, so please check it all out by clicking on the photo icon below:

In addition to the photos, I also did a little mini review and posted it on Youtube. Basically let’s you see how this looks and I share a few thoughts on it. You can watch it below:

So that’s it guys! Would love to hear your comments on this, so please click the comment icon below and tell me what you think of the review and/or this piece! If you would like to purchase this bust, they are in-stock at Sideshow, so click here to purchase one!

Dan

A month or two ago I received a couple of AWESOME new build-ups from Joe Dunaway of a fullscale Rambo style Gizmo and Mohawk Mogwai from Narin’s Gremlins 2 series of sculpts. Tonight I finally had a chance to break out the camera gear and have some fun!

This is supposed to be a series of 5 sculpts from the Gremlins 2 movie, featuring 5 key Mogwai characters, but so far Narin has only issued 2 of the 5 sculpts. Not sure if we’ll see the other 3, but for now we get these two awesome fellas! They are fullscale sculpts and are around a foot tall and quite heavy. My favorite of the two is probably Mohawk, due to the entire attitude of the pose and Joe’s buildup is just gorgeous. I love the way he did the eyes! I had a lot of fun photographing this in my daughter’s playroom in front of her barbie dollhouse.

The kit comes in 2 parts, the head and the body, so it’s fairly simple to assemble and prep for painting. Joe advised me that his kit had numerous pinholes that needed filling and I have since addressed this concern with the producer, but other than that assembly was a snap. I just can not get over how life-like the sculpt and paint application is… the combination of a Narin sculpt and a Dunaway paint job is truly the ultimate combination and you end up with a museum quality piece.

We currently have this piece available in our shop and it’s in-stock, you can click here to purchase Mohawk.

Next up is the very cool Rambo style Gizmo, complete with paperclip bow and flaming pencil arrow!

Gizmo is just as impressive with this iconic pose from the film, and you can either built this with the resin cast pencil, use your own real pencil, the scale is dead on. The liquid paper bottle is sculpted with the flames, so most artists choose to steam off a label from a real bottle and glue it on, which is what Joe did. Again, this piece is SUPER life-like, especially the eyes and the mottling Joe applied to the fur. When my daughter first saw this, she thought it was real!

The part breakdown for this guy includes the head, body, hands, pencil and bottle, paperclip and string. Due to elastic bands rotting in storage, you will need to supply your own for this build-up.

In fact, this piece is so lifelike, especially when painted right, that a Clubhouse forum member recently posted photos of his buildup that won him GOLD at an IPMS Event AND it won Best Figure! (Congrats Dethstryker, your build-up was amazing!)

Gizmo is also available and in-stock in our shop! You can click here for all the order info.

Bottom line on this one folks, if you are a Gremlins fan, you can’t beat these sculpts, especially for the price. I personally LOVED Gremlins and HAD to have these as a tribute in my collection.

And of course, I took a TON of pics! I had some fun with playroom photos as well as some nice booth photos, so please click the photo icon below to visit the gallery:

So a HUGE thank you to Joe Dunaway who did an AMAZING job on these! Now to bug Narin to do the other 3 sculpts so I can complete my invasion of Mogwai! Would love to hear what you guys think of the pics and the kits, please click the comment button below to share your thoughts!

Next review coming next week… The Sideshow FULLSCALE Wolf Bust! Aaaaaaand a new website layout is on the way!

Enjoy,
Dan

Steve Perry and the Dark Horse team have unleashed a new Predator based novel titled ‘Predator Turnabout’ and before you dive in and find out if it’s worth the read, our dear friend Ian has sacrificed his life and limb to bring you this review. Not sure what motivates Ian to send us in these periodic reviews of his (it seems to be a 1 or 2-times-a-year type of thing), but I sure wish he’d send these in more often!

Take it away Ian…

Over the years, Dark Horse have served the Alien and Predator community admirably. Their creative team were responsible for the original “Alien vs. Predator” Graphic novel, and they have produced many varied and entertaining comic-based stories featuring our fave nasties.

Some of the comics were adapted into novels published by other companies, but for the last 2 years, Dark Horse Books have been publishing their own new Predator stories. “Forever Midnight” in May 2006, “Flesh and Blood” in September 2007 and now “Turnabout” in March 2008.

“Forever Midnight” - while entertaining , had way to much behind-the-scenes exposition on Predator behaviour and family life - including the suggestion that Predators switched back-and-forth between sexes (hated that - really turned me off the book). “Flesh and Blood” was much better, but again, a little too much discourse between the Predators plus it ended way too quickly for my tastes. This time round they have got it right.

This latest book would make a great movie (Predator 3 anyone?) It shows how to properly handle a Predator vs. human conflict set in current times (most people know my opinion of AVP and particularly AVP-R!) Set in the Alaskan wilderness, we have a mixture of bears (not Pooh), a ranger (lone but without Tonto), a group of poachers (after the supposed furry-derived version of Viagra) and a woman who wants to see the place her Brother died (and gets way more than she expected). Oh - there are also some Predators.

Steve Perry is obviously an accomplished writer. That much is apparent even without the “New York Times best-selling author” plaudit that is boldly stamped on the front cover. He builds his characterisations beautifully, constantly expanding on them and keeping the reader truly interested in what happens to every individual described. You WANT the bad guys to get it, you WANT the good guys to win, you WANT justice to be done. Always a good sign when you nod in agreement at a well thought out paragraph or plot-twist. The confusion and disbelief he allows to build between the various players is expertly handled. Mr. Perry never forgets who knows what, allowing every character to form their own conclusions about what is going on at any moment.

He takes great care in describing locations and situations, letting you easily visualise the setting, the risks, the challenges - the REALITY of what people would face therein. You FEEL for the personalities involved (good or bad) and can understand the emotions, frustrations and desires of all - without the need for it being stuck front-and-centre-and-obvious on your TV screen. The man tells a damn good story.

The Predators are not ‘humanised’ by having them speak to one another or simplified by giving detailed explanations of what they are doing. The reader is left to draw their own conclusions in the same way that the 2 Predator movies allowed awe and imagination to run riot. The descriptions of killings are sufficient for the intended audience without being unnecessarily gory…

“His voice was cut off by the sudden explosion of light and sound that ripped through the dark, that slammed into his chest. He screamed, threw his arms in the air as the weird fire ate into him - through him - knocking him back and down - “

The whole ride leaves you feeling that this was a more-than-justifiable use of a few bucks from your hobby budget.

I had a few minor quibbles - none of which should put ANYONE off purchasing. There are a couple of cases where the author repeats himself in succeeding chapters, and a few spelling errors that would have befitted from better proof-reading (send me a preview copy next time :o) ) Also, the cover painting is great (REALLY!), but I wish they would get away from always using the AVP armour and face designs. I’d love to see an original OR an adaptation of the P1 or P2. Maybe Dark Horse feels the market only wants the AVP-style now? If so, I have news for them, there are plenty of us that don’t want to be this limited. I’m one of those that has been spoiled by the vivid imaginations and genius sculpting abilities of the Garage Kit market.

I guess my only real criticism is that the author has an unfortunate fixation on guns - or assumes we do. Way too much detail - detail that pulled me out of the “fantasy zone” and made me raise my eyebrows. I would have thought it sufficient to stop at naming or with a short description. I don’t need to know the exact caliber or what scope it has or what it had for breakfast. Maybe it’s me being English but I do NOT have the fascination with handguns that North Americans are purported to have (my apologies to those of you that don’t). The author even credits the source of his info with pride in the “acknowledgements” section. Personally, I couldn’t care less about the detail - just tell me it’s a gun or a rifle (or in the case of the Chey-Tac a basic description) and that will do - the rest just seems showy and completely unnecessary unless it’s a write-up in the latest copy of “Survivalist nutballs monthly”.

Chapters 25-30 (the last 30 pages / the “final scenes”) could not have been better written - a superb piece of paced storytelling - great twists, plenty of irony and suspense, and even humour - dark but perfectly placed humour. Impressed as I was, I hated the fact that the book had ended. I hope that we get a direct sequel to this story - the ‘characters’ that survive deserve another novel (or that movie - hint hint!)

Put simply, this is a great read that I highly recommend above any other Predator novel so far published by anyone. For the first time, I own a Predator paperback that I will quickly read again. Having just put this one down I now eagerly await the release of the 4th novel “South China Sea” in August 2008. However - Jeff VanderMeer - you have a TOUGH act to follow.

It’s a shame that the wait between novels is so long. It only takes a few hours to read the 250 (on average) pages, and I read this book in 3 evenings. Too long a wait for too short a payback. I’d easily accommodate one of these a month - but then I’m greedy and always hungry for Predator-related goodies in ANY form.

Thanks to Dark Horse and Steve Perry for a thoroughly enjoyable read and a great way to spend some down time. Keep up the good work one-and-all, and I hope you never lose your licensing rights - you do us proud. Cheers guys.

Ian / “Heavy Metal Spike”, April 2008.

PS: His name was David Douglas not Douglas ’somebody’ (trivia for page 199 when you read it).

A couple of weeks ago I received an email from one mister Robert Fordham, who took the time to drop me a note about how much he loved the site and that he wanted to send me some artwork that he had made. Now, I’ll admit up front and center that I was prepared for something a 12 year old drew up or something, which is still cool (I’ll NEVER not appreciate anything ppl want to share with me, especially their own artwork), but I was most definitely not prepared for what arrived in the mail 12 days later.

The ol’ mailbox had a large brown envelope crammed in there with Rob’s work and I had actually completely forgotten about him sending it to me. I checked the return address on the envelope and mumbled “what the hell is this now?” under my breath. It didn’t really look like a bill of any kind, so that’s always a plus. I could feel the cardboard inside so I knew it was something I shouldn’t fold (Ok the big DO NOT CRUSH OR FOLD written across the top also tipped me off), so I carefully opened the top with my trusty letter opener (large steak knife that was sitting on the drying rack in the kitchen) and pulled out a bagged piece of cardboard with some white papers against it. I open up the bag and pull out the papers and flip them over and my jaw literally hit the floor. The first thing I saw was the image shown above this paragraph, and you seriously have to see this in person to appreciate the detail of the ink, it’s insane.

This is an original inking he made on a very thick artpaper stock and he’s signed and dated it and left a nice note on the back for me. Wow, this is AWESOME! Then I look at the other papers, which are photocopies of… get this… BALLPOINT PEN “doodles” he’s made on regular paper. In fact, one of them has his Home Depot shopping list on it! Check these out:

Now, I went to design school and a specialized highschool for a 4 year intensive visual arts program, so I know quality, and Robert’s skills are insane and quite frankly, he should be joining Farzad at ADI doing creature concept designs. I quickly contacted Rob to basically shower him in compliments and gratitude for this awesome gift AND I wanted to see what we could do about getting some original work for Predatorstuff clients. Well, he’s agreed, so for a limited time, we will be selling ORIGINAL Predator artwork by Robert Fordham in the shop! These will be fully framed and ready to display in your studio/room/office and we guarantee you will freak when you see these in person just like I did. So stay tuned for when we announce these items in our shop (Please remember these are original signed pieces you will be buying, NOT prints or copies) and you’ll be able to grab one of these beauties for yourself.

Thanks for looking and please leave your comments below by clicking the comment button. I know Rob would LOVE to hear your feedback, so don’t be shy

Dan

Today I want to re-introduce you to what I feel is one of the most under-rated Predator kits around, and surprisingly enough, it’s a Narin kit. I consider it underrated because since I started selling kits last year, I have never sold a single one. I had 2 in-stock, so I sent one to Joe Dunaway for the paint treatment and wanted to show you just how kick-ass this bust can be when painted properly.

I’ve always thought that the complete lack of decent pictures of this piece was directly related to the lack of sales on it. Granted it does break away from the traditional Predator pieces we see, it’s an amazing piece with fantastic details and good size at 1:4 scale. Sculpted a few years ago, the bust more or less crept out on the market and really didn’t take off, but I can honestly say it’s one of my favorite busts and I’m glad I decided to order a couple to check it out in person. As Joe Dunaway says “This is a HELL of a lot cooler looking in person!”.

The kit features a menacing looking beast-like Predator with one giant clawed hand and some massive mandibles, and includes a cool fossilized style monster skull for the base. It’s a big piece with minimal armor, so this is a great piece to practise and show off your skin texturing abilities, and with all the bumps and horn-like stems on the shoulders, you can really let your imagination run wild.

In fact, that’s exactly what I told Joe to do… I think his exact instructions from me were “Do whatever the hell turns you on” and you can see the results speak for themselves. So to celebrate what I feel is really everyone’s first look at how cool this piece is, I am having a brand new batch of these cast up in the same new material that we’ve used for the Hybrid and Wolf kits and you can grab these nice kits for well under 100 bucks! I’ll get 5 units to start, so if you want to be in on the first batch, you can pre-order yours by clicking HERE in our shop!

The kit itself is just over 9″ tall when assembled and weighs about 3 pounds. Great size for a bust!

So hopefully this is a bit of an eye-opener for people that weren’t so sure about how good this bust was based on the somewhat crappy pics that have been shown so far. The second one I had in stock sold the same day as when Joe posted his pics of this build-up on the CH forum late last week, so obviously seeing it in high resolution with some good paint slinging is turning heads!

Want to see more photos? Click the ol’ photo icon below for all the photos I snapped today of this gorgeous piece and I promise you’ll be hooked:

If you want to pre-order one, check out the shop, or please click the comment button below and use the form to tell me what you think!

Thanks!
Dan

Good morning gang! This morning I would like to share with you a couple of new arrivals that dropped by on Monday and that I am quite pleased about. I’m actually sick as a dog, but as always, the collecting world doesn’t care about illness! Through blood, sweat and tears (and a VERY runny nose), we must continue to battle through the hordes of crapola to bring you the truth about what’s hot and what’s not. OK maybe it’s not THAT dramatic, but the Oscar’s just finished up, so I’m allowed a tiny bit of theatrics… if anything, humor me, I’m sick.

Let’s start the fun with the very impressive Plasma Cannon piece… weighing in at around 10lbs and measuring 20 inches long, you’ve got a kick-ass replica that can double as a security device used to bash in the head of a home invader. It’s extremely solid and heavy and feels like a good quality piece. This is a limited edition piece, set at 500 castings and is currently sold out at Sideshow, although they do have a wait list going you can join if you want to try your luck.

Here is the official description from Sideshow:

Sideshow is proud to partner with Amalgamated Dynamics Inc (ADI) to bring you the Aliens VS Predator Prop Replica line, featuring some of the most advanced weaponry and armor ever conceived for the Predator arsenal. Each prop replica is an exact 1:1 reproduction of the original screen used prop, as created by ADI.

The Plasma Cannon Prop Replica is cast in high quality polystone, and features a light-up display feature. The piece is complete with a display stand that can be displayed on your desktop, or mounted on your wall. Each piece is hand-cast, hand-finished, and hand-painted to exacting standards, then individually hand-numbered.

Artist(s): Amalgamated Dynamics Inc (ADI), Farzad Varahramyan, Nick Seldon, Yuri Everson, Chris Ayers

Product Size: Product Size: Approx. 20″ L (508mm) x 3.25″ W (83mm) x 7″ H (178mm)
Display Base Size: Approx. 16.5″ L (419mm) x 5.25″ W (133mm) x 6.75″ D (171mm)*
Est. Box Size: Approx. 22″ L (559mm) x 12.5″ W (318mm) x 6.5″ D (165mm)*
Product Weight: 10.00 lbs (4.32 Kg)

The overall piece has wonderful detailing all over, with glyphs and other symbols and the smooth metal with hammered textured areas looks awesome. No fingerprints in the paint and no brushhairs or lint clinging to anything, so I’m happy about that. In an amusing after-thought, I can’t help but notice that this thing looks like a space-age cordless drill from behind, with the big ol’ 14.4 volt batter pack and all. The base is also very heavy and looks great! Beautifully sculpted with great details and they had the intelligence to pad the cradle arms with rubber so the cannon doesn’t slide around or get scratched up. The base is also numbered on the bottom and like all the other prop pieces in this series, it can be wall mounted.

Ah but wait, the cool stuff doesn’t end there… We’ve got some light-up action with a cocking barrel for some backyard AVPR fun!

Before you keep on reading, I recorded a little video for you guys… it’s a quick mini-review I recorded but the main part is to show you how the cannon power-up sequence works. So if you want to check that out, click here to download the video.

The cannon features a light up sequence just like in the movie when the cannon is charging before use. There are no sounds (you can make you’re own like I do) but it’s still cool to show the LADIES! On one side of the rounded plasma generator section is a magnetized lid that just pops off, and your batteries are in there (remember you have to open the battery housing up and pull out the plastic tab when you first get this). The other side has a round switch disguised as part of the sculpt details that you push in to activate the lights. You then cock the barrel back and the light-up sequence starts. Hours of fun to be had here! Once you’re done, push the barrel slide back to the front and hit the switch again to shut it off.

So what’s my overall opinion? Fantastic piece and worth every nickel… $250 for a film accurate cannon with this kind of quality AND lights AND a base is a bargain, especially considering this is a licensed release. So a huge congratulations to ADI (Producer) and to Sideshow (Distributor) on this piece, it’s a FANTASTIC replica and a welcomed addition to my collection. Oh and yes, I pay for all this just like everyone else… I don’t get special treatment from Sideshow or anything, despite my constant complaining to them about it

Click on the photo icon below for more photos of this AWESOME cannon!

Next is the Shuriken!

I have wanted an AVP style Shuriken for AGES, but for whatever reasons, I was never able to get one despite several replicas made by fans of the movies. They were either too expensive or didn’t look right etc… Well, looks like all those delays had a reason, because now I have an AWESOME film accurate one and it only cost $250! At just over 20 inches long, this is a HUGE piece and it’s another sweet addition to the AVPR prop series being released by Sideshow and ADI. The Shuriken also comes with two really nice bases… one for shelf mount and another one for wall mounting. Here’s the official specs from Sideshow:

Sideshow is proud to partner with Amalgamated Dynamics Inc (ADI) to bring you the Aliens VS Predator Prop Replica line, featuring some of the most advanced weaponry and armor ever conceived for the Predator arsenal. Each prop replica is an exact 1:1 reproduction of the original screen used prop, as created by ADI.

The Shuriken Prop Replica is cast in high quality polystone and dense flexible PU. The piece is complete with two display stands: one that can be displayed on your desktop, and one that can be mounted on your wall. Each piece is hand-cast, hand-finished, and hand-painted to exacting standards, then individually hand-numbered.

Artist(s): Amalgamated Dynamics Inc (ADI), Nick Seldon, Matt Killen, Chris Ayers

Product Size: Product Size: Approx. 20″ W (508mm) x 1″ D (25mm)
Display Base Size: Approx. 10.5″ H (267mm) x 6.5″ W (165mm) x 6.75″ D (171mm) *

Est. Box Size: Approx. 23″ L (584mm) x 17″ W (432mm) x 9″ D (229mm)*

Est. Product Ship Weight: 10.00 lbs (4.32 Kg)

Despite this piece being REALLY nice and seems like a good quality production run like the cannon, I do have 2 little issues… one is kind of significant, the other is my personal taste.

Problem 1: This has been mentioned by pretty much everyone that gets this piece… the ends of the blades to not fit snugly in to the Shuriken handle and fall out. No idea why, but someone pooched something in the design house. I don’t know if this is because of shrinkage from the molding process (It probably is exactly that now that I think of it) but the blade ends are definitely too thin. When you first get the prop in the box, the round Shuriken housing is separate from the blades. You have to insert the end of each blade in to slots along the top of the Shuriken housing. There is no difference between the blades and they do not appear to have a specific placement. You will notice that when you insert the ends in to the slots, they simply loosely slide in for the most part, and when you tilt or move the Shuriken around, they simply fall out of the slots. This could be a REAL disaster if one falls out and hits your ceramic floor… your Shuriken will be one blade short of a full deck.

You have a couple of options to fix this… you can either use a little drop of super glue to hold them in place, or you can use a little piece of paper and fold it over the ends a bit and it will add just enough width to the blade so that it slides in tight enough to stay put, but will still come out again when you pull on the blades.

So this isn’t exactly the armageddon, but it’s still a pain when you don’t like assembling your props *raises hand*

Problem 2: Again, this is personal taste, but the weathering seems to be too harsh for me. Call me crazy, but when I see the Shurikens on-screen, they seem to be a dirty chrome, especially in AVP. AVPR is so dark it’s hard to see anything, but in AVP you clearly see the Shuriken and it’s a shiny chrome with some aging. For those of you that own the Sideshow Combat Edition Endo Bust, this is exactly the finish I mean. But this piece has some CRAZY weathering, and to me it’s overdone… it looks like the thing was dropped in mud, was left out in the sun to dry and VOILA, it’s aged. It still looks nice, but I personally think a lighter, less splotchy aged finish would have looked better.

So other than these two items, it’s a bad-ass piece and another beauty in my collection.

As I mentioned earlier, this particular prop comes with two bases… the main stand used to show it on a flat surface (shown above) and a smaller wall-mount stand should you want this baby hanging from your wall. The base is again quite heavy and beautifully sculpted and painted.

Overall, this piece warrants another round of applause for Sideshow and ADI, but they definitely should have addressed the fact that the blades do not slide in place securely. I assume they only discovered it once the production run had begun, and that was more or less the point of no return. I’m just guessing mind you… All the same though, definitely a great piece and the price is EXTREMELY reasonable.

Ready for the pics? Click the icon below for more shots of this beauty:

So that’s if for this review guys! Please click the comment icon below and use the form to share your thoughts on this review or on these items, I would love to hear from you. Thanks again for reading and I look forward to bringing you my next article, featuring what I think is one of the most underrated Predator kits ever made!

Peace and love (and more Kleenex),
Dan

Alright folks… strap yourself in and get ready to drool over the latest build-up that arrived TODAY from Joe Dunaway! It’s the amazing build-up of the exclusive Wolf kit we are selling here on Predatorstuff.com and this is honestly one of the best pieces I own from Joe, it’s absolutely SICK!

First off, if you haven’t seen this kit yet, it was announced last week in this post and it is a gorgeous 1:5 scale kit of the Wolf Predator from AVP-R sculpted by Narin and released exclusively here on Predatorstuff.com for a run of 100 kits. Pre-orders were posted last week as well and stock is expected to start arriving in 3 weeks in batches of 15 kits per week until the run is out of production. This piece was sent directly from the manufacturer to Joe Dunaway to build up for the cover-art and general advertising of this piece, so this is actually the first time I see a casting of this in person!

Before unwrapping, it was obvious this is a bigger kit than you would normally expect to get from Narin. The box Joe used to ship was huge and fairly heavy, so I could already tell the size was going to be awesome. While I know some of you were asking if we would be making a Wolf kit in scale with the recent Hybrid we released with an interlocking base, and I did think that was a cool idea, I wanted the Wolf to be a bit bigger and more impressive size wise. Once I got it unwrapped, it was obvious that my wishes were fulfilled, because the solid cast piece definitely has some great size and looks 100% kick-ass!

The kit is over 14″ tall, including the base and it’s very heavy. With this bad-boy in my display case, it’s clear that the kit is a bigger scale than the usual Narin kits… in fact the only kits close to this size are the Eradicate and Barbarian kits, which are both fairly huge kits.

The second thing you notice is the insane detail put in to this sculpt… I know when this was being sculpted and I have absolutely no idea how narin was able to get this level of detail and accuracy in the kit when there was barely a single screenshot of the Predator posted online. Everything from the whip to the claymores to the spikes on the back of the calves are crisp and accurately detailed and the effect is amplified by Joe’s painting skills. I honestly have no idea how Joe paints like this, it’s simply beyond words just how gorgeous his work is and quite frankly, worth every penny. I’ve been working on a new photo technique using backlit backdrops, which you can see in the two photos posted above, and people are telling me they look like high resolution movie stills! Granted I know what I’m doing with the camera, but the photos are only as good as the piece I’m photographing. If you’ve ever had any doubts, toss them out now… Joe is the king of Predator buildups.

Going back to the kit, the detailing on the weapons are awesome and are really impressive once combined and added to the kit. You get the dual cannons, 6 claymores (you can attach as many or as little as you like because the Bandolier has all the sculpted details underneath so you see the clips where the claymore was attached), the whip, the spear, 3 collapsed shurikens and even the vial of dissolving liquid nestled in a pouch on his belt. What I really like is how sturdy the spear is… it’s not flimsy at all and stays straight once assembled. I can’t stand kits and figures with shitty spears that are all bent and warped once attached to the kit. The spear is actually 3 parts… you have the hand and handle as one piece, then the two halves. Once assembled, the spear measures just over 15″ in length!

The kit also includes a simple but well sculpted forest style base, representing the beginning of the movie when the Predator destroys the crashed ship and tracking down the escaped facehuggers and PredAlien.

Now, I haven’t seen a raw, unpainted casting in person, so I asked Joe what he thought about the casting quality and clean-up of the kit… here’s what he had to say:

The castings for the wolf kit are amazing….the seamlines are faint and easy to remove and there were only a couple of little air holes that needed putty filling. Assembly was also a snap! All the pieces fit together nice and snug, however, some light putty work was needed to connect the legs to the body.

So once again, Narin absolutely blows me away with his sculpting abilities and there’s just not enough good things I can say about my good friend Joe Dunaway. I had a lot of fun photographing this piece with the backdrops, so if you want to check out all the new pics, please click on the photo icon below:

Thanks again to Joe who pretty much dropped everything to paint this for me in under a week and sent it out right away so I could have my way with it! To check out Joe’s portfolio or to hire him for a build-up, check out his site at www.modelzone.com. If you would like to buy this kit, you can order it from our shop by clicking HERE!

That’s it for this review guys, thanks for reading and please be sure to click the comment button below to leave me your feedback!

Peace!
Dan

Is it my imagination, or did pretty much EVERYONE get this before I did? Yeesh Sideshow, was I at the bottom of the list for mine or what… Ah well, better late than never I suppose! Tonight I would like to present to you my review of the Hot Toys Predator 2 Elder figure, which was viewed as probably one of their best upcoming released in this series.

I have owned EVERY Hot Toys Predator figure released to date, including all the obscure Asian special editions that Sideshow and North American distributors never carried, and I can honestly say this is the best one to date, and it’s mostly because they finally did a proper head. Not just in size, but in terms of paint application… FINALLY! It only took about 9 releases to finally get a decent head sculpt and paint job going on these things, let’s hope they continue this trend.

As usual, I ordered this from Sideshow and was bent over the shipping and customs alter and given a good reaming. Sorry, I don’t mean to be graphic but I am starting to get annoyed that a box only a bit bigger than the shoebox that comes with a pair of my boots costs $40 to ship and then I get nailed with $30 duty. When all is said and done, this $139 toy cost $210 to get it in my hands… Truth be told, the $40 shipping isn’t bad for the 2 day FedEx, but man am I tired of our diligent customs officials. Right, moving along…

Once again, Hot Toys scores top marks for the gorgeous retail packaging on these figures. Although I wouldn’t mind if they just paper bagged it and cut $40 off the price as I am sure that a huge chunk of the cost on these figures is spent on the lofty packaging. Either way, nice boxes Hot Toys, you’re making the rest of the toy makers green with envy!

Now we come to the part I DESPISE. Assembly. I absolutely can not stand putting these together and I think the entire concept of having to put them together after paying over $200 to get it here is absurd. I’m not sure if this is considered fun by the folks at Hot Toys, but to me, it’s about as much fun as that scene in the last James Bond flic where Bond is sitting in that ass-less chair getting his meat and potatoes turned in to roast beef. It sucks and I always manage to break something in the process…

This time, I actually decided to read the instructions because this guy is VERY detailed and has tons of belts, straps and other dangly things to adorn our ancient warrior. I wanted to make sure I put all these little bits on in the right order and not pooch the assembly. One thing I’ve found out… if you screw something up in assembly, it’s a nightmare to start taking it apart again. So, I grab the instructions…

Step 1 - Attach back pack/shoulder cannon… Check!

Step 2 - Attach leather skirt thingy and main cod piece… Check!

Now, at this point bear in mind that steps 1 and 2 illustrate the assembly of 3 parts so far. That’s 3 of like 30 pieces.

Step 3 - Attach EVERTHING ELSE!

At this point I laughed my ass off… There is it, step 3, which is literally a diagram of the fully assembled Predator figure with no further steps. Evidently whoever does the documentation at Hot Toys spent an hour on steps 1 and 2, realized how tedious writing instruction manuals can be, and just said f*** this noise and did a coles notes version of the rest and called it step 3. OK granted, I’m not a simpleton and I can figure it out from the pictures, but I still thought that was hilarious.

Assembly is actually pretty easy on this… easier in fact that the AvP Preds, which I found a real pain when it came time to assembling the upper armor. There is only 1 thing that I found ridiculous and considering that I’m a weight lifter and have quite a bit of strength in my hands, I can’t imagine how the average kid would pull this off. The calf armor. This requires heating up of the armor to make it soft (I put mine in hot water for 5 minutes) and super human strength to wrestle them in to place. To make things even more complicated, try to put them on without destroying the head or cannon or something… I HIGHLY recommend the first thing you do after you get the netting on is put on the knee and calf armor, trust me. One things for sure, they sure as hell won’t be falling off. The rest is a breeze… finally, we have our assembled Predator Elder!

The biggest thing on this piece is the Elder’s head. It’s awesome! The sculpt is perfect (for a figure) and the paint job is really nice compared to the worthless paint jobs of past pieces. In fact, this is the only figure in the entire line that I would display without a helmet - not that it comes with one anyhow. The detail on the figure is absolutely awesome, with tiny real beads tied in with the dreads and on his bone necklace and superb armor detailing. Even the flintlock pistol has the name Raphael Adolini on it in writing that is about 3/4 of an inch wide. They really went all out on this guy and it shows. I also love the dreads… they are MUCH better than the older ones used on previous releases, even if they can’t be posed. They flow in to a natural position and it looks great, and again, the beading detail is superb.

I’m also happy to say that the uneven leg thing is fixed… I confirmed that MANY owners of the P2 figure that came out last month had 1 leg longer than the other, making it pretty ridiculous to pose. Well my friends, good news! You can easily pose this guy and stand him up without using the stand.

My only real complaint on this guy is the spotting, especially on the legs… it makes him look like a cow. I know how the spotting patterns were on the elder and they were no where near as harsh and hard edges as how they did it on the figure. Anyone willing to go through the trouble of doing a repaint on this would have one hell of a killer piece! In fact, if you want to see just how jaw-dropping this figure can be with the right paint job, check out this repaint thread on the HIVE that was done my Figuremaster Les, it’s absolutely amazing!

Overall though, I am very happy with factory paint job and the sculpt of this figure, it’s definitely their best one to date from where I stand.

So well done Hot Toys, despite me still hating doing YOUR assembly work for you, this is definitely your best piece yet… I hope the upcoming Wolf is as cool as this piece!

Ready for some photos? I actually didn’t go too nuts on pictures because there are TONS of photos all over the place, so I tried to focus more on really close shots showing off the gorgeous details like the photo I posted above. You can view the full gallery by clicking on the photo icon below (Mine are the ones with the white background):

So that’s it gang! This piece is another big seller and was sold out ages ago… even the Wolf was sold out quite awhile ago. If you are ever tempted to get one of these and don’t want to get killed on the secondary market like on eBay, keep an eye on this site and I’ll announce any future pre-orders within hours of becoming available.

Thanks for your time and be sure to click the comment button below and leave me some feedback on this article or figure!

Dan