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

After a lot of anticipation and waiting for the FedEx delivery guy, the Wolf helmet has FINALLY arrived fresh from the Sideshow warehouse today and was quickly ushered in to the photo studio for some candid shots and intimate interview. Here’s the shots and thoughts on the latest Predator prop replica from ADI and Sideshow…

I have been very anxious to finally get my hands on these props that ADI is producing for Sideshow, especially the helmet, so I’m rather pleased that the helmet is what shipped out first. One thing I found rather interesting as I unpacked it is that this is the first time I get a Sideshow piece that is not in a retail box. Normally Sideshow pieces are packaged in a retail box with some printed graphics, then that box is bagged and packed in a shipping box. But in this case, both the shipping box and retail box are just plain brown boxes… Not that I care though. Maybe Sideshow realized most folks don’t care and toss these huge boxes, so they’re saving a few bucks by not bothering with a flashy retail box.

Anyhow, the first thing I noticed is how AWESOME the base is! Now this may sound weird, but I want to talk about the base first… the entire piece weighs about 20lbs, and 17lbs of that is the base. It weighs a TON! If you’re thinking of wall mounting this, you’d better be using dry wall plugs or find a wall stud, because this base will need some serious support. So obviously the base is super sturdy and could potentially kill someone if it fell off the wall, but it’s also BEAUTIFULLY sculpted. The styling and refined lines of the sculpt have a gorgeous overall smooth look to it… it’s a wonderful merge of hammered textures and a soft brushed metal finish. The base gets top marks in every way.

Oh but wait, there’s more to the base to talk about! The helmet connects to it with MAGNETS, so you can easily pop the helmet on and off, and because the base has two connection points, the magnet system works both with the base sitting on your desk OR if it’s wall mounted! If you wall mount it, it pulls off just like in the movie! The other nice point is that the base isn’t enormous… it’s the perfect size and doesn’t require any additional display space for nothing. Whoever designed the base definitely had their thinking cap! So in summary, the base is brilliant… top marks in terms of build, sculpt, paint and overall aesthetics. Just a big ol’ WOW.

Next up is the helmet itself, and it is no less impressive. The first thing to hit me is the overall detailing of the helmet, which is magnificent. The helmet is covered in scratches, cracks and all kinds of physical battle damage and the effect is completely kick ass. Combine that with some engraved ruins on the crown and you know that someone over at ADI spent a hell of a lot of time on this sculpt. The casting is very clean and crisp and the details pop out beautifully. I was also impressed that the back of the helmet is also finished in a black hammered texture even though you’ll never see that part of the prop. ADI used the original molds to create this helmet, so you’re getting dead-on accuracy and the sculpt is stunning.

Before I received this helmet, I was reading some reviews from other folks that received the helmet a day or two ago and I was starting to get worried as a few people complained about the paint application of the helmet and that it was sloppy. Well as someone who is used to Joe Dunaway style paint jobs, I expect very clean and professional paint jobs, so I was prepared for the worse. I’m happy to report that I was pleasantly surprised that the paint application is very well done and looks fantastic! Let’s face it, it’s hard to screw up black and silvers… So the paint is also spot on and I’m lovin it!

The LEDs are also a wonderful touch and they are activated via a tiny little switch on the underside of the nose piece of the helmet. You can reach under the nose piece and just push the switch to activate the LEDs without having to pull it off the base, then just push it again to shut them off. It’s a simple detail, but the fact that they made it accessible without having to pull it off the base or feel around the helmet is another example of proper design.

The final detail I’d like to mention is that I love the way the lenses are done… a stainless steel mesh over black lexan plastic backings that looks killer. For you costume folks, no, the lenses are not see through so you would have to customize this bad-boy if you plan on wearing it. I should also mention that while the helmet’s casting is thick and sturdy, the helmet is light and easy to hold. It would make a good wearable piece if you’re brave enough to tear it apart.

So that’s it guys! Top marks in every way on this piece… let’s hope the Shuriken and the Cannon are just as kick-ass! I took a TON of photos, so check them all out by clicking on the icon below:

Thank you for reading and I invite you to click the comment button below and share your thoughts on this piece!

Peace!
Dan

Good afternoon ladies and gents! Today I have a special treat for everyone… we’re going to play classroom! History specifically, and today’s subject is the classic Rooftop Predator, that was originally issued back in 1992 and is due for a re-release this year. This kit has a tremendous amount of history and has undergone many changes since it was first cast, and it’s my pleasure to bring you this special report on a wonderful kit. before we get started though, a huge thanks has to go out to Ian Campbell, who went on a HUGE fact finding mission for this piece, and who also supplied all the photos. This is really Ian’s article, I’m just typing it out on his behalf.

The Rooftop Predator was originally conceived by the talented mister Mike Hill and the 1:6 scale sculpt was first produced by Phoenix Models out of the UK. Mike is the same guy that sculpted some of the oldest Predator related kits out there, including Predette and Sprogette, a Predator Bust and a nice Dutch kit. The kit had light texturing, and included a base, which came in the form of a rectangle piece with some surface texturing and a skull on it. The entire “Wall Hanging” concept had not yet been added to the kit, and would come later once Gary White of G-Force Models got his hands on it. The exact number of kits issued by Phoenix Models is completely unknown.

Fast forward a bit to 1993, and Gary White of G-Force stepped in and acquired the rights to the kit, and with permission from Mike Hill and Ray from Phoenix, sold the re-release under the name Replicants Inc. However, once Gary received the mould and kit copy, it because very obvious that a new mould and some re-tooling would be needed to make the kit a winner.

During the re-moulding process, Ian Dickson re-textured the whole body, made accessories and fitted parts. He made the mask, hand weapon, medical kit (with respirator) and re-made almost all of the armour and strapping. Dean Eyre made the shoulder Cannon and mount. Then Gary came in and designed a new base that could also be wall mounted. Apparently the Rooftop Predator was the first kit released that was wall mountable!

Once the new parts and mould were done, sales resumed in 1994 and in Issue 1 of AFM, there was an add on page 42 with the kit listed.

Eventually the kit was no longer produced, but with renewed interest, Gary is once again looking to dust off the Replicants Inc. banner and release a new version of this kit, once again with some re-tooling improvements! With the new 2008 version coming out very soon, Gary has announced the following changes that were sculpted in by Scott Herel:

1. The groin and torso will be 1 piece with the leather pouch attached to the waist
2.The left foot has been adjusted to lift the heel off the ground
3.Base details are now textured rather than smooth
4.Rather than solid resin, the kit will be cast hollow in the thicker areas to reduce overall weight and will include with original wooden base and parts

In total, 5 artists have had their hand in this project to bring you the latest edition… Mike Hill, Ian Dickson, Dean Eyre, Gary White, and Scott Herel. I really look forward to seeing the new version and hope to see some nice painted sample photos soon! Keep your eyes peeled on the latest news and I will post when this kit becomes available.

Thanks again Ian, and all the best to Gary with his new release!

Dan

Good evening ladies and gents, have I got a TRUCKLOAD to talk about tonight. First off, I would like to wish you all and your families the very best in 2008 and I hope you are all looking forward to an absolute ONSLAUGHT of new goodies for you pred-heads out there. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas (political correctness be damned) and that you had a safe and happy holiday. With the parties over and the worst of the hangovers shaken off, it’s time to get back to business! Shall we dance…?

ONE TIME BARGAIN COSTUME SALE!

To start things off, I have two costumes for sale made by Joe Evans. These are NOT the costumes that I sell with Kre8-FX (You can read about those costumes here). These were made by my friend Joe and they are in his shop in the USA. He wants to sell these suits ASAP and there is only 1 of each. These new suits are being sold as is and once they are sold, there are no more available. I’m sorry, but there will be no “setting it aside” or financing or anything… basically the first person to send me the money via Paypal for a suit gets it and the sale is done. Payment is paypal only and buyer will be charged an extra 3% to cover fees.

These are FANTASTIC suits and I can guarantee you will NOT find something like this ever again at these prices. Like I said, Joe wants them out of the shop and his prices are VERY cheap. And again, these suits are new and are sold as is.

First suit is the Predator 1 costume:

Click the icon below for photos of the P1 suit:

(PLEASE NOTE in the photos where someone is posing in the suit, it’s actually a girl with a small build wearing the costume, so the suit is obviously too big for her. I would recommend this suit to anyone around 5′6″ to 6′1″. Also you will see some photos of a full mask and some of a half-mask. This suit actually comes with the half-mask only as per my request. It’s done this way so when you’re at a party, all you have to do is take off your helmet to eat and drink. In a full mask, you have to take off your helmet AND mask in order to eat or drink, PLUS a half-mask is MUCH cooler to wear than a full mask because your face is all open:

The second suit is an AvP costume:

Click the icon below for photos of the AvP suit:

Pricing for these suits are as follows:

Predator 1 Costume: $2000.00 USD
AvP Costume: $2300.00 USD

Shipping in the USA is $50 and $80 to Canada. Overseas destinations need to contact me for a custom quote.

If you would like to purchase one of these suits OR if you have some questions about them and you are considering buying one of them, all you have to do is contact me and let me know. I will respond right away with the payment details and first person to pay gets the suits.

That’s it… good luck and congratulations to anyone lucky enough to grab these bargains!

COSTUME SALES PAGE UPDATE

I have just completely revamped the costume sales page for the Predator costumes sold by us and Kre8-FX Productions. I’ve added new details and pricing as well as a FAQ area at the bottom to answer common questions. One really important note is that we have suspended the production of animatronics until further notice on new orders. They are simply too time consuming to make and locate parts for and it’s KILLING our production schedule, so we put the kibosh on that. So, if you want to check out our gorgeous costumes, check it out:

NEW BOOK: AVP-R - INSIDE THE MONSTER SHOP

DesignStudio Press has released another ADI book called Aliens vs Predator: Requiem - Inside the Monster Shop! And while most book companies still don’t even have it listed for order, much less have it in stock, you can actually order it direct from DesignStudio Press. Just click here and have your credit card ready!

For those of you that have seen the first version of this book released for the first AvP movie, you know just how awesome this will be… for you folks that missed out the first time, you definitely want to get this book. It’s LOADED with pics and information guaranteed you missed by watching the film alone. In fact, with AvP-R being so darn dark (see my review further down), you almost need to get this book to check out the detailed work you missed on the creature suits. Definitely a great buy!

MY MINI AvP-R REVIEW

OK, so everyone is busting my chops on what I thought of the latest movie… here are my thoughts:

First off, it took me a week to finally get in to a theater to see this… My wife wanted to come with me, and it wasn’t until New year’s Eve that we had someone to watch my daughter so we could go. I literally brought in the new year watching Wolf kick some alien ass.

Now the first thing is, yes, it’s full of plot holes… BUT I didn’t tear the movie apart with them for one reason: the Wolf Predator kicked ass. Seriously. The only reason I tore AvP a new one by finding over 200 plot holes (yes, we actually did this on a forum… we found 200 plot holes) was because 2 Predators were killed within 80 seconds of finally seeing them BY 1 ALIEN!!! i was so disgusted by that, it ruined the entire film. But not in AvP-R my friend, uh uh, nadda… Wolf wipes the floor with them.

So overall I loved the pred, but the movie was WAAAAAAAAAY too dark, constantly. You couldn’t really make out any details on the wolf, much less any clue to coloration. My wife didn’t even pick off the battle damaged face and missing mandible until I told her about it after the movie ended. It was just too dark.. some dark spots in some places is OK, like the sewers, but the scenes in the hospital should have been way brighter, you couldn’t see jack. At one point when they fight in the stairwell, it’s so damn dark you can’t see a single thing. So yeah, my major issue was shit was too dark.

Second thing was I didn’t like the effects used for the aliens… the pred looked kick ass and believable and Ian did a wicked job in the new slimmer suit. But the aliens looked fake and what REALLY stuck out was the parts in the sewer that had the “secreted resin” spots. In Aliens where you see a lot of that resin material dripping with slime, it looks realistic, but the shit they used in this film… it looked like they used white plastic grocery bags with slime smeared on them. Several times you see an alien’s head move in close to a victim… it literally looks like the head is mounted on a trolley and it’s wheeled in, it’s pretty bad. In fact, there isn’t a single frame in the entire movie that shows a complete shot of an alien. You see tails, heads, arms etc… but not a full frame shot of the alien or Hybrid now that I think of it.

But I must say Tom did a GREAT job in the Hybrid… his movement was cool and I liked the concept. The poor guys must have lost 20 lbs of water in that thing!

My last complaint… they revealed to much in the form of trailers, sneak peeks and all the other clips. They really showed pretty much all the cards even though they said there was plenty of surprises left. Well no, there wasn’t actually. I watched most of the movie already knowing exactly what was happening next because it ha already been posted on the web as “teasers”.

But yeah, Wolf owned so I’m happy… too bad it was so f’in dark that you miss out on a lot of detail. I’ll buy the DVD for sure, but hopefully they do a director’s cut edition and add about 25 minutes to the movie.. it’s definitely way too short and rushed. In fact, my good friend Ian, who was onsite during some shooting in BC, confirmed that 2 entire scenes they filmed were never included in the final cut. Overall, ADI did a KILLER job, especially on the Wolf… too bad it was so dark though, so a lot of their hard work in the details was lost on the average Joe.

So yeah, those are my happy thoughts on the movie! Click the comments button below and post your thoughts on the movie!

SHOP UPDATE

Just wanted to let everyone know that we have TONS of new stock coming in, so be sure to check out the shop for all kinds of kick-ass new pre-orders coming up!

So that’s it for now gang… I have a ton more to add and many new updates coming up, so stay tuned!

Thanks!
Dan