It’s been a pretty crazy week for Portal fans: there have been multiple last chances for the Portal Gun, the guns have been shipping and arriving, Valve patched Portal 2 on Steam to include the Perpetual Testing Initiative, and there are already almost twenty thousand new custom Portal 2 maps for people to try out. Oh yeah, and NECA announced today that they will be doing a replica of P-Body’s portal gun from the Portal 2 coop campaign. All this going down has been really exciting, and the excitement continued when UPS dropped off my Portal Gun replica earlier this afternoon.
I’ve never been much of a prop guy, in general I have found them space and cost prohibitive. I also don’t really recall anything that I absolutely had to have in prop replica format. To NECA’s credit (and maybe a little bit my love of the source material) they constructed this device so accurately and at such a fair price that I fell in love with it the instant I saw it at Toy Fair. So congratulations are in order to NECA as you have converted me to at least a part-time prop guy.
The Portal Gun has a very strong presentation, it comes in a large black box that shows off the gun with the lights off, blue light on, and orange light on. The gun is packed up tightly in Styrofoam so you don’t have to worry about damage from shipping. The box will probably show some scuffs or a little damage, but do not fear because your replica is safe.
The first thing I noticed about the gun was that it was a lot lighter than I thought it would be. It’s made of all plastic so it makes sense, I suppose I just had in my head that a portal gun would weigh more. It is worth noting that just because most of the gun is all plasticthis does not make it cheap feeling, the gun is very sturdy and well built.
On top of the sturdiness it has a very authentic look to it. NECA really took the time to study the model down to the very minute details and their efforts have paid off. The gun looks great in hand and those cosplay kids are going to go nuts for it. I’m kind of curious as to how many people are going to attempt to carry their portal guns into various conventions and get turned away.
Something to really get excited for is the electronic features:
As you can see from the video, the gun has all the game authentic sounds and lights that it is supposed to have. They are all controlled through the trigger and switch on the handle under the base of the gun’s shell. I was surprised the three claws that open up around the barrel of the gun had light features as well. That was one of those details I never even noticed until I had the gun in hand, it’s a really nice touch. The gun takes three “C” batteries, there is a tray in the base that unscrews and you put them in there.
NECA having the license to make toys and replicas of Valve properties is tremendously exciting to me. I have always admired the love and detail NECA puts into their products regardless of what property it is. It had always been my hope that one day Portal, Half-Life, and Team Fortress 2 action figures would be a reality. After opening and evaluating their first major Valve product I can rest assured NECA is going to be putting out some really magical stuff that will make fans proud. The only thing this gun really needs now is a nice mount so I can hang it on my wall and claim the title of “King Nerd” of the house.
While I probably will not get every prop they put out there, if they ever decide to do a talking and singing turret from Portal 2, I will be first in line to plunk down some cash on it. Go on and check out the gallery for the other pictures I took of this great device.
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