NECA Pacific Rim S3 Coyote Tango Review

Now we get to the Jaeger piloted by none other than mister “cancelling the apocolypse,” Idris Elba, or as he’s known in the movie, Stacker Pentacost.  Coyote Tango rounds out the Jaeger portion of the third Pacific Rim series brought to us by NECA.  Coyote is a Japanese robot and can be seen in the film during Mako’s flashback to when she was a child.  She was being chased by a giant crab-like Kaiju called Onibaba (who totally needs a toy) and at the last moment Coyote shows up and takes down the monster.  Stacker then pops out of the top of the Jaeger and I guess takes Mako away to safety or something.

NECA Pacific Rim Series 3 Jaeger Coyote Tango Review

While Cherno Alpha was built to be a bruiser-bot, Coyote Tango is built for speed.  He has light armor which enables him to use his agility to out maneuver a Kaiju’s attacks.  If you notice his shoulders he also has two giant mortar guns which help in the fight as well.  Coyote is powered by a nuclear reactor, and being one of the first and early Jaegers not much consideration was given to the safety of the pilots.  The Jaeger ends up being retired after only two fights due to the pilots developing radiation poisoning from the robot’s power source.

NECA Pacific Rim Series 3 Jaeger Coyote Tango Review

Coyote Tango is modelled very similar to a Gundam RX-77-2 Guncannon.  It’s also probably a good thing the Jaeger was retired prior to the Knifehead phase of the Kaiju war since his pilot cockpit is in a pretty obvious and open spot.

So now that we know the background on Coyote lets take a look at the actual figure.  I gravitate right towards the giant mortar guns on his back.  These two guns are connected to a circular joint in his shoulder which allow him to aim them at a 90 degree angle from straight up to directly in front of him.  Another nice thing is that each side is independent of the other, so if you want one cannon down and one up you are free to do so!

NECA Pacific Rim Series 3 Jaeger Coyote Tango Review

Coyote is very well articulated.  In fact much more so than a Cherno Alpha or Gipsy Danger.  However, even with all the additional articulation cuts I still prefer the Cherno Alpha scheme because Cherno can take full advantage of his joints.  Coyote does not have that luxury because a lot of his armor parts flat-out block him from moving.  The is most noticeable in his elbow joint because you can barely fold his arm inward at all.  The way the shoulders are built also keeps him from holding his arms out to his side too much.

NECA Pacific Rim Series 3 Jaeger Coyote Tango Review

While it is disappointing to not be able to strike any pose possible I don’t begrudge him too much.  I have similar feelings towards Coyote Tango that I do the NECA Team Fortress 2 figures.  They are going for source material accuracy, and unfortunately some playability has to be sacrificed to achieve this.  With TF2 it was the tiny ankles coupled with the heavy bodies.  With Pacific Rim it more has to do with how the Jaeger is built.  Sure in the movie the Jaeger has more movement range, but this is also a twenty-dollar toy and is not going to have complicated mechanical joint systems.

NECA Pacific Rim Series 3 Jaeger Coyote Tango Review

One of the neat things about getting these screen accurate figures from the movie is getting to inspect the little details I would have never noticed in the theater.  Considering you see Coyote Tango for all of two seconds in the movie its impossible to notice that he has Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle hands.  It cracks me up too because he looks like such a serious business robot and then he has these cute three-fingered hands.  Eh, the little things!

As can be expected from a NECA release the paint is pretty solid.  The Jaeger has some weathering and battle damage on its body.  The straight lines all look good as well, and there is no slop where the cockpit glass is painted on.

NECA Pacific Rim Series 3 Jaeger Coyote Tango Review

While Coyote is certainly no Cherno Alpha I think he holds his own as a damn cool looking Jaeger.  As I mentioned in a previous review I mostly avoided the line’s earlier waves because I didn’t think they were up to the usual NECA standards.  That said … now that NECA has decided to rerelease both Striker Eureka and Crimson Typhoon I’ll have a complete Jaeger collection around June.  I’m interested to see how much of a downgrade they are from the current Jaeger crop, or if I was just being petty about it at the time.

NECA Pacific Rim Series 3 Jaeger Coyote Tango Review

You can grab Coyote right now on Amazon for the MSRP price of $20.99 and of course it’s Prime eligible!

2 thoughts on “NECA Pacific Rim S3 Coyote Tango Review”

  1. Great review and pics. I did not end up grabbing this guy, just because of how restricted his articulation it, but I can’t deny he looks great.

    1. Yeah, he really isn’t very posable. But damn if he doesn’t look good on the shelf. Makes the current Gipsy look small, so I guess that’s why the redo will work out!

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