NECA Pacific Rim TRU Exclusive Clean Knifehead Review

This is a release aimed at the most hardcore of Pacific Rim collectors.  Well, that’s not entirely fair.  It’s either aimed at the most hardcore, or the super-picky collector who skipped the first release because of the “battle damage.”  Either way when Toys “R” Us isn’t busy removing adult themed collectables from their shelves, they play host to all types of NECA exclusives around this time of the year.

Knifehead was the flagship figure of NECA adjusting the scale of their Kaiju in the Pacific Rim line.  I took a look at the wave three figure back in March of this year, and I was pretty satisfied with what we got.  The figure was a much larger (at a slightly higher price) with additional articulation.  Battle Damaged Knifehead and Axehead came packed in oversized clam shells.  It looks as though going forward that NECA plans to release their Kaiju in a window box.  I’d guess this is either a cost saving measure, or they plan to use the window box for Otachi and want to match the packaging going forward.  I’ve seen Otachi.  A clamshell would be silly for something that large.

If you own the battle-damaged Knifehead then there are no surprises with this release as far as sculpt is concerned.  I’ve looked him over quite a bit and the only difference I can find is that the neck on my new Knifehead has a larger range of movement.  I’m not sure if this is intentional or not, but I’ll gladly take it.  This is a solid chunk of toy.  He’s thick, meaty, and at least as far as weight is concerned makes you feel like the $25 was well spent.

Paint is really the only difference between the two once you get them out of the package.  His head and body still have that light blue wash over it, but the neon bright blue blood splattered all over the original release is gone.  The lack of blood also gives his head a much more matte finish to the glossy first release.

Do you want this?  I think my original statement stands true that this is probably aimed more at the Pacific Rim completest, or at least the person who held out in hopes of a clean version.  If you are a fan of the new larger Kaiju bodies then you will probably enjoy him.  Carded collectors may be a little put off by the change to a window box.  He’s about $25 in store at Toys “R” Us if you can find him locally.  I’m not sure if my area is the only one that this happened to, but the NECA selection was dramatically cut when they redid the Star Wars/Marvel isles.  They are almost an afterthought at my local stores … so I ordered him online.  While grabbing Knifehead put in a preorder for the next Jaeger wave which comes out in about a week!

* – Wait!  That’s the old one …

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