NECA Terminator 2 Ultimate T-800

NECA Terminator 2 Ultimate T-800 Review

Terminator has gotten a lot of love from NECA this year.  They’ve rereleased the Endoskeleton which has found it’s way into Walmart and Walgreens, so it’s technically a Wal-exclusive!  There was a SDCC glowing Endo.  They also did figures for the new Terminator Genisys movie.  Finally, they have gone back and are bringing us some classic characters from Terminator 2 in their new “Ultimate” line.  Three figures are planned for this year: T-800, Sarah Connor, and T-1000.  Does the Ultimate T-800 live up to the namesake?

Whereas the Ultimate version of Leatherface was built from scratch, this version of T-800 takes a lot of parts from past releases.  The legs, which were the biggest complaint people had about prior releases, have been built entirely new from the hips down.  Interestingly, he has an upper leg swivel on his left leg, but not on the right.  I’m not quite sure why his other leg was left out.

Once you get past the legs he becomes a “Greatest Hits” of NECA Terminator 2 action figures.  He’s packed with three heads: shades on (from Battle Across Time), shades off clean face (from Cyberdyne Showdown), and finally a battle damaged face (from Final Battle).  The heads all pop on and off easily, so there is no issue switching up which head T-800 should be displayed with.

The weapons included are as follows: mini gun with shoulder bag, grenade launcher, shotgun, and pistol.  These weapons are all from prior releases as well.  I’m a little disappointed with the mini-gun and grenade launcher.  Both are made of very gummy plastic and warped in the packaging.  It looks cool as hell when the T-800 is holding his giant gun, but then it starts to look a bit silly when it’s slightly bent to the left.

NECA Terminator 2 Ultimate T-800

I’m going to assume this figure came out before the other Terminator 2 figures because most of the molds already existed.  I really like what they did with him, but I feel like now I need a second Ultimate T-800 from the film.  I would maybe include the ability to swap arms so we could get the robot arm for a future release.  The tooling is already there for that as well!  It’s also Terminator 2 so you know we are going to buy it.

Good old Arnold should be hitting everywhere at this point.  I grabbed him online and he is currently available on NECA’s Amazon store if you so wish to go that route.  If you were one of those people who really wanted your Terminator 2 figures to have legs, then this release is for you!  And it’s certainly a great value considering you are essentially getting three versions of T-800 in one box.

NECA Terminator 2 Ultimate T-800

Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to talk about Terminator Genisys.  No, I will probably not be buying the figures from this movie.  This isn’t because I disliked the movie (I didn’t hate it, and well it’s complicated I guess) or the figures which are fine. I just don’t know if I want a 7″ plastic reminder that my childhood heroes will eventually get old and die.  Which will then in turn remind me that I will also get old and die.

However, I’m willing to accept old Arnold as a Terminator.  The general idea of Genisys to me is sound enough to make a pretty good movie out of.  It was basically James Cameron’s original pitch for Terminator 3: what would happen if the Terminator was sent back in time but missed its mark?  I’m actually a big fan of this concept.  Unfortunately the execution around it was flawed.  Genisys relied far too much of references to past movies and fan-service instead of being its own vehicle.  There’s a reason Terminator 2 is good, and part of that reason is that it doesn’t require any knowledge of the first to still be an amazing experience.

NECA Terminator 2 Ultimate T-800

Like Spider-Man 3, there is a good movie in Genisys somewhere.  But I don’t believe the backing studio had the confidence to let it ride without branding every second with TERMINATOR.  For what it’s worth, I think the biggest misstep the Terminator franchise took was showing the future war.  Part of the allure of Terminator is that we are trying to prevent a war that is so horrible it can’t even be understood.  A quick glimpse where some Endos are fighting troops over a hill of human skulls is fine.  But once we see them driving trucks and putting people in concentration camps it humanizes the war, and just makes it Nazi Germany with robots.  The “less is more” approach would have worked so much better.

So anyway, Ultimate Terminator 2 Arnold prompted me to watch that movie.  So those are my thoughts on the subject.  I should mention I’m pretty excited for the Ultimate Sarah Connor, NECA has been killing it with the women figures of late!

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