[Baltan II]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SPLIT LIP

No way those circumstances could apply to Godzilla.

I know this story, I've been in TFW's Pacific Rim thread, I know how that went and how Series 3 is mostly better.

I also know of NECA from their Left 4 Dead, Borderlands, Half-Life, Aliens and Predator toylines and many of the poor decisions of the Pacific Rim line can be found spread within nearly all of them. NECA's Boomer is easily the best NECA toy I've owned and the joints have virtually no limitations that matter, but it's worse from there. Using one of Gordon Freeman's hip joints made it significantly more loose than the other leg moved in an identical way, and nearly the same thing happened on the replacement before I decided to never move the leg further. The "super articulated" newer Predator body is chock-full of limits in joint range and a near-perpetual issue of getting the body netting painted correctly, on top of one-off issues like an ankle joint being too recessed in the leg which made one leg a good half-inch shorter than the other. There's Claptrap's wheel, which likes to recess into his body in the yellow version and renders the static arm meant to hold him on the display base useless. And then there were the Aliens, which were generally considered NECA's best offering in articulation, but with so many cases of legs snapping apart between multiple copies and even from collectors experienced enough to know to unfreeze stuck joints. Even for as fantastic as Cherno Alpha, Trespasser and BD Knifehead look, Tango seems like a S1/2 Jaeger - and I guess if I really wanted to get nitpicky I'd cite the poor elbow range of those kaiju.

Pacific Rim's toyline is the poster child for how bad a NECA toyline can be, but it's not the only time issues come up, and it's entirely possible that when a company is purporting to sell a 7" tall, 12" long highly articulated kaiju for $18 that there are shortcuts we don't know about yet. Remaining skeptical is not the same thing as damning the product. I know better than to expect a line where I can put Godzilla in the Iron Man pose, but I'd be just as wary of another "Knifehead" that might as well be a vinyl.

Quote:

Originally Posted by SPLIT LIP

Jesus, this forum. What compells it to such lows, I will never understand.

I guess when there's been exactly one hyperbolic statement in this thread, it's enough to demonize an entire forum.

[SPLIT LIP]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baltan II

I know this story, I've been in TFW's Pacific Rim thread, I know how that went and how Series 3 is mostly better.

I also know of NECA from their Left 4 Dead, Borderlands, Half-Life, Aliens and Predator toylines and many of the poor decisions of the Pacific Rim line can be found spread within nearly all of them. NECA's Boomer is easily the best NECA toy I've owned and the joints have virtually no limitations that matter, but it's worse from there. Using one of Gordon Freeman's hip joints made it significantly more loose than the other leg moved in an identical way, and nearly the same thing happened on the replacement before I decided to never move the leg further. The "super articulated" newer Predator body is chock-full of limits in joint range and a near-perpetual issue of getting the body netting painted correctly, on top of one-off issues like an ankle joint being too recessed in the leg which made one leg a good half-inch shorter than the other. There's Claptrap's wheel, which likes to recess into his body in the yellow version and renders the static arm meant to hold him on the display base useless. And then there were the Aliens, which were generally considered NECA's best offering in articulation, but with so many cases of legs snapping apart between multiple copies and even from collectors experienced enough to know to unfreeze stuck joints. Even for as fantastic as Cherno Alpha, Trespasser and BD Knifehead look, Tango seems like a S1/2 Jaeger - and I guess if I really wanted to get nitpicky I'd cite the poor elbow range of those kaiju.

Pacific Rim's toyline is the poster child for how bad a NECA toyline can be, but it's not the only time issues come up, and it's entirely possible that when a company is purporting to sell a 7" tall, 12" long highly articulated kaiju for $18 that there are shortcuts we don't know about yet. Remaining skeptical is not the same thing as damning the product. I know better than to expect a line where I can put Godzilla in the Iron Man pose, but I'd be just as wary of another "Knifehead" that might as well be a vinyl.

Feh. Yet when I brought this up when the PR line was new, people told me to shut my dumb face because "NECA is all about high-quality and excellent figures!'

[Baltan II]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SPLIT LIP

Feh. Yet when I brought this up when the PR line was new, people told me to shut my dumb face because "NECA is all about high-quality and excellent figures!'

Was I one of those people? Because otherwise... not much I can tell you, sorry. NECA has a lot of fans, the kind of people that enjoy their toys a particular way, who most definitely won't feel the same way about their toys as I do. Hell, many of those guys leave them MISB and hang them on the walls like McFarlane collectors 20 years ago.

And mind you, I still follow NECA, in both the Twitter sense and in paying attention to their releases, because they are great about covering certain licenses and putting a lot of detail into figures, but I certainly don't love all they do, dropped their Predator line after about four figures, and will be giving another shot to selling the PacRim figures I have on eBay soon enough. Really, there's not much to be done about certain criticisms when NECA is known for putting the sculpt so higher in priority than the articulation.

[SPLIT LIP]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baltan II

Was I one of those people?

Pretty sure not.

[PkmnMstr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SPLIT LIP

Feh. Yet when I brought this up when the PR line was new, people told me to shut my dumb face because "NECA is all about high-quality and excellent figures!'

Ahahahaha.....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baltan II

Was I one of those people? Because otherwise... not much I can tell you, sorry. NECA has a lot of fans, the kind of people that enjoy their toys a particular way, who most definitely won't feel the same way about their toys as I do. Hell, many of those guys leave them MISB and hang them on the walls like McFarlane collectors 20 years ago.

And mind you, I still follow NECA, in both the Twitter sense and in paying attention to their releases, because they are great about covering certain licenses and putting a lot of detail into figures, but I certainly don't love all they do, dropped their Predator line after about four figures, and will be giving another shot to selling the PacRim figures I have on eBay soon enough. Really, there's not much to be done about certain criticisms when NECA is known for putting the sculpt so higher in priority than the articulation.

I never really thought about that, but it makes sense. Explains why I bought that Blue-Eyes yesterday. I rarely buy statue figures, but I couldn't not buy my favorite monster.

[timothyR]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Baltan II

Really, there's not much to be done about certain criticisms when NECA is known for putting the sculpt so higher in priority than the articulation.

when it comes to neca.. you're right, i'd rather have a better looking sculpt than a super articulated figure. because, for me, at the end of the day i'd rather have a figure in a mundane pose that looks exactly like the character that it's supposed to be rather than a figure in a super dynamic pose where compromises to achieve that pose were made which make the figure less accurate to the source material. it's like hot toys figures.. no, you're not going to get incredibly flexible poses.. but you're paying a premium to get incredible sculpt work, tailoring, and quality.

i think a good example would be diamond select amazing spider-man and hasbro's legends amazing spider-man.. hasbro's can achieve more poses, but diamond selects is a better quality figure and looks better.

certain characters and body types aren't going to afford you the articulation you'd want.. take godzilla or the kaiju, they've got thick, large, heavy bodies.. you're not going to get super articulation with them.. elbows aren't going to bend all the way and they're certainly not going to achieve any spider-man type poses.. nor should they though. if you watch the movies, these creatures are rarely/never in dynamic positions. they're big bruiting beasts that lumber along. i don't expect the figures to be any different.

and after watching pixel dans interview with the neca guy, he knows that the first waves weren't very good, that's why they've come up with a new and improved mold for gypsy danger coming out in the future, and it's also why the kaiju since wave one, have gotten larger.

i don't see any problems with neca figures that almost every other company has with their own. so i'm not sure how neca can be singled out on this.

anyways.. it's a shame that the new godzilla loses so much detail because of the color palette. i wish they'd (the people who came up with this godzilla, not neca) gave the thing a bit more in the way of colored detailing. i'm hoping when larger godzilla gets colored he'll retain more of the detail since the larger scale makes it more pronounced. either way, i'm excited for the large one.. the face on the new godzilla just looks mean and nasty, i love it.. it helps make up (a little) for the feet being so odd.

[Baltan II]

Quote:

Originally Posted by timothyR

certain characters and body types aren't going to afford you the articulation you'd want.. take godzilla or the kaiju, they've got thick, large, heavy bodies.. you're not going to get super articulation with them.. elbows aren't going to bend all the way and they're certainly not going to achieve any spider-man type poses.. nor should they though. if you watch the movies, these creatures are rarely/never in dynamic positions. they're big bruiting beasts that lumber along. i don't expect the figures to be any different.

I think I've seen more than enough monster shows and movies to know that these creatures don't move the same way Spider-Man would, but it doesn't mean the toys have to always 100% be slavish to that detail either. I like having the option to do the impossible, fun and silly things as I do replicating scenes from the movies. Different toylines all have their degrees of favoring either articulation or sculpture over the other, with nerd Hummels like the Mezco Walter White on one end of the spectrum and modular toys like Stikfas on the other that embrace a simplified aesthetic and put everything else into freedom of movement.

It also works in favor of a franchise like Godzilla, where figures of all kinds have existed for decades, that a couple lines out there take a few extra chances with articulation. We've had little to no movement since the days of Bullmark and Aurora model kits in the '60s and 70s, so there's room for making some changes now. Not all franchises have that luxury.

Quote:

Originally Posted by timothyR

and after watching pixel dans interview with the neca guy, he knows that the first waves weren't very good, that's why they've come up with a new and improved mold for gypsy danger coming out in the future, and it's also why the kaiju since wave one, have gotten larger.

Yeah, I would expect someone from NECA would know when their figures particularly suck and when they're improving. I don't think I understand the point you're getting at here. The Walmart fiasco compounded issues and is common knowledge now (of course... not before Series 1 came out).

Quote:

Originally Posted by timothyR

i don't see any problems with neca figures that almost every other company has with their own. so i'm not sure how neca can be singled out on this.

NECA is being discussed in a NECA toy thread, not singled out. There is most certainly a discussion to be had about MonsterArts or Revoltech kaiju in a similar manner. All three have room for improvement and have grown from experiences.

[TheCivilShark]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SPLIT LIP

Jesus, this forum. What compells it to such lows, I will never understand.

I never understand why people take me seriously, I was being funny. And that is in no way a "high quality mold".

[Smozz]

He has such teeny tiny feet. The rest of him looks cool.

[Kidflashdbn 2]

Cool