|
|
|
|
NECA - SDCC07 Castlevania, Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, Assassin's Creed, God of War, Army of Darkness, and 300 Figures
Since I'm a Castlevania nut my first order of business at the NECA booth was to nab one of their Castlevania exclusives. The 3-inch Simon Belmont in his original 2D appearance is a sweet little collectible, even if it doesn't do anything. I has seen a couple pictures of it before, but I actually imagined the figure would be a little different than what it is. Since I only saw shots from the side, I thought it would pretty much be only half of a figure, like those high-end refrigerator magnets that have grooves for a pseudo-3D look. It turns out it is a full 3D representation of Simon's 2D NES appearance. It looks like it can stand on its own two feet if you took it out of the package. At the time I made the purchase and when I look at it now, the $10 price tag still seems a bit steep considering its size. This is something that looks more like a $5 collectible, but it's a cool little thing nonetheless. The reason for the exclusive Simon was to help celebrate NECA's upcoming line of Castlevania action figures. Each of the large Castlevania figure prototypes were on display. When I first saw the sculpts for the figures months ago, I wasn't that excited about them. Sure they were Castlevania figures, but they just didn't get to me. Now, after seeing the large molds in person I can say that NECA's Castlevania figures rock. Simon Belmont, a succubus, Dracula, and Alucard will be in October's first assortment. Thankfully, Simon is dressed in his more traditional outfit from the old NES games, rather than his leather-clad effeminate look. Dracula and Alucard are in their traditional outfits from the games as well. Dracula looks like he comes with a chained-up eye monster while the succubus has one of those ultra annoying little green bastards that jumps around and throws knives at you. The succubus looks great, but it puzzles me why there is a blue piece of tape covering her cleavage. Every other booth at the 'con had some sort of cleavage, whether it was real or plastic. So why is the succubus' cleavage covered up? Is the succubus cleavage so hot that it would destroy all pre-conceived cleavage notions? Did her cleavage suffer an injury on the way from NECA headquarters? Is she sporting nipples? Is her cleavage still awaiting licensor approval? It could be either one, but the tape seems a little high just to cover nipples, so I'm guessing she has the best plastic cleavage ever.
The next shelf over were NECA's prototypes for their second series of Resident Evil figures. The Hunter, Tyrant, dog, and Licker all look great. The attention to detail with the bloody veins, dripping saliva, and plain goriness is fantastic. The two zombies even look terrifying enough. Also on display was a prototype for the Altair figure from Assassin's Creed. Is it just me or does he look like Orlando Bloom? Next to him was God of War's Kratos decked out in his Ares Armor. It's nice to see him actually wearing something for once. Once thing that caught me off guard was their new Lara Croft prototype from Tomb Raider Anniversary. The final version will be a 7-inch action figure, but I'm not sure how much "action" it will really have. I couldn't see much, if any, articulation so it could just be a glorified statue, like many of McFarlane Toys' figures. Will you be able to pose her arms at least? From the looks of it I doubt it. For what it's worth though, the figure looks great. It is easily one of the best Lara Croft figures/statues I've seen. From the pose that NECA put her in, the only thing I can imagine behind her is a flock of doves flying off. She already has the dual pistols and is in a dynamic action pose so those doves would only compliment her further. I think a John Woo Tomb Raider movie may just be what the franchise needs. As part of their Cult Classics line, NECA also had the prototype for a new Army of Darkness Ash figure. Ash has his S-mart uniform and carries the shotgun from the end of the film. It's simply a great looking figure. The next case over had oodles of stuff from the manliest film ever, 300. Most of it was prop replicas, masks, key chains and stuff, but there were two prototypes on display: the Leonidas figure and the super tall pierced Persian king dude. If you feel the need to man-up your room then the 300 figures are probably what you're looking for. Below are images for the Castlevania, Resident Evil, Altair, Kratos, 300, and Ash figures. - Shawn - 08/02/07
Photos by Shawn. |
|
