Battle Damaged City Hunter Predator
NECA (National Entertainment Collectibles Association) has been producing high quality licensed collectibles for over a decade now. They entered the market at a time where companies like McFarlene Toys were prioritizing sculpt and detail over articulation and fun. Thankfully that trend has faded away, and NECA’s Reel Toys division has been producing some excellent licensed action figures that manage to balance detailed sculpts with sharp paint and enough articulation to be satisfying action figures. NECA has been taking full advantage of the Predator license since 2011, churning out a bevy of Predator figures based on the franchise’s numerous films.
The battle damaged City Hunter Predator is the second half of a two-pack with the battle damaged Jungle Hunter Predator. The City Hunter Pred is from Predator 2, a vastly inferior film to the original Predator. The City Hunter design is excellent, however, and NECA has done the character justice with this figure of the Predator at the end of his hunt. The only accessory included with the City Hunter is his shoulder mounted plasma caster, which is not supposed to be removable. We’ll get to that.
City Hunter Predator stands over seven inches tall and is made from rugged hard and soft PVC so that things that are meant to be straight are straight and things that are meant to be flexible can flex. The sculpt and painting are fantastic.
The plasma caster on the City Hunter and the rest of his Lost Tribe is much smaller than that of the original Predator. Rather than being attached to a large shoulder rack and armor system, the Lost Tribe style plasma caster is a small unit on an articulated arm that sides up on a rail in the back armor. Unfortunately, when I removed this guy from the package the arm for the plasma caster was broken. I have contacted NECA about this and am waiting to hear back. Hopefully they can send me a replacement gun part so my City Hunter can be complete. The sliding action seems smooth, and the gun is on a nice ball joint, but the arm part seems to be made from a more brittle material.
Everything else about this guy is great. The paint is excellent and the sculpt imposing. City Hunter even features the net gun stowed on his leg armor. I wish it were removable and the Predator could hold it, but it is glued on.
By the end of Predator 2, Danny Glover has beaten the snot out of the City Hunter. Ridiculous, I know. The flesh wounds are represented here with splatters of green paint in two shades. The effect is decent, but could be a little more ‘drippy’ looking. Still, they are bright and clean, and the wounds stand out against the earthen tones of the Pred’s skin and armor.
The wrist blades extend and are very sharp. They move as one unit so they stay the same length.
The battle damaged City Hunter features an unmasked headsculpt, but not fully unmasked. In Predator 2, Danny Glover and Gary Busey wear thermal insulated suits to mask themselves from the Predator’s infrared helmet vision. The Pred gets mad and takes off his helmet so he can see the annoying humans he is trying to kill with its own eyes, but still needs a respirator mask to breathe for extended periods. The breathing mask is replicated here with a soft plastic wire extending to a port on the body armor.
The headsculpt with the breathing mask is incredible. The head is covered in sculpted detail and texture, with enough paint to bring everything to life. Unlike on the Classic Predator from the two-pack, the white color is the molded plastic and is slightly translucent. The red also appears to be a bit see-through, so the skin has a nice translucent, wet look to it that is very true to the film.
City Hunter is plenty articulated and a lot of fun to pose. The fist combined with the wrist blades makes for some great aggressive stabbing poses.
City Hunter slices and dices!
During the final duel with the City Hunter, Danny Glover manages to chop off the Predator’s arm, preventing the Pred from activating its self-destruct device. The battle damaged City Hunter features a removable forearm that attaches by a rugged peg.
The severed stump looks great. In the film the cut was flush with no peg sticking out, but the looks is still convincing with that bright green blood everywhere.
The Classic Predator unmasked version and battle damaged City Hunter Predator two-pack retails for $29.99 and is great. Both figures have a minor QC issue each, but are otherwise fantastic. Hopefully NECA gets back to me and replaces the damaged shoulder gun for the City Hunter no problem, but even still I am thrilled with the set.