Cherno Alpha

Cherno Alpha is the fan favorite Jager seen in Pacific Rim. He’s the oldest Jager in service at the time of the movie, and as such has a less refined look than the others. This is perfectly fine by me. I love the look of this guy.

This was a highly anticipated toy because it’s the first wave to reflect the changes after NECA heard fan feedback about the first wave. They got it mostly right, but there were a few times during this review where I sighed and said “Oh NECA….”

So lets get it out of the way – Cherno Alpha LOOKS great and is a marked improvement from previous Jagers in the line. It’s the best Jager they’ve done. By all accounts, it’s a great leap forward for the line.

The sculpt is great. It’s very tight and full of details. It’s very mechanical and not “gummy” at all.

Articulation is very good. There are still some questionable decisions but it’s light-years ahead of the other releases.

The head is a big block of soviet-era looking plastic. Believe it or not, there is a neck joint. Check out the great detail on the top of the head.

The arms are quite nice. The shoulders are on ball joints, the elbow has a hinge, and the forearms rotate after the elbow. The hands open, and the fists extend. The issue is though that there’s nothing to lock the extending fists in, so they just sort of fall out.

There’s a ball joint in the chest that works fine.

I have issues with the hips. For one, they seem uneven when I have the legs out straight. Secondly the pegs that hold the hips in place are uneven – one side is pushed in, the other sticks out. The result of this is that the hoses in the back that connect to those pins are disconnected on one side.

I also take issue with the ankles. NECA dropped the ball here. Instead of a hinged ankle we get an exposed rod that connects the feet to the body. It looks terrible.

Maybe I am being too harsh. For the price it’s a cool robot from one of the most awesome movies in recent memory. It is by no means bad. I guess what gets me is that I can feel that there is greatness in NECA. I know they have it in them to be as good as any of the big players, but each time I see easy fixes that go overlooked somewhere in the process.

Still, he looks great fighting Kaiju.