The Good: Great sculpt, Exceptional poseability, Decent balance
The Bad: Coloring is more simplistic than accurate
The Basics: The Engineer (Pressure Suit) from Prometheus’s NECA toy line is very cool, but not quite perfect!
Action figures based on films have a very short half-life. When a film is not exactly a hit, like Prometheus (sorry, but when the latest Madagascar film beats the movie at the box office, it’s hard to call it a hit!), it is a surprise that any company would buy the licensing rights after the fact. Still, NECA, which bought the rights to produce Prometheus figures, tends to make figures based on cult favorites, as opposed to trying to capitalize on the buzz generated before a film. So, I was actually thrilled when NECA recently released two figures based upon the main characters from Prometheus. The Engineer (Pressure Suit) action figure was the first of the two figures that I managed to get in.
The Prometheus Engineer (Pressure Suit) action figure is available exclusively from the NECA line and is one of two figures from their first wave (there are two more in the pike, whether they are released is likely to be dependent upon how the Engineer and Space Jockey figures sell.
Basics
Based on the character that opened the film and appeared at the very end, the Prometheus, Engineer (Pressure Suit) is the lightly armored alien Engineer who was attacked by the proto-facehugger after chasing down Shaw!
Standing eight and one-eighth inches tall, the Engineer (Pressure Suit) is a broad-chested, bald-headed alien Engineer in his flight suit, without the helmet. The color scheme for the figure is ridiculously simple. Most of the figure an aged bone color with slight brown, black and gray highlights. This seems far less gray than the character in the film did, though the fact that the highlights are so detailed is almost enough to convince the fans that NECA got the coloring all right. The monolithic pale gray of the skin for the head and hands actually fits the character quite well. The eyes of the Engineer in the film had solidly black eyes, though this figure has clearly defined pupils and irises.
The sculpt is great for the costume. NECA made the toy with pretty extraordinary detailing for the sculpt and head. In fact, one of the neat aspects of the figure is that while it is mostly made of hard plastic, the lower half of the back side of the figure is made of a soft, rubbery plastic that allows the figure to have greater flexibility without sacrificing any of the surface details! The NECA Engineer (Pressure Suit) features cool details, like the holes where the suspended animation tubes went in. The sculpt is actually incredible, even if the coloring is not exceptional.
Accessories
The Engineer (Pressure Suit) comes with no accessories.
Poseability
Despite the Engineer (Pressure Suit) having foot holes, the fact that there are no corresponding pegs from a playset or stand for the figure. That means posing the Engineer (Pressure Suit) is based entirely on balance. This figure has fair balance, and the figure only remains balanced when the figure is flatfooted. With fourteen points of articulation, Engineer (Pressure Suit) has good poseability, the sculpt does not allow the figure to actual make use of all of the joints. The Engineer (Pressure Suit) has ball and socket joints at the ankles, knees, groin socket (which are not as functional as one might hope), shoulders (with limited ability to bend outward), wrists and elbows. The bust and head are on ball joints, with limited range of motion there.
Playability
All of the articulation makes Engineer (Pressure Suit) a decent toy for play, but one suspects those who would recognize Engineer (Pressure Suit) enough to enjoy the figure would not be the type to actually play with it and the Prometheus toy line is intended for the adult collector. There is no superlative play function for this figure; it is very much intended for display, as opposed to play.
Collectibility
NECA Toys made a good figure with Engineer (Pressure Suit), but given how NECA has a tendency to pick the losers (past history has shown that NECA’s figures quickly sell to the fanbase, then end up severely discounted at the few retailers that carry them) and there is no reason to believe that the Prometheus figures will be any exception. Given the limited appeal of the Prometheus figures, it is hard to believe that they will be a good investment figure.
Overview
Fans of the Alien franchise, the Engineers, and Prometheus are likely to buy this figure and enjoy it for their collections, even with the slightly off coloring, but it might not have mass appeal. That’s fine; Prometheus was intended for the fans more than the masses and this merchandise certainly capitalizes well on that..
This version of Engineer (Pressure Suit) appears solely in Prometheus, reviewed here!
For other film-related toys, please visit my reviews of:
The Dark Knight Rises Catwoman
Labyrinth 12” Talking Jareth The Goblin King
Watchmen Walter Kovacs Variant figure
8/10
For other toy reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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