The NECA guy that posted a few times in this thread said that he felt their Robo was an improvement over the McF in every way except the legs. He said the McF legs looked better for some reason.
The heck? Seriously? I'll acknowledge NECA superiority in some sculpting (not all), but the paint is crap.
I put my NECA next to my McFarlane Robo last night. If I could only choose to keep one, it'd be the McFarlane figure easily.
First, paint aps. The McFarlane figure was the clear winner with shiny, bright paint with lots of purple and blue hues to reflect the original armor. The NECA figrue had flat mostly silver armor and little mistake blobs all over it. I flipped through 6 figures at the store before I found one that was passable. Paint apps are just terrible on the NECA figure...this alone gives it a failing grade.
Second (which I agree with the NECA fan on) is that the NECA's legs are too skinny. This is from his thighs all the way down and including his feet. Wrists (like the legs) are also too thin, giving the figure Popeye forearms that don't look like the gauntlet from the movie.
Finally, sculpt definitely isn't Weller...looks more like Mick Jagger or something under the helmet. The McFarlane isn't perfect either in this regards, but at least it looks more generic rather than a saggy old guy.
There are a couple things that the NECA did get better - the torso and neck ball articulation is tons better than the cut joints McFarlane did. The chest and upper arm armor sculpts are better and more crisp than the McF. The NECA figure also doesn't have the big black pin cutout on the side of the knees like the McFarlane.
One other untested thing...the NECA figure probably has better durability McFarlane figures I've owned were horrible at was durability. My McF Robo has had his right hip and right shoulder replaced after the originals broke. Time will have to tell on the NECA.