Yep, right there with you.
You know, I'm kind of glad Hot Toys didn't tease or hype this up. It sort of just came out of nowhere. If they had given us a teaser, I don't know, something like this,
I would have been so pumped and excited. Hot Toys certainly knows how to photograph Terminator surgery. Of course, then I would be disappointed once we got this full reveal. I might not have even been mad if it was an actual
improvement over the first version, especially in the sculpt department. Too bad it's not.
Back in the day, I sort of always expected them to make a another clean version, a Cyberdyne figure before the Battle Damaged figure. I don't know if Maulfan remembers but I recall stating how much I was sort of "eh" about the original versions sculpt and how I might wait to see if a better, DX version would come along. He said something like the chance of a new second head would never happen. Looks like we were both wrong. While it was a DX, it certainly wasn't an improvement.
I know you and I shared the same opinion about the MMS 117 T-800, but the headsculpt, while far from perfect, certainly did grow on me since the original spec/pics. I know we discussed production variations and it certainly seems like this DX one is suffering from a thin neck.