nothingface35
Super Freak
I preordered mine from Big Bad and I haven't heard anything yet. Anyone else on here preorder from there? Any news? Thanks!
NECA 1/4 scale predator
- Thread starter Idpullthecurtains
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scottishguy1986
Super Freak
Who are CSC?
Here's one for size comparision against the really big guys. Pretty good for a 70 dollar figure!
.........I'm shocked how not 1/4 scale this piece is 
. The Neca figure must be based on KPH's stunt double 
. Hey Fremen, I'm curious if you have a 1:1 full size pieces in your collection?
greygoose
Super Freak
scottishguy1986
Super Freak
cool, thanks
greygoose
Super Freak
1/4 Scale NECA Review and Thoughts
Here are my quick thoughts about necas new so called 19" 1/4 scale Predator 1 figurines. The first thing I noticed when I took them out of their boxes is that they use A LOT of really soft and flexible pvc rubber for the majority of the armor etc. The bone trophies are all molded in one piece and made of the same soft rubber. They are molded as a single piece and all linked together by 1mm flimsy pvc rubber that feels very weak and tears very easily with light force. They then have used black cord at the ends of the bones so they can be worn but they are only secured to the ends of the bones by a drop of glue that just pulls away from the paint when you lightly touch it. Same deal for the necklace its just a single piece of soft pvc with a bit of sting glued at either end.
The spine trophy is also cast as a single piece of soft pvc and like the other bone trophies is linked between its sections by the same super thin super soft stretchy pvc and cheap black sting embedded in it at either end so it will be a hassle replacing that when they pull out and they will. Why not have them individually strung on the same piece of cord? It would have been so easy to do and looked so much better. As they are and because they are made of soft pvc you would have to burn a hole through them with a hot nail or something to restring them. All the armor and parts except for the lover calf armor minus the knee guards is made form soft floppy pvc.
The canon mount and canon are made from slightly harder pvc but are still slightly flexible to the touch and feel cheap but look good but the cannon detaches easily from its mounts. I soon noticed that there are no straps connecting the left and right shoulder armor pieces to the chest as there should be. They just look like they are floating around and are glued directly to the arms. One of the hoses on the front of my cannon armor has already pulled away but should be easy to fix with a drop of glue but that shouldnt happen right out of the box. The mask hoses arent made of electrical wire insulator tubing as you would expect but are bits of stretchy jelly like pvc that feel like they would rip if you tried to lightly pull them. They would however be fairly easy to replace.
The dreadlocks are harder than the pvc they used for the armor and hoses but they some are joined together in clumps rather than being individual dreads like you would expect. The ones that are clumped together in clusters were molded together in groups and cant be separated but there are dreads that can be arranged individually. The small spines on the sides of the face of the unmasked versions are also molded in solid clusters. For some strange reason the quills arent present on the masked version.
So with all the soft pvc rubber it would be smart to keep the predators exposed from hot sunny days and heat or you will end up most likely end up with permanently deformed melted parts!
Hardly any forward or backwards range of movement what so ever in the ankles so you cant do anything other than standing straight poses with them they may as well not be there but they can swivel 360. The arms fall out of the sockets easily and are very lose from the shoulder and dont hold poses well. I found that my masked version had slightly tighter joints but still lose. The arms have a very limited range and cant bend half the range of motion you would expect from the elbow. The hands basically have no movement forward or backward from the wrist but can rotate 360.
There is no forward or backward or side to side bending articulation in the torso and only a little bit of left right rotation but that will cause the netting to tear so be very careful when doing so. The netting can not be removed without pulling the whole figure apart and you will probably tear the very soft rubber back armor as its very securely glued over the netting and to the body. In general the netting feels very flimsy and will tear very easily if you tried pulling it off. My open mouth version has a few tears in the chest area right out the box. So much for replacing the netting or with something more accurate! It could be done but would require some serious skill to do so with all the work and potential damage that would be involved just removing the armor parts. Do not try it if you arent very skilled at such work.
Overall the netting is very thin and flimsy and tares very easily it is nowhere near as strong as the various grades of fine fruit bag type netting found commonly at supermarkets etc. I have only posed mine a few times very carefully and tried out the articulation when I got them and already some of the netting has torn where its tucked between the torso and waist. Same deal for the netting around the arm pits.The parts rub against the netting and it breaks where they make contact. You have to be very careful when rotating the thigh joints because the netting will also tear easily if you dont think about what youre doing.
The mask is made from the soft pvc that the armor is made of but it gets thicker towards the front so only the back half feels soft and flexible. The cap between the mask is large and its not any easy fix because you risk tearing it when you try to break the bond with the lower half of the head. Even if you could modify it the mould was made wrong so you are going to reduce the width of the eyes so you would be better of not trying to remove the mask and just sculpt in the gap and repaint everything. You could fix the ugly seam that runs along the top of the helmet while you are at it.
The paint is decent for neca however there are many areas that could have used more care and cleaner applications. Its only marginally better than other neca paint work you might be used to. The eyes look good and my three examples didnt have any issues but they lack fierceness to them. There really isnt any rage to the sculpt at all. The open mouth version doesnt look as though it roaring and the closed mouth looks like it has a vey goofy looking face when viewed head on. The overal appearance of them overal lacks any real feeling of forcity that may be partialy because of the very limitited poses you can acheive with them.
Much of the hype over these toys has been coming from the childrens corner but adults will soon appreciate the shortcoming and cheapness of them. Sad because if neca spend a few dollars more per piece at the factory we would have had something that would have been excellent. if they had of spend $20-$30 extra each at the factory level and given us new joints that do more than cowboy stances and higher quality everything then we would have had pieces that would have been truly remarkable.
Am I disappointed this didnt happen? Yes. Am I surprised? No. The sad thing is that neca was apparently listening to its fans on twitter etc but they obviously chose to ignore and stick with their tried and true method of maximizing their profits and going basic on quality. these will probably be the last pieces I buy from neca I have a has a lot of heartbreak with neca over the years with broken and poorly made pieces right out of their blister packs and boxes and have heard every excuse under the sun from them about why that happens but nothing really changes.
EDIT Now ive noticed the paint is starting to crack on the soft floppy armor areas like the cannon mount and shoulder armor. I cant believe they would use soft pvc like that and just paint over it with tamiya paint what a joke now any time I flex anything more cracks are appearing. Now you can guarantee that all the soft parts are going to crack and start crumbling in a few years. The silver paint and weathering is starting to comes off easily too even if you just pinch the shoulder armor together lightly. Why neca didnt use hard plastic for all the armor parts is a total puzzle to me. Why neca why?
More of my netting has ripped now because of the joint grinding against it and now that I look even closer there are small holes on the legs and chest areas that have torn just from light handling. I had to tie the darn things up to the wall so they wouldnt tumble over because they are really unstable and you cant bent the torso forward or backwards and it really affects their balance.
The ankles not moving forward or backward too arent helping the problem much. Tying these things up is all you can do so now you I cant even pick them up without untying them or I may have to make a stand for them but why should I have to do that in the first place. They are really hard to balance and keep in a decent pose so the arms are the only real thing you can move around while having them in various stages of squatting unless you tie them up.
Also when I was adjusting the dreadlocks on my open mouth version the track of dreadlocks started to pull out of the channel on the back of the head so I gave them a light pull and the whole strip cam right out so I could glue them back on. I feel like Ill have to do that fix with all of them now.
Here are my quick thoughts about necas new so called 19" 1/4 scale Predator 1 figurines. The first thing I noticed when I took them out of their boxes is that they use A LOT of really soft and flexible pvc rubber for the majority of the armor etc. The bone trophies are all molded in one piece and made of the same soft rubber. They are molded as a single piece and all linked together by 1mm flimsy pvc rubber that feels very weak and tears very easily with light force. They then have used black cord at the ends of the bones so they can be worn but they are only secured to the ends of the bones by a drop of glue that just pulls away from the paint when you lightly touch it. Same deal for the necklace its just a single piece of soft pvc with a bit of sting glued at either end.
The spine trophy is also cast as a single piece of soft pvc and like the other bone trophies is linked between its sections by the same super thin super soft stretchy pvc and cheap black sting embedded in it at either end so it will be a hassle replacing that when they pull out and they will. Why not have them individually strung on the same piece of cord? It would have been so easy to do and looked so much better. As they are and because they are made of soft pvc you would have to burn a hole through them with a hot nail or something to restring them. All the armor and parts except for the lover calf armor minus the knee guards is made form soft floppy pvc.
The canon mount and canon are made from slightly harder pvc but are still slightly flexible to the touch and feel cheap but look good but the cannon detaches easily from its mounts. I soon noticed that there are no straps connecting the left and right shoulder armor pieces to the chest as there should be. They just look like they are floating around and are glued directly to the arms. One of the hoses on the front of my cannon armor has already pulled away but should be easy to fix with a drop of glue but that shouldnt happen right out of the box. The mask hoses arent made of electrical wire insulator tubing as you would expect but are bits of stretchy jelly like pvc that feel like they would rip if you tried to lightly pull them. They would however be fairly easy to replace.
The dreadlocks are harder than the pvc they used for the armor and hoses but they some are joined together in clumps rather than being individual dreads like you would expect. The ones that are clumped together in clusters were molded together in groups and cant be separated but there are dreads that can be arranged individually. The small spines on the sides of the face of the unmasked versions are also molded in solid clusters. For some strange reason the quills arent present on the masked version.
So with all the soft pvc rubber it would be smart to keep the predators exposed from hot sunny days and heat or you will end up most likely end up with permanently deformed melted parts!
Hardly any forward or backwards range of movement what so ever in the ankles so you cant do anything other than standing straight poses with them they may as well not be there but they can swivel 360. The arms fall out of the sockets easily and are very lose from the shoulder and dont hold poses well. I found that my masked version had slightly tighter joints but still lose. The arms have a very limited range and cant bend half the range of motion you would expect from the elbow. The hands basically have no movement forward or backward from the wrist but can rotate 360.
There is no forward or backward or side to side bending articulation in the torso and only a little bit of left right rotation but that will cause the netting to tear so be very careful when doing so. The netting can not be removed without pulling the whole figure apart and you will probably tear the very soft rubber back armor as its very securely glued over the netting and to the body. In general the netting feels very flimsy and will tear very easily if you tried pulling it off. My open mouth version has a few tears in the chest area right out the box. So much for replacing the netting or with something more accurate! It could be done but would require some serious skill to do so with all the work and potential damage that would be involved just removing the armor parts. Do not try it if you arent very skilled at such work.
Overall the netting is very thin and flimsy and tares very easily it is nowhere near as strong as the various grades of fine fruit bag type netting found commonly at supermarkets etc. I have only posed mine a few times very carefully and tried out the articulation when I got them and already some of the netting has torn where its tucked between the torso and waist. Same deal for the netting around the arm pits.The parts rub against the netting and it breaks where they make contact. You have to be very careful when rotating the thigh joints because the netting will also tear easily if you dont think about what youre doing.
The mask is made from the soft pvc that the armor is made of but it gets thicker towards the front so only the back half feels soft and flexible. The cap between the mask is large and its not any easy fix because you risk tearing it when you try to break the bond with the lower half of the head. Even if you could modify it the mould was made wrong so you are going to reduce the width of the eyes so you would be better of not trying to remove the mask and just sculpt in the gap and repaint everything. You could fix the ugly seam that runs along the top of the helmet while you are at it.
The paint is decent for neca however there are many areas that could have used more care and cleaner applications. Its only marginally better than other neca paint work you might be used to. The eyes look good and my three examples didnt have any issues but they lack fierceness to them. There really isnt any rage to the sculpt at all. The open mouth version doesnt look as though it roaring and the closed mouth looks like it has a vey goofy looking face when viewed head on. The overal appearance of them overal lacks any real feeling of forcity that may be partialy because of the very limitited poses you can acheive with them.
Much of the hype over these toys has been coming from the childrens corner but adults will soon appreciate the shortcoming and cheapness of them. Sad because if neca spend a few dollars more per piece at the factory we would have had something that would have been excellent. if they had of spend $20-$30 extra each at the factory level and given us new joints that do more than cowboy stances and higher quality everything then we would have had pieces that would have been truly remarkable.
Am I disappointed this didnt happen? Yes. Am I surprised? No. The sad thing is that neca was apparently listening to its fans on twitter etc but they obviously chose to ignore and stick with their tried and true method of maximizing their profits and going basic on quality. these will probably be the last pieces I buy from neca I have a has a lot of heartbreak with neca over the years with broken and poorly made pieces right out of their blister packs and boxes and have heard every excuse under the sun from them about why that happens but nothing really changes.
EDIT Now ive noticed the paint is starting to crack on the soft floppy armor areas like the cannon mount and shoulder armor. I cant believe they would use soft pvc like that and just paint over it with tamiya paint what a joke now any time I flex anything more cracks are appearing. Now you can guarantee that all the soft parts are going to crack and start crumbling in a few years. The silver paint and weathering is starting to comes off easily too even if you just pinch the shoulder armor together lightly. Why neca didnt use hard plastic for all the armor parts is a total puzzle to me. Why neca why?
More of my netting has ripped now because of the joint grinding against it and now that I look even closer there are small holes on the legs and chest areas that have torn just from light handling. I had to tie the darn things up to the wall so they wouldnt tumble over because they are really unstable and you cant bent the torso forward or backwards and it really affects their balance.
The ankles not moving forward or backward too arent helping the problem much. Tying these things up is all you can do so now you I cant even pick them up without untying them or I may have to make a stand for them but why should I have to do that in the first place. They are really hard to balance and keep in a decent pose so the arms are the only real thing you can move around while having them in various stages of squatting unless you tie them up.
Also when I was adjusting the dreadlocks on my open mouth version the track of dreadlocks started to pull out of the channel on the back of the head so I gave them a light pull and the whole strip cam right out so I could glue them back on. I feel like Ill have to do that fix with all of them now.
Last edited:
the angry orc
Super Freak
modded...about to glue it back together...look ok?
modded...about to glue it back together...look ok?
looks great, since theres a lot of pages in here, not sure if there's a step by step to doing the mod in here???
greygoose
Super Freak
greygoose
Super Freak
Re: 1/4 Scale NECA Review and Thoughts
To sum up: This Predator is a big, ass kickin' mofo!
To sum up: This Predator is a big, ass kickin' mofo!
the angry orc
Super Freak
Goose approves.
stamp of approval!
going to glue it together. thanks guys.
the angry orc
Super Freak
not hard at all. a few minutes under the hair dryer (on hot) and the bottom half pulled right off.
greygoose
Super Freak
Re: 1/4 Scale NECA Review and Thoughts
Standing at a normal viewing distance, mixed with other statues/figures of the same scale, everything you mention is unnoticeable.
Does it stand up to a $US1000 maquette? No.
For the retail price of $US80, it is great value for money.
Standing at a normal viewing distance, mixed with other statues/figures of the same scale, everything you mention is unnoticeable.
Does it stand up to a $US1000 maquette? No.
For the retail price of $US80, it is great value for money.
Elder_Predator2
Super Freak
Same with me
Lord Freezer
Super Freak
To adjust the gap on the mask is necessary to polish somewhere, or just paste the piece again in the right way?
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