NECA Striker Eureka review

been putting this off for a while, plus the lack of spirit on pumping out some contents for this poor blog (but hey, i can at least assure that there will be gunpla back in this blog next week) but this one, is inevitable at best.

and so, here we go, NECA Striker Eureka. from the movie that we all knew and loved, Pacific Rim

(oh there are so many things to talk on this particular figure. spoiler: most are bad stuff)

 

(hopefully i still remember the code for read more command)





oh we all have our very on favourite Jaegers from the movie. i, naturally, went for Australian finest Striker Eureka. well, insert your jokes on aussies being in constant need for big knives but hey, this is what Striker is all about

while the plastic is somewhat smelling weird, the overall figure is pretty nice. quite hefty, and it does packed a rather heavy mass, heavier than what i earlier expected. stands on solidly, and look rather imposing. on and you can detach the blades, and for some reason, right leg is slightly bowed a bit. pretty much the same to other Strikers i saw in various video reviews.

stunning level of details, minus the monotone paintjob. kinda see how and where they're going for the weathering, but needless to say it looked like a child's work. minus the flashes here and there, at least they nailed the on screen model level of detailing that they're trying to shove into buyer's mouth

one binder seems to be at a funny angle to the other, but daymn this is one fine looking piece of backpack thingamajig

fairly nice gold paint, quite reflective for the face. and i must say Striker has the best face among all the Jaegers shown in action

articulation- neck is balljointed, but the ball is funnily located in the chest instead. you can get the head to rotate almost 90' sideways, but need to work it along the collar armors. and not much business for the up and down movement.

good shoulder articulations, thanks to two separate hinge, one on the main shoulder block and another on the base of arm. though due to the nature of these kind of figure, the joints may get stuck, and need some properly placed force to get everything unstuck. mine were stuck on the left shoulder and the waist joint, which somewhat freaked me out a bit in the process of granting them freedom in the fear of breaking something

and it rotates just fine. though the main shoulder axle is built at an angle, so at fully raised position it may look awkward a bit

a somewhat 90' bend for the elbow. fair enough. better than Gipsy. oh and the wrist has hinge that allow the hand to bend inside. that's it

a very, very, very nice waist joint, ball jointed that is oh-so-free to sway and swing around once you get it unstuck (or if yours is already free by default)

fairly free forward and more to the backward movement for the hip.though not much on split department as the side armors of the thigh are winner in getting in the way

depending on how you want to see, kinda 90' knee bend. ankle is ball jointed, enough for flat wide stances but not for some crazy splits

in short, it has most of the articulation needed, and of a fair range as well, yet they are all rather weirdly engineered. and here's where the main problem kicks in. the joints are GODDAMN LOOSE. right out of the box. to the point that it is damn hard to get it posed and stand properly, especially the shoulder. for what it is, the joint mechanics are basic at best. just standard hinge made by axles going through drilled holes on the parts, and QC-wise, i should mentioned that the right elbow of mine is badly assembled, the axle didn't go in through the holes, warping the plastic all around. need to fix that when i get my tools. well, not a problem if you can fix it, but how about those normal collectors?

anyway, moving on

size comparison with some random stuff i had lying around

ranting a bit more- paintjob are so-so, and for some parts, like the knuckles and the brass color detailing, the brass is hardly there. it looked very awful at best, kinda looked like the upper brass layer is washed off horribly. plus the weathering, ugghh, pretty much random washes here and there and bits of dry brushing on the joints and details.  i ranted about the joints up there so not gonna rant on it again.

putting it simply, dont buy this thing, unless you liked the movie and the mech so much that you need one (like me). other than that, NECA should give up the license and let other company that makes better figures to handle this, because letting them making all these crap isn't making things any better.

(this is why i dont fancy pre-assembled figures much)

gunpla contents hopefully coming by next week. please look forward to it