For those of you not familiar, Sideshow Collectibles has an original line they call “The Dead“. It’s has some exceptional pieces that go for crazy amounts on the secondary market, like Patient Zero. During one of their contests I managed to win this figure, the Harbinger Priest exclusive. Will I trash or praise this practically free figure? Keep reading and you’ll find out!

Quick Buying Options : Available cheaply on Ebay. Goes under retail and I imagine it will for a long time yet.

As a big fan of horror, I found myself with few horror pieces in my collection. Sure, I’ve got a couple Resident Evil Hot Toys figures, but no proper zombies, no Freddy, no real monsters like Mothman, dinosaurs, aliens, whatever! I was missing out. So I won a contest, paid a few bucks for shipping, and this fella showed up at my door. He comes in a nice box, it’s a bold white with a bloody hand print going down the front. There’s also a window that allows you to look inside to see the figure.

The exclusive is a bloody stump of a hand with a crow on top. Not that useful since you can’t attach it to the figure but I’m sure it’s nice if you’re building a display. The big fat bible isn’t terribly useful either, since he can’t hold it. The base is a plain Sideshow base that mimicks the look of the box. I will say this though, I find the Sideshow base system more stable than the one Hot Toys uses.

Given the dark costume, you’re immediately drawn to the head, which is excellent since it’s the best part of the figure. It’s well sculpted and suitably gory for a zombie figure. The chunks of his head missing, his screwed up jawline, the eyes rolling back into his head, the missing skin chunks, it’s that sort of attention to detail that makes a proper zombie stand out.

I had little problem manipulating him into all the poses I wanted. I wasn’t going for action poses so I can’t say how it fares there, but for shambling poses the Sideshow body works well indeed. I had him in a more festive preacher pose at the end, no issues there either. His shoes were nicely sculpted and the rest of the costume is competent, but given his profession, obviously very simple and undetailed.

Compared to Sideshow’s more recent offerings, it may seem underwhelming in the articulation and accessories departments. But given that it’s considerably cheaper and … it’s a zombie, how much would extra articulation and accessories really benefit it? In this case, a more affordable price was definitely the way to go.

4/5. The price I paid obviously helps with my score but it’s a good figure on it’s own, particularly given the price. The exclusive item makes no real difference in my score, it was alright.

Buying Options : Available cheaply on Ebay. Goes under retail and I imagine it will for a long time yet.

Quick Buying Options : Available at BBTS, Amazon, Sideshow, and Ebay.

I was curious how they’d do a 12″ articulated body for a character that’s so fat and “fleshy”. Sideshow went with minimizing articulation but keeping the maximum visual appeal. It’s not nearly as poseable as Commander Cody but the trade-off is the joints are rather well hidden. There’s a joint at his feet which blends in great with the rest of the legs, the hands, the shoulders, and neck. Gamorrean guards aren’t meant to flip around like athletes so I wasn’t TOO concerned about articulation.

You might notice there’s what looks like a joint at the side of his face. I figured I’d be able to open his mouth but unfortunately, not so much. I imagine they made it that way for ease of assembly of the head. You can pry it open a LITTLE bit. Accessory wise he comes with an extra set of hands, a vibro axe, and the large lance. The accessories have some great sculpting, tons of texture. You can even see chips in the axe head from usage (as in, smashing prisoners!)

The sculpt of the figure, the armour, and the fabric are all really well done. I just watched Return of the Jedi a couple days ago and the only detail I can spot that seems inaccurate is the eyes are slightly too small. I like that they used a different fabric for the chest area and the arms because that’s definitely how I remember it in the movie, the chest looked leathery, the arms looked more traditional fabric. Good attention to detail! All the wear is consistent with these pig guards wearing these things around for years, check out the nice scrapes on the leather belt and how great the armour looks.

They did a great job on making the the nose actually look wet and a little gross. The skin itself is rubbery and a great colour, the horns/teeth/nails look worn, there’s a lot more variety to this paint than you’d think from a quick glance. I didn’t see any paint issues when I went through it, great attention to detail, quite impressive.

Something I didn’t manage to show in this review, which I should have, is how large this figure is compared to most 12″ figures. It’s not that he’s tall. He’s just so fat! He’s about twice as wide as Commander Cody.

The box is similar to the Commander Cody one with a magnetic snap, no mention of Hot Toys on this one though.

4.5/5. Great sculpt and paint, limited articulation, but that matches the character. Considering it’s a new body yet affordably priced (especially at some other merchants/on the aftermarket!), it scores solid marks.

Buying Options : Available at BBTS, Amazon, Sideshow, and Ebay.

Quick Buying Options : Available at Amazon, and Ebay. Possibly available on back-order via Sideshow Collectibles.

You might wonder why Cody here had a price increase over previous Clone Troopers but once you bust open the package, it’s obvious. Commander Cody comes with a CRAZY amount of accessories. When they say a “generous” amount of hands on the Sideshow description, they aren’t kidding. We’re talking 6 or so sets of alternative hand options. Three complete heads (two helmets, one portrait), Emperor Order 66 hologram, 4 guns, extra “action” set of feet, and some other odd large accessory I couldn’t figure out. It’s ridiculous!

The accessories included look great all around. Fantastic sculpting, no quality issues, even better than the accessory love of most Hot Toys figures. Though you might notice that the feet are a slightly different colour than the rest of the armour, that’s a minor nitpick. The running feet were a surprisingly clever accessory addition that I haven’t seen from any other figures, they allow a little more stability in some badass action poses.

This isn’t Commander Cody in his clean form, this is Commander Cody after he’s been through dozens of battles, his armour is beat to hell, and he’s still ready to tear up some droids. The battle damage is extensive across the paint, there isn’t a single piece that I could see that didn’t have scrapes, cuts, dirt, and paint wear. The weapons came clean, as they often do on battle damaged figures, but you could rough those up easily enough. The paint in general is quite well done and the bright colours definitely make this figure stand out on a shelf.

The portrait has more of a cartoon style to it than the movie style. It definitely looks good, it’s just not intended to be ultra detailed and like you’re looking at a little person (in comparison to something like the Enterbay Jack Bauer for example).

The Sideshow 12″ body is great for a wide variety of poses. Combine that with the stand (the design on it is the exclusive offering) and you can prop Cody up in all sorts of ways. Thumbs up party time? Sure! Running while wielding dual pistols? Why not? He looks great in so many poses that you shouldn’t have a problem finding an interesting look. Though I’m keeping mine in the Order 66 hologram look for the time being.

The shoulders and kneepads are intended to be loose so you can adjust them in a wide variety of ways, which apparently means as soon as I look away to take a photo they slide slightly out of the way, making some of my photos appear awkward. Clever! The body is really well balanced, I had no trouble standing it up in a variety of poses without the stand.

The fabric bodysuit under the armour looks great. You’re going to have to futz with the materials to get Cody to look exactly how you want but it’s really a minor thing. Only slightly more effort than messing around with a Premium Format when you get it.

The box is great. Simple design, everything was super secure, and it clasps shut via magnets. While I prefer the Hot Toys style artboxes, I prefer the magnet method of opening the box instead of the Hot Toys way. Pros/cons! However, I did notice the Hot Toys logo on the bottom of this box. I wasn’t aware that Sideshow and Hot Toys teamed up on this…? I thought Empire Strikes Back Luke was going to be their first joint project, weird.

5/5. It’s rare for me to find a figure with so many options that has so few minor issues. This is definitely one of the best 12″ figures I’ve gotten to check out and I’m hooked on the Star Wars 12″ line now. Thanks again to Sideshow Collectibles for providing the review sample.

Buying Options : Available at Amazon, and Ebay. Possibly available on back-order via Sideshow Collectibles.

Hot Toys is proud to present the 1/6th scale Shadow Predator Collectible Figure from the Predator 2 movie as the 2011 Toy Fairs Exclusive item. The movie-accurate Shadow Predator collectible is specially crafted based on his image in the movie, highlighting the newly developed head and body, body armor, as well as highly detailed weapons and accessories.

The 1/6th scale Shadow Predator Collectible Figure specially features:

- Authentic and detailed fully realized likeness of Shadow Predator in the movie Predator 2
- Realistic and accurate 1/6th scale of approximately 14 inches / 35 cm tall
- Over 22 points of articulations
- Newly developed head, body and body armor
- One (1) exchangeable expanded mouth
- Three (3) pairs of interchangeable palms including:
■ One (1) pair of fists
■ One (1) pair of opened palms
■ One (1) right palm for holding spear
■ One (1) right palm for holding shuriken

Weapons:
- One (1) retractable spear
- One (1) shuriken
- One (1) knife

Accessories:

- One (1) pair of forearm armor with ropes
- One (1) chest armor and one (1) waist band with real-like feather
- One (1) pair of thigh armor
- One (1) pair of knee armor
- One (1) pair of lower leg armor
- One (1) piece of bone trophies
- One (1) piece of chain with bones
- Figure stand with Shadow Predator nameplate and the movie logo