Quick Buying Options : You can grab the import version or pre-order the regular version for a fair bit less at BBTS, Sideshow, or check Ebay.

This is the heavily armored version of Snake, wearing more gear than he has in any of the other games. In-game, it slows him down but allows him to take more hits and have heavier firepower. Outside of the game, it makes him a large imposing figure for his scale, just look at those enormous thighs! He comes with an alternate set of hands, a large machine gun (with the folding parts up front), a rocket launcher, and a pistol, as well as an alternate head.

I ran into some issues right from the start. The front folding elements of the machine gun were difficult to wedge in and once in, would not change positions. I wanted to have an image of Snake on the ground with the machine gun in front of him but despite being gentle, the folding elements snapped off. In addition, Snake is incredibly top heavy (strange considering those thighs) which made him VERY difficult to stand up.

When you compare him to Kaz Miller and the other Snake figures, you can see how his center of balance is off. He’s a fair bit larger than them (the other Snake figures are roughly the size of Kaz). Adding all those pouches, while accurate, doesn’t help the weight balance issues. Obviously I’ve played with a few toys in my day and I’d say Snake is one of the more difficult figures to pose properly. To the point where I would’ve preferred one less weapon and a stand included instead. Fortunately, this seems to be the exception in the Metal Gear line! There are ways around this, such as the kneeling rocket launcher pose as shown just below.

The alternate head with the visor looks pretty awesome with the rocket launcher. The accessories do look nice, my machine gun problem aside, so props on that. The sculpting in general shows a lot of care. The armor is beat up with a wide assortment of scrapes, the primary head has some great hair (both on top of his head and facial hair), and the pouches/belts are way more detailed than I was expecting!

The articulation allows the same poses as Kaz, except that Snake is a more dynamic character so you’ll probably be propping him up into action poses. It was good seeing that the bulky armor didn’t hinder movement.

Paint was consistently good over the entire figure. No paint drips or splotches that I could see, weathering was good. The straps look surprisingly real! Check out the high-res pictures and you’ll see what I mean, their level of detail and colour accuracy really makes them stand out.

The box, like Miller, is simple and well designed. No complaints!

3/5. It’s a well scupted figure with solid accessories but it constantly falling over really hampered my enjoyment of it. If you’re going to grab it, get some museum putty and you’ll thank yourself! Super useful for other collectibles too. On the offchance mine had some sort of uncommon weight issue, I will state he’d be a solid 4 without the balancing problem.

Buying Options : You can grab the import version or pre-order the regular version for a fair bit less at BBTS, Sideshow, or check Ebay.

Based off of MGS4, Metal Gear Solid Risk looks pretty cool. Risk was definitely one of my boardgame favourites as a kid, throwing in a complete Metal Gear revamp and making it limited, especially right around the time they’re launching a bunch of the Metal Gear game re-releases…yep, this one’s gonna sell out. Judging by some of the other custom games, I’d expect this to be in the $40 range, like the Futurama Monopoly!

Click here to head over to the 3A blog, where they have a short video of the LED firing sequence of the gun

Rather than linking you to the tech specs, which are extensive, you can check out more details and pictures here. No price announced yet though. If you just want to see pics, check under the cut!

Quick Buying Options : Amazon and Ebay.

This is intended as a joke costume. You beat one of the boss characters a certain way to get it and it was only useful for one area of the game. You drive a motorcycle towards enemies and when they see you’re a COLD WARRIOR they don’t shoot at you, giving you the opportunity to murder them at will. But once they see your back, they realize you’re an American super spy! It was such a ridiculous scene and rather fun to play.

Since it’s Medicom, there’s a few things you can expect. An overly high MSRP, a lack of accessories, and Medicom’s style rather than a straight interpretation of the character. Sideshow had it for $190 (ouch), it comes with an alternate set of hands, and one gun. At least, that’s what initially evident. He also comes with a large water bottle, two knives, and a radio, but those are contained on his belt. Given the immense variety of weapons and accessories in the game, this is totally underwhelming. Willing to bet Hot Toys takes care of THAT little problem.

The face is what you’d expect from Medicom. It’s an alright representation of Snake but kinda cartoony. He’s far too tan but it’s an improvement over the borderline albino look the previous Medicom release had. The facial hair and real hair could’ve been done more convincingly, they suffer the most from the animated style. The headband is sculpted rather than fabric. It’s intended to give a more dramatic effect and it works alright.

I gotta give props for the fabric. The accessories and clothing are well tailored. All the pouches are functional with working buttons. The pockets on the clothing work. Even the harness is pretty cool! Basically, the clothing and accessories are the best part of the figure. The boots look and feel nice, as do the sleeves. The gloves are fully sculpted, which doesn’t look as good as the fabric, but oh well. What I found interesting was that the hands slide off quite easily. Instead of using a jointed system, they use a triangular peg. This provides less of a strong grip but you don’t feel you’re going to break the figure as you attempt to place another hand on it.

I posed the figure without the stand because I wanted to see how stable he was in a variety of poses. This is Snake we’re talking about, he’s not gonna stand around like a glamour model. I’m pleased to say it was pretty easy to get him in some nice battle-ready action poses. With the stand? Probably could’ve expanded his action style. While the Medicom 12″ body isn’t my favourite one, it’s fairly simple to get it looking natural.

I’m going to start including more pictures of packaging in my reviews. They did a rather nice job on this one. Makes it obvious which figure it is, the colours go well with each other, the inside looks great as well.

3.5/5. Expensive, likeness suffers due to style, gimmick costume that won’t appeal to most people. However, if it does appeal to you and you get it at a reasonable price (I paid $110 shipped from Ebay, basically half MSRP), it’s well worth it. I can’t see Hot Toys doing this outfit either, whereas I can see them releasing the other ones that Medicom previously released.

Buying Options : Amazon and Ebay.