NECA Emissary Predator #1 – Toyark Photo Shoot

During filming of The Predator (2018), the third act of the film went through numerous rewrites, reshoots and adjustments. Changes to the back half of the film eventually impacted the base story. In the finished film, the upgraded Assassin Predator is eventually killed by Quinn McKenna and Casey Brackett. But, the initial end of the film could have been far different. An unused, but filmed, concept included a series of “Emissary” Predators that were working with the army. They team up with the humans and help to fight off the Assassin Predator, and the Menagarie of hybrid Predators he unleashes from the crashed Fugitive Predator ship. The Emissary’s were decked out in army camo, using human weapons. Why a creature who can cloak himself needs jungle camo, I’ll never know. Those scenes were ultimately cut from the film, but the Emissary Predators live on in action figure form.

NECA Toys is releasing two figures based on the gun-toting, camouflage clad, Emissary Predators. The first figure should be hitting stores any day now. Our friends at NECA sent over the Emissary Predator #1 Ultimate Figure. You can also grab it now from the NECA eBay Store or the NECA Amazon Store. The figure includes interchangeable heads and hands, as well as a rifle. After the jump, check out my review a photo gallery for the new figure.

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The Predator (2018) – Emissary Predator #1 Ultimate Figure by NECA Toys

Pros

• Great sculpted details
• Plenty of articulation
• Fantastic rifle accessory
• Parts change out easily
• Strong paint work

Cons

• None

Overall
Packed in the new style flapped window box (with the hanger tag now built in), the Emissary #1 packaging fits right in with previous 2018 style Predator releases. The front shows off a film-like photo of the figure, while back of the box gives you a look at the various parts and pieces included. The figure includes a pair of open palm hands, a pair of hands for holding the included rifle, and closed fist hands. The two head sculpts give you the option of a masked and unmasked portrait.

The initial idea of Predators in human clothing, using Earth based weapons, seemed fairly silly when details first emerged. With the scenes cut from the film, and not available on any home release, we may never know how well they did or didn’t work. However, this concept has given us a fantastic figure that works way better than I expected. NECA did a really nice job of making sure the different elements came together for a cohesive look. The army camo used here is a mix of human clothing, such as the pants, and camo painted armor. The sculpt work is handled very nicely. There’s still a lot of “Predator” in the design, and it comes through nicely here. The sculpted cloth elements have realistic looking folds, and a ton of pouches and packs strapped to the figure, as well as pieces of armor over it. The exposed skin areas look to use the Fugitive Predator body as the base. There’s great texture to the skin itself, with visible wrinkles and nicely defined muscles. The masked head sculpt uses the design from the Fugitive Predator, while the unmasked head sculpt is new, with a really cool brow design that’s highlighted with silver paint.

The articulation cuts here blend in quite nicely with the figure. Wherever they could, joints were hidden in clothing, or around armor to keep them from being too glaring. The elbows and knees are both double jointed, with great range of motion in their joints. The torso is ball jointed at the chest, and again at the waist. All of that combines with a design that doesn’t hinder posing, much like the Fugitive Predator figure. Joints themselves were solid, and I didn’t run into any spots that required heating to loosen. Hands and heads swap out fairly easily. The neck peg is a little tight, but just a little force got that to snap in nicely.

Paint work overall is great. The main Predator body has a great color scheme led with a series of purples that fade into much lighter skin tones towards the front. The purple itself is unique among movie Predator figures, who usually skew towards grays, tans, and browns for a more natural skin appearance. But the purple helps to break up the more earthy colors in the camo and armor, which has a lot of green and brown. Paint lines throughout are very clean, with sharp edges around the mandibles and eyes.

The lone accessory here is a rifle. The included gripping hands fit the gun perfectly. The right hand can grip the handle well, with the index finger able to grip the trigger. The rifle has an attached soft vinyl ammo bag. Be careful not to pull on that, as it looks like the piece holding that in place is a bit small. What was nice is that the top of the ammo chamber flips open as if to allow for reloading. It’s a small, but welcome feature.

In the end, I was really impressed by how nicely the figure turned out. It sports a look that works way better than I expected, a great sculpt, a solid selection of interchangeable parts, and a good bit of articulation. This Summer, the figure will be joined by the second Emissary. We’ll have a gallery of that closer to release. Check out a selection of photos below and the full gallery after that.