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Terminator 2: Battle Damaged T-800 & T-1000
DST hit T2 pretty hard in terms of exposure, with Toys R Us carrying the line as well as comic book stores. Two different waves went to both markets, with some packs exclusive to one. Urgh. Head hurt. At least the TRU exclusives were easy to spot, bearing the shiny silver TRU logo on the front of the box. This set gives us Arnie as the T-800 (shock!) and our first proper T-1000. We did get the liquid metal "cop" version of the T-1000 in the single packs, but this version offers so much more.
Packaging
The Terminator 2 two-pack packaging is very similar to the Marvel lines, showing off the figures nicely whilst retaining the control art at the bottom. I really miss the mini-bios that come with the Marvel packs though, and they would certainly help distinguish the different Arnies to a casual observer.
The Figures
Battle Damaged T-800
Because we just couldn't have a pack in the first wave of T2 that didn't feature Arnie, here's another one, Battle Damaged T-800, also known as Final Battle T-800 as he's taken from the end of Terminator 2. On the whole, this version is quite similar to Biker T-800 and Assault Gear T-800, but there are more differences between this figure and those two.
First up, the face. Arnie's been through the wars by the end of the film and this is very much reflected in the Minimate. There's a very clever re-use of the Half Human Terminator hairpiece, and the exposed circuitry follows the missing patch of hair on the temple. The rest of the face has similar damage to it, especially around the eye sockets where the red Terminator eye is fully exposed. It's much more effective to see this level of battle damage detailing, as most of the time in Minimate terms "battle damage" is code for "slightly sooty looking", but Arnie here looks excellent.
His outfit is again identical to the other Arnie's previously seen, as I've said, the leather jacket is so iconic and has been sculpted very nicely so we can just about get away with it again. He comes with a different bandolier to the Assault Gear version, as he's used up all his grenades. The chestpiece has a large, bloody hole detailed on it, revealing more circuitry but there's just something off about it, as it looks very cartoony. The effect is completed by some bullet marks. Sadly these don't make it onto the jacket itself. A frayed and bullet-riddled jacket would have really helped this Minimate.
Battle Damaged T-800 is sporting a unique arm, as the left one has had most of the skin melted off and endoskeleton missing, leaving a stumpy arm. It's well detailed and has just enough room to allow a proper elbow joint, nice work at this scale. The trousers are translucent orange, simulating the final scene as he goes into the lava. These make him stand out from the other T-800s but it does look a tad silly.
This Arnie gets a shotgun-like grenade launcher, and, after seeing a lot of nicely detailed and sculpted guns with Minimates recently, including the mini-gun and the MP5 in the Assault Gear/SWAT Officer pack, this one is a real disappointment. It's flat, with no sculpted details! It looks like a piece of wood pretending to be a children's toy version of a shotgun! Just awful. And to cap it all off, Arnie has no real way of holding it correctly, as there is no real handle for him to grip.
In conclusion, this figure has some good aspects and some bad points, but overall, enough differences to be worth picking up, even if he is very scene-specific and not one of the T-800 Minimates sporting his more iconic look.
MMC Score - 6 out of 10
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T-1000
It's the relentless, unstoppable T-1000! Arnie's T-800 in the first Terminator film became one of the 1980s most iconic villains, and it was fitting that Robert Patrick's portrayal of the cunning and sadistic T-1000 became one of the most iconic of the 1990s.
The T-1000 was clever enough to work out that if he mimicked a police officer he would get further than if he looked like a huge, imposing Austrian bodybuilder. So here he is depicted in his police uniform. Sadly the huge hole in his head kinda spoils the illusion. This has been excellently executed on the Minimate, with the hole being very easy to see all the way through, and liquid metal piling up around it. The level of sculpted detail on the head block has necessitated that the hair be sculpted on, but that's no problem to allow it to look as good as this does. It's a superb job, helped by the great detail lines making up his expression. This is one pissed off Terminator!
The police uniform is simply detailed but looks the part, enough that you could army build this guy if you wanted some police Minimates. He comes with a unique hand piece that has an elongated finger, perfect for some eye-stabbing action! He gets a regular hand piece as a replacement, if you don't want to rock the "killer robot from the future" look.
But that's not all, not by a long way. To go alongside his pack-mate as part of the Final Battle theme, he gets a very unique accessory - an exploded torso piece! This sculpted marvel looks pretty much identical to its on-screen version, and has pegs for both arms and a head. But you wouldn't want to put the T-1000's holey head on here, it's not accurate. So DST give us another head, this time with a proper hairpiece and a very surprised expression. Just amazing stuff, which really sets this figure apart from even the best the Marvel line has to offer.
In conclusion, screen accurate and with a plethora of fantastic and unique accessories, T-1000 can't be recommended highly enough.
MMC Score - 10 out of 10
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Review and pictures by Danny Mills
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