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Terminator 2: T-800 & Endoskeleton
The Terminators are evil robots disguised as humans, sent back into the past in order to stop humanity’s resistance to them before it can begin. The original idea for the Terminator came as a fever dream to James Cameron, and in my opinion, the world is just a slightly better place for his having had this dream.
Packaging
The packaging for these Toys R Us Terminator 2 (T2) Minimates follows the convention of all the other TRU 2-packs released recently. They have plastic windows so that you can see the figures, and a slight curve/slope on the front of the box where the license logo is located, making them a bit more distinctive than previous Marvel Minimate releases (waves 14 through 22). The Minimate Terminator painting at the top of the box is a nod to a well known poster for T2 with Arnold sitting on his motorcycle, wearing shades, and holding a shotgun. Also, following the convention for releases of this type, there are what appear to be control art drawings of each of the two figures right below the window display.
There are action photos of each figure on the side of the box, and a group shot of the various Terminator 2 figures on the back. Interestingly, the picture on the back includes the figures released at TRU (including the TRU exclusive Assault Gear T2 Arnold and SWAT Officer), the variant that will be released to comic shops (Kyle Reese), the figures being released at both places (including the set reviewed here), and some of the 2nd wave of T2 Minimate 2-packs as well (including Sarah and John Connor). The Marvel Minimates poster that has been released with recent Minimate releases is included in this pack.
The Figures
T-800
The first figure in this pack is simply named "T-800". Before discussing the figure himself, let me note that the T-800 is the Terminator model represented by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the first 2 Terminator movies. Other incarnations of the Terminator are given different model numbers (T-600, T-1000, etc.). This figure was called "Flashback T-800" when it was first announced. The reason for this is that, though the line of figures is "Terminator 2: Judgment Day", this figure is the titular character from the first Terminator film from 1984. We know this because of his outfit, guns, and battle damage over the left eye. As such, this T-800 is actually a bad guy. He comes back in time to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) before she can have a child (John Connor) who will later lead the human resistance against the evil robot army in a post-apocalyptic, dystopian future in which robots have turned on and enslaved their former human masters.
This figure has a recognizable likeness to Arnold Schwarzenegger. The eyes, mouth, cheek bones, chin, and the spacing of each of these respective parts to one another come together to produce a slightly angry, focused, and very chiseled face which is essentially Arnold in many of his iconic roles. As mentioned earlier, his left eye has been damaged. In the movie, he takes his human eye out completely in a famous scene. The Minimate version has more extensive damage than that seen in the movie, but the exaggerated look really works. I am glad that they chose to give him the battle damaged eye instead of the undamaged version, because it looks cool and gives him some extra character. Plus, this is the accurate face for the period when Arnold wore this particular outfit. The hair piece is pretty generic and brown, representing the short and somewhat spikey hairdo that Arnold had when he wore this outfit in the movie. One very cool addition here is the hairpiece with sunglasses. With T1 Terminator, this look is really how the character is most well known, and it works great. Personally, I need two of these so that I can display one with sunglasses and one without.
Regarding the outfit, T-800 has brown pants, painted on black boots, a gray under-shirt, black leather biker jacket with silver buttons/zipper, and black gloves. This is the 3rd incarnation of T-800 in The Terminator following his nude debut, and his punk clothes often referred to as his "Tech Noir" outfit. I will disclose at this point that I am a bit biased. I love the first Terminator film, and I love this outfit design. It epitomizes bad-ass, and works brilliantly on the Minimate. It is basic, it is menacing, and it is very cool. Minor quibbles are that he should have fingerless workout gloves (similar to Assault Punisher’s hands), and I don’t know if the larger crotch sheath (slipping over the crotch) is necessary. But Arnold is a big guy in this movie, so maybe the crotch piece (which has a belt painted on) is a good thing in that it may bulk him up a little.
Beyond the extra hairpiece, T-800 comes with two accessories - a SPAS 12 gauge shotgun with the shoulder stabilizer (or whatever that is called) extended, and an AR-180 assault rifle. These are really cool because they aren’t some generic guns, these are guns that were actually used by the T-800 in The Terminator in the scene where he attacks the police station. This attention to detail tells me that someone at Art Asylum/DST really loved this character and wanted to do him justice... and boy did they.
In conclusion, I think this is just about a perfect Minimate. He reaches that delicate balance between simplicity and attention to detail, and captures the character’s essence. These three factors working together characterize most of my favorite Minimates. Plus, Art Asylum has done this all in the form of one of my favorite film characters of all time. This guy is probably one of my top 10 Minimates at this point.
MMC Score - 10 out of 10
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Endoskeleton
Technically, the Endoskeleton figure packaged with T-800 here is actually a T-800 itself, though it is commonly referred to as the "endoskeleton" because this label helps to distinguish it from the T-800 with Arnold covering. But Endoskeleton is an appropriate name because that is what it is - the robotic skeleton hidden inside the fleshy exterior of the Terminator (or the "exo-skin" I guess).
The Endoskeleton head is really nice. He has a missing nose, his teeth are showing, he has a bunch of little parts and curved lines, and of course, he’s got red eyes and an evil look. Overall, this is a nice Minimate interpretation of this iconic robotic menace. The paint here, and on the rest of the figure is an almost shiny silver.
The body for Endoskeleton is covered in a print representing all the parts and wires that cover the body of Endo. His chest block is cast in clear plastic, with silver painted over it showing off his chest, spine, and some pumps. The clear plastic allows you to see the gaps around his skeletal torso pieces. His crotch piece is painted plain silver, with no design over it. In addition to that, Endoskeleton has a few new, sculpted pieces. He has slip-over parts for his chest/shoulders and crotch, and a new set of hands and feet. Let me start out with the good here. I like the feet! They aren’t too bulky or unconventional (relative to other Minimates), and have little sculpted toes and heels. My only main complaint there is no C3 hole, so I can’t put him on a LEGO stand.
Now, for the bad... nothing else sculpted here works for me. It is too much, taking away the basic and uniform nature of Minimates, and ultimately makes him bigger than he should be, in my opinion. The shoulder and crotch parts are too bulky and "busy" for my tastes, and the hands are huge. Plus, he has 4 fingers instead of 5, which is not accurate to the movie. Though I think this all makes for a somewhat ugly Minimate, it has the added issue of not being accurate to the source material in that the Endoskeleton is supposed to be pretty thin. This guy looks like a tank. For the T-800 (which is supposed to be Arnold’s skeletal structure) it is just way too big. Fortunately, you can take the chest/shoulder and crotch pieces off, and the fact the he has a fully painted torso block and a silver painted crotch means that he is still clearly the Terminator Endoskeleton when these pieces are missing. However, the lack of a tampo on the crotch is a bit distracting, and leaving just the crotch sleeve on makes him look like he is wearing a diaper.
Accessory-wise, Endoskeleton comes with the plasma/laser rifle that he uses in the 'future' sequences in T1 and T2. This is another new sculpted weapon, and is a great likeness, considering the size. Great for killing puny humans.
In conclusion, this is a disappointing take on the Endoskeleton in my opinion. The added bulk doesn’t work for me, and unfortunately over-shadows the nice things about this ‘Mate. If I were to judge him as I will display him (without extra parts), I would give him a couple of extra points, but judging him as he was meant to be, this guy is a sub-par Minimate.
MMC Score - 4 out of 10
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Review and pictures by karamazov80
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