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Captain Toy/Michael's Review of the Week

Review of City Hunter, Guardian Predator
Predator 2 action figures

Hiya Toys
Date Published: 2018-02-28
Written By: Michael Crawford
Overall Average Rating: 3.5 out of 4

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Introduction

There are certain classic creature designs that simply need no change, no update, no improvement. There aren't many...but there's a few. And one of those is the Predator.

It's been decades since we've seen an amazing creature design like that, and I suspect it will be quite awhile still. One of the features of a great alien design is the ability to create variations within it that adds to the realism. Not every human looks identical - not every alien in another species would either. But not every creature design lends itself to that sort of natural variation. The Predator does.

The film Predator 2 gave us a look at many of those variations, and Hiya Toys has taken the ball and ran with it. They already produced Colonial Marines and Aliens in a 1/18 scale, and are moving into the Predator license full tilt. The first of the figures are now hitting, and I'm checking out two of them tonight - City Hunter and Guardian.

They've branded their style of 1/18 figures "Exquisite Mini", and they are going for high quality, super articulated, extremely detailed action figures in a tiny size. The price tag matches the quality expectation, and each of these will run you around $20, depending on the retailer.

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Packaging - ***
The basic boxes work well, and are completely collector friendly. No need for twisties, bands, or tape - everything is held within the plastic tray thanks to a separate tight cover. The big window shows things off nicely, and the packaging materials are sturdy and high quality.

The inclusion of a card with the poster art is nice, and there's a sheet showing all the variations. But they could use some additional instructions, even if things are relatively obvious.

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Sculpting - ****
When discussing smaller figures, it's always important to keep that scale and size in mind, particularly when discussing the sculpt and paint. These figures are 1/18 scale, which in today's market makes the average adult make around 4" tall. The Predator is a big dude though, and these are about 4 1/2", giving them a little height and bulk over the average 1/18 figure.

That's still really small, however, and the amount of detail in the sculpt is really, really impressive. You can easily look at a photo of one of these and think it's a 7" or larger figure, thanks to the work on the armor and body netting. The textures vary between areas that are supposed to look like metal, flesh, leather, or cloth, and wear and damage is sculpted in, not just painted on.

The dreads are made from a softer rubber, which does allow a bit more poseability in the neck. The retractable blades are a little too soft, but I suspect they were concerned about breakage with such tiny pieces.

And before you ask, these two are masked and the masks do not come off. They have other unmasked variations in the plethora of figures they are releasing.

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Paint - ***1/2
The paint work matches the sculpt in terms of detail and quality - it's really pretty amazing considering the scale. There are tons of small details, like the netting, beads, skin spots, and wear and tear, and it all looks fantastic.

The paint does a particularly good job of making the armor look like beaten, weathered metal of some alien design. All this attention to detail in the paint work can't be cheap, and I certainly understand what is driving some of the figure cost.

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Articulation - ***
The one area where I was a bit bummed is in the Articulation. He's articulated...but all the joints don't quite work as well as I'd like.

The neck is a bit restricted, but you'd probably assume that due to the dreadlocks. They used a softer material, but there are a lot of them, and they put up a fight when you're posing the head. You can still get some decent tilt and lean, however, and add some personality to most stances.

He has rotating hinge shoulders, pin elbows, and ball wrists. The gauntlets make it tough to get too deep of a bend in the arms, but you can still get plenty of good arm poses, and the blades on his right arm extend and retract.

He doesn't have a cut waist, but the torso joint does lean, turn, and crunch a bit. The hips are rotating hinges, the knees are double pin, and the ankles appear to be ball joints, like the wrists. I think the leg *might* turn at the hip as well, although mine was very tight. I didn't want to push it for fear of breaking or tearing something.

The disappointment comes in the ankles.  In the marketing photos, you see some pretty serious bend in the ankles, which allows for some terrific fighting stances. I could not get that same amount of bend and rock out of these ankles, and it was frustrating. Getting him to stand without the base was tough, and you'll be using said stand in your display, I guarantee it.

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Accessories - ***1/2
Both figures come loaded up with goodies.

Both have their spear in two modes - open and closed. This was a much better way to go than trying to create an actual retractable spear in such a small scale, and makes the extended version less prone to breakage.

They also have the smart disc, and it works pretty well with one of the sculpted hands. Speaking of hands, there are six in total. He comes wearing a set of medium grips, and there's a relaxed set and a splayed set to swap. They pop on and off pretty easily, but they did tend to fall off when I was posing him.

Both have a small shoulder cannon as well. You can pop this into the track on the left side of his chest armor, or you can skip it. I found that it got in the way of the head and hair too much, so I ended up skipping it for most of the photos.

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Each figure has a small, rectangular display stand with a single foot peg. The top of the base is sculpted to look like exterior ground, and these bases can be connected together with included clips. Both the left and right foot have a peg hole.

Each figure has one additional specific skull accessory. The Guardian has just the skull itself, while the City Hunter has a skull still attached to the spinal column.

City Hunter also has his 'purse', which is a separate piece but comes in place around his shoulders. I'm assuming you can remove it, but you'll need to pop the head off to do it.

In some of the marketing photos, there's a set of skulls on a rope around the chest of the Guardian Predator. Mine did not have them, but I suspect that there's a variant on this figure, resulting in the difference. Like I said, there's a buttload of different versions being released.

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Fun Factor - ***
If you stick with using the display stands, these are a ton of fun. I did find getting them to stay upright frustrating, and it's all due to the ankles. But using the stand you can get plenty of cool set ups, and this pair together makes for a particularly interesting display.

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Value - **
I dinged them *slightly* in this category (average value is **1/2), because $20 is going to be a bit of a sticker shock in this scale. Still, it's clear where the money is going in terms of sculpt and paint detail, and I don't think big fans of the character are going to be too upset once they get them opened up.

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Things to Watch Out For -
Everything was quite sturdy on the figure, but I would take some care with the retractable blades. They're made from a very soft plastic, probably to avoid breakage issues, but you can still tear them if you get a bit too animated when swapping hands.

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Overall - ***1/2
The Predator design remains tremendously popular with fans, and Hiya is doing a terrific job translating the look into a small scale, highly articulated, top quality series. There's a nit here or there, but overall the final production figures are excellent.

I do hope we see some minor adjustments to the ankles to improve their mobility. Had I been able to obtain better poses with them, I would have happily gone the full four stars.

Score Recap (out of ****):
Packaging - ***
Sculpting - ****
Paint - ***1/2
Articulation - ***
Accessories - ***1/2
Fun Factor - ****
Value - **
Overall - ***1/2

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Where to Buy 
Online options include these site sponsors:

- has them for $20 each.

- Entertainment Earth also has them for $20 each.

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
Hiya Toys has already released a series of Colonial Marines, as well as the Power Loader. They have lots more coming, including a ton of additional Predator variations. Check them out on Facebook for more info.

You should also hit the Search Reviews page, in case any other applicable reviews were done after this one was published.

Discussion:
Want to chat about this review?  Try out one of these terrific forums where I'll be discussing it!

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This product was provided for the review by the manufacturer. Photos and text by Michael Crawford.

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