Review of Robocop & Mechanical Chair 1/6th action figure

Introduction

2015 was a big year for Hot Toys and Robocop. They released the very cool second version of ED-209, the second version of the regular Robocop, and tonight's review - the die cast metal Robocop with Mechanical Chair diorama. But that's not all that fans have to drool over, with two more releases coming soon, both including the Battle Damaged Robocop. You can get him all by himself, or you can get him in a two pack with the pre-robo Alex Murphy figure. That's a lot of robo-love, and I suspect fans will have to be pretty choosy about what they pick up and what they pass over, especially when you consider the price points.

The Robocop with the chair is shipping now, and will run you around $425 at most retailers.

Packaging - ***1/2
The box is pretty standard stuff for Hot Toys, and follows the pattern of the other die cast Iron Man figures.

This is a large box, with a top and bottom section that slide together at the mid-point break. The top has a plastic wrap, with the white highlights separate from the drawing. That adds some pop and depth to the cool graphic. All the pieces to the figure and chair are nestled in the interior foam container, and everything is quite safe and well protected, as well as completely collector friendly.

There's also a fairly long instruction sheet this time, but there is a couple steps that could use some additional information and better photos.

Sculpting - ****
This is the latest release in the die cast series, and that extra heft and feel of cold metal is much appreciated. I mentioned in my recent review of the Iron Man Silver Centurion that I when I reviewed the first three die cast figures, I didn't think it was that big of a deal...until I handled a completely plastic Iron Man again. Trust me, it is a big deal. However, there's not as much metal here as the Iron Man figures. He still has heft, but you won't feel as much metal in the exterior armor.

The sculpt is a thing of beauty, and an improvement in sharpness and realism over their original release. It's particularly noticeable in the face plates, where the much more realistic skin texture and lips are evident.

The work on the metal and plastic suit pieces is sharply defined and clean, just as you'd expect if this was a full size, real metal robot. The battle damage on a couple of the extra pieces is outstanding, and his proportions and scale look great.

He's sixth scale of course, which means he comes in at just over 12" tall.

I'm not thrilled with the selection of hands, but I'll rant about that in the Accessories section. What's here does look great, and are in proper scale with the body.

Paint - ***
This is Hot Toys paint work, and while they occasionally miss an edge or manage a drip, the overall quality is top notch.  The small details on the figure, like the lips and skin tone, look terrific, and the work on the chair is very clean and realistic. Even the wear on the various edges and high spots looks convincing.

Perhaps my favorite aspect of the paint work is on the damaged helmet and chest piece. Obviously, great sculpting is required to pull off that look, but it's the finely detailed, realistic paint work that sells it.

I dropped this guy slightly for two reasons. First, while the paint work on the metallic body looks fantastic in terms of quality and consistency, it's not quite the right color for me. On screen, the suit had quite a bit of a gun metal bluing to it (although I've heard it called 'purple' too), sometimes more obvious, sometimes not. This color was a reminder that he was a weapon, not just a robot. The first Hot Toys version wasn't perfect by today's standards in this regard (it was 9 years ago, after all), but it was better in terms of color. Even the Sideshow PF, produced a couple years later, added more of the tint.

This one is straight up silver, no doubt about it. The hints of color are very minor, and seem to vary from figure to figure. It's beautiful quality work, but it's not quite screen accurate to me.

The other issue is around the stickers you need to apply to the monitors on the left side of the chair. They provide two sets of these little, round stickers, because they know you'll screw it up.

I hate applying stickers, because I never get them quite right for my OCD to be happy. If this was a $20 toy, I'd understand, but if you pay north of $400, you kinda expect not to be applying stickers. I suppose you can leave them off and just say the monitors are not on - it's an option.

Articulation - ****
Robocop, like Iron Man, is a highly restrictive design right from the start. It would be easy for Hot Toys to throw up their arms and say "sorry, it's impossible to make him very poseable, that's just the way it is". They didn't do that with Iron Man, and they didn't do it with Robocop.

The ball jointed neck works well, allowing for a decent amount of tilt and lean action. The shoulders and hips are extendable, allowing the arms and legs to take much deeper, dynamic poses than even was possible in the original suit worn by Weller. The elbows and knees are a little restricted, and there are only cut wrists, but he can still get into plenty of cool stances.

The knees are ratchet joints, and that means he stands great on his own with very little fear of wilting.

The ankles work great, with the moving piston at the back of the calf allowing for more mobility. There's a half foot joint too, and even the knees have a side to side mobility. 

Another spot where they've increased articulation is at the top of the glove, just below the elbow. There's a ball joint there instead of just a cut, and it allows for tilting of the forearm.

The waist, like the hips and shoulders, extends slightly, giving him a bit of an ab crunch. This works well, particularly with the sitting position.

And yes, he sits pretty well. That's odd for a character like this, but was necessary with the inclusion of the diorama.

One of the sets of hands has fully articulated fingers, much like we've seen on recent Iron Men. They work great, and allow for some very natural hand poses.

Finally, there is some miscellaneous articulation in various spots - the right hip opens up, allowing the gun to be placed in its holster; the lights on either side of the chair move, as do the monitors, arm rests and foot rest; and the wheels on the bottom of the chair are actually wheels that turn and roll!

Accessories - ****
I'm counting the chair/docking station as an accessory, so obviously he's going to do well in this category.

And the chair is nice. As I mentioned, there's lots of moving parts, from the swiveling/tilting monitors, to the turning lights, and you can even move the arm rests and foot rest to the ideal position.

The dark base and 'control' unit that the chair attaches too are very heavy, with some metal parts of their own. That's good, since it has to support the chair and Robocop.

The wheels on the bottom are really wheels - they turn 360 degrees, and roll. That's a nice touch that I really wasn't expecting.

I had a little trouble attaching the two small wires from the monitors to the bottom of the chair, but with some effort it's possible. I just wouldn't plan on getting them out again.

The entire chair assembly can be removed from the heavy base, which is handy for swapping in the batteries and attaching the cords.

While the chair is nice, it's not the end of the story. Robocop comes with a number of other goodies, including multiple hands and faces.

The hands include the fists he comes wearing, a pair with fully poseable fingers, and a right hand with the silver spike. These hands swap pretty cleanly, and what's here looks good.

However, there's a big missing piece, and it seems to be something that Hot Toys is doing more and more - and they really need to reconsider it. I realize that the hands with the poseable fingers provide all kinds of terrific potential for various hand gestures, but they do NOT work well when it comes to holding accessories, especially guns. You can get him to hold his gun with a lot of work, but it never really looks quite right, and he tends to drop it with little provocation. We absolutely needed one more right hand in a sculpted gun grip pose, and moving forward I certainly hope they keep this in mind. These jointed fingers aren't attractive on flesh colored hands anyway, but I'd hate to see all the upcoming Iron Men and other characters with gloved or covered hands using only the posable fingers.

As I mentioned, there's multiple face plates as well. He has a stoic, closed mouth expression in the box, and it's my personal favorite. The other three are all variations on an open mouth - one barely shows teeth, one is clearly gritting his teeth, and one has pursed, slightly open lips.

They are all very realistic and lifelike, and they swap easy enough. Take the helmet off, pop the lower face out, pop the new one in, and pop the helmet back on. The helmet is held in place with a magnet.

I'm not quite sure when you'd use most of these though. The stern look works for almost anything, and I suppose the gritted teeth work well for specific poses in the chair, when he was in pain, or in mid-battle with the ED-209. They other two? I'm not quite sure, but I'm betting you'll get creative.

There is also a second helmet, battle damaged of course. One of the coolest features is the eye within, just like in the film. It's hard to see in photos, but it is there.

Along with this comes a battle damaged chest piece, which also swaps easily and is held with magnets. You can go with both pieces swapped or just one, giving you some more potential for personalizing your own display. While this isn't full on battle damage, it's a nice step in between.

I mentioned his gun, but there are actually two. One is plastic, has moving parts (action, magazine) and a couple more paint ops, while the other is metal. The plastic one is intended to be held in his hand, while the metal one can be placed in the holster in his hip.

The figure has sound effects, much like the ED-209, and just like that figure, he comes with a remote control and watch style batteries for it. More on that in the Sound Feature section.

To finish it off, there's a standard black crotch support display stand, and a small magnet tool that helps remove the back plate to get at the battery compartment.

Sound Feature - ***1/2
As I mentioned earlier, there's a small remote control, identical to the one used with the ED-209. Press the button, and Robocop says one of six things:

- "Drop the gun. You are under arrest."

- "Stay out of trouble!"

- "Thank you for your cooperation. Goodnight."

- "Come quietly or there will be...trouble."

- "Serve the public trust. Protect the innocent. Uphold the law."

and my favorite:

- "Dead or alive, you are coming with me."

The battery compartment for these sounds is hidden under a back panel. There's a small magnet tool that easily removes this panel, and then you can unscrew the compartment cover and insert three wonky batteries. No, they aren't AAA, and no, they aren't supplied. He requires three which are shorter and squatter than AA - the instructions have the exact info. I suspect they went with these because they needed more juice than watch batteries could provide, but regular sized cells were too long to fit. In the end, it means you'll need to make a special trip to the store.

The good news here is that the sound feature is much better than the ED-209. Not only is it clear and easy to understand, it's clearly Peter Weller from the movie, and not some weird re-recording. Unlike his big opponent, I'll be using this feature regularly, thanks in no small part to the remote control activation.

Light Feature - ***
The light up feature is pretty basic, and you'll have to supply your own AAA batteries. The compartment is on the bottom of the chair itself, as is the switch, and you can pop in the 3 batteries without much trouble.

Flip the switch and the two lights on either side of the chair illuminate. It's cute, and it's easy to get to, but it's not earth shattering.

Fun Factor - ****
You have a sound feature with a remote, a light feature, an die cast fully poseable figure, and a very cool, well made diorama - this is the definition of fun for any collector. You'll find plenty of options for poses with the various face plates and battle damaged parts, making the figure itself tremendously versatile and adding to the overall fun.

Value - **
The regular release die cast Robocop will cost you right around $300, as do the similar die cast Iron Man figures. That's a bit steep, no doubt about it, and I gave the recent MK XLII a ** score here.

This guy will run $425, which means the chair itself is about $125. That's actually not too bad, considering the size and heft of the overall docking station, as well as the light up feature. It doesn't do a lot to raise the overall value, but it certainly doesn't pull it down any further.

Things to Watch Out For -
Not too much. You will want to be sure the knee is bent when you open the hip holster to avoid damaging the armor, and of course you don't want to force anything when working with the articulation.

Overall - ***1/2
This figure/diorama combo has a few issues - I'm not sold on the color, I'm disappointed that they didn't provide a gun holding hand, and the price is a tough one to fully recommend.

However, he is a big improvement over their earlier release, and the figure itself is the best Robocop we've ever gotten in this scale. 

Whether or not to pick him up with the chair, or simple grab him on his own...that's a tough choice. The chair is very well done, but is it really the sort of diorama you want for such a dynamic character? I'm big on any diorama pieces that can add to the overall display effect, but your mileage may very well vary.

I think that if you pick up this set, you may want to seriously consider picking up the Murphy two pack. That way you can have this Robocop for display with the ED-209, the unmasked battle damaged Murphy to go in the chair, and the police Murphy to add to the overall display. A win-win, except for your poor wallet.

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

Where to Buy 
Online options include these site sponsors:

- Sideshow has him for $425.

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
Hot Toys released their second version of the very cool ED-209 this last summer. They also did a first version of the ED-209, as well as a number of Robocop figures, including the original release.

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