Review of Sarah Connor - Terminator 2
Sixth Scale Action Figure

Introduction

Everyone has a different Terminator favorite (except for T3, of course), but I suspect I stand with the majority when I say that Terminator 2: Judgment Day was the zenith for the franchise. Everyone was at their peak: James Cameron hadn't yet lost his mind with visions of Smurfs having sex with their pony tails, Arnold was doing his finest acting (as long as you think of 'acting' as standing around in an imposing manner and saying as few words as possible), and Linda Hamilton took exercise to a whole new level. And who could forget Robert Patric's free flowing T-1000?

Hot Toys has been doing the overall Terminator license up right, and after giving us the T2 version of the T-800, they are following up with the fighting fit Sarah Connor. There's no exclusive of this figure that I know of, and she runs the usual $150 or so, depending on the retailer. Mine just arrived about a week ago from an international dealer, and the U.S. distributors usually get them shortly after.

Hot Toys isn't finished with the series yet - they've already shown photos of the upcoming T-1000, and he looks fantastic. I'm also betting that we'll be getting a Deluxe version of Ahnold, although nothing official has yet been announced.

While there's no exclusive of THIS figure, there is a T-1000 as Sarah Connor figure that was to be a show exclusive through out the year for Hot Toys. Sideshow was going to have it with them at SDCC, but now have decided to sell it later due to issues with getting enough produced in time. Keep an eye on this thread over at Sideshow Freaks for more info.

Packaging - ***1/2
Like the recent T-800, Sarah comes in the new T2 packaging, with a bright silver outer box and an inner box with single plastic cover.

The shot on the front looks good, and on the back is a photo of the knife. This contrasts nicely with the photo of the damaged arm on the back of the T-800 box.

It's all collector friendly of course. Nothing here to damage, although you will have to pull back some sticky covers on the smaller accessories.

Sculpting - ***1/2
This is one of those sculpts that looks better in person than it does in most photos. It's far superior to the prune faced 50 year old Sarah we got from Sideshow, who over did the wrinkles and age, and the Hot Toys version is much closer in appearance to Linda's look in the film. But that's not to say it's entirely without issues.

It's still not as perfect of a Linda Hamilton portrait as say, the Arnold T-800 Sculpt we just got from Hot Toys. The curse of doing work that good is that all your future work is going to be compared against it. And while I'm happy with this, I have to be honest and say it's not quite up to that level.

She's also hurt a bit by the skinny neck, and her prominent jaw line makes it appear even more giraffe like.

But a big plus is the new rubber arm and torso skin, which hides the unsightly joints yet allows for a very wide range of movement. The covering doesn't effect the shoulders, but it does cover the elbows and neck. These joints still work great however, with only a little of the usual motion lost.

This also allowed them to make her look more realistic, and they even included the scar on her left shoulder.

It's worth noting here that she comes with two sets of bangs (more on that in the Accessories section), and where these attach to the head is almost invisible.

She's a little shorter than your normal 12" male, coming in at just over 11". This allows her to fit in nicely with the other males in the series.

Paint - ***1/2
There's not a ton of paint on Sarah, but the work on the face is quite good. The eyes are the usual outstanding Hot Toys work, with a wet, realistic appearance. They are set into the face, with even pupils and iris'. The skin tone is smooth, and the lips are clean and neat. There's even the cut in the right eyebrow.

The paint work on the accessories is outstanding, making the weapons and other goodies (like the watch) even more realistic. The accessories make up for the economy of paint detail on the figure in spades, and these tiny details make all the difference.

Articulation - ***1/2
As I mentioned earlier, the torso and arms have the new female rubber skin, covering the uglier joints. However, this skin doesn't restrict the movement as much as I expected.

The body isn't as perfect as the best TrueType, but Sarah can certainly take just about any fighting pose and holds all the weapons well. I had a little trouble getting the arms across the center of the body as far as I'd like, but other joints (like the double jointed neck and ball shoulders) work great. The elbows come in close to the body, which allows for a much more natural pose.

Accessories - ****
There's a ton of good extras here, all of the them very accurate to the film.

I mentioned the extra set of bangs, and you can swap these buy simply pulling upward. The extra set are designed to work with the tight fitting hat, and they do the job well enough.

There's also the cool sunglasses, with actual clear colored lens. It looks like Hot Toys has finally cracked the secret code to making sixth scale glasses that are actually the right size.

She has two extra sets of hands to give her more posing options. There's the relaxed open hands she comes with, a gun gripping right hand, two gripping left hands (with differing grips) and a right hand designed to work with the cigarette, but that can be used to manage several other cool poses.

Speaking of the ciggie, it looks almost real enough to take years off your life.

This is battle ready Sarah of course, so she's got to be heavily armed. There's the automatic rifle (the CAR-15), complete with removable scope. The scope even has clear plastic lens'! The stock telescopes, the clip is removable, and there's a second tip, a large silencer that can be slipped over the barrel. I believe that having the silencer and the scope on the rifle together is accurate to the film, but I didn't think of it at the time I was shooting the photos.

There's also an additional small plastic piece that I believe is intended to fit on the CAR-15, but I failed in figuring it out. I usually stop reading online opinions and threads on figures once they ship, which allows me to avoid having my own opinion colored by external conversations. However, it also means I don't get to see when other folks figure this stuff out...

There's also the Remington 870 pump shotgun, with working pump action. There are five shells that fit inside the folding stock.

She has small arms as well, including a silver plated Beretta. As I recall, she took this off the Cyberdyne guards. Then again, there was another silver gun she used later in the movie (a custom 1911) and this might be that as well...it's tough to tell from stills. There were a couple other standard 1911's in the flick too, so it's tough to be sure which one they were going for, but it looks the part nevertheless.

And for that close, personal touch there's her large Kabar style knife and sheath. The knife fits in one of the left hands, or can stay in its sheath. The strap snaps in cleanly, and is less likely to break over time than some others we've seen.

The most trouble I had with this figure was trying to put the sheath on the belt. To do so, you have to take the entire right end of the belt apart, sliding it forward far enough to push back the two plastic rings, remove the right buckle, slide it out of the belt loop, put the sheath on the belt, and then put it all back together again. Take your time and it's doable, but if you aren't a patient person you might want to get someone else to do it for you.

Finally, she comes with the same display stand as the other standard figures. You won't need it, but it's a nice addition nonetheless. Oh, and I almost forgot - Hot Toys included a couple more wrist pegs just in case.

Outfit - ***1/2
Let's start at the top with her hat. You'll need to swap the bangs to get it to fit, and even then it's a tight one. As much as I love the great work Hot Toys is doing with glasses, they aren't quite there yet with hats. This one is a slight improvement over the goofy Rastafarian lid that Aldo Raine has, but the front is still too tall and stiff, making her head look twice as big. You can shoot it in a way that will hide it, but you can't hide it in person.

There's the tank top, tactical vest, pants and boots as well. There's not much to say about the shirt - it fits well enough - and the pants look good. The side pockets of the pants have been padded to make it appear as though she's carrying extra somethin' somethin' in there.

The boots on her feet are a good sculpt, but not as amazing as some of the other footwear HT (and Sideshow) have recently done.

The tactical vest has six front pockets, all of which have Velcro closures and can actually be used to carry additional items. Around her waist is the combat belt I mentioned earlier, which can be used to carry the knife.

There's also the wrist band on the left hand, and the watch on the right arm. Be careful not to lose these when you're swapping the hands.

Overall the fit is great, with only very minor issues. I already mentioned the slightly disappointing hat, and the straps on the tactical vest tend to slip out of the buckles. But these are pretty minor nits, only pulling the figure down slightly.

Fun Factor - ***
She's not your momma's Barbie, that's for sure, and while Sarah might not be a traditional 'toy', she still has the DNA of her forefather, G.I. Joe, at her very core.

Value - **1/2
You might think $150 is a lot of money, and you'd be very right. Spending it on an action figure is perhaps insane. And yet, I'm going to tell you that this figure is worth the price, as are most Hot Toys figures in this range. They aren't an amazing deal, and you won't feel like Scrooge McDuck when you open her up, but you won't feel like you've been stiffed, either.

Things to Watch Out For -
The biggest problem here is the wrist band and watch. When you swap the hands, both can end up damaged. They also don't fit up on the covered arms very well, which makes it likely that you'll pinch them between the hand and wrist. Take some care if you want them to last.

Overall - ***1/2
Hot Toys continues to crank out the hits, and the work they are doing with the Terminator license is some of their best. I can't wait to get my hands on the upcoming T-1000, and I'm enough of a sucker to pick up the T-1000 as Sarah as well. I'm hoping we see a deluxe T-800 as well, and it will be interesting to see just how far they can take the license.

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

Where to Buy 
Online options include these site sponsors:

- Sideshow is selling it for $145.

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
I've covered lots of Terminator goodness in all scales:

- most recently, I checked out the new T-800 (pictured in some of these photos) from Hot Toys.

- Hot Toys has a number of other Terminator sixth scale figures, including Marcus Wright, John Connor and the T-600, the T-600 with skin, as well as the T-700 and T-700 Diorama. They also have a T-800 Endo.

- also in the 12" range is the Sarah Connor sixth scale figure from Sideshow.

- then there's the guest review of the Hot Toys Kyle Reese, T-1000, the Kotobukiya TX, the Aoshima T-800 skeleton, Mcfarlane 12" Terminator 3.

- a recent release was the Premium Format T-800 from Sideshow.

- NECA also did a smaller version of the Endoskeleton with their Cult Classics, and McFarlane included one with the fifth series of Movie Maniacs. McFarlane also did figures based on T-3.

- and for the fans of smaller figures, there's the T2 mini-figures.

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

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