Packaging - ***
Normally, Hot Toys gets high marks for their packaging.  This box looks mighty fine, that's for sure.  There's an outer sleeve over the main box, which has a highly reflective surface. It looks great, and even protects the inner box.

The inner box is the more standard five panel style, and you can easily remove the various parts of the figure without damaging anything.  Remember, this is a model, not an completed action figure, so you have to attach the arms, legs and head to the body.  And therein lies the rub.

Once you have the figure together, he can't go back into the tray unless you take him all apart.  That's probably impossible for them to get around, but it's still a pretty big announce, since I wanted to store him back in the box til I can get him displayed.  No such luck.

Sculpting - ****
Every Robocop ever done has had issues. Something wasn't quite big enough or it was too big, or it was not detailed enough, or it was too detailed.  And while past versions came very close to perfection, I have to admit that they weren't.

Now, I also have to admit that this version isn't *quite* perfect to the source material either.  However, it's as close as you're ever going to get. A lot of attention to detail went into this guy, and he's easily the nicest Robocop figure ever produced.

This is a great looking Peter Weller, even though I don't think it's really supposed to be Weller.  I seem to recall that there were issues with the likeness rights - and it would have been great had this one had a removable helmet - but the lower face looks terrific.  It also looks like the upper face is fully sculpted, and the helmet even seems to WANT to come off, but I'm not breaking anything just to see.  Perhaps someone else is more daring?

The body sculpt is even more amazing, with all the details sculpted into the armor.  There's no stickers or paint-only details here.  Those small lines?  Those are all sculpted into the armor and then painted.

Proportions are good, although the head seems a squidge small. It's not so much a depth problem as a width problem, although it's very minor.

The face does look a little weird at certain angles, almost as if he has two jaw lines, but again it's a very minor issue.

The center of the torso is actually sculpted rubber, so that the waist joint has as much range of movement as possible.  There's also rubber 'sleeves' around most of the joints, which is particularly useful at the neck and wrists. The plastic used for the armor is fairly sturdy, but it's still a good idea to take care when popping on the limbs.

And that brings us back to the model aspect.  You have to pop the head, arms and legs onto their respective ball joint pegs.  All of these joints are actually ball joints at both ends of the peg, but this is only the most useful for the neck.  Snapping the limbs into place isn't easy, and you might want to do what I did to make it a little easier. I used some water with dish detergent inside it, and rubbed it on the ball joints.  This allowed them to pop in a little easier, although it still took some effort.  I definitely don't recommend taking him apart again once he's together.

Scale-wise, he fits in nicely with other 12" figures, being about 12 inches tall himself.  He'll fit in fine with the Sideshow, Takara and other Hot Toys stuff, and most of the larger Medicom stuff as well.  He's a hair short for me, and another half inch in height would have been nice, but it's another minor quibble.

Paint - ****
The metallic paint on the armor looks terrific, with a nice glossy finish.  It approximates the armor extremely well, and the small detail work on its surface is very well done.

The tone of the face and color of the lips are good, and the clear red visor is translucent plastic, rather than paint.  The plastic areas painted black match the actual black rubber sections extremely well, and everything looks quite realistic.

Articulation - ****
This isn't a figure with a fantastic range of movement in every joint.  But I can guarantee he has FAR more articulation than Weller ever had in the original suit.

The ball jointed neck is perhaps the best I've ever seen in a sixth scale figure.  It's a little thin appearing, but that distance between the bottom of the jaw and the top of the chest allows for a huge range of movement.  He can touch his chin to his chest, lean way to the side, or look way up into the air!  The joint actually moves at the torso and at the jaw, so you can get some weird head tilts if you're not paying attention, but overall it's a fantastic neck joint.

The shoulders and hips are ball jointed as well, but they fit fairly tight to the body, and of course the armor is restrictive.  The arms move out further from the chest than the legs do from each other, and while neither move a lot, it's more movement than I expected.

The waist is ball jointed, and moves pretty well within the rubber torso.  The elbows and knees are pin joints, while the wrists are ball joints again.  The hands pop on and off the wrists right below the thumb though, and can't move too far against the armor.

The ankles are rocker pin joints, and there's a half foot pin joint as well.  The piston on the back of each calf moves up and down as you move the foot up and down, and it even moves side to side (thanks to being hooked to the calf by a spring) when you tilt the foot in and out on the rocker joint!  This greatly reduces the chance that you'll damage or break the piston.

I did find that the half foot joint was very weak, and to keep him standing upright I had to keep his weight balanced over the back half of his foot.  If I tried to lean him forward on the front half of his feet, he couldn't stay upright.

The holster opens just like in the film to reveal his pistol.  The pistol fits inside an interior plastic holster, and stays in place nicely.  You have to gently pull the armor forward on the front of the thigh, which releases the side panel.  As the side panel flops to the outside, it pulls the interior holster with it.  This is largely due to gravity, rather than some sort of complex inner working, but the fact that they managed to pull that off with fewer breakable parts is quite impressive.

Accessories - ***1/2
He comes with his aforementioned pistol, and four additional hands.  Oh, and there's the required display stand of course.

The two hands he comes packaged wearing are both open.  There's also two fisted hands, plus a right hand sculpted to hold the gun.  Finally, there's a special hand with the knuckles open, exposing his spike.

The spike is very thin and fragile, and mine has a small crick in it at the very end.  Take some serious caution with this guy, or you'll break it in a heartbeat.

The hands pop on and off easily, and all of them look terrific.

I normally don't go into the display bases much, since they tend to be pretty plain, but the Robocop not only has the symbol on the very base, but there's a small plate that sticks up and says, quite appropriately, 'Robocop'.  You don't actually need the base to keep him standing, but it's a nice addition.

Fun Factor - ***
He's not built for serious play, and this is not a toy you give to a ten year old - or even most 12 year olds.  If you know a big fan of the movie though, especially a teenager or adult that's never quite grown up, they'll love this guy.  There's plenty of articulation to get him into poses, and the additional hands and weapons really add to the display.

Value - **
He's mighty cool, but is he $130, plus shipping, cool?  That's a mighty tough call.  We're talking serious money here, and I really think these figures (along with the Medicom stuff) should be closer to $100.  At that price, he'd get another half star, not an amazing value, but you wouldn't feel quite so bad about the price.  I'm glad I got him, but I can tell you that you really don't want to spend too much time considering how much he cost you, and you definitely don't want to tell any of your relatives.  They already think you're certifiable, so there's no reason to give them additional ammunition at the hearing.

Things to Watch Out For - 
There's a number of things here to take special care with, including the spike, and the holster.  I'd use something to help lubricate popping the joints together, just to be on the safe side.  And once he's all together, I wouldn't risk taking him apart again.

Overall - ****
I've been fairly happy with the Robocops produced by other companies, although I've never had a chance to see the Takara version in person.  But they can't come close to the overall quality and cool factor of this guy.  I never need another sixth scale Robocop, that's for sure.

Now, some of you will think the 12" Mcfarlane version is good enough - hey, no problem.  He's certainly a better deal, but please don't think he's at the same level of quality.  This figure is a whole different ball game.

I didn't order an ED-209, and I have to admit that I'm beginning to regret it.  If the quality of that guy is anything like this, he'll be the figure of the year no doubt.  As it is right now, this guy and the Takara Batman are going to be battling it out for that spot at this point.

Score Recap:
Packaging - ***
Sculpt - ****
Paint - ***1/2
Articulation - ****
Accessories - ***1/2
Fun Factor - ***
Value - **
Overall - ****

Where to Buy - 
Online options include:

- Sideshow still has some of him available and in stock (), and they also have the very limited Robocop 3 version () available for pre-order.

- Alter Ego Comics has him at the very good price of $109.64.

- CornerStoreComics has him at $115.

Related Links - 
There have been a few other Robocops, including the Movie Maniacs version.