Packaging - **
You can see the figure well enough, and it'll stand up to a fair amount of shelf wear, so I guess it does its job well enough. But the artwork isn't terribly exciting, and there's no information about either the figure or the film that its from. You'll have to destroy the packaging to get the figure out, although once you see how many twist ties there are you may wish that you hadn't bothered! 5 ties hold the figure in, 1 holds the stand and 1 holds an accessory (more on that later). It hasn't taken me this long to get into a package since the last Simpsons playsets...

Sculpting - ***1/2
Wow. Just amazing. This is the figure I've been waiting for since the first T2 figures came out almost a decade ago. Every single detail is reproduced, down to the tubes coming out of the shoulders. The arms, torso and legs have pistons that actually work! This is about as perfect as they come, apart from one thing: the feet are far too long. They're about twice as big as they should be, although I'm guessing that's due to the fact that if the feet were the right size the figure would never stand up.

Paint - ***
Not a whole lot of paintwork, but what there is is great. The figure and gun are silver with a black wash that highlights the details and gives the figure a "grungy" look. The eyes are red, but the real surprise is the teeth, which are a yellowy-white. This is the first Terminator figure (to the best of my knowledge) that has this detail, and although it's hardly noticeable, it really adds a lot.

Accessories - *1/2
T-800 comes with a gun, pile of skulls and a stand that holds a replica of the original film poster. There's not a whole lot that could have been included with this figure, but what is included is functional, if a little boring. The gun is well done but a little plain, the skulls are sculpted and painted well, but the stand is just awful. I couldn't get the 2 parts to connect together and the mini-poster (made of a thin card and taped to the package) tore as I tried to remove it.

Quality - **
I'd always been apprehensive about McFarlane figures in the past after hearing about the poor quality of some of the figures. Well, I guess I was right to be cautious. The figure felt very light and cheap, and I was rather scared to move some of the joints for fear of breaking them. The shoulder tubes are also very fragile, and wouldn't stand up to much handling. You certainly couldn't play with this figure.

Articulation - ****
This could be the best articulated McFarlane figure ever! I counted 19 points: head, shoulders (they work the same as a ball-joint), bicep, elbow, forearm, waist (limited rotation), torso, hips, knees and shins. The joints are nice and tight, although a couple were quite 'sticky'. The elbows, hips and waist use pistons for movement. This is possibly the nicest touch on this figure. It really is a thing of beauty...

Value - **
I paid £11.99 (British) for this. Most figures I buy are between £8-12 so I guess this isn't bad, although if you knock a couple of pounds off then I'd add an extra star.

Overall - ***
This is the best T-800 figure I've ever seen. The detail is just amazing, as is the articulations. But it's not perfect. It's too fragile, and rather light on accessories. Still, I'm sure that it'll be the biggest seller from this wave of Movie Maniacs, and it won't just be Terminator fans that pick this up. This is already one of my favourite figures of the year, and if it weren't for the Marvel Legends line this would probably end up in my top 3.

About the Reviewer - 
About me: My name is Matt Beahan, also know as Discogod at the Simpsons Collector Sector. I'm an artist, and I've been collecting action figures for just over a year, although I've been playing with them for almost 20 years. My first action figures were from the original Star Wars line, and not a day
goes by that I don't wish I still had them..