Packaging - ***1/2
The Terminator packaging continues with the theme - bright silver outer sleeve, inner box with trays to hold the figure and accessories.  Everything is nice and sturdy, and the extra foam packaging inside the tray around the glasses is a nice touch, but there's one downfall...a single twisty tie. Yea, I hate those damn things. Make sure you either untie it before removing the top plastic cover, or you'll need to do it blind with the tray right side up to avoid dropping all the smaller accessories. 

There's some instructions as well, which is not surprising. What is a bit surprising is they actually contain an important piece of information - more on that later.

Sculpting - ****
Robert Patrick played the T-1000, looking like himself for most of the film. The main portrait looks excellent, with a stern, determined expression. Terminators don't show emotion, so this stoic exterior was as close to wild and crazy as this guy was going to get.

You could write a text book on everything that's right with HT's work, including the inset eyes, finely sculpted eyebrows, and perfect proportions, but the one aspect that wows me every time is the textured skin. Rather than the smooth, toyish skin that most other sculpts exhibit, Hot Toys faces always have a finely textured surface, adding a level of realism that has to be seen in person to be truly appreciated.

The second portrait is split down the center, with a smooth metal-like surface inside. It's not perfectly smooth though, giving it that look like mercury or soft lead.

The sculpted hands look and work great, although I do think they are about 20% too big. It's a minor nit though, and one that's true for most of their standard figures.

Paint - ***1/2
It's hard to find fault with any Hot Toys paint job. You can count the number of sixth scale companies that can match their quality on one hand, even if you've had a bad date with a chainsaw.

The skin tone is even and subtle, and very human. The eyes are the most realistic on the market, always clean and always bright. The lips and eyebrows are just about perfect, and even the silver color looks just like metal. The longer arms have a bluish appearance at the wrists, which makes it look like the clothing is transitioning right into the hands, adding the the fluid appearance.

I took off a bit though for the hairline of both portraits, which seem a bit more sloppy than usual, and because I'm not thrilled with the sideways looking eyes on the split head. Yea, I know they are going for a very scene specific look, and they usually pull it off. But this time I would have preferred a simple straight stare, since this would have given us more potential poses.

Articulation - ****
The underlying body is the usual TrueType, and since the figure has no weird, restrictive clothing, this figure can show off the wide range of potential that this particular body has.

You know the routine - all the joints are here, from ball jointed neck to ball jointed ankles. In between are ball jointed shoulders and hips, double hinge elbows and knees, ball wrists, ball waist, ab-crunch, and more. While I might say something like "ball jointed shoulders", it's much, much more than that, because the joints are engineered for a tremendous range of mobility and natural flow. Simply put, this is the best designed body on the sixth scale market today.

There's a couple features worth noting. The heads swapped pretty easily this time, not requiring a hot water bath, but were tight enough to stay in place. The various 'metal' hands have their own permanent straight posts and balls buried inside, so there's no trouble getting them to pop on or line up. The motorcycle boots are designed to pop on to the end of the ankle pins, so you can remove the foot first. I was a bit worried that it would be hard to get the pin to line up with the hole in the interior of the boot, but it was actually quite easy.

But that's not all that's special about the body this time around. The bullet wounds (if you can call them that) that you see on the exterior of his uniform are held in place with magnets. To accomplish this, there are metal plates on his chest and abdomen. The magnets hold tight with even two layers of clothes, and it's an elegant solution.

Accessories - ****
Wow. I don't remember the last time I saw this many extras, even with one of Hot Toys DX figures - and this one isn't.

There are 11 - 11! - hands in total. The two relaxed pose versions that he comes wearing, plus 9 extras. In the normal human hands category, there are two more slightly curled hands, two gun grip hands, and one pointing right hand. In the transformed Terminator style, there is a human hand with the index finger turning into a very sharp point, the two long metallic hook hands, and one long bladed hand. These swap easily, and there's extra wrist pegs just in case.

There's also the second portrait I mentioned earlier, with the split skull showing the silvery interior. This cleaved head is actually starting to reform, and you can see the seam through the chin where it has started to heal.

There's also seven bullet wounds, two of which are double holes. These have strong magnets inserted on the back, and attach to the metal covering on the chest, as described in the Articulation section.

Other than the transformed hands that are clearly weapons, there's a couple other more traditional ways he can kill you. He has his handgun, which fits nicely in the holster and comes with two additional clips, as well as the machine gun he used while dressed in the motorcycle cop outfit. The small clips fit in the pouch on his belt as well.

More goodies are included to go on the belt. There's a flashlight that fits in the loop, as well as a pair of handcuffs (which open and close) that fit inside the larger pouch in back. The flaps on the pouches are tough to get closed once you have them open, but it is doable.

And just to be sure you have everything you could possible want, he has the small ink pen as well!

There's almost a complete second outfit, so you can recreate his look as the motorcycle cop. He comes wearing the clothing he took from the patrol officer, but can be switched into the jacket, pants, boots, helmet and glasses of the other uniform.

I'll talk more about the quality of the clothing in the Outfit section, but the inclusion of the additional uniform jacks up the score here well above normal.

Earlier I mentioned that the instructions included an important piece of information. That information involves the helmet and glasses, and how they should be placed on the head. It turns out that the helmet is actually a two piece job, and the bottom pops off. The best way to put things together is to pop the head off, slide the lower helmet section up over the neck, place the glasses on his nose and ears, then snap the top half of the helmet in place. Pop the whole thing back on the neck post, and you're good to go. 

The helmet and glasses look fantastic too, and the fit is just about perfect. While it's hard to justify keeping him in the motorcycle cop uniform (it's not the most unique or recognizable look), I have to say that I just might try to come up with a way to display both outfits side by side.

I used a narrow shouldered TrueType as a second body for the photos, but you have to use the white shirt, blue shirt, and loaded belt to complete the look. Coming up with a second version of all three might be tough, short of buying a whole 'nother figure. I'm not sure I'm that committed to the idea, but perhaps finding the white and blue shirt would be doable, and I could use the loaded belt with the motorcycle cop and the extra belt (which I haven't even mentioned yet!) on the regular uniform. The regular belt can't be worn under the holstered belt, because it pooches out the buckle too far, but it looks great on it's own.

You could probably also use the slim TrueType body, because even with the narrow shouldered version I found that the blue shirt was a tight fit. 

I almost forgot to mention the included stand, with the Terminator logo. I don't use these, and this figure stands quite well on his own, but if you have a display that incorporates the stands, it's a nice addition.

Outfit - ****
I mentioned much of the second outfit already - helmet, sunglasses, outer jacket, striped pants, thin belt, tall boots - and the exceptional quality.

There's also the outfit he starts with in the box - police blue pants and shirt, white undershirt, dress shoes, and belt with holster and pouches. The tailoring is excellent, the quality and stitching top notch, and everything fits and hangs very realistically.

The zippers are held closed with thin velcro, and this is better material than Hot Toys had used in some past outfits. The shirt has snaps holding it closed, and these work well. Both belts have working buckles which are fairly easy to use but you should still take some care.

The shoe sculpt is good, but the tall boots are fantastic. They snap on to the ankle posts pretty easily, and even allow for some slight bending at the joint.

The jacket and shirt have patches and badges with extreme detail, both in sculpt and paint. One of these outfits on its own would be impressive, but two? Amazing!

Fun Factor - ***1/2
No, this isn't the kind of toy you give to a nine year old. But sixth scale figures like this owe their existence to the Joes and Captain Action figures from almost 50 years ago, and the best ones remember those roots.

Here there's a fantastic base body, with an excellent outfit, sturdy accessories, and solid construction. So while it's too expensive to be played with in the traditional sense, it does hearken back to those toys of our youths. Or at least my youth, you damn punk kid.

Value - ***1/2
Hot Toys figures tend to run in the $120 - $170 range, although some (particularly the DX figures) can run $200. The T-1000 is right in the middle at $150, and yet he's PACKED with extras. With a ton of accessories, almost two complete outfits, an extra portrait, and even the metal plated torso - that's an awful lot of extras even at this price point.

Things to Watch Out For -
I didn't have any real issues. You will want to remember that getting the pouches and holster strap closed once you've opened them can be tricky, and I don't recommend doing it too many times.

Overall - ****
Hot Toys always does nice work. They love what they do, and it shows. I'm not sure how any other company is going to unseat them at the head of the table, but several are certainly trying.

But even when you expect great things, they occasionally outdo even themselves. This figure has almost everything you'd expect in one of the far more expensive DX figures, minus the movable eyeballs. There's a billion accessories (although that might be a slight exaggeration), one complete outfit and a second almost complete outfit, two portraits, and even the metal plating on the torso!  You get all this for a rather average price (at least when you're talking about high end sixth scale figures), and on a licensed figure at that. I don't think I could have asked for much more than this.

I will have to hunt up a second white and blue shirt, however. I think I can live without the accessorized belt on my patrol car cop outfit, especially with the bullet wounds, split head and hook hands giving it enough visual appeal. I can't see buying two full T-1000's just to complete the two outfits either, since we've had enough other cop figures in the past to be able to come up with at least those two costume pieces.

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

Where to Buy -
Online options include these site sponsors:

- Capstone Comics has him at $148.50.

- Fanboy Collectibles has him listed at $150.

- Alter Ego Comics has him listed at $150.

- Big Bad Toy Store has him at $160.

- Hollywood Heroes has him at $175.

- Ozie Goods, down in Australia, has him at $270 AUS.

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
Past Terminator reviews include:

- Sarah Connor from Hot Toys was a recent release.

- check out the T-800, also from 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.

- 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.

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