Review of Predator 3-D Blu-Ray Bust Case

Introduction

At San Diego Comic-Con last summer, FOX had a pre-order for their release of the Predator 3D blu-ray. Like I, Robot the summer before, they had a large bust case designed to hold the blu's, although this one isn't quite as big. The I, Robot is actually just about 1:1 scale, but this Predator head is maybe half scale at best, standing about 14 1/2" tall including the base.

If you ordered at the Con, you got a special deal. Along with the case and blu-rays, you would get a small figurine of the Predator holding up your head, complete with spinal column. The 3D printing technology has gotten very good - and much cheaper - over the last couple years, so I figured this sounded like the way to go.

The head case with the figure was $130, or you could get just the blu-ray with the figure for $50.

Packaging - ***
The large box has a window to allow you to see the case, a good move since I imagine they'd like to sell these at stores like FYE.

Other than that, it's pretty basic stuff. There's the usual jungle graphics, and plenty of text on the back, but nothing unique or special.

Sculpting - **1/2

I'm covering the work on the head case itself here - I'll talk about the figurine in the Accessories section. 

As I said, this bust is perhaps 1/2 scale at best. Predator heads aren't normal human sized - they're massive. If you've ever seen one of the full scale busts from Sideshow in person, you know what I mean. That makes it somewhat less impressive, and it's pretty obvious that it's undersized to even a non-fan.

Still, it's a large item, and because of that any softness or lack of detail is all the more apparent. There's some texturing and scaling, but it doesn't have the realism or life-like quality that you might expect.

The head is also posed in an awkward upward looking angle. I'm not sure why - perhaps they figured the mask would stay on better that way - but it looks odd on the shelf.

Speaking of the mask, that's a pretty cool feature. You can remove the mask easily and replace it, and it stays put. It doesn't light up, and it's very thin plastic, but it looks good when he's wearing it.

The blu-ray discs themselves go inside a small drawer that opens from the back of the base. It's simple, yet effective.

Paint - **
While the sculpt is a bit soft, it's really the paint work that cheapens the overall look of the case. 

The best paint work is on the silver mask, which has some nice wear and corrosion.

The worst problem is with the small dots of paint that are supposed to be skin spots. Instead, they look like exactly what they are - drops of paint. Rather than adding realism, they look like mistakes, especially the two between his eyes.

It's hard to tell in photos, but in person, the broad paint work and obvious dots of paint really looks bad. It adds to the cheap, plasticy look of the head, and hurts it's appeal as even a basic collectible.

Articulation - **
It's unusual for something like this to get any score here, but they did leave each indiviual lock articulated where it attaches to the head. You won't do a whole lot with it, but it's nice to have.

Accessories - **1/2
I'm counting the porcelain figure as the accessory here.

It's fairly small, standing about 6 1/4" tall with the thin base. The figurine is porcelain and has a textured paint surface, much like a Precious Moments statue. This is truly a Nerd Hummel.

The likeness on the personalized head is 50/50 for me. A lot of people at the show were going with basic smiling expressions, but I figured if I was getting my head torn off my body, I might have a bit more of an agitated look.

The head is sculpted with the open mouth and my crooked nose, and the wide eyes are the way I looked at the time. Again, I was merely imagining my surprise at having being separated from my body.

The hair is not mine, in any way, shape or form. They had about 6 versions to pick from, and none of them matched my look. I picked one that looked most like it, and this wasn't it. This is some sort of Moe hair cut, and ruins the overall appearance of the portrait.

The paint work is weird - it looks like they just printed the photo on the sculpted head. They lost most of my Van Dyke, which I've had for 25 years. The rest of the paint is thin and light, not standing out particularly well.

If I had a talent for sculpting, I might try to fix the hair. If I had a talent for paint, I'd try to fix that as well. Sadly, I have no talent for either, so this is how he'll look on my shelf.

The Predator himself is pretty nice, with a reasonably detailed sculpt and good paint. The head and spine don't line up correctly in his hand though, and it's pretty obvious in person.

Value - *1/2
If you assume the 3D blu-ray will cost you $30 (which is a stretch for a movie this old, but we'll cut them some slack), then you're paying close to $100 for the case. If you ordered at SDCC, you also got the figurine, making it a bit better of a deal, but that's not going to be the norm.

This is NOT a $100 item. Sadly, it seems that some ebay dealers are going for even bigger bucks right now, charging upwards of $300. Anyone that falls for that is going to be sorely disappointed in the overall quality.

Things to Watch Out For -
Not a thing.

Overall - **
The previous Comic-Con, I pre-ordered the I, Robot head case and was very pleased with the result. This time, the results weren't as good.

It helps that the figurine was included, and had the quality of that piece been better, my overall would have improved. But it's not a great example of 3D printing, and didn't do much to improve my opinion of the case overall.

The lack of realistic sculpt detail and poor paint contributed quite a bit to my disappointment. But in the end, the weird upward looking pose of the head throws the entire look off, and just seems entirely out of place.

I haven't watched the blu-ray yet - hopefully the quality of the transfer is an improvement over the previous DNR'ed release. That would at least be one bright spot in an otherwise bleak outcome.

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

Where to Buy 
Best way to get this was at SDCC last summer, but that ship sailed a long time ago. You can pick it up from some secondary retailers now, and I'm assuming either Amazon or FYE will get it in. You can also search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
If you'd like to collect some other cool blu-ray cases, check out the I,Robot, the Walking Dead Season 3, the Walking Dead season 2, or the Indiana Jones.

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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