Sideshow's partnership with Blizzard has resulted in some pretty amazing collectibles—Deathwing from World of Warcraft, the Diablo III version of the Prime Evil—but nothing nearly as spectacular as the meticulously crafted sixth scale figure of StarCraft's Jim Raynor in his signature space marine armor.
Fans with $500 to burn have been eagerly awaiting Raynor's arrival since he went up for presale in August of 2013. Now the $500, 16-inch hero is starting to ship, and Sideshow Collectibles sent one of the first out of the gate my way for review.
Wow.
Raynor is a massive figure packed with intricate parts—Sideshow says the figure contains over 525 engineered components. He's covered with plates, jointed with tubes and scales. Press a button on his back and his chest lights, back turbines and power batteries light up. They've not merely created a figure here, they've engineered a suit of mostly non-functional power armor based on Blizzard's specs.
What's In The Box
First off, let's talk about the box itself. Inside Sideshow's plain brown cardboard shipping box is a lovely sculpted black foam coffin for almost everybody's favorite space marine. A clear plastic StarCraft belt of sorts holds it closed. Slip that off, open the top and all that's between you and Raynor's craggy face is a plastic overlay. It's incredibly classy, and a lovely way to securely package a large figure.
Inside the box we have:
Raynor. He says hi.
An additional hair treatment for Raynor for when his helmet is off. His helmet hair is thinner to facilitate head movement.
Raynor's signature revolver is included, of course.
The revolver comes complete with a holster, which hooks to Raynor's right leg.
There's the C-14 Impaler gauss rifle, complete with working lights.
And the obligatory sniper rifle.
Not a lot of accessories here, but when your armor is built like Raynor's, you really don't need a lot of extra baggage.
Behold The Video
For those of you who don't mind me prattling on for nearly ten minutes about a figure too big to be framed by my camera (working on that, I promise), here's me playing with an incredibly expensive toy. Some squealing may be involved.
What I Liked
Just look at this fucking thing. Seriously, just look at it.
Look at it closer. Don't be shy.
See the tiny printing? The serial numbers? The armor part numbers? This puppy is covered with them. Every time I look at it I see something new.
You'd better damn well remove the exhaust cylinder first before removing the rear plate system.
No pushing! Seriously, if you push that thing you are screwed.
There's a product ID plate inside each shoulder piece. Who would even bother looking for that? If you get in really close you can read the damn thing.
Between all of these little labels and decals and the excellent battle-scarring, Raynor's armor has every bit as much personality as the man himself.
They've built a suit of power armor. This does not look like a toy. It looks like a convoluted piece of futuristic military hardware.
Segmented plates support the arm joints and spine.
The legs are piston powered, for those long jumps.
Rubber tubes run through each jointed area, protecting wires or distributing coolant.
That's a power armor hand alright.
I could imagine this space marine suit working. When I move Raynor's massive frame about to pose him, I can picture him moving himself.
I am a sucker for lights. Well I am, and Raynor's got plenty. His chest lights up. The power batteries in his torso pull out and light up.
The turbines on his back? Check.
Even the man's gauss rifle lights up, and those are normally just bits of plastic.
The power suit is wonderful as it is, don't get me wrong, but the lights are a lovely touch. Besides, anything you spend $500 has to light up in some way. It's the law.
Good old Jim. Yep, that's him. There's no mistaking him.
From the scar to the little mole thing to the pores on his face, Sideshow has captured the icky alien lover, faults and all.
That's him too. You can see the little skull sticking out from under the blast shield.
What I Didn't Like
He's a little top-heavy. With that massive power armor torso, getting Raynor to stand on two feet can be a little bit tricky.
He's a big boy, and finding the sweet spot where his knees, hip joints and feet balance him correctly can take a bit of doing. Once you find the right spot he's pretty stable, but adding a weapon to his grip can throw him off.
Thank goodness for big, clunky feet.
My Final Word
Can it be a curse word? A happy curse word? I guess I can't just say "fuck yes" here and be done with it.
I know, I know—$500 is a lot to ask for an action figure, but then Sideshow Collectible's sixth scale Jim Raynor figure is a lot of action figure. Outside of some of Hasbro's Masterpiece Transformers, I can't recall another action figure that's been so intricately engineered in order to bring a fictional character to three dimensional life.
Raynor is the crowning achievement of Sideshow's sixth scale line, and a treasure any StarCraft fan would be proud to own.
To contact the author of this post, write to fahey@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @bunnyspatial.
Figure provided for review by Sideshow Collectibles. They also wanted their logo in the review, so here it is. Hello, Sideshow logo.