The T-1000 Joins NECA’s Ultimate Terminator Collection

This might be the best Ultimate Terminator figure yet.

NECA launched their Ultimate Terminator line in tandem with the completely disappointing Terminator Genisys movie, and in hindsight, this three-figure toy line based on the franchise’s classic characters is probably the only good thing to come out of that release.  But the figures in this line have been so fantastic, I almost have to appreciate Genisys if only for the fact that its existence gave NECA the opportunity to deliver three (mostly) new action figures from the vastly superior T2: Judgment Day.

The Ultimate T-800 was our first Terminator to feature full articulation, along with lots of great accessories, and we’ve also seen Sarah Connor added to the lineup.  And now, the line nears completion with the release of their adversary, the T-1000.  The liquid metal Terminator was a great addition to the film series, and NECA’s new deluxe edition action figure follows suit.  This is the best toy version of this character released to date, and I’d be hard pressed to find a better version.

This T-1000 uses some existent pieces from NECA’s previous renditions of Robert Patrick’s T2 villain, but includes a litany of swappable alternate body parts, which do a great job of capturing the character’s liquid metal morphing ability.  The Ultimate T-1000 reuses the ingenius design of the Gensisys T-1000 figure– which featured an interchangeable chest plate complete with ball jointed neck joint– along with the full variety of liquid metal limbs released with all the previous toy versions of this killing machine.  The final tally of parts included with this single release?  Three standard hands (two neutral and a third with a trigger finger to hold the included gun), two needle-finger hands, two hook arms, a neutral head, a split head, and a shotgun-to-the-face bullet hole head, and two alternate chests, one riddled with bullet holes and the other neutral.  The end result of these modular pieces is a figure who can be easily assembled in countless ways, and this modular nature is half the figure’s appeal.

The other half comes from the excellent sculpt and paint work, which we’ve come to expect from NECA.  All three portraits of Robert Patrick– despite their various states of destruction– are spot-on.  The accuracy of these sculpts combines with the highly detailed parts of T-1000 figures old and new to present the most screen accurate action figure possible.  And after multiple releases from Kenner, NECA and McFarlane Toys, this figure will go down in history as the first T-1000 to feature articulation below the waist!  The added articulation includes ball jointed hips and ball knees, along with ball ankles, which go an incredibly long way in opening up new posing opportunities beyond the older figure’s pre-posed sculpts.

This might be the most frugal of NECA’s Ultimate Terminator action figures– there’s astoundingly little original new tooling on this figure– but the end result is still one of the best action figures I’ve seen in a long time.  NECA’s T-1000 is a testament to the strength of the toymaker’s sculpting skills over the past half decade, combined with their more recent focus on engineering and design, as they seamlessly blend old pieces and new to create one of the most detailed and fun modular action figures on the market.  While I’d still love to see an Ultimate Edward Furlong John Connor get added to this series, the T-1000 make a great jumping-off point for the line.  I can’t think of many toys that deserve the “Ultimate” title more than this guy.

NECA’s Ultimate T-1000 is available now on their eBay store, ToysRUs.com, and at other specialty retailers.