Bishop is the 3rd figure from Series 3 of NECA's Alien series. On paper, and in reality, Bishop was always going to be the runt of this wave as he was boxed up with the impressive and sought after Dog Alien and the "innovative" Kane in spacesuit (both of which are reviewed below).
This isn't all bad for collectors as Bishop is now being reduced and cleared out quite dramatically at most retailers, so if you were hovering - now is the time to commit as I doubt many people will be ordering any more Series 3 cases.
Bishop arrives in the usual NECA clam shell. Artwork on the side is of the figure itself, as is the rear artwork which also contains blurb around the character
Once unpacked Bishop comes with an alternative gripped hand, a knife and a lantern.
Sculpt is really good and a brilliant likeness for Lance Hendrickson. For a man in a jumpsuit there is plenty of detail, down to his trainers. Paint apps are pretty good. There is good detail in the face and on the shoes. There is also some shade variation on the jumpsuit which may or may not be intentional. Bishop has suffered, as experienced with Kane, with wet paint syndrome and I think there is an element of this in some patches on my Bishop jumpsuit. Benefit of the doubt, as it isn't dripping wet, is that it is intentional (the darker colour not the fact it is tacky) as it also adds some depth and gives the impression of weathering/dirtying of the clothes - as you would expect crawling round ventilation shafts on LV426.
Articulation is comparable to that used on the Aliens Marines, and is probably more than he needs. The elbows in particular are very well done. The figure falls down with the swappable hand. It is a nice idea to be able to replicate the Sulaco scene with the knife and Hudson, but the unlike say the swappable hands on a Figma figure, the NECA ones just feel really fragile and the hand holding the knife doesn't click in place particularly well on my figure.
The shoes have to get a mention in this review as they are so well sculpted and painted and then weathered. However I have found Bishop another Human from NECA that doesn't stand up very well. In all the photo's I have taken for the review he is almost hunched over to keep upright. I will be sticking him onto a stand as soon as I can.
Well done to NECA for making what is in essence a secondary character and bringing more "human" characters to the range. As was always inevitable I think many collectors will skip this version and wait for the post-Alien Queen Bishop which is looking particularly good.
I found it difficult to rate Bishop and decide on a generous 3 out of 5 rather than a harsh 2. The paint issue still worries me and I think NECA need to look at this as I have had this 4 times now on my last 4 figures, 2 of which were returned to the NECA rep. The hand is also pretty poor on mine and doesn't swap as well as I have seen it done on other figures.
Next stop for Aliens is Series 4 and the long awaited Ripley...
