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Review : Meredith Vickers Prometheus (NECA) Wave/Series : Lost Wave Released : July 2017
£22.99
Pros : Spacesuit Sculpt, Helmet connects perfectly Cons : Packaging quality, the Flamethrower breaks instantly
When the original 3rd wave of Prometheus was shown, Meredith Vickers was not even considered. Instead, her slot in the wave was taken by an infected Holloway alongside Fifield and Shaw.
What happened to Holloway in the years between the 2012 preview and the announcement and release of this "Lost Wave" in 2017 is anyone's guess. NECA certainly have not alluded to where he went and if there is any chance of seeing him in any format in the future. The Meredith Vickers figure is however a pretty hard hitting replacement, so let's take a closer look at this release.
Vickers, like Fifield and Shaw, comes in the same clamshell that was used on the original releases of Prometheus and that matches the design used on the other NECA Alien figures. The pacakging is made up of a thin piece of paper sandwiched between the clamshell to provide the backdrop to the figure and the art of the card back. A further piece sits at the front of the blister to confirm the character name.
The blisters on these new Prometheus releases are very prone to miss-shaping ad all three of ours came with a bowing right hand side. The paper used is also very thin and it too gets miss-shapen in the pack. Unlike Aliens, there are no side art panels in the pack.
The artwork is predominantly based on the hieroglyphics from the movie and these make up the majority of the figure backdrop. Round the back the rear art is headed by the Prometheus title and under this a short paragraph about Vickers and her place on the Prometheus mission. Down and to the right of this text is an image of the Vickers figure in a lighter blue triangle. Below this, in alternating triangles, are the rest of the Prometheus figures. While NECA has not put "also available" this checklist will be frustrating for new collectors who then want to go and find figures like The Deacon, David-8 or the Trilobite - all of which are now sold out and are going for large amounts of cash on the secondary market.
The blister can only be opened by cutting it, and you are then presented with Vickers in her inner plastic tray. She is strapped in place with a single twisty tie round her waist, so getting her out is not as stressful as other figures we've unpacked recently. Her space suit helmet sits to the right (as you look) with her flamethrower to the left.
While the figure does carry a resemblance to Charlize Theron, it is not as good as you would expect from NECA having seen there other human likenesses. I can't put my finger on the issue with the head, perhaps the eyes are a touch too far apart and are painted with very heavy handed black linings. The skin tone for Vickers is quite glossy but there is shading and variations of tone.
The front locks of her hair are separate pieces and hang down either side of her forehead. The rest of the hair is tied back into a pony tail that disappears down into the suit. Like the face, the hair also has painted shade variations to add some definition.
The rest of the detail around the head is spot on - with Prometheus and Weyland Yutani logo's applied as decals.
The space suit is a smart metallic blue that is then trimmed with neon orange piping. There are matt grey pieces of the suit that are positioned around the shoulders, lower arms and lower legs. These are a duller finish and include different shades of black, most noticeable with the straps on the boots.
Final details include silver connectors on the belt and some salmon coloured strapping that is sculpted as holding the shoulder piece in place.
Overall the painting is neat, particularly the orange piping. There were however a couple of errors on our review copy. Some orange on the right thigh and some blue bleeding onto the belt pouches.
The figure carries 15 points of articulation that start with a ball jointed head that looks up and down and can be rotated round to look to side to side before the pony tail restricts it going any further.
The shoulders rise fully with the shoulder armour moving with the arms as they move. The arms can then bend at the elbow, where the joint also rotates. The wrists rotate - but there is no pivot?
The figure has both an ab joint and a waist joint. And while this is not unusualy, it is unusual to find both on a ball joint - meaning not only do they rotate but they also allow the figure to lean forward and backwards in two places.
The legs, like the arms, are ball jointed at the hips and can extend out by some distance for a wider stance. Vickers can also achieve a sitting position if you wish. The knees are a single joint and don't bend to a full right angle, this means that kneeling is out as a stance but Vickers can get into some crouches and action stances. The legs finish in a pair of ankle rockers. These are not ratcheted and are quite loose when moved.
The helmet comes as a single piece - and watch out when unpacking as their is a small baggie inside containing the helmet mounted camera. The helmet is made up predominantly of clear panels, with dark grey connecting pieces.
The helmet is engineered to slot onto the figure and line up perfectly. The teeth on the helmet rim, fit into corresponding slots on the figure and the helmet holds itself in place once worn. The camera fits into the slot on the top of the helmet. The camera is even articulated so it can be aimed in different directions.
The visibility through the helmet is really good and you can still see the features of the figure while the helmet is worn. To achieve this, it is obviously cast out of a very hard and therefore brittle plastic. Watch out for scratching your helmet or having it crack if the figure should take a dive or be dropped.
As I found out thanks to another review - the camera that fits on the helmet will also fit in a slot on the shoulder. Why NECA don't include instructions for this or show the options on the packaging is beyond me?
Vickers is armed with a pretty mean looking Flamethrower. This is the weapon she was using when she faced off against the mutated Fifield. The problem here for screen accuracy is that she was wearing a different space suit at the time - one closer to the design used on David-8. This oranged piped suit was only seen later into the movie.
That aside, the flamethrower is a pretty accurate representation of the onscreen prop. It is made up of a variety of interconnecting tubes and canisters and is coloured in a bright silver with black handle. It even includes orange triggers on the grip and blue switch on the rear curve of the piping.
Ignoring the space suit being worn, Vickers can match the movie pose pretty with a two handed grip on the Flamethrower. Her left hand holds the rear piece while the right holds the forward handle.
I suspect though that this first pose of the Flamethrower will be your last. The rear handle snaps immediately, and not just on our review figure - we've seen it reported across the web.
This is a real shame as the point at which the flamethrower breaks is obviously a design flaw and been cast in a type of plastic that can't stand up to simple posing. It's not as though this is being played with and getting bashed around, and for me letting the accessory go out in this state is inexcusable..
Vickers shares the same body as the one used on Dr. Shaw. This has obviously helped NECA bring Vickers to retail, with the need to sculpt a head and the flamethrower only.
Weirdly, while Shaw came in really easy to pose and stand - Vickers has a problem doing the same and after a few days of trying I have struggled to keep Vickers in any standing pose. The issue seems to be in those pesky ankle rockers which were nice and solid on Shaw, yet really floppy on Vickers. Pity this isn't something you can check before you buy - and sadly another quality problem on this figure.
The beauty of these figures though is when you get them into a group scenario on display - and once Vickers is lined up with Shaw and David-8 they do look spot on
After waxing lyrical about the Shaw figure, it seems inconceivable that Vickers - who shares the same body sculpt - would score any lower. Sadly, Vickers comes with two big issues for me that are going to take her score right down.
First are the floppy ankle joints and her inability to stand. We've seen NECA achieve this on Shaw - so why not on Vickers and what is going on at the factories that can deliver such variation in quality.
And secondly, and the biggest issue, is the way that Flamethrower is designed and how I pretty much guarantee it will break almost immediately when you try and get the figure to hold this. At the time of the review NECA have not addressed this or offered a replacement or alternative?
I score Meredith Vickers a disappointing 3 out of 5.
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