Hot Toys: Chris Redfield B.S.A.A Ver.- Review

Greetings heroes/citizen. Resident Evil (Biohazard) is one of the most popular video games by Capcom, and there are also some great action figures made by several manufacturers in various scales and types. Neca and Square Enix (Play Arts-Kai, not released yet) made quite a decent job in making the RE5 action figures although they are smaller in scale compared to the one I’m writing today. There are also trading figures made for this video game. The action figure I’ll review today is Hot Toys 12″ Biohazard 5: Chris Redfield B.S.A.A version. This is the first action figure made by Hot Toys for RE5 series. There will be Sheva and Albert Wesker followed by a variant of Chris Redfield and Albert Wesker(S.T.A.R.S version). Retail price for this action figure range from $139 to $150. This action figure was released last month, but different retails may have different release date, because I just got it on last Saturday.

Packaging; the box is the regular box with magnetic flap cover. No outer sleeve, the graphics are breathtaking like they always did for other lines. I got the local or Asia version so the tittle is Biohazard 5. There are back story and bios of him on the back of the box along with the names of people involved in making this action figure. Inside the box- all the weapons (and some accessories) were put in a plastic tray and slip on the cover inside. The figure (and more accessories) were put on a plastic tray with double plastic cover. Included in the packaging is an instructions sheet, quite useful as you need to see where you’re supposed to put the pouches.

Design/sculpt; head-sculpt is not bad, I was hoping that the facial expression is a bit more intense than this. This head-sculpt is too calm. Detailing sculpt is great, the lips,eyes are lifelike, hair is always a very difficult thing to interpret in any action figures. It’s always hard to find action figures with 100% perfect hair sculpt, but I think Hot Toys manage to pull it off most of the time.For this action figure, not only they sculpt a single piece of hair, but there’s additional part for the front hair-above his fore head.

Body,okay there is no doubt that Hot Toys is using the same body as Arnold (from The Predator). We all confirmed that when we saw the pictures on ebay rite? lol. Anyway, some hate it and some like me is ok with that.The good news about using this body is the rubber was cut at the shoulder to give it more freedom to move up and down. The only bad thing that is too obvious is.. the nipples lol epic fail. If you ok with that then, you’ll like this action figure. The muscle body is great if you ask me, the skin tone is ok but over time it will stain like bruises caused by the die from the cloth. It stated so on the instruction leaflet and I know, it happens to my Jack Krauser. The veins on his arms are really add up realism effect to this action figure.

Costume is great, the shirt fit nicely and if you see the prototype pictures of Chris Redfield from Hot Toys’ site you can see that they made some improvement to the pants. The prototype pants looks kinda baggy and loose, the final product is much better. The pants fit snugly and there are padding inside. I can’t find the way to take off the belt so I can’t take off the pants to see what they use for padding. The B.S.A.A patches were glued to the shirt, I thought they were stitched, I was wrong. So be careful with that, I think Hot Toys is in hurry to make their products since they announced too many licenses they’ve acquired this year. The qc is kinda suck, the glue is not only used for the emblems, they also used it for the velcro patch, not a good idea. They tend to peel off! Also the comm radio, it have a metal clip that was glued on the back of it, well it also fell off. Lucky it’s easy to fix. Talking about qc, the way the harness was put on him is like a lazy person’s job, I have to fix that too, watch out for your qc Hot Toys

Points of articulations; the rubber muscle is going to limit the movement, I’m not going to lie to you. The muscle also will make you scared to move the hand because you can’t see what position the hand is inside the muscle. So you have to be extra extra careful about that. Also the neck, it’s just too fat that you can’t move his head downward at all. As for the wrists Hot Toys provided 2 extra joints, it’s good to know they think about that.

Colorings; I don’t have any complain in fact I love the paint job they did, especially all the weapons and accessories. The weapons are clean and no paints smudges or glue running all over the parts. The paint job on head-sculpt deserve 2 thumbs up, it really make the head-sculpt looks alive. If you don’t want the body become bruises, let the plastics on his arms where they are, it should be fine I guess. By the way, his pants is not entirely plain light grey, they treated is with some weathering effects, to give it a rusty looks, nice.

Accessories; this is the best part- you’ll get an AK-74,SIG556,RPG,Berreta M92/F,M37,hand grenade, handgun ammo, shotgun ammo, comm radio, compass, machete,pda and 2 extra hands. Also as always a black display stand with his name and RE5’s logo on it. For the price I paid, this action figure is really worth the money.

This action figure is the action figure I’ve been wanting to get even before HT announced they’ll make it. So, I’m really appreciate that Hot Toys make it, although this is a great action figure, there are still some tiny issues regarding qc that I’m not satisfied with. The sculpt,paint job, accessories and packaging really earned their high scores. They use the same body for Arnie maybe is a wise decision for Hot Toys and collectors because the price will be higher if they use new body for Chris, but it does limit the figure’s potential to earn high score. Personally I think this action figure is the “If you like it, you’ll love it, and if you hate it you don’t even want to see it” type of action figure, and I’m glad I love it.

Packaging; 5/5

Design/sculpt; 4.5/5

P.O.A; 3.5/5

Colorings; 4.5/5

Accessories; 5/5

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