Series: Terminator 3

Craftsmanship: 9.0 / 10

- Sweet display piece

- Great attention to detail

- Stands easily with display disk

- Can hold only one gun

Playability: 5.5 / 10

- Relive moments from the film

- It has articulation but it’s not of any use

- It’s a statue

- Action Figure: T-800 and T-1000 (Movie Maniacs)

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T-850 with Coffin (Terminator 3) by McFarlane Toys

McFarlane Toys has really scored big this summer. Not only did they manage to snag the license for the Matrix, they grabbed Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines as well. Like the Matrix figures, the Terminator 3 figures are more statue than

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playable action figures, particularly T-850 with coffin, which proves to be less playable than the “generic” T-850 even though it has more accessories.

With the coffin installed on his shoulder, the T-850 stands just less than 8” tall and looks completely cool. And you will display him with the coffin unless you want to pose him in the

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classic “opening credits” Bond pose.

I should emphasize the display aspect because T-850’s not very playable. Once you have him pegged into the disk stabilizer, the machine gun installed in his hand, and the coffin pegged in his shoulder, there’s not much left to do other than look at him. He does possess a few points of articulation but none of them allow for substantially different poses or playability. The trade-off is that McFarlane’s sculptors get to go nuts with the details, like the bullet holes on the coffin, the base, and the zippers on the jacket. The movie likeness is good – far, far better than the Movie Maniacs rendition of the T-800 that went overboard mulching his face to make him unrecognizable as Arnold Shwarznegger. While the likeness is good, it might have been even better had the sunglasses been removed.

Obviously, the biggest eye-catcher is the shoulder-mounted coffin. As an added bonus, the coffin flips open to reveal a mini-arsenal. Only a few accessories aren’t “welded” in, but none of them are useful in terms of display or play since he can only hold the big mother machine gun. It doesn’t take away too much from the display properties, but it would have been added to had he been able to hold different guns.

Playability is on par with most plastic statues. You can re-enact scenes from the movie (sadly without Claire Danes) but actual play with other figures is limited. Your imagination has to fill in many of the blanks but if you do play with him, you have to contend with losing the accessories, ripping the jacket, and snapping the machine gun strap. Even though he doesn’t have much in the way of articulation, he’s not as durable as you might think – particularly his head. The flaw might be limited to review figure, but even the standard “Dropped Dictionary” test nearly popped the head out.

Clearly, T-850 (with coffin) is aimed at collectors and fans of the movie (and Terminator in general) and McFarlane has hit the mark. He looks great and stands easily – not much more can you expect from a display piece.

- Omni
(August 20, 2003)