NECA Simon Belmont Chase (Review)

NECA's Castlevania figures have begun to hit retail and online stores and like most of thier video games lines there is a chase figure. This invisible version of Simon Belmont seems to be slightly more rare than the infared variant of the Iron Maiden Regenerator from Resident Evil 4, though the current word on the street is that it may be 1 per case. We'll see I guess.

He's got plenty of articulation. Here's the break-down from NECA

Ball Jointed Neck
Ball Jointed Shoulders
Ball Jointed Chest
Ball Jointed Waist
Ball Jointed Wrists
Ball Jointed Ankles
V-Crotch
Swivel Biceps
Swivel Elbows
Swivel Thighs
Swivel Calves
Pin Jointed Knees

I think the figure itself is a solid concept, and while Simon did turn invisible by drinking a potion in the game this isn't really the top choice from many of the people I've talked to. I tend to agree with that. As a figure, it's got plenty of articulation and a solid sculpt. These types of figures tend to either be ridiculously brittle or ridiculously soft. This one has a bit of both going on. The clothing and armor parts tend to be very soft, and tinted with a bit of purple. The rest of the figure is very hard and borderline brittle since there's very little give in the plastic, especially the scabbards. They will most likely be prone to breakage. The dagger sheath was in two pieces when I removed the figure from the package. The joints, like most other clear figures, are fairly loose. The regular figures don't have this problem and the ankle joints on Simon, which are actually quite good look great painted. With this one I'm having flashbacks of Stealth Celtic Predator from McFarlane and I can easily see Simon flopping around all over the place just like that figure.

So now we come to accesories. He's got all the same stuff as the regular Simon. The whip, sword, dagger, cross boomerang, morningstar, candle, potion and the alternate left hand. The main differences are that the sword and dagger are cast in clear plastic. In my opinion they should have went the whole way and molded the whip and other accessories in clear plastic as well. It may look ok in a pixelated 80's Nintendo game, but painted accessories and a clear figure do not look good together.

Unfortunately, my figure was lacking the alternate left hand. You can see in the packaged photo that it's clearly missing. It looks like it was put in there since there's tape residue on there, but it wasn't in the package and neither was the tape. That's pretty disappointing. I've contacted NECA Customer Service and hopefully they can get me one.

All in all I give this figure a 2.5 out of 5