http://nerditis.com/...ca-pacific-rim/
One of the big revelations in Pacific Rim was that the Kaiju were not natural animals, they were grown and assembled! And part of the outworking of this plot is that they come in "models," with three Kaiju essentially sharing the same body. Trespasser, Knifehead, and Scunner were all essentially headswaps, roughly the same size, with simialr dorsal crests and four arms, albeit with different heads and slight differences in size. For a toy company like NECA, this offers a pretty good chance to save on budget... so yes, we have now gotten all three pretty early, with a fourth (one of Trespasser's concept sketches) on the way!
Scunner was part of the Triple Event near the end of the film. That fight starred Slattern, the gigantic four-tailed hammerhead uber-dinosaur of doom, and had a brief appearance by Raiju, the split-faced alligator who accidentally cut himself in half. It also had Scunner, the third assembly line Kaiju. Scunner was mostly famous for being a durable bastard, even surviving when Gipsy Danger impaled him through the head and roasted half his face off in a volcanic vent.
Yes, you heard me. Impaled through the head. Roasted. Survived. He died in the nuke, though. But dang. This kind of makes sense, considering that Trespasser took more than one nuke to take down, and Knifehead survived what everyone thought was his death. This type of Kaiju is durable!
Scunner isn't the most interesting of the three at first glance - Knifehead is iconic, and Trespasser started the invasion - but he does have a cool, twin-horned design. He's also one of the most alien of the group, even if some of his hammerhead thunder was stollen by Slattern. So, how is the toy? Let's find out!
PACKAGING: ****
Scunner’s clamshell package really has its work cut out for it. This figure is gigantic, and it feels like the plastic is straining, barely able to contain it. That said, it holds the toy in pretty well, and aside from the size difference, is the same as previous Pacific Rim packaging.
SCULPT: ****
Seeing as how he was made from the same alien assembly line as Trespasser and Knifehead, Scunner shares a lot of pieces with them... or so it may seem. They share arms, legs, and chest. Although Scunner has shared arms, his claws are new, his dorsal crest is unique to him, and his chest and shoulders are covered by a rubber overlay to match his appearance in the movie. His hands have smaller claws than the other two, his tail is different, and it goes without saying that his head is new.
As his most basic, Scunner is patterned after a bull. Or a hammerhead shark. Or a manta ray. Or a banana. Okay, that's it. You have Axehead, Knifehead, and now Bananahead. Look, Scunner isn't exactly a single animal theme, he's just a new head design on the basic Kaiju body. And with those massive horns, eye stalks, and powerful jaws, his face seems pretty well-protected.
Just as with the other two Kaiju, I really have to give it to NECA for the detail on this one. Scunner looks fantastic - lifelike - and I found myself liking him a lot more than I had thought! Yes, the rubber overlay is pretty visible around his upper arms, but it actually looks pretty good, and was a creative way to avoid tooling costs for the whole torso. Scuner fits in with his four-armed brethren, and that's great.
PAINT: ***1/2
I don't envy NECA for having to make three charcoal-gray Kaiju look different, but they did it! Skunner is also slightly greenish-brown - just a tiny bit - that not only gives his skin a lifelike quality, but manages to differentiate him from the other two. He's also got a fair bit of mud on his shoulders, and his dorsal crest is almost entirely brown!
Just like the others, Scunner has bioluminescent piping on his body. In his case, he is green. The stripes all line up well, even between the rubber overlay and his actual arms, though when you really look up close you can see some white speckling. Actually, it looks pixellated. It's a pretty good effect, just don't look at it under a magnifying glass.
As for Scunner's face, his yellow eyes have some slop - on mine - and he also has a blotch of dark purple on his lighter-colored tonge. that's too bad, considering how well his teeth are done. But aside from those few flaws - including the white on his green stripes - Scunner's paint is great.
ARTICULATION: ***1/2
Scunner has ball-and-socket shoulders, secondary shoulder, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, and ankles, ball-jointed head, hands, secondary hands, and waist, a hinged jaw, and a bendy tail.
Just as with the other two, Scunner's elbows offer a restricted range of motion. But other than that, his limbs are pretty good - they even intract well with the rubber overlay without stressing it. His head sits on a good ball joint, and his jaws have excellent range without seeming awkward. The big tell is that you can have him look straight up, and you can position his legs in a wide variety of poses - so even with the elbow issue, he can take almost any necessary pose. The fact that Scunner can swim is pretty important!
So, can Scunner stand solidly? Yes he can! His legs are small, but his tail works to support him, and he's not as top-heavy as Knifehead. Just make sure that his feet are firmly planted on the ground, and you should be fine.
ACCESSORIES: N/A
Scunner comes with nothing. I had to provide all my own buildings.
VALUE: ***1/2
This figure retails for $30. That’s a pretty fair price for its huge size, but it is a big enough chunk of cash to hurt.
THINGS TO WATCH OUT FOR:
You know what this guy is? He's durable, that's what.
WHERE TO BUY:
These figures are definitely showing up in Toys R Us – they’re even in the site’s system! But you can also pick them up from Amazon or eBay, if you are willing to troll for a good price. You can try Big Bad Toy Store, too.
OVERALL: ****
NECA isn't going to reuse this body forever. After Axehead (concept Trespasser), they plan on making Otachi - the gigantic winged one! So with that, I have the new Three Stooges Kaiju - and they look great! Axehead is almost going to be anticlimactic because of how similar he is to Trespaser, but it's not too bad. This figure really wraps up the necessary uses of that body design, though the next one will be its swan song. Scunner also happens to be more durable than Knifehead - he's not top-heavy, and you don't have to wory about that nose hitting the floor and getting blunted or broken. So if you see this figure in the wild, go for it!
