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[Review] NECA’s 8-Bit ‘Terminator 2’ Figure Passes Judgment
Playing the Terminator 2 video game on the NES was a pain. I remember having a hell of a time trying to get past the 2nd level when I was a kid, and all these years later, the game is just your average mediocre movie tie-in game. By far, the best Terminator 2 tie-in was the awesome Terminator 2: The Arcade Game, but I digress. Unlike the lame LGN game, NECA have done an awesome job with their Terminator license, with more figures planned in the coming months. Also, their lineup of figures inspired by the classic videogames is still going strong, and it’s now the T-800’s turn to get the treatment.
Packaging:
Like the other figures in the line, the windowbox packaging recreates the original NES package for the game, albeit with minor changes. The back of the packaging features shots of the figure in place of screenshots of the game, and the same faux-worn look of the previous packages is carried over as well. Inside the package, the figure is put up against a background from the game, complete with lifebar. The flap that opens the front of the package features a screenshot from the T-800’s arrival, and is secured with a round velcro piece.
Sculpting/Paintwork:
The figure is essentially the fantastic Ultimate T-800 figure that NECA released last year, but with an updated colour scheme to replicate the same look of the T-800 in the cutscenes from the NES game (since the character sprite has next to no detail in-game). All the bullet holes in the back of the jacket, the zippers, stitching and wrinkles are here, albeit they aren’t given the paintwork to bring them out. Instead, it’s the garish red, grey, black and tan that does a pretty good job of mimicking the pixellated look of the game. It’s not the most attractive of colour schemes, but then again, this is what LJN did with the artwork in the game. The joints at the knees are hidden nicely by the sculpt, and the joints at the hips aren’t too obvious. The jacket is a little obvious as a “vest” when viewed from the side, as there are gaps for the arms, but it’s not bad. The head sculpt of Arnold looks just like he did back in 1991, with a great emotionless expression.
Articulation:
Again, if you have the Ultimate T-800 figure, you know about the amazing amount of articulation with this character. The head is on a ball joint that moves freely without any hindrance. The arms are on pin-and-socket joints that move up and down and rotate at the elbows. The arms bend at the elbows at roughly 45°, and the wrists are on ball joints.The arms don’t move all the way up into a straight T-pose, but there’s enough movement that’s more than acceptable.
The figure rotates at the waist, but doesn’t feature an ab crunch. The legs are on pin-and-socket joints, and can move up and down, in and out, and rotate and the hip. Take care when moving the joints for the first time, as a hair dryer can help to loosen things up so you don’t end up breaking off the legs. The legs bend at the knee at 45° and rotate at the knee. The figure also has a thigh cut and cut at the shin on the left leg only to allow for the leg to rotate at those points for a more dynamic pose. The cut joints line up quite nicely, with no gaps. Finally, the figure has ball joints at the ankle that allow for the foot to rotate and move up and down. Overall, the joints are nice and tight, but take the usual precautions when taking the figure out and moving him around for the first time.
Accessories:
The T-800 comes with the same shotgun that was with the Ultimate T-800 figure, only this time painted in the NES colour scheme. The same great details that are in the original sculpt are carried over here. The shotgun fits in the figure’s right hand, and the hands are sculpted as such to allow for two-handed poses.
The other extra is an alternate damaged head. The sculpt is again nicely detailed, with all the movie-accurate points (such as the cut-out part of the back fo the figure’s head). The paint matches with the undamaged head, save for the exposed endoskeleton and red eye. The head is relatively easy to pop off and switch, and the peg holding the head in place hasn’t popped out of the torso.
Overall:
If you’ve already been collecting this line, it’s a no-brainer to add the T-800 to the line. The figure is the same great Ultimate T-800 sculpt and articulation, with a great paint job accurate to the NES game. The accessories are also nicely detailed and painted, and what you’d expect in regards to the videogame. The game itself might not have been the greatest, but this figure is a great compromise.
The figure is available now at Amazon or at authorized retailers.
Let’s start with the good news. Lockbox looks far better than its misleading marketing materials suggest, a supernatural horror movie so darkly lit and color graded that you’ll have to squint your way through jump scares. It’s also anchored by reliable genre performers. That’s also about where the good news ends with this rote adaptation of Knifepoint Horror Podcast story “Winthrop.”
The empathetic Carla Gugino gives her all as Ellen, a saint of a woman with boundless patience who takes on life’s hard luck with a kind smile. After giving up her career as a fashion designer to become caretaker for a dying mother, she’s then forced to reinvent herself once more when her caretaker role ends. That catches us up to the events of Lockbox, where Ellen is asked to take in a cousin she hasn’t seen in quite some time who’s dealing with severe PTSD.
Just as Ellen finally establishes a real connection with Winthrop (Lou Taylor Pucci), it’s interrupted by the arrival of peculiar neighbor Vahna (Katharine Isabelle), who spells clear trouble. When Vahna shows up dead, it sets in motion a supernatural battle of possession.
Image Credit: Aura entertainment
Director Daniel Stamm (The Last Exorcism, Prey for the Devil) and screenwriter Justin Yoffe approach Lockbox in the broadest of brushstrokes, dooming it from the start with clunky storytelling and woefully underdeveloped themes of heady topics like PTSD. Winthrop is a character that comes loaded with emotional baggage and trauma that’s piled on throughout his tragic life, but much like its title, his interiority and history are treated like a tightly guarded secret meant to prolong the supernatural mystery.
The problem here, though, is that Lockbox is too sparse to sustain mystery at all, and it instead robs Winthrop of characterization. It winds up trapping the talented Pucci without anywhere to go, toggling between wounded animal and mentally disoriented.
From there, Lockbox bounds through plot developments without any sense of stakes or purpose, peppered by a smattering of haphazard paint-by-numbers jump scares. The only unwavering constant is Ellen’s resolute faith, and Stamm seems to leave it entirely to Gugino to guide confused audiences through this inconsequential story right up until its supernatural climax.
Image Credit: Aura entertainment
To give more credit, Lockbox at least injects an unconventional exorcism here; just don’t expect much in the way of explanation. When the film finally reveals the meaning behind its title, it dangles a fascinating carrot it has zero interest in delivering. More than a severe lack of fleshing out its characters beyond plot drivers or devices, this faith-based flick also seems terrified to offer any worldbuilding whatsoever.
Yoffe’s script stretches the short story beyond its means instead of fleshing it out, and Stamm fills out the gaps with cheap CGI scares and overwrought performances; Isabelle’s Vahna is beyond cartoonish in her villainy. It’s also pretty nonsensical, treating only Ellen’s faith with the utmost sincerity and largely squandering its typically reliable talent. So much so that the final imagery, pure sunkissed saccharine sentimentality, leaves you with the feeling that this horror movie might be better suited as an entry in Chicken Soup for the Soul.
Lockbox releases in select theaters on July 3, 2026.
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