After almost a 2 year pre-order, I received an email from Hollywood Collector's Group (HGC) on Monday that my pre-Order had shipped. So here is your friendly Goldcylon unboxing and review. It's a slimmer box than I expected and I received #24 of 150 which was the numbered edition version. You can see this information on the side of the plain brown shipper. Upon opening there is a thin topper piece of cardboard on the top and the bottom of the box protecting the styrofoam inner tray. There is no art box, no COA and a very poor black and white copy of the battery installation instructions. The tray is labeled TOP and is two pieces of styrofoam taped in the center and all the individual pieces are foam roll wrapped. It's over ten pounds and pretty heavy and feels like a resin poly stone mix. The numbered placard base is basically a laminated label with the edition number written in with a felt pen. While the weight on the placard is good the lack of an aluminum metal number Predator 2 plate is disappointing in the 21st century. The prop base is very heavy however the holder pieces are very light and are meant to placed in the base angled away from the center. They are angle keyed on the bottom so they fit only one way in the prop base. One fit in like a glove and the other was a challenge to get into and I was really concerned about the amount of pressure it took to get the one piece in. The base weathering and style is pretty good IMHO and the edition number can be seen on the underside of the base. The holders in the base are pretty weak but ok when locked in. If you are not careful I can see either of these snapping off pretty easily. The battery door on the back side of the disc does not take too much pressure to lift off and is held in with a decent magnet on the top and had two slot retention tabs at the bottom. The prop takes two triple A batteries. So IMHO the prop weathering is good, the gears in the middle articulate as you move the prop apart and weapon light pulses. While this prop looks great it would break real easy if you tried to flip it open, it in no way should be used for trooping. It's too fragile and if you dropped it.... it would shatter. Before opening it I would make sure the center gearing is flush as it's a little sloppy and loose. What sells this prop is the light show and the pulsing is indeed impressive. If you are looking for a decent to look at sample/example as I think this hits the mark at the price point. The lack of a art box, printed label edition placard, no COA and craptastic instructions page obviously were decisions made the keep the price as low as possible I guess? However they missed an opportunity to create something better. I am keeping it, and believe it's the only one of the upcoming prop replicas to be released that has a light function beside the bio-helmet which I passed on. Enjoy the read and the PICS. A final thought, is the numbered edition a big deal? No as it cost was the same... however I think the attempt with a small numbered edition was a 100% marketing ploy to get you to commit artificially driving you to conclude it would stand out from the regular edition.... Maybe the aluminum plate would have made it stand out vs. a regular edition? The Felt pen reminds me of Factory Entertainment, but they have owned that from the beginning. A solid B- minus grade from this reviewer however, it has a home in my menagerie of non focused and non specific prop Sci-Fi den. Now bring on my bug stomping Aliens lift ship pre-order.
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