Review – 7-11’s Terminator Salvation Cups and Toys

This last weekend I hit a 7-11 and picked up two of the four Slurpee cups and straws/toys that have been released as promotional items for the upcoming Terminator Salvation movie. Small, unnecessary, and completely predictable movie tie-ins, these toys are actually kinda cool. And the plastic cups, even though glass would have been far superior, aren’t bad. Several sites online have shown photos of the cups and toys — this post at www.veidt.com has the basics down — but none I’ve seen have looked closely at the toys. So let me show and tell you all about the two that I bought for a total of about $7.

T-600 Cup and Toy

Last month I gave my reasons for leaving the Playmates 3.75-inch T-600 on the peg, even though I wanted a T-600 to join my T-700 (review here) and T-R.I.P. (review here) action figures. Well, he may not be to scale, but I’ve now got a fairly decent T-600 toy. And a cup!

Above you can see two photos of the plastic cup. Using a lenticular design, the cup shows the T-600 in both its disguised form and pure, nasty, evil robot form. It’s an okay design, with “Slurpee” and the movie title written all over it, but unless you’re a major Terminator collector you can just leave this at the 7-11. I think it’s great that they’ll sell you the cups and straws separately, since it allows you to pick and choose exactly the pieces that you want.

The T-600 toy — attached to the straw when you buy it — pops off and fastens neatly onto an included base. (See, toy makes, even 7-11 gives us stands for your toys. Stop being cheap!) Standing about 3-inches tall, the sculpting and paint on this desktop toy is better than I had expected from a cheap movie promotional tie-in. Someone at 7-11 really put some effort into this and I appreciate it. If only Playmates had put this much effort into their 3.75-inch scale T-600 action figure.

Painted in browns, bronze, silver, black — and just a hint of red for the eyes — the T-600 is a pretty dark toy and it’s hard to see the details unless you get the piece under direct light. It’s a pretty dirty paint job, but that’s more of a “weathered” effect than it is a bad job. While not perfect, this is a better paint application than I’ve seen on some mass market toys. Click on the photos for a close look and you’ll see what I mean.

The figure’s made of a soft, almost rubbery plastic, but it feels like it’s got quite a bit of strength behind it. There’s no articulation so it’s little more than an oversized army man, but I can see some kids playing with this in the sandbox. I know it’s too much to ask for a simple movie toy, but just some simple articulation on the arms would have made this a fantastic desktop toy. As it is, it’s merely a nice collectible. And that’s really all we could have hoped for.

Moto-Terminator Cup and Toy

There’s not much I can say about the cup. A lenticular design showing a Moto-Terminator, it’s as good as the T-600 cup. Which, to be short and sweet, means that you can pass on the cup.

The Moto-Terminator toy, about 2.75-inches long and 1.25-inches tall, isn’t quite as nice as the T-600 sculpt but seeing as how it’s the only Moto-Terminator toy on the market today this is the best you can get. (Playmates, get with it and get me a 3.75-inch scale Moto-Terminator toy! I know, I know. This is highly unlikely since it’s doubtful that there will be any more 3.75-inch Terminator toys besides what Playmates has already released. I can still wish for one.)

As with the T-600, the Moto-Terminator is a solid chunk of plastic without any moving parts. If the wheels on this moved then it would have been an awesome toy — even if the sculpt is a little rough in places — but instead we got an X-Mas Tree ornament that just sits there. It looks nice in the collection, though, which is about all that’s going to be important to many of you reading this. The kids, though, are gonna feel bad after they see the movie and find out that they can’t get one of these with rolling wheels.

How close did they get with the Moto-Terminator sculpt? We won’t be sure until the movie launches, but this post at ToysREvil gives you a look at some of the concept art. Man, these things look awesome. And they look really cool in the trailer; I sure hope the trailer isn’t all that we get to see of these in action.

The biggest difference I immediately spot between the concept art and the toy is the fact that where the art has two red eyes the toy has a single red eye. Also, the concept art looks like it has folded legs, larger guns, and is missing the exhaust ports that the toy had. So the closer I compare the two the more obvious it becomes that they’re not the same. It still looks cool, but a toy that was closer to the concept art would have been a lot more fun.

Closing Thoughts

Overall, at less than $2 for each toy, these are great collectibles for those of you who are Terminator fans. And they’re not even horrible toys but, instead, are merely okay toys. Rolling wheels on the Moto-Terminator, and movable arms on the T-600, would have significantly improved these, even if it had pushed those cost of each up by a buck.

You do not need these, but you may very well want them. I’m happy with mine, but I don’t like them enough to rush out and buy the other two cups/toys.

Wanna know about how the 7-11’s Apocalyptic Ice Slurpee tastes, hit this post at www.associatedcontent.com. It’s even kosher!

Philip Reed knows that everyone is sick of hearing him complain about the lack of a 3.75-inch Playmates Moto-Terminator toy. Sorry, world, but the complaints probably aren’t going to stop just because 7-11 made a neat little desktop toy.