Review – Terminator Salvation 3.75-inch T-700

Manufacturer: Playmates * Year: 2009 * Ages: 4+

WARNING: Review may contain movie spoilers. Read at your own risk. I don’t think there’s anything here that will affect your enjoyment of the film, but I think you should know what you’re getting into before proceeding.

“Considered Skynet foot soldiers they move as an army to wipe out the resistance strong holds. The T-700 is slender, faster and smarter than its T-600 predacessor.”
— from the card front

I’m gonna have to say that out of all of May’s big movie releases — and, as you know, there are several — the upcoming Terminator Salvation film is the one I’m looking forward to the most. The trailer looks spectacular, with the futuristic war against Skynet (the one we’ve all wanted to see ever since the release of Terminator 2 – Judgment Day) splattering the screen with great-looking action.

And, luckily for us, not only does the movie look great but also the toy series — especially the 3.75-inch series — is looking pretty good. At Target a few days ago I encountered a wall of Terminator Salvation action figures and despite how I was tempted to grab every T-Model they had, I remembered my Wolverine and the X-Men Magneto experience (review here) and selected a single figure.

I’m happy with my choice and I’m ready for more!

Packaging

Unsurprisingly, the figures in the Terminator Salvation 3.75-inch series come packaged on cards.

Unfortunately, Playmates went a little overboard with the twist ties; I wish toy companies would stop trying to display their figures in exciting poses and just return to the “loose in blister” design that worked so well when I was a kid (I never needed an exciting pose to sell me on a vintage Star Wars action figure). But, I guess we’re stuck with the current model so I spent a few minutes removing six twist ties before I could completely free the T-700 from his block of plastinite. Hell, they even used twist ties to hold his accessories in place.

Unlike a lot of more recent toy lines, the card back appears to be generic and not figure specific. Showing a total of six 3.75-inch figures, it’s an okay design but nothing really astounding or impressive. There’s just a hint of information about the movie and of the six figures shown, the only ones that interest me are the T-600, T-700 (who, as you can tell, I already have), and the T.R.I.P. The other figures are just eh. I’ve seen human action figures before.

“Set in post-apocalyptic 2018, John Conner is the man fated to be the leader of the human resistance against Skynet and its army of Terminators. The future he was raised to believe in is altered by the appearance of Marcus. Conner must now decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future, or rescued from the past.”
— from the card back

The T-700 Action Figure

First off, let me start by saying that I’m sorry about the photo quality. The T-700 is a dark gray, almost black, and I was forced to use the flash to get any detail to show up at all. Under natural light, and in person, the figure looks much better than it does in these photos. I guess Playmates must have expected to have similar problems; the back of the package shows a lighter gray T-700 rather than the one they’re actually selling. It’s okay, though, because the package says:

“Prototypes shown. Final product appearance, accessories and color may vary.”

Trust me, it varies.

Toy companies must love it when they get the chance to design robot action figures. There’s no reason to try all that hard to hide the joints, because all the joints do is help play up the robotic appearance of the toy. And Playmates did an excellent job in designing and constructing the T-700 action figure. The figure has that classic Terminator-like appearance that we all love, with just enough articulation to give him a few poseability options. The arms both swivel and swing up at the shoulders, the elbows are hinged and also swivel, and the legs are hinged at the knees and swivel up at the hips. Unfortunately, the head doesn’t move at all; this guy’s gonna have to turn his entire body to look from side-to-side, which is no doubt going to be annoying when he’s in a firefight.

The T-700’s sculpt, though probably not as difficult for a toy artist as capturing the likeness of a human actor, is spot-on and beautiful. All the way from the leg pistons to the skull-like head, every detail on the toy looks great. And the paint, what little of it there is, does an okay job. You see, this thing is cast in a solid color with the only paint the red of the eyes. Personally, I think the toy would have looked better cast in the lighter gray that’s shown on the package and an applied wash, but what we have here looks good. A nice, menacing piece that’s ready to tear into the rest of my 3.75-inch collection.

Scale and Accessories

The T-700 is right around the 4.25-inch mark, which makes it tower over a lot of 3.75-inch scale action figures . . . well, that feels right to me. These guys are supposed to be big and terrible. Above you can see him with the Marvel Universe Iron Man (reviewed here) and he looks pretty good. It’s true that not all 3.75-inch action figures are actually scaled to 3.75-inches, but this particular toy looks at home alongside pretty much all of the 3.75-inch figures in my collection.

For accessories, the T-700 comes with a gun (good, he needs a gun) and a piece that the package claims is “Resistance Crushing Angle Iron.” WTF? Seriously? This is a lame, lame accessory. Playmates, I would have much rather seen a stand than a piece of “Resistance Crushing Angle Iron.” This is honestly the one element that makes me say this isn’t a perfect Terminator action figure.

The figure also comes with one card from Topps. It’s nice enough, but unless you’re gonna collect the movie trading cards, it’s really not all that useful. I’m going to call this a marketing insert and not an accessory.

And just to show him in action, above we can see the T-700 grapple the Secret Cinnamon Squad’s Argus 3000 (reviewed here). The T-700 has the articulation advantage over the Argus 3000, but our boy Argus does have the gunhead aimed right at the T-700. I wish we had more time to watch as this plays out but it’s time for . . .

Closing Thoughts

Playmates has done a fantastic job with this T-700 action figure. Sure, designing robot toys has to be easier than humans, but they stepped up and created an attractive, playable action figure and managed to get it on store shelves just before the release of the movie. The T-700’s only real flaw is its lame accessory, and while more articulation would have been nice — especially a ball-joint for the head — what’s here, while not up to Marvel Universe or G.I. Joe levels, is better than the DC Universe Infinite Heroes line, making this a great addition to any 3.75-inch action figure collection.

I know that I liked this piece enough that I’m going to go out and try to find the T-600 and the T.R.I.P figures. I’m still not sure about the human character figures, though. They just don’t look at that exciting to me.

Philip Reed also spotted a 3.75-inch scale vehicle at Target when he grabbed the T-700. Maybe it’s time to take a closer look at that particular toy.