I first saw Predator at the age of 13 in 1987. I was mildly indifferent to it at first–sure, it had Schwarzenegger in it, but even as a kid I knew a B-Movie when I saw one. Yeah, they’ll go into the jungle and eventually some cheesy half-assed man in a suit alien would jump out on them and that would be it.

Man was I wrong, even though I was right. The alien was anything but cheesy. I still can’t figure out how they managed the cloaking effect without CGI to this day. Even from the earliest glimpse of the Predator, when it performs surgery on itself in a tree, I knew I was going to love this creature. Of course, it went on to become a design classic, just like its stable mate the Alien. And similar to the xenomorph, the Predator started off as a tale for adults but ended up in the hands of kids. The 1990s saw Kenner’s line of Predator action figures (very, very few of which got as far as the UK), then McFarlane brought us a more grown-up toy before Takara shrunk him again for their AVP Microman line. Hot Toys gave us incredibly intricate 1/6th versions, and just lately NECA have released a wide range of Predators capitalising on all five of the creature’s film outings.

But now a new player is at the table: Japanese company Kaiydo have released a Classic Predator through their Sc-Fi Revoltech line. How does this figure fare up against his American cousin? Let’s take a look… (more…)