- Manufacturer: NECA
- Released: 2015
I love ALIEN: Isolation and still play it. It eschews the well established gameplay mechanics of gunning down xenomorphs and pits the player with little more than their wits and a handful of improvised devices against a single, largely indestructible foe. Avoiding a single Alien rather than confronting swarms of them was a welcome treatment recalling the basic survival actions of Ellen Ripley in the first ALIEN movie.
Playing as Ellen’s daughter, Amanda, ALIEN Isolation frequently resembled ‘Hide Under the Desk Simulator, 2015’ and wasn’t for everyone. For people who loved the game it struck a chord and they were excited to see NECA release a set of 3 game related action figures, 2 of them featuring Amanda, in late 2015. For this review, we’ll take a look at Ms Ripley Junior in her jumpsuit.
NECA had previously released an Ellen Ripley figure in a jumpsuit in 2014 and Amanda is more or less cast from the same moulds as her mother. All the details on the costume are clearly the same on both figures. The same pants. The same zippers. The same creases. Clearly, a re-purposing of the previous figure, albeit some minor changes. Some people may consider this to be a cop out, Amanda re-purposing her mother’s attire; but it’s accurate to the character in the game.
It turns out the character models in the game, which features both Ellen and Amanda, share much the same appearance with zipper locations and other details common to both characters right down to similar creases and folds in the fabric for both character models. Creative Assembly’s re-using of ingame character models just made NECA’s work easier.
There are more than enough changes made to differentiate the 2 figures, though. The colour of the outfits differs completely and cloth badges vary. Amanda wears cloth badges of the Torrens crew on her shoulders and other minor details are apparent. Of course, she also has a likeness, hair style and head gear resembling those seen in the game. This is a terrific interpretation of the ingame character. This is Amanda Ripley and as it represents the likeness of a video game personality, it may be just shy of perfect but certainly recognisable.
Of course, the figure boasts all the articulation that you can expect from a NECA item. Neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, midriff, hips, knees and ankles are all provided with some form of movement of one sort or another. It’s NECA’s standard set of articulation and it works well to help pose the figure in just about any pose you could choose. The general leanness of the figure aids greatly in this respect.
Importantly, Amanda is blessed with some great game related accessories. Of course, she has the obligatory flamethrower. While this item is the same weapon included with the earlier action figure version of her mother, it’s also game accurate. Also game accurate are both of the other 2 items that are included in this package. Slung across Amanda’s shoulder is her carry bag. Presumably, this bag is loaded and full of junk. Anyone who has played the game will know Amanda is very much a hands-on engineer and collecting various components to craft useful items to aid in your survival is a critical part of the game play experience. Loaded with scrap metal parts, sensors, power packs, other small bits and pieces along with all the improvised noisemakers and pipe bombs used to distract the Alien and other hostile residents of the Sevastopol space station when encountered.
For me, the best accessory of this lot is the handheld motion tracker. Amanda uses this item in the game and this iteration of the device is small and accurately detailed; right down to the green on screen display graphics and the ice cube tray detailing found on the side of the device. It’s an amazing little piece of equipment – one of my favourite accessories for any action figure – possibly because I’ve used it in game for many, many hours and developed a heavy reliance and intimate familiarity with it.
The motion tracker is so well detailed, it even has a small, loose clip attached to the top of it that is itself an independent feature fastened to the device. All this detailing in an accessory that is barely larger than an inch. You can even read the tiny details on the green display screen. Hell. I should just write a review about Amanda’s motion tracker!
Amanda Ripley is a great figure from NECA. She’s still readily available from retailers but is slowly disappearing from shelves. If you are familiar with the game, this is a great item. Actually, all 3 NECA action figures based on ALIEN: Isolation were fantastic. A great set of accessories help to round this one out.
Is there anything dramatically wrong with this figure? Not really. I found that her carry bag slipped off her shoulder a little too readily and had to use her rigid pony tail as an anchor to convince it to stay put. She can be a little difficult to convince holding the flamethrower with both hands. Those are really the only faults I could attribute to the item. Very little actually; and considering what NECA set out to do with this figure, it turned out pretty darned good even if it is a re-tooling of her ma.
SCORE: 9/10
It’s Amanda Ripley. Just like her ma, she’s a lean survivalist and pulls through this review session. Not that it was as arduous or stressful as a Weyland Yutani company inquest or year 12 exam.
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