Barnes (Terminator: Salvation)

August 7, 2010 | By More


Summer is here and that usually spells a boom in my collecting, as most stores tend to liquidate the leftover merch from last year. It is a great opportunity to stock up on army builders and to get cheap figures just because they are cheap. One such figure is Barnes, from Playmates’ Terminator: Salvation line.

Barnes has a good amount of detail sculpted on although the finished result is only slightly above lackluster. If this figure had been released back in the early 90’s, it would definitely have been a huge hit, but nowadays the overall aesthetic feels dated and frankly, the execution falls behind what most other companies are able to pull off working in this scale.

However, the end result is not too bad, really. The best-sculpted piece, in my opinion is the head. Even though a cap, sunglasses and a beard obscure most of the face, the overall proportions seem correct and the cap has enough creases to fool you into believing it’s actually made from some textile material. I would even go as far as saying that underneath all of it, there might even be an actual likeness to rapper Common, who played the part in the movie.

The torso is sculpted like a flak vest, covered with a lot of pockets, zippers and seams. Even though the detail is quite impressive in terms of quantity, it does lack in definition and execution, as it is done quite perfunctorily.  The same is true for the limbs, as there is an utter lack of muscle tone under the sculpted textures. The legs came out slightly better than the arms because they are meant to be baggy BDU pants, but the arms look just scrawny, with the armor pieces on them lacking the volume to simulate any degree of protection.

Still, Barnes is decently articulated, with the basic construction reminding me of the time when Hasbro decided to stop using the O rings in the 3.75” scale G.I. Joes:

  • Swivel neck. It only has an arc of about 45° because the scarf sculpted to the upper torso limits the range.
  • Peg & hinge shoulders. Pretty good range of motion on both sides, thanks to the thinness of the limbs
  • Peg & hinge elbows. Near 90° bend to them, as well as free sideways rotation.
  • Swivel wrists. No problem here.
  • Swivel waist. Again, no problem at all rotating the torso.
  • Swivel hips. These don’t quite bend to 90° but they do manage a pretty passable sitting pose.
  • Peg & hinge knees. Full 90° bending range, but no rotation whatsoever, since the peg connecting to the thigh is square instead of cylindrical.

Like the other figures in the line, Barnes has no ankle joints, making difficult to balance the figure in any pose that isn’t standing straight up. And even that tends to look awkward because his toes point slightly inwards.

The paintjob is just average, what little there is of it. The larger areas of the uniform tend to fall within the lines without much trouble, but a good deal of the finer paint applications like to wander around a bit more. Since all of the paint consists in solid blocks of color, the overall look is fairly clean, despite the slightly busy color palette.

Barnes comes armed with an automatic carbine and a pistol, all molded from black plastic. Both weapons seem to be based on real world firearms, although they don’t try very hard at it, as evidenced by the thick round handles on them.

All in all, Barnes is a very average action figure. The movie he comes from wasn’t a huge success, and the design isn’t innovative in any way, so I would strongly advise against paying full retail price for this figure, but anywhere below the 50% MSRP it starts to look real good as diorama filler or custom fodder.

Errex Score: 70/100

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Category: Featured, Other Film, Toy Reviews

About the Author ()

I've been collecting action figures since the original Kenner Star Wars days. Nowadays, I still collect pretty much anything that catches my eye.

Comments (2)

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  1. Engineernerd says:

    If you hadn’t told us he was from Terminator, I’d have guessed he was a “The Corps” figure.

  2. Errex says:

    I see what you mean, although most Corps! figures I have seen tend to be more colorful and better articulated. 😉