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Marcus Fenix

May 24, 2013 | By Errex More

The latest figure I picked up from NECA’s 1/18 scale Gears of War line is none other than the main hero, Marcus Fenix. Apparently he already was a recognized war hero even before the Locust War broke out, but again, just by looking at the figure you can tell he is supposed to be a tough-as-nails warrior.
I’ve come to realize that the whole look for these characters is what one would get by re-imagining the Warhammer 40,000 aesthetic and applying a hyper-realistic sculpting style. Marcus wears the same type of heavy armor we have seen on his team mates, although personalized to such extent that the figure shares almost no pieces with the other characters, except maybe the hands and the neck post with Damon Baird.

The head sculpt turned out exceptionally well, in my opinion, as Marcus has a rather intense facial expression that matches flawlessly the digital images from the games.

Marcus is also taller than Damon although not as much as Clayton Carmine. Despite the bulkiness of the designs, Marcus’s got a pretty decent articulation spread of:

• Barbell mounted head.

• Pegged hinge shoulders.

• Hinged elbows.

• Pegged hinge wrists.

• Barbell mounted torso.

• Pegged hinge hips.

• Upper thigh swivels.

• Hinged knees.

• Upper calf swivels.

It is actually quite impressive that NECA managed to hide the hip joints so well into the design, even though they kind of dropped the ball a bit at the knees and the arms. The knee joints are well hidden, but their range is rather limited, while at the arms the elbow joints are rather conspicuous and yet, they still decided to forego any kind of bicep swivel.

Luckily, even with the lack of rotation at the arms Marcus can still grab his weapon in two hands without much trouble.

Fenix’s paintjob is very subdued, consisting mostly in browns and extremely worn silver plates for the armor, but still does a very nice job of showcasing the textures sculpted underneath and includes small details like the skull on Marcus’ bandanna, a tattoo on his right arm and a couple of yellow circles on his chest armor.

The weapon included with Marcus is another Retro Lancer like the one that comes with Damon Baird, painted very similarly in black and silver, and with a peg to attach it to a hole at the back of the figure.

Marcus Fenix is as much fun as the other two members of his team, but something in his overall appearance makes him look like a more accomplished entry in this collection.