Clayton Carmine

April 26, 2013 | By More


GoW S1 Clayton Carmine (2)

 

I was not chomping at the bit back when NECA announced that they were going to produce action figures in the 1:18 scale for the Gears of War videogame. They already had a fairly successful run producing larger 8-inch scale figures for that same license, so I failed to see the reasoning behind the scale change.

 

GoW S1 Clayton Carmine (3)Still, being a plastic junkie and all that, I could not resist getting the entire first series of figures the last time I went into one of my local Blockbuster stores. Series 1 is composed of characters Marcus Fenix, Damon Baird and the one I’m reviewing today, Clayton Carmine.

 

This is the part where I confess that I have absolutely no idea who this guy is, since I have never played the game(s). The card back mentions that Carmine is a member of Marcus Fenix’s team, so I’ll assume Carmine is one of the good guys, although that is by no means a foregone conclusion just based on his appearance.

 

The thing about Gears of War is that the character design is very particular. The human characters have impossibly thick outlines, in part due to the bulky uniform and armor designs, but looking closely, even their bare arms are freakishly huge. But getting past the odd body proportions, there is a very impressive amount of detail going on in these figures.

 

Clayton Carmine seems to be outfitted with layers and layers of protective leather garments and armored plates. The entire surface of the figure is covered in very convincing textures and panel lines. Carmine wears a closed helmet, so the only bare bits visible are his arms and neck, which display a reasonable amount of veins and folds.

 

GoW S1 Clayton Carmine (4)Carmine is an extremely bulky character, but he still got a fairly impressive number of joints, consisting in:

 

• 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.

 

In paper, these all seem good, but the actual implementation had me scratching my head in annoyance. Given the character design, I was not expecting Carmine to be particularly nimble, but as it turns out he’s got a fair amount of posing options despite the built-in limitations. There is, however, a small issue with the way they designed the arm articulation.

 

I find it very irritating when an action figure such as Carmine lacks any sort of articulation point that would allow him to grab his provided weapon in two hands. It simply makes little sense that NECA chose not to include such a joint in a character that clearly needs it. I’ve come a long way to concede that wrist and ankle joints may be optional, but if a character comes with a rifle of any sort, he or she has to be able to hold it two-handed.

 

GoW S1 Clayton Carmine (6)Speaking of which, Carmine comes armed with one of those assault rifles/chainsaw thingies they call Lancers in the game. The accessory is very detailed and it even has a slight reddish hue applied to the chainsaw bits to sort of simulate gore. Carmine can grab the weapon easily in his right hand or carry it on his back thanks to a peg sculpted to the side of the lancer.

 

The paint job on Clayton Carmine is extremely good. The whole uniform has shading washes applied to enhance the sculpted textures and also give a tarnished feel to the armored bits. The base color for the armor plates and helmet is a very dark silver hue, with a few metallic blue paint applications that spruce up the looks.

 

The sections of unprotected skin look rather plain, despite Carmine having tattoos on both arms. The patterns are painted solid black over a coat of ruddy, flesh-colored paint, so the overall effect is nowhere near as realistic as in the uniform and gear.

 

So, while I still find fault in the lack of a biceps swivel, Clayton Carmine is a pretty interesting figure to have, although as I mentioned earlier, the aesthetics of the game may throw some people off. On the upside, Carmine feels pretty solid and looks as good as any other NECA product.

 

 GoW S1 Clayton Carmine (7)

Errex Score: 79/100

 GoW S1 Clayton Carmine (10)

Be Sociable, Share!

Tags: , , , , ,

Category: Featured, Other Games, Toy Reviews, Video Games

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 are closed.