Hot Toys MMS 221 - Alien vs Predator : Celtic Predator.

At the height of the Alien vs Predator madness, Hot Toys made the right business decision to obtain licensing on all Aliens and Predators related movie releases. My favourite remains the original one from John McTiernan's 1987 version by the late Stan Winston. Like Ridley Scott's 1979 Alien, and James Cameron's 1984 The Terminator (ok, perhaps an exception to his 1991 sequel, whom also turned Alien 1986 sequel into an action movie, darn it), I personally see both movies stories ended with the original storyline. If the original's good enough, and the sequels subsequently diluted the idea, I would hate it. Most sequels thus far did not live up to the expectation, only to befuddled the original's essence further. And then there's the crossover universe stories, started and popularised by Dark Horse Comics in the 80s, and turned into movies adaptation. Alien vs. Predator. Alien vs. Predator vs. Terminator vs. Robocop vs. Rambo vs. Conan. Just kidding.  Anyway, there is one particular Predator which stands out in terms of design for me, the so-called Celtic Predator from 2004's AvP (the other being Machiko the human hybrid Predator. C'mon HT, do it already!). Secondary market prices soared ridiculously for all Predator figures then, and now, years later, with Hot Toys steadily revisiting and re-release older figures and updated them accordingly, I manage to PO one at a nevertheless, higher RRP. The figure is taller than the original Predator released, and the helmet, through an ingenious design, fit more logically instead of the "big head" syndrome. There are two options of helmet, the "damaged one" and vice versa. The weapons also come with metal now instead of plastic as previous releases. I am now contemplating whether to get the "Classic" Predator from 2010's Predators and swap the gears with the original one, which now looks, admittedly, dated. I have a hard time posing and making the figure stand properly, perhaps due to the weight.  It unfortunately committed the much feared "shelf dive" the next day, resulting in two broken toes. And after the issue with Briareos of Appleseed's figure of which after couple of years the knee joint sudden gave out, I am pretty cautious of display these large figures (as well as  rubbers which tend to deteriorate/decompose over the years). Now, I hope HT would consider to re-release Major Dutch (which has that problematic rubber body) and T-800 endoskeleton, with the recent announcement of The Terminator's re-release of T-800 battle damage version aka the "police station shootout version".