NECA Portal 2 Atlas and P-Body Review

It's somehow fitting that it took so long for this review to come out, just like these figures.

A while back NECA revealed prototypes for the duo of portal gun wielding robots that would follow after their great Chell figure. It took a couple years, but eventually they released them as part of a limited shipment. Were they worth the wait? Read on and find out!

The packaging for both these figures is long gone. They come in standard NECA clamshells with the Portal 2 logo. Boring. To the figures!

Atlas

Atlas was the one I bought first, as he is the one I like playing as. The sculpt on this figure is simply fantastic. There are black pistons throughout the figure that actually work (as in, go in and out), and the paint brings out the details in the sculpt. While there is no shading, Atlas doesn't need it for the clean, white look of the Portal bots. Everything looks just as it did in the game, and NECA even said that they used 3D renders from Valve for both these figures.

Pretty lights

Atlas also features two LEDs: one in his body and one in the Portal gun. The only complaint I can find about them is that the LEDs probably hiked up the price a little ($24.99 each at TRU for these guys), which was the reason for my disappointment when I discovered:

THE ARTICULATION. Or lack thereof. Maybe it's just the design of these guys but Atlas is severely lacking in the articulation department. His shoulders seem like they are on a balljoint, but the central piston is actually glued in place, resulting in mine snapping off when I tried to move it. The legs, like the shoulders, are also on a series of pistons that renders the hips useless.  He has a hinge at the elbows and knees, and his head rotates 360 degrees. Atlas's wrists and thumbs are on balljoints, however, meaning he can hold his Portal gun relatively well (it is a little tough to get under the fingers though). 

Need a hand? 

All in all, Atlas is a pretty good display piece, but the horrid articulation won't satisfy anyone looking for an "action" figure.

"So why can't you move again?"

So after buying the rather disappointing Atlas, why did I buy P-Body, especially at that premium? Well, I had to complete the duo, and Atlas looked nice on the shelf...

P-Body

Sculpt and paintwise, P-Body is just as good as Atlas. Mine as a couple scratches from the factory, but that's a QC issue. He looks like he just jumped out of Portal 2, and that's not a bad thing. At all.

He also has nice LEDs in the Portal gun and his eye. Props to NECA for actually getting the colors of the lights right!

"But how's the articulation?" you ask, "Is P-Body a shiny, nonarticulated turd like Atlas?" Well, P-Body's anthropomorphic design lends itself better to articulation than Atlas, resulting in a slightly better figure. P-Body has swivels at the shoulders, hinged knees, elbows, ankles, and torso and balljoints in the wrists and thumbs. This results in more posing options, but the lack of hips still seriously limits these figures. It might be the design of the character, but I'd forgive some inaccuracies if they were able to work more articulation in somewhere.

I can pose!

Side note, the molds for the three Portal guns (Atlas's, P-Body's, and Chell's) are the same, and the only differences between the three are the paint and the LEDs. Nevertheless, the ASHPD still looks great.

So, Atlas and P-Body are both rather mediocre figures. Great sculpt, paint, and light-up feature, but sorely lacking articulation. They look very good together on the shelf as display pieces though, so if you're a hardcore Portal fan, I'd say go for it. Sadly, if you've been spoiled by NECA's recent offerings or superarticulated Japanese figures, you're in for a disappointment.

The Portal guns are still fun to mess with, though.