A few weeks back, I checked out some of Hiya Toys 1:18 scale RoboCop figures, and as promised I’m back to have a look at their ED-209! As I mentioned last time, I was finally motivated to collect this line when Hiya revealed that they would be doing a Cain figure in this scale, and since NECA wasn’t stepping up to do it, I started picking up these figures for when that day finally arrived.

ED comes in a fully enclosed box, very similar to the one NECA’s figure came in, only this one is about half the size. You get a nice combination of toy pictures and movie scenes on the package, along with the RoboCop logo and the OCP logo as well! The package doesn’t make a big deal about it, but the toy does feature some electronic sounds. Inside the box, ED comes sammiched between two clear plastic trays. There’s no assembly required, and no additional accessories in the box.

And here he is out of the package and ready to serve! As with my RoboCop figure reviews, it seems only natural to make a lot of comparison’s to NECA’s offering, and I’ll be doing some more of that here. And once again, I’ll just throw out there how much I adore this whole design. RoboCop was a film that really needed its future concepts to have grounded designs to make it work, and that’s certainly the case here. ED-209 is menacing and terrifying and yet still looks like something that could be cooked up by some misguided robotics lab in the very near future. And that’s a pretty terrifying thought all by itself.

While scaled with the roughly 4-inch RoboCop figures, ED is big enough to give Hiya a little more plastic to work with, and they really went all out on the detail of this sculpt. The armor plating is mostly smooth and devoid of any panel lines, just like the on screen model, but it’s inside all the little nooks and crannies that the sculpt really shines. There are exposed gears and wires in the elbow joints, and taking in all the little mechanical bits and bobs that make up the legs is like sensory overload. I can practically see all the stop-motion effects from the film going to work when I look at this beauty of a toy. There’s also just a little bit of weathering added around the bolts, and a little dry-brushed abrasions on the toes, which I don’t remember seeing on my NECA version.

There are a few areas where NECA’s larger toy outclasses this one in terms of sculpt, and that’s mostly around the rocket launcher on the right arm, but without making a direct visual comparison, I doubt I would have noticed. On the other hand, I have to say the paintwork on HIYA’s has a slight edge thanks to some of those little flourishes.

The articulation here is certainly solid, although I did find NECA’s to be a bit more poseable, but again the difference is pretty slight. HIYA’s ED has problems turning very far to the left and right, because he doesn’t quite clear some of the wires. Still, all the toes here are still articulated, and he still has the ability to extend his legs out quite a bit to give him a considerable boost in height. The NECA version has a lot more weight to the upper body, which sometimes causes it to droop like ED is powering down, and that doesn’t seem like it will be an issue here. As for the electronics I mentioned earlier, they consist of a few sound clips of him walking and firing his guns, and the usual, “You have twenty seconds to comply.” The sound effects here are nowhere near as good as the ones on NECA’s ED. There are fewer clips and they sound pretty muffled on my toy. Maybe the batteries need to be replaced. In fairness, I didn’t even know there would be any electronics in this toy when I bought it, so I can’t complain.

HIYA’s ED-209 is the perfect companion for my Exquisite Mini RoboCops! This bruiser cost me $49.99 and I think that’s a pretty great deal considering how much quality and love went into making this guy. Sure, NECA’s ED-209 was only $60 when I bought him, but that was a while ago and their re-issue is just shy of $100, so… yeah. HIYA’s ED is also available as a battle damaged variant for the same price, which includes some brand new sculpting, or for ten bucks more you can get the battle damaged version with a battle damaged RoboCop, and that one might be too tempting for me to pass up. Either way, I’m happy to have this little guy on my shelf, and I’m anxious to see how Cain turns out. He’s due to ship in a couple of months, but I’ll believe that when I see it! And believe it or not, I’m not quite done with my RoboCop/ED-209 reviews. In a couple of weeks I’ll be back to have a look at the ReAction versions!