I started collecting Hiya Toys’ RoboCop Exquisite Mini line when they first revealed that they were doing Cain from RoboCop 2. It’s a figure I’ve wanted for a long time, and with NECA surprisingly silent on the subject, I thought it would be worth picking up the rest of the toys in this line to go with him when he finally shipped. Well, now he’s here, and I have to say, I’m very glad that I went this route and can finally have Cain and RoboCop battle it out for supremacy on my desk!

The packaging here is the same as we saw for ED-209, only a bit smaller. You get a fully enclosed box with some artwork and shots of the toy, and everything is collector friendly. Inside Cain comes sandwiched between two plastic trays and all ready for action! I make it no secret that I consider the first RoboCop to be a near perfect film. I can’t say the same for RoboCop 2, but I do still love it to pieces, and it is criminally fun to watch. While the first film was a blood-soaked satire on municipal corporate takeover, the second film takes that concept and blends it with Frankenstein, and nothing reflects that more than the designs of each film’s Big Baddie.

And here he is out of the box and ready for his Nuke fix. If ED-209 was a sleek corporate product, RoboCain is more a misshapen robotic monstrosity. It’s a complex design and to be honest, I don’t think I fully grasped all its nuances until having this figure in hand. He comes out of the package with his legs retracted into his dormant mode, like he’s resting on his haunches, but we’ll stretch these out in a bit. His primary arms rotate at the shoulders and are hinged at the elbows, with a smaller secondary set of arms resting on the fronts. HIs right claw is hinged to open and close, and his left claw is shielded. It can extend outward to punch, but not as far as it did in the movie. The left arm is also equipped with a minigun, and he has a second gun mounted on his right shoulder. RoboCain can swivel at the waist and turn his head from side to side.

The sculpted detail on this figure is quite impressive and complex. There’s tons of little bits and bobs, hydraulic arms, cables and hoses. There are sculpted rivets in his joints, and toothy gears making up his shoulder swivels, with more hidden down in his hips. None of the hoses or cables do anything to restrict his articulation, and they seem pretty solid.

The head is probably the most stylish thing about the design, with it’s prominent brow and concave cheeks framing the complete lack of a face, which makes it look cold and creepy. Sadly, the head does not open, but I can’t say as I was expecting that for a figure in this scale. A swap-out head showing the video monitor with a lenticular sticker of Cain’s computer generated face would have been a really cool bonus. A close up view shows some really nice weathering, a bit of rust, and brushed steel look to the painted finish. It’s pretty damn convincing as plastic for metal, making the figure look like it should weigh more than it does. I especially like the dry brushing and nuke symbol on his chest’s cannister caps. The painted finish here is every bit as good as the sculpt, and that’s saying something!

The smaller, appendages roll up onto his shoulders and can flex outward. On the left he has the snapping claw that Angie said she could get used to. Or not. It’s also good for crushing remote control units. Come to think of it that would have made a cool accessory. The pincer itself, however, is not articulated. The right arm is equipped with the arc welder he used to mess up Robo’s helmet seen in that absolute banger of a poster!

As mentioned earlier, the legs extend quite a bit to give him a nice bit of height and they can hold his weight in any number of poses. The first thing I checked when I got him out of the box was to see if his toes were articulated, since that’s the first glimpse we get of him when he steps out of the truck. Alas, they are not.

I am thrilled to finally have a figure of RoboCain and considering the high expectations I had, I am delighted with the final product. He’s so much fun to pose and play with and he looks fantastic next to the Exquisite Mini RoboCop figure. Now, that having been said, this is a figure that is best regarded for what it is, and not for what it isn’t. There’s a lot of stuff missing that I would have liked to see, most notably the the aforementioned extra head, and an opening Nuke receptacle. I also would have liked to see some swivels in the arms. I suppose you could also gripe about the lack of electronics, since ED-209 had a sound chip. But RoboCain didn’t speak, so you’d just be getting gunfire sounds. Still, considering the scale here, I’m still very happy with what we got. RoboCain is also available in a battle damaged variant, and I believe there’s a set of that version with a battle damaged RoboCop, which is something I might just have to pick up before it gets scarce!