Tag Archives: Hiya Toys

Oct 12 2022

RoboCop 2: RoboCain (1:18 Scale Exquisite Mini) by Hiya Toys

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!

Sep 7 2022

RoboCop: ED-209 (1:18 Scale Exquisite Mini) by Hiya Toys

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!

Aug 17 2022

RoboCop and RoboCop 2 (1:18 Scale Exquisite Mini) Figures by Hiya Toys

I do love me some RoboCop toys, but after picking up the Hot Toys Diecast figure quite a ways back, and just about every NECA release, I decided that Murphy was well represented in my collection, and passed on the Hiya Toys 1:18 (roughly 4-inches) scale figures. But then it happened. Hiya solicited pre-orders for a Cain figure from RoboCop 2. Now all bets were off and I decided to go back and collect what I was missing from the line so I would be ready for Cain’s arrival. As a result, we’re going to take a quick look at four carded releases from RoboCop and RoboCop 2, and then I’ll open one and see what these little guys are all about! At least two of these are some kind of Exclusives, but I can’t remember the details on those.


Let’s start with RoboCop from the original film. All of Hiya’s RoboCops come on old style cards, which look very nice but they are definitely not collector friendly. One odd thing about the packaging here is that the cards each come in sealed window boxes, but they’re all punched and the condition of the cards are a bit rough by collector standards. It’s not a big deal for me, but it certainly may be fore more particular collectors out there and makes me wonder what was the point of the outer box? I love the layout of the original RoboCop’s card, and I really dig the character art. It’s gritty and looks like something from an old pulp magazine. You get some bullet holes superimposed over the image and a movie scene up at the top edge of the card. This is the figure that I’ll be opening to review.

The following three are all from RoboCop 2, starting with the regular vanilla flavor of OCP’s future of law enforcement. The sculpt on this one appears to be identical, but the paint shows some differences in how it portrays that purplish-hue that the armor gave off under certain light. The accessories are also mostly the same, but here you get Cain’s brain container, which is pretty cool! The character art on the card is a very similar pose, but it’s still all new art. Murphy seems to be jutting out his groin a bit more in this one. Cheeky bastard! You also get a scene from RoboCop 2 up at the top edge of the card.

Next, we have the battle damaged version of the last figure. There’s a new character pose on the card and the damage on the figure is mostly found on the front chest plate and the helmet, where he has the burn streaks from Cain’s arc welder.

And finally, and easily my favorite of the variants, you get KIK ME RoboCop, reflecting the scene where Murphy tried to go all Afterschool Special on a bunch of kids and they tagged him with spray paint. The card is given more of an orange hue to the deco and we get another new piece of character art, this time with orange paint on Murhpy’s helmet. I’m assuming it’s also on the front of the figure’s helmet, but I’m never opening this one to find out. It’s just the perfect figure to keep sealed. Also, this one does not come with the Cain Brain Jar. And that’s all the packaged shots I’ve got, let’s get RoboCop from the first movie free and see what he’s all about.

So, straightaway, I’ll credit Hiya for what is a spectacular sculpt for such a small figure. In terms of the detailing in the panel lines and all the finer parts of his exo-skeleton, I’d say this sculpt is every bit as good as what we saw on NECA’s 7-inch versions. And that’s intended as high praise, as NECA’s RoboCop figures are all quite excellent. The sculpted lines might be a little softer in some areas on this little guy, but I’m very impressed that they packed so much of it into so little plastic. They also really nailed his overall proportions, making even this 4-inch figure look powerful and menacing. The figure is simply a delight to hold in the hand and I just don’t see anything in this iconic design that got lost in the translation.

I will say that NECA’s version looks a lot cleaner and smoother, and I think that’s because of the painted finish on this little guy. And while I do like the more polished factory-new look of NECA’s, I think it was sacrificed by Hiya here to better recreate that purplish-silver hue that the suit reflects on screen and when seen in certain light. And to be sure, it’s not an easy thing to reproduce, although the Hot Toys Movie Masterpiece version did a nice job of it. NECA’s captured a little of that, but I think this figure does it better. Whether the trade off is worth it will depend on personal taste. I’m not sure this finish would have worked as well on a bigger figure, but in this scale I’d say it works very well.

The portrait is especially impressive, especially considering the smaller size and there’s only the lower half of the face to work with. Regardless, the likeness in that lower half is superb. The stern expression, and tightly pursed lips leave me with no doubt that it’s Peter Weller under that helmet. There’s a hint of overspray around the lower black part of the helmet and his skin, but it’s really only noticeable when you get in close with the camera. About my only other nitpick with the head sculpt is there’s a hint of seam running across the helmet from the mold process, but it’s really not too bad.

The articulation here contains most everything I would want in my RoboCop figures. The arms have full rotation in the shoulders with just a very little bit of lateral outward movement. The hinged elbows can do 90-degrees, and the wrists are ball joints. The legs have full forward and backward movement at the hips, and a little bit of lateral outward movement. The hinged knees can’t quite make 90-degrees back, and the ankles are hinged. The hydraulics on the ankles and back of the legs are designed exactly like the ones on NECA’s figure, allowing the piston to move in and out with the ankle articulation, and that’s damn cool for the scale! There are two ball joints in the abs, giving him a nice range of movement there, and the neck is ball jointed. The joints all feel solid and he has very nice balance. Robo is basically a walking tank, so I’m not looking for any kind of super articulation here, and I think what Hiya went with replicates his capabilities quite nicely.

You get one set of hands stock hands, which are just open with the fingers slightly splayed. Additionally, the figure comes with a right gun hand and a right fist with his data spike extended. The spike hand is cool, but the spike itself is very bendy and kind of hard to keep straight. What’s the point of putting Adult Collectible on the package if you can’t include a proper eye-poker? Either way, I understand why this is always included in these figures, but it’s not something I’m likely to display with him.

Especially not when that hand needs to be holding RoboCop’s trusty Beretta Auto 9. It fits into the gun hand snugly and he looks damn good holding it. No, the leg doesn’t conceal a holster, which is understandable for this size. Even when NECA pulled it off in the 7-inch scale, the mechanism was pretty complex and fragile. Still, it would have been cool to have part of the leg pull off and a replacement with the open holster pop on. But that would have surely required a big boost in the price tag.

Finally, RoboCop comes with a little stand to display him on. It’s a simple rectangular block with some sculpted tiles, which look like they’ve been crushed under the weight of our hero. If you noticed the weird H-shaped plastic pieces in the packaged shot, those are connectors so you can join multiple bases together and display all your RoboCopses on one big platform. It’s a pretty cool idea, and certainly a nice bonus.

In the end, Hiya’s little RoboCop isn’t going to replace the NECA or Hot Toys versions as my favorite, but that’s not to say I don’t love it a lot. The new scale certainly has possibilities that are already paying off with the upcoming release of Cain. And yes, Hiya has already released an ED-209, and I hope to get around to checking him out next week. And who knows? Maybe we can even get a Ford Taurus (or Mustang for you RoboCop TV Series fans) for this little guy to drive around in! Probably not, but a little wishing never hurts! Probably the best thing of all is that these little RoboCops sell for about $20 a pop, and that’s not too bad considering a lot of retro-styled figures with far less detail and articulation are among the competition at this scale these days.