John Carpenter’s The Thing – Ultimate R.J. MacReady Outpost 31 Version by NECA – Toyark Photo Shoot

Over the years, there have been a few official product releases based on John Carpenter’s The Thing. Right away, the McFarlane Toys Movie Maniacs, and the SOTA MacReady in Kennel box set come to mind. However, licensing issues cropped up over the last five or so years, causing items to be cancelled and making it difficult for collectible companies to properly license the film. A few different companies, notably Pop Culture Shock (new Premium Collectibles Studio) and the now defunct Chronicle Collectibles, have tried to release new products. Like many horror fans, I hold this film in very high regard, even writing an article back in 2019 talking about how the film needed new collectibles. The film is a visual feast, with some of the best practical creature effects that have ever been put on film.

As I previously wrote, in the film R.J. MacReady is a helicopter pilot for Outpost 31, an American research station in Antarctica during the winter of 1982. When their camp is seemingly attacked by a Norwegian pilot chasing a dog, Mac heads up to the Norwegian Research station with Doctor Copper to find out what is going on. Once there, the pair find a burned and twisted body that they bring back to Outpost 31. Little did they know, this creature and the dog they took in, are both shape shifting aliens that can imitate any life form perfectly. Now the research team must determine who is human, and who is The Thing before they are all wiped out, and the creature finds its way civilization.

Earlier this year, NECA shocked horror fans with the announcement of an Ultimate R.J. MacReady Figure from The Thing. The figure, titled the “Outpost 31” version, is hopefully the first in a long line of releases from the film. The MacReady figure is officially set to make it’s debut this Father’s Day weekend (June 20th), however, the figure has started to hit shelves early. The figure will initially be available at Target stores, but will see a wider general release about 30 days after it’s official street date. Since the figure is now showing up, I’ve been given the go ahead to share my photo gallery of the R.J. MacReady “Outpost 31″ Ultimate 7” Scale Figure. The figure was provided by our friends at NECA. Check out my review and full photo gallery by reading on.

John Carpenter’s The Thing – Ultimate R.J. MacReady “Outpost 31″ Ultimate 7” Scale Figure by NECA Toys

Pros

• Excellent sculpt
• Really nice assortment of accessories
• Good mix of interchangeable parts
• Solid paint work
• Goggles and sunglasses can work with any of the three portraits
• Beautiful packaging
• Decent articulation

Cons

• Face paint hinders the likeness a bit

Overall
MacReady comes packaged in a great looking metallic flapped window box (mine got a little scratched up in transit). The packaging features the iconic Drew Struzan poster artwork. The back of the packaging showcases some photos of the figure and included accessories. MacReady includes three interchangeable portraits, multiple swap out gloved and bare hands, a shotgun, a lantern, a hat, sunglasses, goggles, a bottle of whiskey, and a whiskey glass.

The figure is based on MacReady’s general appearance near the beginning of the film, up until his visit to the Norwegian camp. The figure looks fantastic in person. Mac includes a regular head sculpt, and two head sculpts with the hood on. The head sculpts are produced in a way, that I believe, that NECA can swap the hair and hoods out during production for additional alternate heads. There is a little bit of space where the hair and hoods separate, allowing you to slide the sunglasses under them. That is handled really well, and looks natural without having to have two small holes on the sides of the heads. The goggles, at first, feel like they’re going to be too tight to fit over the portraits. But I was happy with how much give the vinyl band has and never felt like it was going to snap. But I will say use some caution when placing it on the head just to be safe. The hands swap out with no trouble, and you can remove the base of the gloves from the wrist area when using the bare hands. There are different hands for holding the different accessories.

Speaking of accessories, Mac includes some great additional pieces from the film. Those include his shotgun, the lantern he uses at the Norwegian camp, and some of Mac’s favorite beverage; whiskey. The whiskey bottle had to improvise a bit, as they don’t use the J&B Scotch label. The new label is pretty close, and looks to be filled with inside jokes from the NECA team. Also included is MacReady’s hat, with a fabric tie that you can use to hold it around his neck. While NECA could have added a few accessories (flamethrower, dynamite, blood test, pistol) to make this the definitive single version of MacReady, I am quite pleased with what the figure does include. I fully expect there to be at least two more versions available; those being a Kennel Attack version, and a Final Battle version.

The MacReady figure itself is done really well. The sculpting looks fantastic, with lots of small details on his jacket. NECA opted for single jointed elbows and knees, and I’m good with that. The current way they are handling double joints wouldn’t have meshed really well here in opinion. Joints were all perfect. No paint locking, no looseness, no need to heat anything up. The head sculpt definitely look better in hand compared to the initial promo pics. The sculpts themselves are really close to the Trevor Grove hand sculpted portraits. What throws the likeness off a bit is the face paint and face printing. There’s just a bit at the top of the mustache and beard that is skin color, and makes Mac’s facial hair seem off. When I used more specialized lighting, where the paint was a bit more obscured, the sculpt came through a lot more. So it might not be 100% spot on, but it’s close.

Having the MacReady figure in-hand is almost surreal at this point. For years, it seemed like there would be little chance of new figures based on The Thing. I’ve had the figure in-hand for some time now, keeping the sealed box on my photography table just so I can look at it, while waiting to shoot some photos. Now that the figure has hit a bit early, I moved him up in my shooting schedule, and was excited to finally dig in. I even opened my sealed 21 year old McFarlane Norris Thing to use in this shoot. Overall, I think fans are really going to enjoy the figure, and it’s great to see an officially licensed figure from The Thing. Now we just need some of the other cast, and lots of “Things” to join Mac.

Check out a selection of images below, and the full gallery after that.

CompaniesNECA
CharactersR.J. MacReady
Scale7 Inch

TagsFeatured NECA Toy Galleries

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