[scarrviper]

Brett & Parker - NECA by scarrviper, on Flickr

Picked these two up locally today.

I'm very impressed with both, NECA knocked these out of the park. The likenesses are spot on, the detailing is superb and the quality is excellent. It was refreshing to open some new figures that didn't have any major QC issues. Parker did have some stiff joints, but that was easily fixed with a hairdrier. Speaking of which, you will need to use a hairdrier to soften their hands in order for the accessories to fit in them. Not a big deal. The accessories are all well detailed and cleanly painted. Overall, I'm very happy. The only complaint I could possibly have is price. It seems like these would have been cheaper only a few years ago. Prices have been creeping up quite a bit lately.

Now I do have a bit of a related rant. I have been checking my nearest Target for the exclusive Ripley for 6 weeks now, and I have seen absolutely no sign of the exclusive 40th anniversary wave. I even managed to travel to the next closest Target today and found nothing. What I find baffling is that a big retailer like Target can't get their own exclusives on the shelves, yet a small locally owned toy store can receive their own exclusives (in this case Brett and Parker), with no trouble at all and in decent quantity. If this is how bad it's going to be with Target, I can only imagine how much worse it will be when Ash and Kane come to Walmart in the fall.

Also, has anyone recently communicated with NECA customer service? The last email I got from them was in October, I've had no replies since. Just curious.