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The Terminator 2 license was an interesting one for DST to pick up. One of the most influential and successful films of its generation, at the dawn of Hollywood’s obsession with CGI. The line of Minimates didn’t do badly in terms of sales, certainly not up there with those of Ghostbusters, but sadly not successful enough for TRU to be satisfied with it. The proposed wave 2 was cut down by TRU’s refusal to stock another T2 wave, leaving only the comic/specialty store wave to take care of business. Thus only 3 of the 4 mooted packs ever came out. This set sees yet another version of Arnie’s T-800, this time paired up with a young John Connor.

Packaging

The Terminator 2 two-pack packaging is the same for this wave as it was for wave one. A nice, bold title graphic, control art, and on the back a showing of all the figures (including the liquid-metal T-1000 and a battle-damaged Endoskeleton that would have been the TRU exclusive).

The Figures

Combat T-800

It’s Arnie. As the good guy T-800. Yet again. With a leather jacket. Yet again. And a bandolier. Again.

Put simply, this is the same figure as Assault Gear T-800. This one has damage on the face, although not as much as the Battle Damaged T-800. The damage to the left hand side of his face matches up with the corresponding damage on the Battle Damaged figure, although the damage to the right side, over his eye socket, doesn’t. Very strange.

The outfit is exactly the same as the Assault Gear version. That version was already pushing it as it was practically identical to the Biker T-800, which in turn didn’t differ all that much from the Terminator 1 T-800. You can see where the problem is, really.

The only other difference to the Assault T-800 is his accessory. Instead of a honking great mini-gun, he gets a much smaller grenade launcher. It’s a nice weapon, for sure, reasonably sculpted, but it ain’t no mini-gun! That echoes what I said about the Assault Gear T-800 in that review – once you start getting into accessories as primary differences between Minimates you are in a world of trouble. I guess it’s not as bad as the Wolverine Movie line which featured a Wolverine in every single pack, but then he did actually change his outfit during the movie. For T2, did the line really need 4 or 5 very similar-looking Arnies? No, no it didn’t.

In conclusion, absolutely pointless if you already own the superior Assault Gear T-800. However, that one was a TRU exclusive so if you didn’t get a chance to pick that up, this one will certainly do.

MMC Score – 5 out of 10

Young John Connor

This is our second John Connor Minimate, as General John Connor appeared in the Terminator 2 single packs. That one was from a flashback (flash-forward? Time travel is so tricky!) showing an adult John leading the Resistance against the machines. This younger version is how he appeared for the majority of the T2 film.

They have really tried to capture the youthful features of Edward Furlong with the facial detailing. The eyes are big, and the longer hair is nicely designed to match the source material, although I would have preferred it to drape more across the eyes like the concept art on the front of the box as I think that captures the look even better than what we ended up with.

John’s outfit has been well recreated. The black T-Shirt is blank (probably no way or too expensive to licence the Public Enemy shirt, maybe an idea for Luke’s Minimate Factory to produce as a decal), but the camouflage shirt has a backpack sculpted on the back in a nice touch. He also gets boots that are slightly shorter than regular ones to give him just a touch less height. It’s not much of a difference, but it helps the illusion that he is a teenager rather than an adult.

Other little details such as the ripped jeans and the green wristband show that a lot of work has gone into making this figure look visually as close to the character as possible in Minimate terms.

Young John Connor comes with an Endoskeleton arm, the one that was rescued from the steel mill at the end of the first Terminator. It’s a reuse from the Minimate version of the Endoskeleton and is a fully working piece, in that you could clip it to the upper arm of any Minimate. He can just about hold the arm using the elbow joint but it’s another claw killer and not really designed to be held that way.

In conclusion, much like Battle Damaged Sarah Connor, this is the iconic version of John, recreated with great attention to detail. One of the essential T2 figures to get hold of if you have any interest in the film at all.

MMC Score – 9 out of 10

Review and pictures by Danny Mills

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