Disclaimer: Many of my reviews end with me stating that
perceived quality has much to do with how much a fan someone is of a particular
product. As such, I feel that I should note that I am not a very big fan of
Portal. This replica was a birthday gift for my girlfriend (she’s the huge fan)
and because of my relative lack of fandom for the series, my review may seem a
bit harsher than what a fan would say of the same product. And without further
ado…
The Packaging:
The box was in terrible condition
when it arrived.
 |
| Is that a tear in the middle? |
I’m guessing that the damage seen
is mostly Neca’s fault. The replica box was seemingly shipped to Amazon from
Neca without any outer box to protect it. I get the impression that this is
what happened because the box is covered in shipping labels referring to a
shipment from Neca to Amazon. Amazon’s shipment, however, was respectfully
done. The damaged and label riddled Neca box came shipped in a larger box with
an appropriate amount of packing paper.
Generally, this damage wouldn’t be
much of an issue, but when you are dealing with a Limited Run of 5,000 that is
under heavy demand by a collector market, the rules become far stricter. For
Neca to ship its collector’s item without an outer box to protect it is in very
poor taste and shows little respect for the types of customers that are
purchasing its product. Putting actual shipping stickers on said box only adds
to that disrespect.
In regards to the contents of the
box, they are presumably sufficient to protect the product inside. The gun is
placed in a plastic bag (with a small piece of bubble wrap to protect the gun
barrel’s end), which is then surrounded by molded Styrofoam. No pomp or
circumstance is visible in this purely functional package.
In keeping with function, the
graphics on the box do well to showcase the contents of the replica without
doing much else. Though this is standard, a replica of a valve product should
probably have come with some clever jokes like “gun does not fire actual
portals,” or “please use portals responsibly,” or “cake not included.” You get
the idea.
This is easily the worst packaging
I have reviewed so far.
Certificate of Authenticity:
Along with the included Portal Gun,
the box contains a set of instructions that show you how to insert the batteries.
And that’s it. This highly sought after limited run does NOT include a
certificate of authenticity. Nor does the gun come with any indication that you
have received a specific edition number of this limited run.
 |
| Certificate of "How to put in Batteries" |
Even my PDP-made Mortal Kombat
stick came with one some sort of limited run indication.
 |
| A Limited Run done right |
The omission of such an indicator
is, again, a sign that NECA is not properly handling the nature of its Portal
Gun release.
Build Quality:
Wow does this thing feel cheap.
A few important notes first. Upon
opening the package, I noticed the following problems.
1) The top “hook thingy” has an odd problem with cut marks
and sloppy glue (which looks white and tacky against the black plastic) where
the tubing connects with the hook. How this made it past quality control is
beyond me.
 |
| Seriously NECA??? |
2) A section of the top hook was actually disconnected when
the product came. It was easily fixed and reattached with glue, but it should
never have shipped in such a state.
3) The area where the right tube connects with the gun also
has this white glue slop.
 |
| Again??? |
4) The inside part of the gun was improperly set into place
against the white shell. The left side of the shell was not as well set against
the gun as the right side. Again, this was easily fixed with glue, but the problem
should never have been an issue.
 |
| Right Side Alright! |
 |
| Left Side... C'mon NECA |
 |
| Nice and Crooked NECA |
 |
| Good Thing I Was Able to Fix it |
All those problems are not
necessarily a problem with build quality, though. Those are issues of poor
quality control. Issues that I find so embarrassing that maybe NECA should have
considered putting a complimentary bottle of Krazy Glue in the box.
 |
| Should've come with one "o" these |
In regards to the build quality,
things don’t get much better. The plastic itself is very cheap feeling. The
closest I can compare it to is the kind of plastic that you expect from a Nerf
gun. Not only that, but the gun’s plastic creaks as it moves/shifts when you
pick the gun up. It feels almost as if the gun would eventually warp or crack
under its own weight if it was ever held from just the handle for a long enough
period of time.
Lights and Sounds:
Booya. Finally, something to be
happy about. The light up features are fantastic. The different lights are
activated by using a thumb switch on the handle. The switch has three
positions. In the Up position, the lights are orange, in the neutral position,
the lights are off, and in the Down position, the lights are blue. To NECA’s
credit, they seem to have found the PERFECT shades of blue and orange to match
with Valve’s software incarnation of the gun.
 |
| Slick Blue |
 |
| Blue is still Cooler |
Along with the blue and orange,
there are three red lights on the hook-things at the gun’s barrel. I don’t
remember them from the game, but they certainly look cool. They light up in any
thumb-switch position except for the neutral one.
The sounds sound nice, clear, loud, and appropriate. The
blue and orange portals each have a different sound. It’s a nice touch that I
wasn’t really expecting.
As a final note, the gun uses three batteries that are to be
housed in the handle portion. There is an easily stripped screw holding it in
place. The battereies, sadly, are not included. However, seeing as this is a
collector’s item that some people may never unbox, it is probably for the best
that batteries (which can leak over time) are not part of the package.
The “Look:”
This may be the most important part
of the review. Even when all the deficits of the product are taken into
account, the look of this replica is striking. It looks as though NECA was able
to just reach into the computer screen and pull out the actual gun. Though this
is usually an impressive enough feat, with a design as peculiar as the portal
gun, the authenticity of its appearance is to be very much commended.
Overall (the fandom factor):
As already stated, the gun looks
amazing. It is also, sadly, a look that owes a lot to smoke and mirrors. The quality
control was terrible. The build quality is questionable. The packaging is
functional and boring. And the lack of a Certificate of Authenticity is wholly
disappointing. This is the kind of product that I would easily value at 50 to
60 bucks. It is certainly not worth the 140 that NECA was asking. And it is
really really really not worth what this thing is going for on ebay.
That said, the fandom factor will
go a long way in making this dud seem like a stud. The smoke and mirrors, at
least for my girlfriend, were more than successful in making this a must have
item for her. She’d probably even think it’s worth NECA’s asking price.
So, all failures aside, this one is
definitely only for the super fans (and evil scalpers). Everyone else, stay far
far away.
Final Note: If someone from NECA is reading this and finds
that the quality of the product I received was not representative of what I was
supposed to have received, I encourage you to send me a new gun for a future
review.
Everyone else, thanks for reading.
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