To the dismay of many gamers, the life-size Spartan Helm replica that accompanied the Legendary Edition of Halo 3 was not functional (wearable). Fret not. Courtesy of the twisted guys from Epic, NECA, and………Amazon(!?), your happy make-believe time is about to get a lot more fun.
For Gears of War 2, due holiday 2008 on the Xbox 360, anyone can finally live out their Marcus Fenix- or Texas massacre- fantasies to the fullest with a life-size Lancer Assault Rifle replica– the massive, chainsaw-tipped machine gun synonymous with the video game series. And it’s exclusive to Amazon.com, which unlike the Halo 3 helmet, is not part of any official Microsoft bundle.
Just up for pre-order at the friendly internet retail giant, the $139.99 price includes a ‘free’ copy of the game, hence the ‘bundle’. Don’t worry, you can opt to have this served with the Limited Edition of the game for the requisite extra $10, allowing your chainsaw prop without sacrificing the art book, steelbook case and all that other goofy nonsense. Very nicely thought out. (see Amazon’s bundle explanation)
I regret to say that I somehow missed seeing this at Comic-Con, and was not overly optimistic seeing the pics of ‘CliffyB’ (Epic Games design director Cliff Bleszinski) enjoying the piece. Really useful for scale and sense of overall ridiculousness, they don’t do much to flatter the replica itself. A little digging finds these show pics from gearheadsofwar.com and I’m actually pretty impressed with what NECA is putting out (subsidized by Amazon?) for $140, or $80 if you cotton to the idea of the game being free.
As a gamer and a collector, unfortunately I am rarely resistant to the increasing convergence of the two.
Gears of War 2 hits November 7 for the Xbox 360.
* Trigger Activates Motorized “Chainsaw” Sound and Vibration Feature
* Side Handle Folds In & Out and Slides Back & Forth
* Removable Clip
* Created from the actual 3D data used in the Gears of War 2 videogame
* Powered by 3 “C” Batteries (not included)