Original Figure Review - NECA Pacific Rim 7-inch Figure Series, Jaeger Series 06, Horizon Brave

Written by Arlo Hansen

Following in the footsteps of Jaegers such as Tacit Ronin and Romeo Blue, the next addition to NECA's Pacific Rim Jaeger action figure collection is none other than Horizon Brave. While only featured in the prologue sequence of the 2013 giant monster vs. giant robot action film, Pacific Rim, as well as on the cover of the prequel graphic novel, Pacific Rim: Tales from Year Zero, battling the Kaiju, Meathead, Horizon Brave is quite an interesting Jaeger with an impressive background covered in the official novelization of the film...

Horizon Brave is a Mark 1 Chinese Jaeger, constructed and launched on December 22, 2015. It has fought battles alongside other notable Jaegers such as Romeo Blue, Tacit Ronin and Coyote Tango. Horizon Brave was piloted by Lo Hin Shen and Xichi Po. In 2019 it accompanied Jaegers, Gipsy Danger (piloted by the Becket brothers,) and Lucky Seven (co-piloted by eventual Striker Eureka co-pilot, Hercules Hansen, and his brother, Scott Hansen) in battle a against a Category IV Kaiju in Manila, Philippines. It ended its many years of service with its destruction during a battle against a Kaiju in Lima (the destroyed Jaeger is briefly seen in the film.)

So, does this figure show any promise and stand up alongside its fellow Jaeger compatriots? Let us take a look...

SCULPT:

NECA's Horizon Brave action figure stands roughly around 6.5 inches tall, a tad shorter than other Jaegers in the figure line. Given that Horizon Brave, along with Tacit Ronin and Romeo Blue are older Jaegers, the shorter height may be scale accurate. We will cover that topic a bit later in the review. The overall sculpt isn't too heavy, but the figure is quite solid and able to stand easily on its own without the assistance of a stand, much like NECA's 7-inch Cherno Alpha. 

DETAILS:

Like many of NECA's Jaeger figures past Series 03, Horizon Brave possesses a good amount of fine details. The color scheme that this Jaeger boasts is a tannish/yellow with a bit of weathering, due to its years of service, with green highlights on the cockpit/head, and down the torso. It also has finely detailed decals on the missile turrets on its shoulders, and on its torso, and left leg. On exhaust ports, as well as in between joints and smaller crevices, there is a dark metallic gray color.

ARTICULATION:

While it may not look like it, Horizon Brave possesses a decent range of articulation. Its head is on a ball joint, and can move forwards, backwards and twist side to side. The figure's shoulders are on a combination ball/hinge joint, allowing for a wide range of movement. The elbows are on hinge joints, and have limited motion inward. The hands/wrists are on ball joints, but they don't move that much. 

Horizon Brave's torso sits on a large ball/hinge joint, which allows a decent amount of forward, backward movement as well as 360-degree twist. The legs are on ball joints and can be slightly maneuvered outward, inward, up and down. The knees are on ratcheted knee joints, with provide extra stability to this figure. The feet are then on ball joints and can be slightly moved.

GIMMICKS:

Horizon Brave is perhaps the only Jaeger from NECA (in the 7-inch figure series,) that possesses a couple of gimmicks that add to it's play value. Firstly the two missiles on its shoulders can be launched via a spring-load. The exhaust ports on each of the turrets is a button, which you press to fire the missiles. They get decent range. Be careful when fiddling with this figure though, because it's easy to accidentally press the buttons and shoot yourself in the face... It's already happened more than a couple times already to me.

Another gimmick about this figure is that you can remove the missile turrets from this figure's shoulders. When I first saw this, I initially thought that this was unintentional, and that NECA failed to add enough glue to keep it on. However, I then noticed the exhaust port on top of the figure. It's interesting, because in none of the expanded material and concept designs have I seen Horizon Brave without its missile turrets. Still, it was quite a neat and surprising feature about this figure, in my opinion.

SCALING WITH OTHER FIGURES:

When stood up next to it's companion figure, Reactor Blast Gipsy Danger, Horizon Brave is quite short. Before you nitpickers start spouting, "it's too short," or, "it's out of scale," think again. At it's full height, Horizon Brave (according to official stats,) stands at 72.5 meters. Gipsy Danger stands at 79 meters. Therefore, given what we see here, NECA pretty much was spot on with the scaling. 

Given it's smaller size, Horizon Brave is somewhat dwarfed even by the likes of Axehead. However, equipped with its arsenal and bulky build, this Mark 1 Jaeger can stand against the toughest of Kaiju, up to a certain point.

POW! Right in 'da kisser!

FINAL THOUGHTS:

While some may think Horizon Brave is a bland Jaeger design, I think otherwise. It reminds me a lot of the old-school giant robots, much in the same respect as Cherno Alpha, Coyote Tango, and Tacit Ronin. NECA does a great job replicating Horizon's design in figure form. The details are pretty spot on, the sculpt is solid, and the gimmicks are pretty neat.

Would I recommend it? If you are a hardcore Pacific Rim fan then I urge you to add this, and any of the other prologue Jaegers, to you collection. Horizon Brave is pretty great and its lighter color scheme really makes it stand out on the shelf. This figure is still widely available at Toys R' Us, FYE, local comic book stores, and online at BigBadToyStore, Amazon.com, TheNECAStore on eBay, and more.