The Hunter is one of the newer monsters from the Doom series. It first appeared in Doom 3 and later in the reboot of Doom. It is a large, quadrupedal creature that is heavily armoured with minimal exposed organic flesh. It has a powerful melee attack with a double chainsaw-like item in one hand with a heavy ranged weapon in the other. It is without a doubt one of the more frightening enemies in the franchise.
The Hunter is considered a formidable opponent due to its high health, fast movement and its ability to fire its plasma attack from a long distance. Such a unique enemy from the roster of demons is naturally going to be an awesome addition to your collection of toy-like recreations from the Doom series. How well does it stand up to the other figures in the collection?
The Hunter is a lot like the Arachnatron or the Mancubus in that it’s quite large and bulky compared to the other figures in the series. This is definitely a good thing to break up the look when you have many but there is something about this one that just doesn’t look quite as good as the others. It has failed to strike the balance between evil beast and playful toy and loots too much like a rubber duck.
The Marauder figure has massive horns that are very unique. It feels odd the hunter did not also get larger horns to really give this figure a more frightening look and make it more like the in-game figure. There is just something too child friendly about the upper body. It looks more like one of those Tubbs figures where they make rubber ducks look like figures from popular games and movies.
This series of figures are all designed to have a toy-like appearance and this is not something that has really been much of an issue with the other figures from the series but it feels like it is a bit of an issue with this one. If the horns were sharp and more dangerous looking, they would most definitely give the upper body that aggressive edge that has been completely stripped away from it. The shape of the figure is quite duck-like too which doesn’t help.
Even though the other figures in the series look like toys, they do not look friendly and tame. To take one of the most ferocious enemies from Doom and make it look like a friendly bath toy is a disappointment and makes the hunter one of the bigger letdowns from this awesome run of figures.
When you look past the upper body, the lower, jet-powered core is really cool looking. The front jets stick out with two cannons on either side. Both cannons move side to side, allowing you to set up a nice scene to target an enemy.
Both arms have limited movement and while the right arm looks quite cool, it is a shame that the Hunters heavy weapon was not included. Much like the Marauder missing his shotgun, it seems odd the hunter does not have the large heavy weapon that it has in the games. The empty hand is far less appealing. This definitely isn’t the worst figure in the world but it falls a little short when compared to the others in the Numskull Doom figure series.
THE VERDICT
- The machine body looks quite cool and has lots of detail
- The face is too friendly and looks more like a rubber duck.
- The horns are way too small, they take away one of the threatening aspects of this monster.
- The heavy weapon was not included in the other hand.
