MacReady (Last Stand)

And boom goes the dynamite! R.J. MacReady is a member of a 12-man research team which finds something that's been waiting for over 100,000 years in the Antarctic circle. At the end of The Thing, when the last few survivors of Outpost 31 realize there's no way for them to defeat the creature and survive, they decide to win the only way they have left: it destroys the power so it can safely freeze itself into hibernation again, waiting until more lifeforms it can infect come to see what happened; so the humans decide to warm things up a little, blowing up and burning everything they can, in the hopes that they'll somehow get every piece of the alien before it's too late. They set everything aboveground on fire, and start setting charges in the lower level. They know their lives are already lost, but the least they can do is try to save the rest of the world before they go, even though that means they will have no more shelter from the elements themselves. They're basically operating on "one step at a time" logic now, no time to think ahead. So this MacReady is loaded and ready to destroy. The figure's sculpt is the same as the previous figures, as you'd expect: the idea is to reuse the molds as much as possible, to cover the cost of the tooling. Besides, MacReady wears the same clothes the whole time, so why wouldn't they be the same? The big difference on this set is that he's wearing a harness that has sticks of dynamite strapped to it, stacks of five right in the center of his chest and under his right arm. The left side has three open pouches designed to carry Molotov cocktails, so he's either totally prepped to blow up the Outpost, or he's upset about an area code change. Like the other Ultimate MacReadys, this one includes two heads. (Well, Version 1 had three heads, but you get what we're saying.) And as usual, that means one head with exposed hair, and one with his hood pulled up. Considering that the hood on that head is a separate piece, not a solid part of the sculpt, it seems likely they can give any head either hair or hood. In this set, for instance, the bare head is angrily gritting its teeth, while the covered head has the mouth open slightly in surprise. The same angry sculpt was seen with the v1 figure, but inside a hood, and the surprised sculpt was seen with v2, but with hair. So neither of these are new, but they at least have new presentations. The stock photos for this figure show it with new paint apps to help set it apart from the other two. Since everybody has been running around out in the snow, MacReady would have a dusting of white on his pants, jacket, and even his beard. It's not a major change, just enough to sell the idea of a guy who's been outside working in a winter storm. Call him a part of this complete breakfast, because he's lightly frosted! However, the final figure doesn't even get as much of a white dusting as the promos showed, basically just a little bit on his beard. Shame, because the intended apps looked better. The sticks of dynamite get their own paint apps there in their pockets, and the fuses are painted black as well. Even if you have the other two McReadys, this one will look distinct on the shelf. The toy includes several alternate hands, as before, and a revolver to fit in the holster on his right hip. They also included his silly cowboy hat, with a real ribbon to hang it from his neck. There are six booze bottles, five of which have rags stuffed in the neck to create Molotovs. Three of them can fit in the pockets on his harness: the short golden bottle, and the two tall green ones with the long tails. The other two tall green bottles, with the short tails, are just a bit too large to fit in the pouch - it's too tight a fit. The final bottle, with no rag in it at all, isn't the one he shares with Childs at the end: in addition to not having a label, it's the wrong shape. We get the emergency flare he lights, sculpted with sparks and smoke pouring out of its tip, the electric lantern he takes with him into the basement, and the plunger for his dynamite. You can move the plunger up and down on that, which is fun, and there is a handle strap so he can carry it. The hands are shaped to hold the various accessories, including one that's open nearly wide enough to fit one of the bottles into it (you'll need to flex it open, slightly). "Last Stand" MacReady probably won't be your figure of choice if you're only getting one version of him, but the weapons he has strapped to his chest mean he'll look different enough to the rest you may be tempted to get him as a secondary display - especially if NECA ever gets around to releasing that Blair Creature they've teased. -- 04/17/25 Who's who at the end of the movie? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.