Killzone Sniper Cloaking Figure

Hey Everyone

Today I will be featuring my last and final Killzone action figure: the Helghast Cloaking Sniper by DC Unlimited. If you have the time, please visit our facebook page to view complete photo albums of the stuff we feature here.

The cloaking sniper figures are only available by buying the collector's edition of Killzone 3, but I got mine on eBay from someone who bought a collector's edition of the game. If you haven't played Killzone 3 and have a PS3, now's a great time to get the collector's edition as they are selling for about $50 on Amazon, and there's a ton of extras you'll get.

Whole body view from the front, showing the sniper in the midst of cloaking.

The rear sniper cloak itself is almost fully cloaked (grey speckles on the left).

The Helghast snipers have the ability to cloak, which makes them quite formidable enemies to encounter. However, game mechanics dictate that their laser sights can be seen and reveal where the snipers are...but you've got to run to cover and get them in your sights fast. That's one thing I love about playing Killzone, the enemies are highly varied and you'll need to use different tactics to survive the single-player campaign.

His entire face isn't cloaked though.

 To simulate a cloaking effect, DC Unlimited has partially painted the figure, and used clear plastic for the "cloaked" parts of the figure. Also, the sniper rifle itself is totally clear plastic and it makes me wonder how you can get a rifle to cloak itself. The cloaking effect is pulled off quite well, and it makes the figure really special...since it's something you don't see in action figures everyday.

Aiming down the sight with his trusty VC32 bolt action sniper rifle

Fully cloaked and ready to kill.

As usual, DC Unlimited's figures can only have limited poses, and the mould for this figure is the same as the normal sniper action figure. Sculpting-wise, it's pretty solid for a $15-20 figure and I am interested in how designers can use a 3-D model to produce a mould for an action figure. Also, it would be nice to have another pose for this sniper, but they probably used the same mould to reduce the production costs (cheapskates!).

As much as I try, you can't get the figure to look directly through the scope due to limited posing.

Cloak and dagger.

 The cloaking sniper is my favorite figure of the 3 Killzone action figures available now. It doesn't suffer from a poor paint job (like the grenadier version), and it has a more unique appearance than its sniper counterpart.  Having all 3 of the Helghast figures, I was kinda inspired to do a "Charlie Angels" pose for the 3 figures, which turned out all right...I'm still in the learning process of taking photos of action figures.

"Visari's Angels"

 Also, Killzone has inspired a rather well-produced short film titled "Killzone Extraction". Directed by Clinton Jones, it's about a team of the ISA (aka good guys) trying to get out of enemy territory. Produced on a budget of $2500, the film is well-paced and smartly uses music/SFX from the game itself. Sometimes seeing fan art makes me want to quit regular life and jump into creating art of all forms (videos, paintings, cosplay etc.). It's a wonder at how much artistic talent is out there in the world, and common passions are shared across the world.

Man I love being a geek.



PS: Clinton Cooper also has short films on other video games, and his Sleeping Dogs video is worth watching too. It features slick camera work around admirable kung-fu stunt work, and pays homage to Square Enix's hit.