NECA’s Portal Gun Replica | Review

If someone had told me a year ago that I would be holding a 1:1 scale Portal gun in my hands, I would’ve probably said “Yeah, that makes sense. Portal is big right now, I can see Valve moving into merchandising.” Now, if somebody had told me that I would be able to afford that same Portal gun, that’s when I would’ve called them crazy and probably gone to a professional therapist to see what I could do for them. But here we are all the same.

I would have reviewed this replica when it showed up on my doorstep a long time ago, but it was broken. Unlike a video game, where if my copy has broken mechanics it’s considered reasonable to assume such design flaws are widespread, reviewing a broken toy is bad form. So, because toy companies are usually pretty bad about getting back to people who contact them via that ‘fill in the blanks and maybe we’ll get back to you’, I complained about this on Twitter and conveniently I was given the email of a person who could fix the whole thing. So I guess if you find yourself in possession of a defective item, NECA will send you a working one. 5 star customer service, I guess.

As for the Portal gun itself, it’s not exactly worth the $150 I paid for it. Sure, the gun does the two things it needs to do: make orange and blue lights with corresponding noises.  It also looks fantastic and bears a striking resemblance to the in-game version. But, and this is a big problem, the materials used feel a little hollow for the price.

Obviously the cost is a result of the low production run, but I don’t understand that reasoning. A higher amount of guns produced with the same material for a lower cost, maybe $80~$100, would remove my pricing complaint, making this an easy recommendation. Plus, NECA would make enough money to start wrapping the Portal guns in one-dollar bills. This version is going for about $900 on eBay, but a gun based on P-Body from the co-op mode will be released soon.

The Portal gun is hard to recommend, even at the suggested price. It’s a fine replica, don’t get me wrong. But it costs a lot; $150 out of your pocket at the least. That can buy you six brand new copies of Deus Ex: Human Revolution plus a set of Cards Against Humanity. Unless you can get a version of this gun for somewhere around $90, I wouldn’t bother. And by that I mean ‘don’t bother’, because there’s no way in hell you’ll ever get that price.