Not so long ago in February, NECA announced that it would be creating an officially licensed, life-sized replica of the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. The problem was that it’d be limited to a single 5000-replica run – so as you can imagine, when they actually went on sale in April, they sold out everywhere in a matter of hours. This is actually a pretty big problem, because of the basic principles of the video game merchandise market – if there’s inherent marquee value in creating merchandise for the “game with the lemons, the british robot and the space ball”; you had best be ready to sell, and sell good.

Which is probably why NECA have decided to give it another try – they’ll be designing replicas of the Co-op Portal Devices, and for starters, they’ll be tackling P-Body’s orange-red portal gun, which will be similarly limited to only 5000 units, and priced at $140. Pre-orders for it just commenced earlier today, which means you’d best hurry if you want to reserve your replica of the ”white gun that shoots holes, now with red stripes“. Me? I’m saving up for the replica crowbars and grav guns, thank you very much. Those are going to be expensive as hell, I’ll tell you that.

That said, I can’t help but contest the value in such a business approach – doing three distinct portal gun product runs. Not only are most people fonder of the standard Portal Device… but just think of the thousands of dollars NECA would be saving by not using that orange/blue paint for the co-op stripes. And that would have left them with a 15000-replica run of the classic portal gun; as most people remember it, and as most people love it. Problem solved, Valve and NECA - I am now accepting royalties.