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Packaging: ***
If you’ve collected any of Hot Toys
other 1/6 ALIEN figures you’ll know what to expect as this is more of
the same. A large metallic sleeve houses an oversized flap fronted
5-panel box, behind this flap is a die-cut shape to show the creature
in its all-fours position. Inside the box, the figure lies on its side,
in a semi-model kit form. Although all you have to do is ‘snap’ on one
arm and one leg (but the leg needed quite a push, I hair-dryered the
hip socket for about 30 seconds but it still took onehellova shove to
drive it home). The whole package is covered in photos of the
figure, and though not quite as striking as some of the recent fare
from HT it still does a fine job of protecting the figure in transit
and fits perfectly with the rest of the series released to date.
Sculpt: *** 3/4
To some degree HT have had to use some
artistic licence with all the ALIEN figures so far, but in my opinion
have given us near as damn it perfect 1/6 figures of the creatures.
Funnily enough the most accurate so far was the first from AvP but this
one comes in a close second.
The movie called for a much faster
leaner version of the creature. A vicious, murderous relentless killing
machine, and that came across in its sleek design. So out went the rear
breathing tubes, as much as I loved them on the previous versions it
made perfect sense that this super fast running ALIEN would need to be
unencumbered by their bulk, and so we were left with a stripped down
ALIEN, if you were to believe in ‘intelligent design’ then this was the
formula one turbo charged version.
Hot Toys have used a very
ingenious design on the four positions on jointed legs meaning all but
the ankle and hip are completely concealed by a sculpted rubber sheath,
this practice carries on over to the arms meaning the elbow joint is
also invisible. These covered joints add up to a far more impressive
ALIEN than those that went before it, meaning at first glance it
appears that the creature is all one organic piece and the sculpting on
the ribs, sinews, muscles and chitenous ridges helps this thing look
almost alive. Once again we have the opening mouth and
extending inner jaws operated by a small lever at the rear of the head.
And the head is of the smooth design, much favoured by… well… me.
Through this semi-opaque dome we can see some of the skull which is all
carried out fantastically, the use of the semi opaque material is also
utilised on the sides of the head, the shoulder fins and upper arms in
an amber/golden colour that catches the light to give emphasis to these
areas. All in all I love this sculpt, so why not full marks. Well to the purist there are a couple of small details that keep this from absolute perfection. They
are primarily the overall length of the creature, the mid torso section
could do with being slightly longer and thinner, but as I said above I
can usually see why some licence is taken, and here it is to keep some
residual strength in the mid section, had it been too long it would
almost certainly have needed to support too much weight and the
articulation could have been looser, and dare I say it even floppy. The
next is the profile of the mouth, but it’s close enough for me and
again the reason is the need to house the inner jaw and its ability to
protrude from the outer jaws. Lastly the length of the
tail, the ‘dragon; had a very long tail, the one included is pretty
long in itself but to be truly movie accurate could do with being a few
inches longer. So three issues are just keeping this from a
perfect score, but trust me, when in hand the overall impressiveness of
this creature will make them actually seem less important than they
should be. It’s a really cool figure and has become my new favourite
even with its slight faults. It has me very excited to see what they do
with the big chap when they get to him, if you’ve ever wondered where
the ‘big chap’ name came from, you might find this link of interest, go to the last page under ‘The Adult Alien’. Paint: ****
With this being Hot Toys seventh ALIEN (not including the
Pred-alien) the paint jobs just keep getting better, and the use of
those opaque amber sections as mentioned above really help lift the
paint apps even more. By their usual standards this is a walk in the
park, but Joseph Tsang (in charge of paint control and sculpting on
this occasion, double whammy) has made sure it’s still a standout job.
Subtle dark washes have been applied to give greater emphasis to the
sculpted details, and a flash of steel highlights the teeth, really
bringing him to life. Although covered by the cowl the skull is also
painted to bring out some of the sculpted detail. A straightforward
application carried out masterfully. Articualtion - ****
Because
of the Dog Aliens unique physiology he needed a completely new design.
I think the base armature in the body and neck is the same as the AvP
figure so we have the same impressive amount of mobility we had there,
but the rubber/silicone sheath covering it is all completely new. The
arms are again pop on double ended ball joints, the elbow can bend to
about 90 degrees and the wrist is a cut ball joint with a swivel peg at
each end. The hips have the double ended pop on joints and the ankles
are of the same design as the wrists so once you’ve familiarised
yourself with the way they work you can get them to tilt to pretty much
any angle you need, but all the other joints are under the sculpted
skin, it has a double ‘dog legged’ knees that have a ratcheted
mechanism, they can both close to within about 45 degrees and open up
to be virtually straight. He comes with two pairs of hands, one in a
rigid pose and another soft rubber pair with a wire armature for
posing, the tail also has a wire running through it for posing. When
you are posing him, it’s worth getting a feel for his centre of
gravity, I managed to get him to stand in quite a few poses just on his
hind legs however its easier if you use the tail as a support, using a
more ‘tripodic’ approach. After all when he was being designed it was
to be at optimum efficiency on all fours, so for safer long-term
display, that’s the way I would advise going.
So knowing how this
creature moved in the movie I think HT have done an amazing job of
creating a figure that can duplicate most of, if not all the poses you
could ever want, an outstanding bit of engineering. Accessories - ***
Two
alternate ‘bendy’ hands, I’ve never been a big fan of bendy hands on
human figures, they tend to look like awkward prosthetics, but on
ALIENS and Predators they can work really well. These are
very delicate and skinny, but can come in very ‘handy’ for some of the
‘on all fours’ running poses. There’s no stand, but so far none of the
ALIENS have had them either. The only omission for me is the lack of the queen face-hugger,
admittedly this is only from the special edition, but it was the first
time we saw it’s unique design and a 1/6 version would have put the
cherry on top. But perhaps if we’re lucky we might get another version of the ‘Dog Alien’, the smaller skinnier version
that we first see erupt from the dog in the theatrical version, and to
pad out the smaller scale an added face-hugger would be sweet. Fun factor: ****
OK,
OK I’m biased I love ALIENS, and this is one sweet figure in my books.
I’ve had it in hand for only a few days and I can not go past it
without a quick play and re-pose, so as far as fun factors go, for me
this one is off the freakin scale for me!
Value: ***1/2
This figure has demanded a lot of design and
problem solving and Hot Toys have not come out wanting. You can see
that a lot of love has been poured into making this thing as perfect as
they could realistically make it and the price is still fair. So for a
figure this complex, this well engineered and painted a RRP of $150 is
pretty much on the money for me. You couldn’t describe it
as a bargain, but the work lavished on it certainly makes it fair, and
if you’re willing to root around you’ll find it cheaper than $150
elsewhere bringing it ‘almost’ into the realms of a bargain… well for a
Xeno freak like me anyway!
Overall: ****
Hey, it’s me… what did you expect, I don’t even feel I have to justify myself, I said it all above, it’s a great figure OK!
SCORE RECAP:
Packaging - ***
Sculpt - ***3/4
Paint - ****
Articulation - ****
Accessories - ***
Fun Factor - ****
Value - ***1/2
Overall - ****
Where to Buy -
Go get him while you still can!
Sideshow- $149.99 Pre-Order
Alter Ego Comics- $134.99 Pre-Order
CornerStoreComics- $134.99 Pre-Order
Dark Shadow $135 Pre-Order
Forbidden
Planet- £99 Pre-Order
Showpiece
Collectibles $149.99 Pre-Order Or it’s time to hit eBay with
the sponsor MyAuctionLinks.com. 
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