This set of 3 figures - two green and one red - sells for $80 direct from Amoktime or from one of my fine sponsors listed in the "where to buy" section.

One other note - this set of three is also very limited, with only 500 sets produced.

Packaging - ***1/2
The boxes look terrific, with excellent 50's style movie poster graphics, lots of background text on the back of the box, and some additional stills on the inside of the fifth panel. It's a big box, bigger than it really needs to be, but that's a minor nit.

There's a few twisties to contend with, but otherwise it's quite collector friendly. If you're like me, and don't really worry about putting the twisties back, you can easily take these guys out and store them again in the box later.

Sculpting - ***1/2
I love the look of these big, goofy heads with their reptilian eyes. The pulsing veins in the head are sculpted with nice, hard lines - nothing soft here. The ears, mouth and lips are all well defined, and the hand sculpts are fantastic. While they are creepy, they still have that look of fake rubber gloves. Even the popped up eyeballs on the back of the hands look terrific!

My only nit is the scale, because these are a smidge too small. Yes, little people played the aliens in the film, so they should not be full 12" figures. These stand about 9" tall with the large heads, which is actually pretty close to correct if you're just considering height.

But the bodies are quite thin, due to the use of a standard style 8" base body. In the film, they were a bit thicker and, well, pudgier. Also, while these head's are huge, they aren't quite as huge as they were in the film. Remember, under those masks was an actual human head, and the masks ended up close to three times the size of a normal man. Here, they're big, but not that big.

The head size isn't as big of an issue for me though because I also know that if they had made them larger, getting these figures to stand would have been almost impossible. They're already top heavy enough, and if I have to trade between perfectly to scale sculpt and a figure that can stand on its own, I'll go for the latter.

Paint - ***1/2
The paint work on these is likely far better than what was on the actual masks. There's some nice shading on the huge skull, and small details are well done, like the veins in the eyes  Cut lines are sharp, and there's really no slop.

I do wish they'd done a bit more detailing on the mouths. The creature has sort of double lips - the outer ones, and then an inner set that wrapped around the teeth. You can see that there's some sculpted teeth in there, but they didn't use any white paint to bring them out.

I'm assuming that the fact that some were red and some were green (little green aliens - har har) is accurate, and perhaps they mentioned that in the film. Of course, it was a black and white movie, so you can't tell from watching it, but it's nice to have the different colors to break up the monotony. Personally, I prefer the green (little green aliens - it still cracks me up), because the details of the head sculpt seem to pop out more.

Articulation - ***
The underlying body is a unique 8" figure. I don't remember seeing this before, although I'm sure it's been used on something I own somewhere in the past.

The necks are cut joints, but that appears to be more of a character specific choice. I'm good with that for the same reason I was good with the head not being quite as large as it should be - a ball jointed neck with this heavy of a head would probably mean he'd be flopping around like a rag doll.

There are ball shoulders, and these are attached to the torso with springs. Did you ever own one of those old Best of the West figures from the 60's and 70's? Yep, it's sort of like that, although the construction is a bit better. Still, it does make me nervous, especially if the plastic starts to get brittle.

The hips are similar, although I couldn't get the outfit off far enough to be exact on just how the ball joint there is designed. There's pin elbows, knees, wrists and ankles as well, along with a waist joint.

The bodies pose surprisingly well. You can certainly get ominous poses out of them, and as you can see in the top photo, I had no trouble getting them to kneel, sit, stand, or take a fighting stance. The bodies flow and hang pretty naturally - see the photo of the Red Alien hanging out with his display stand.

While the body isn't quite as articulated as some of the best on the market, it meets the needs of these particular characters quite well.

Accessories - **1/2
The aliens had these funky lightening bolt sort of weapons (they were no match for...headlights!), and there are three identical ones packed in with this trio of terror. These are made out of a lot better material than the actual props too - if you look back at this photo I linked to earlier, you'll notice that it appears as though the weapon is made out of cardboard, and it's been bent across the top. They didn't even bother to cut another one out for the still!

There's also a display stand for each figure. As I mentioned in the Articulation section, you don't really need it but it's nice to have. It has the logo on the base. Because it's technically designed for 12" figures, you'll have to keep the arm all the way down. Even in this position, it will be up around the figures pits when he's standing within.

Outfit - ***
It's a good thing these guys were uglier than a monkey's butt, because otherwise you might notice that they're only 4 feet tall and wearing footy pajamas. Without the bulging cranium and lizard eyes, it isn't a particularly fear inducing appearance.

They cheated a bit on the outfit. The area around the neck and wrists were supposed to be scaly extensions of the head and hands. They did what they could to approximate that scale appearance with this green material, and it works fairly well, but it's not quite screen accurate.

The rest of the costume looks just like you'd expect - black footy pajamas. There's a quality zipper in back that's close to scale, and it would be possible to remove the outfit if you can figure out a safe way to get the hands off.  I couldn't (heating them with water could cause problems with the wrist pin), but if you can, have fun.

Fun Factor - ***1/2
I don't know about you, but I had a crap load of fun posing these for the shoot, and I can't wait to have a shelf to display them with the rest of my classic monsters. While most kids wouldn't know a saucer man if it bite them on the butt, they still love the quirky and unusual, and these would fit in with any sixth scale play scenario.

Value - ***
Eighty bucks might not seem cheap at first, and I suppose it's not. But it's a better deal than you might realize at first. You're getting three figures, well articulated, with a cool head sculpt and each with their own weapon and display stand. Sure, there's plenty of re-use, but by getting three you get an automatic army of these little guys, a great selling point.

Also, with only 500 being produced, the cost could have easily been much higher. They're doing this at a price that I would have expected with a run of 3 - 4 thousand, not just 500.

And while the license probably isn't expensive, it's still a licensed product, adding another level of cost. Taking all that into consideration, they're a decent value.

Things To Watch Out For - 
I'd be careful with those shoulders. I haven't had an issue with these yet, but like I said, my Night of the Living Dead Zombie has similar shoulders and one of those was broken right out of the package.

Overall - ***1/2
Yea, I'm a geek for this type of figure, I admit it. I have a few nits with these, but I don't want anyone to think I'd misprize them. I truly appreciate the fact that we are getting some very unique, funky monsters to add to the shelf.

The price point is good, particularly when you take into consideration the size of the run, the size of the company, and the current state of the American economy. The sculpts and paint are excellent, and while I would have liked them to be a smidge bigger, I certainly understand why they aren't.

Is this a goofy looking monster? Yes. Does he look like a midget in black pj's with a rubber mask on? Yes. And that's exactly what he's supposed to look like. I don't want an artist interpretation of the character. I don't want a more realistic interpretation. I want one that's as screen accurate as I can get, and Amoktime did a great job in that regard.

Overall, Amoktime has had a VERY solid start, and I'm going to be covering their Rondo Hatton, Night of the Living Dead Zombie, I Was a Teenage Werewolf, and I was a Teenage Frankenstein all in the next couple weeks. Stay tuned for more monstrous goodness!

Score Recap:
Packaging - ***1/2
Sculpting - ***1/2
Paint - ***1/2
Articulation - ***
Accessories - **1/2
Outfit - ***
Fun Factor - ***1/2
Value - ***
Overall - ***1/2

Where to Buy -
You can always order these direct from Amoktime for $80 or:

- or you can search ebay using the sponsor MyAuctionLinks.

Related Links -
A few weeks ago, I looked at Amoktime's Gort and Klaatu, and I've covered other great old classic monsters like the quarter scale Premium Format Creature from The Black Lagoon, and the 12" version of Return of the Fly. Search through my archive and you'll find a ton of Sideshow Universal Monster reviews as well.

Discussion:
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