Packaging: **1/2
Just as with all the others they come blind boxed, you should be able to pick the specific ones you want though, as most online or bricks ‘n’ mortar stores sell them either opened or stickered… but beware, as if they are stickered at the factory I know for a fact there’s a rogue batch of ‘Ancients’ out there with ‘Alien’ drones in’em!

The selection this time is-

- Predalien
- Alien
- Battle Damaged Alien
- Wolf Predator (yes they do ‘actually’ call him that… at last it’s official)
- Predator (no prefix, just a new generic Pred)
- Ancient Predator (Humph…supposedly!)

The front of the box has the movie poster reproduced with a Drone and the Wolf facing off over planet Earth alongside the movie logo. The rest of the box has pics of the other figures in the series. Inside you’ll find the figures constructed and poly-bagged with separate compartments for the accessories, simple but effective.

Sculpt: Aliens + Predalie ****, Wolf Pred ***1/2, Predator **1/2
Not surprisingly the Aliens and the Predalien are my favourites here.

The two Aliens share the same sculpt, showing the non-smooth, ridged, chitenous design favoured in AvP: R, but they still share a lot of common elements from the first set as well, the body, tail, hands and feet are the same sculpt, just the heads are completely new. The Predalien on the other hand is virtually all completely new, the only borrowed item being the tail sculpt, it’s a cool super deformed representation for this scale, all the necessary details are in there but the work, particularly on the short dreads at the sides of his/her head seem a little softer in the ‘depth’ of their sculpting than that on the drone Aliens, a transparent cowl would also have been cool, but at this scale and price-point I’ll cut them some slack, someone did put it to me that the Predalien is in fact the closest we’ve seen to an Alien ‘King’ as it can only procreate by impregnating fertile female hosts…hmmm, well it’s a distinct possibility. 

Wolf is mostly made up of new elements as well with a dinky representation of his armour whilst in his single shoulder cannon mode. As was essential he also has a completely new head sculpt to show his acid ravaged face and missing mandible and very nice it is too. The surprising thing with the other two new Preds (I don’t have the Ancient, but I’m assured it’s the same) is their masks are glued in place, so there are no faces to review here. I can tell that by peering up underneath and gently prising at the top, that there is a face under there, and my guess is it’ll be the same the earlier AvP, Cosbaby- Preds, but you’ll only find out if you’re brave enough to prise it off completely. You’ll also find that a lot of the armour has been re-used from that set as well. 

So to sum up these are the perfect stable mates for the AvP set and stand along side them fantastically, but it has to be said, standing can be a bit of a tall order for them sometimes, especially with the Preds, as their feet aren’t quite as substantial as the Aliens and are prone to take the occasional dive if placed somewhere that picks up vibrations. However, that’s not why I marked the Preds down, not under sculpting anyway, it’s because some of the elements are re-used and those masks are permanently glued in place.

Paint: Aliens ***3/4, Predalien and Wolf ***1/2, Preds ***
When grading these you have to take the scale into consideration, and also the Aliens are an easier application to get right, due to their relatively limited colour palette. They’re basically just matte black with dry brushed silver highlights. The Predalien is also relatively simple as it’s a base dark brown with beige areas and some details picked out in silver. The most complex is Wolf by a country mile as he has his dread details, beige skin with spotted markings and green acid scarred flesh, he then has his eyes painted in different tones to show his damaged ‘milky’ eye, some pink around his mandibles and finally leather, and metal details on his outfit. All these are carried out well but I think the right side ‘good’ eye could have done with being a little brighter so as to differentiate it a little more from the ‘damaged’ one.

Lastly the two new Preds… or in my case ‘one’ new Pred, but from the images on the box they look pretty much identical apart from the mask designs, and although all the work is pretty solid I feel the permanently attached masks let them down just a little.

Articulation: ***
These have identical articulation to all the other Cosbay figures so far, so its basically small ‘pop’ in ball jointed ankles, hips, shoulders and neck with the wrists being simple push in pegs that can swivel, nothing too spectacular, but for figures of this size perfectly adequate, my only slight misgiving being that the angle the legs come out of the Preds hips, coupled with the width of their feet means it can sometimes be hard to get both of their feet sitting flat on the ground, and with the size of their heads, as mentioned above, this can make standing in a solid position a bit of a task!

Accessories: Wolf ***1/2, Preds ***, PredAlien & Aliens N/A
Of the three Preds, only Wolfs mask is removable, hence his slightly higher score, as for the ones with it glued in place, well, it can hardly be considered an accessory. Wolf also has his spear and whip, the spear is the same as the one we got with the AvP series, but the whip is unique to ‘the cleaner’. The other two come with a spear and open shuriken, these are again the same as supplied with the first series.

All the items have plenty of detail, taking into account their scale, the only mod you might need to make is that the spears can come out a little bent/warped straight from the box, but a quick dunk in boiling water (adult supervision where necessary), a quick tweak to straighten up and a splash under a cold tap and they’re a straight as an arrow! 

Outfit - N/A
Everything is sculpted

Fun factor: ****
Definitely a four star item, my kids aren’t quite as interested in this set, but I think they played the first set to death. And now they have the Disney Cosbabies they’ve lost interest in “Daddies ugly dollies” (quietly relieved sigh!).
But these are still top items for Pred and Alien fans alike who want a cute deformed version of their favourite mass murdering extra-terrestrial without paying out big bucks for the Medicom or Yuri-Soft vinyl figures.

Value: ****
Sideshow had these for $8.50, up a dollar from last time, but they’ve still long sold out. I’m also still having difficulty tracking them down sold individually on Michaels other sponsors sites apart from Amazing Toyz or his UK connection Forbidden Planet, but you’ll still find a couple of pointers in the ‘where to buy’ section though!
I think even with the increase of a dollar that these show very good value for money, and if it wasn’t for their scarcity (I don’t know what numbers they are made in, but they seem to disappear pretty fast) and with the right licences they could even catch on with kids as a pocket money collectables. 

As it is though you’ll have to act reasonably quickly if you want to ensure a full set.

Overall: ***1/2
I’m giving these the same overall score as the last set. The sculpting and painting is great and the price is just right, my only slight issue is still with their ability to stand and keep hold of their accessories. On the whole they’re no worse than my Hasbro SW 3 ¾ inch figures on my desk, but like them a couple of small blobs of Blu-Tack under each foot goes a long way.

Score Recap:
Packaging - **1/2
Sculpting - Aliens + Predalie ****, Wolf Pred ***1/2, Predator **1/2
Paint - Aliens ***3/4, Predalien and Wolf ***1/2, Preds ***
Articulation - ***
Accessories - Wolf ***1/2, Preds ***, PredAlien & Aliens N/A
Outfit - N/A
Fun Factor - ****
Value - ****
Overall - ***1/2

Where to Buy -
SST has sold out so you’ll have to try your local comic stores or a couple of Michaels sponsors have them but Alter ego only offer them as a complete set-

CornerStoreComics- $7.99

Alter Ego- $45.90

Forbidden Planet- £5.99

Or eBay where you’ll find them for ‘buy it now’ of between $9.99 and $12.99. You can do that search using the sponsor MyAuctionLinks.