PANTHER ALIEN

 

NECA is mass murdering wallets all over the world, but this isnt new at all, before the accesorys sets sold as DLC, horror icons and Gargoyles, NECA landed the valley of the outlandish when it started to make remake of the toys of our childhood from Kenner. While the collection of Predators are very nice, wath hit me hard was theyr Alien action figures based on the nonexistant cartoon Operation Aliens.

The first series was such a nice surprise but i didnt expect it to advance beyond that, but years later here we are, with more Kenner Aliens. This time NECA rebuild a creature from the serires 3 of Kenner, the Panther Alien. At the begining of the 90s Kenner did a second version of this monster with a black and red color scheme called "Night Cougar Alien" and NECA of course did it too but i dont know if i will get color variants like that.

Besides i find this Panther Alien much more visually striking. He is tall, like all Xenomorphs but he designed to stand on all fours, like a cat, tough that dosnt mean he cant stand on two legs, quiet the opposite, and with the help of his tai he can stand tall and dosnt need a base.

He is articulated on the jaw, head, neck, chest, shoulders, double articulation on the elbows, wrists, fingers, tail, legs, double articulation on the knes, "half feet" (???) and feet, all ball jointed except the fingers and tail and each articulation moves perfectly and have a huge range of movement. And unlike the Rhino that comes with a lot of spikes, armour and a HUGE build, this Panther is slim, very slim and very light like a feather, soo nothing get on the way of his joints and make him stand is quiet easy.

Also, special mention to his head and neck articulations, the up and down neck movement have a pretty deep range of motion, soo he canlook at the frint while in four legs - unlike the Dog Alien, that have a very limtied head movement. Also the tail...the tail is soo long and yet soo slender, the wire inside it have a lot of movement, quiet the opposite of the, again, Dog Alien, this almost feels like an upgrade.

I mentioned a lot the Alien 3 Dog Alien here, thats because both are digitigrade, walk on four legs and they share a lot of theyr body sculpt, the entire torso, arms and legs are exactly the same as the Dog Alien (tough with much better articuation) and only the feet, tail and head are unique to this figure. Overall the sculpt is really good, with his exposed rib cage and a mix of flesh and exoesqueleton in those spidery legs, he represents Gigger´s vision nicelly.

The new sculpted feet are actually pretty cute looking, small and round, almost like the paws of a cat tough  they keep him balanced perfectly. The tail is terrific, not only is long but in the end side it have this...wide palm like structure and with  red stinger that rise the qiestion, is this crature venomus?? I mean, his tail looks much more menacing thatn that of the Scoprion Alien.

His neck is thick, with all the muscle structure exposed and the sculpt of tissue and tendons on his face is really stricking and his skull is actually the shortest and smallest of all the other Xenomorphs. The dome is transluscent and have shapes that looks like wings at the side that makes it looks like a crown.

The mouth opens perfectly and liberates the pharyx mandible with no problem, tough again, this mandible is quiet short. Overall, this Xenomorph is really really....compact and light, a monster that can fit anywhere but with the muscles to be fast, the little changes in scale make this creature feel like a domestic cat from hell.

While his anatomy is pretty delicate and discreet, the color is quiet the opposite: golden on top and white on the bottom with a pearl texture and orange on his dome/crown. This Xenomorph shines like a start in the night sky against his other sisters that comes in black, browns and greens. Actually, this color palette dont make me think on a panther at all, but a lion with yellow fur and orange hair.

There is a weet texture covering him as well as small details that makes it looks pretty natural even with the weird color palette, like dark shadows in between his boney column and robs, the soft yellow on his nails and the bloddy  red on the stinger on his tail.

Sadlly, with serires 3 the mini comic included on each figure of the Kenner line was concluded, soo this guy dont have a comic like the rest of the figures, but it does comes with an accesory, a "parasyte". In the original Kenner version, this Parasyte worked like a missil stuck on the ALien´s back and could be shot with a sping mechanism connected to his front legs.

Sadlly, this time the parasyte cannot be shot and is juts...there..on his back, like a back pack. The parasyte is sculpted in orange trasnlusent plastic soo theres no details at all. It seems is like some kind of Face Hugger since i can see tiny legs on the bottom but is actually hard to discenr with this parasyte really is, it looks more like come kind of fleshy tumor...

Odlly enough, while the parasyte cannot be shot like the original version, it have a magnet to attach to the Alien´s back; put the parasyte close and it will attach magically to the creatures back, a pretty nice effect but a little bit boring compared to the original version. Tough in the area the parasyte lands the Alien have red blisters, a very hiddeous and disgusting detail.

I am not sure if i will get the Night Cougar since is basically this same monster but painted in black with red strips, he looks edgy but pretty boring looking in my opinjon compared to this Panther version. This guy is soo discret and almost boring looking compared with the big monsters like Snake Alien or Mantis Alien, but in a closer look he is actually perfect and a lot of fun to play with him. 

The parasyte was kind of a dissapointing, but overall this is a fantastic looking Xenomorph that manages to be close to the basic concept of the creature and looks pretty different at the same time, and looks really terrific with the rest of the animal Xenomorph pack. I am crossing my fingers now for a Bull Alien, a Fliying Queen or a Boar Alien.