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.

ALIENS: COLONIAL MARINES

Yes i ended getting the infamous Aliens: Colonial Marines for the PS3 despite the bad reviews it had. In the end it wasnt such a bad game, it was just mediocre and had a couple of nice horror moments here and there. Tough the best thing of the game was deffinetly its special edition that includes some patches, blueprints, photos and the main dish: a figure.

More than a figure it was an statue that came in a pretty cool transluscent display box with Xenomrph printed all around, just like with Batman Arkham City, this figure is best display on its case. I have no idea wath company produced this statue, but its not really big, kind of an average action figure but considering the size of the Power Loader and the Xeno, the scale is kind of tiny.

The scene shows a colonial marine (i dont think he is a particular character) inside the Power Loader battling against a Xenomorph in a plataform. The scene is really good looking and nicelly designed since like any good statue, it can be displayed from many views of points and looks good, focus on the action or one of the tw characters.

The base have the title of the game on the bottom and the overall sculpt of the statue is really detailed, mostly of course in the Power Loader since its full of details, bolts, anthennas, pivots, lots of tubes (the view on the back is really spectacular) and even the small red siren on the top.

The Xenomorph is really nice too, with legs steping ont he legs of the big machine while one of her claws is about to strike the marine in any moment, the sculpt is detailed anough for the size (specially on her head and spectacular looking long tail) and then it comes the marine, with an OK sculpt but i guess it makes sense since he is the character under the robot mechanism and under the Xenomorph attack, soo he is actually pretty difficult to see.

The paint is really really good on the Power Loader, with brigth yellows combined with rusty tones, signals of extreme use, black stripes, logos and red markings, the paint job is really exquisite and vibrant. The Xenomorph is a little ligth on the paint department, just black with some blue tones in the rigth lace to give it volume, he have a weird drawing effect on him but i guess he is perfect as it is.

Then it comes the marine, who is again, the weakest since his face is all sloppy painted and not very detailed. His body is OK, with a camo patern and metalic tones but since hs is inside the Power Loader, i guess it was a reall challengue to give him a much soficticated paint.

Despite the weakest parts on the piece, this little statue looks fantastic and is deffinetly the best thing that came from the boring Colonial Marines. I miss those times when even weak games had fantastic special editions to a cheap price like this one.

RHINO ALIEN

Collecting figures has been very difficult in the last months thanks to the pandemic and add the crazy tax Mexico add to any online transaction and things are unreal hard and it seems they will not get better anytime soon. Despite of that i been able to get some of my preordered figures little by little and one of them is the Rhino Alien from NECA.

Part of the Kenner tribute, this guy is based on the very first 90s Alien action figure serires, a Xenomorph brith from a Rhino. Is not the crazyest ideas at all (not as wacky as the scorpion version) and the resulting figure was an extremelly cute little guy with chuby legs and a horn, cast on orange transluscent plastic.

NECA rebuild that character to creat this beast, using modern technology for impresive sculpt, articulation and paint (and price) for a monster that is not cute at all. The Rhino Alien is actually pretty huge and bulky he dosnt comes in a clamshell like the rest of her sisters, instead she comes in a big deluxe box perfect for the share weigth of the creature.

He is designed to be on all four tough he can stand on two legs with no problem at all. When in four he is a little bit taller than a standar human action figure, when on two legs this creature is towering, a head taller than the rest of the Aliens and even the Play Arts Kai figures. While on two legs tough is pretty easy to lose balance soo its better to have this creature on all four tough i love how unconfortable and awkard it looks on two legs, almost like a werewolf.

This Xenomorph is articulated on the jaw, neck, shoulders, double elbows, wrists, fingers, chest, legs, double knes and ankles. Unlike the Mantis Alien, this one use ratchet joints, soo the articulations are much more resistant and stronger tough is very limited in movement thanks to his design: the pipes on the back prevent the head to move to the sides, the spikes on the shoulders prevent the arms to move out and the big wings like construct on the legs always clash with his tail thingy.

Also, despite all the articulations, is pretty tricky to pose this Alien on all four. Like i say, the hips clash with the gothic designs on his legs too move the legs up front is pretty difficult, and the knes have the same issue, also while the arms are pretty long it requieres a lot of strugle to make all four limbs rest on the ground. And as a side note, his elbows articulations are kinda soft soo i am wondering how long they will resist support such heavy weigth...and the wrists dosnt give me a good feeling either. Despite being the bulkyest Alien, this can be more fragile than it seems.

Also, the original Kenner figure had this big hooves but this version have smaller feet and "normal" Alien hands with long and articulated fingers, again this makes me wonder if it was a good choice for such a heavy character.

The scuplpt is brillant, super detailed and full of intrincate design all over, mixing the organic with the mechanic perfectly. The abdomen is made with soft plastic for some reason and it have the big ribcage over it, wich means you can see theres something behind the ribs, almost like looking at a boiler with figure inside, the orange inside and the black ribs have a very spectacular effect. His legs also have a trully fantastic redesign with a very animalistc design with backward articulation and the tail looks menacing and pointing.

While the front of the creature is really good looking, the back is also worth nothing with thise big pipes behind. This pipes were present on the original Kenner figure and pretty much each section was present, but while the original was chuby and cute, this version is totally twisted, pointy, spikey and overall, much more menacing and violent looking.

The color is divided into two: gunmetal black in front and transluscent orange in the back. The metalic black starts to fade slowlly by the sides leaving the back totally orange. Add some ligth and this orange shines like its on fire and if the creature is on all four legs is gonna look like its front side is made with coal and his back side is burning on fire, almost like a creature made with molten lava.

If the design wasnt twisted and demonic enough, the color make it looks less like an Alien and more like a hellish demon.

His mouth have silver fangs around the checks and big upward fangs like a wild pig and a huge rock like horn where the eyes are supposed to be. The horn is intense black color and is actually pointy. The jaw opens to let his second mouth slide out. Sadly he is looking at the ground, soo this second mouth is a little useless compared to the big horn in front.

His skill is all cracked up and remidns me a cockroach too much thanks to its soft orange tone. For some reason this dome can be removed ro reveal his insides. The dome is only keept in place by the horn at the end of the head, but it dosnt move too much and the inside looks....well, kinda organic, like an orange brain. I guess the guys at NECA didnt want to lose the sculpt they did in there.

The monster have no base tough i wish they give him one....with a rod to conect on its chest or abs soo it can relive the weigth from the legs and arms but i guess is not that neccesary...i mean, if they didnt give a base to the Mantis Alien its pretty obvious this one can survive without one much better and theres no other accesory aside of his removable dome and the Dark Horse comic reprint in high quality paper.

Overall, this is quiet and impresive toy that looks really spectacular in any way its posed tough i still fear his articulations wont rests the weigth but i guess only time will tell. NECA did a great job like always and went beyond delivering such a perfect creature.

Now i am missing only the Gorilla Alien, now i really need him but there is also two other Aliens NECA hasnt anounced yet: the Bull and the Winged Alien. Bull was my favorite over the Rhino when i was  akid since he looked more demonic and evil, tough if NECA inyected such evilnes into the Rhino i really want to see wath they can do with Bull, and the Winged Alien....i dont even want to think how expensive and big that thing would be....

DOG ALIEN

I am actually a big fan of Alien tough until now i didnt buy any figure of the characters. In my adult life thats it, since in my childhood i had all the Alien line from Kenner, including the Colonial Marines and theyr vehicles. The truth is, after Kenner line, all other Alien figures looked the same for me.

With the exception of the Queen and the Predalien, all Xenomorphs looked the same in any scale. But when i saw this cute little guy i was really attracted to his crooked silhouette and cockroach look.

The Dog Alien from Alien 3, he wasnt birth from a human, but instead his host was a dog/cow and that gives him prety different features. He is from NECA Reel Toys and part of theyr very succesfull Alien line tough i have no idea if he is new or how much time he has been in the market by now.

He is tall and slim and cant really stand on hiw own thanks to the animal design of his legs. He is fully articulated and his tail is bendable and have a pretty sturdy texture. Some of his articulations are really difficult to move and mine have a twisted leg that makes it even more difficult to stand.

Given the crooked nature of his anatomy, is pretty hard to see this twisted leg and i dont have too much of a problem with it but this is the very first time i have a issue like this with a NECA toy.

I cant say for sure if he is movie acurate since we never see him on his full glory on film, but his sculpt is really intrincated and complex. He is sporting this dark brown color that makes him looks like a roach more than a dog (and his head dosnt help). Each opening and vein is detailed with blacks and soft browns and he is trully gruesome to look at.

His dome is transluscent with a black smokey shade soo you can see perfectly his insides. I love this effect!!! Is amazing how much details are NECA using in this creatures!!

Each one of his fangs are sculpted and painted and inside his articulated mouth he have his second jaw. Its a shame Kener toys didnt had this feature back in 1993, as a kid i would have loved this kind of stuff.

His lone accesory is a base designed to make him stand in all four, like a dog. This base is completelly useless thanks to the clow not be articulated and is much more easyer make him stand without it than with the base.

He is taller than the rest of the NECA toys as can be seen on the last pic and i am glad his scale is perfect for them, that means he is on scale with most action fiigures as well.

Aside of the useless base, i have no complaing wathsoever. His size, amount of detail and low price makes him an excelent figure to display and play with. Its kind of nostalgic to have a Xenomorph toy in my hands after 20 years…tough the nostalgia is keep for the other figure i bouth along side him….

MANTIS ALIEN

When i notice NECA was doing a tribute to Kenner i knew i had to have those figures. The Aliens line from Kenner was one of my favorites in my childhood and i even had the entire line in my hands at one point (Colonial Marines and vehicles included) and i had A LOT of fun with them. The odd and bizarre new design for the Xenomorph didnt make any sence but they where really fun to look and play with.

24 years later and NECA is re-doing some of those characters, giving them a modern look and all the attention to detail modern adult toys have. The Queen Face Hugger was a huge dissapointment… and i am really looking forward to put my hands on a Gorila Alien, but for now i got the Mantis Alien, the most colorfull of the series.

First of all, i saw some people complaining this guy used recycled parts from other Alien toys. Well, if thats true, then i can see no problem in here. Building a toy like this needs a lot of money and if NECA recycle a few parts i cant see the issue, this creature is the same species as the other Aliens, soo it makes sence he have elements on his anathomy that match the others.

Aside of that, this guy is one of the coolest and prettyest Alien toys i ever seen. The intrincate design on his head - with the plaques that looks like bug eyes -, the tail with the stinger, the bony “shoulder pads”, he looks elegant and extremelly modern and yet he looks very old school, almost like the monster from a senati TV show.

The paint is really basic, with cooper color fangs and some metalic tones here and there and yet this is incrediblly colorfull, thanks to the transluscent green plastic they used on him. This transparency gives him an amazing vibrant look and makes him quiet hiddeous too. While the Dog Alien was slymmy, this really looks insectoid.

Theres a complete range of articulation in here, from hi head and mouth that can be open (and reveal a transluscent green inner jaw) to the many elbows he have (4 elbors in each arm) and knees, theres no limit really to poseability here. Even his pincers are articulated as well.

He is also tall. He is HUGE, taller than the Dog Alien standing up rigth, giving him the same heigh as a Play Arts Kai figure and matching the perfect size for standar action figures.

The big BIG problem in here is that, he cant stand at all. His heavy head, the stinger on his tail, the huge arms and the backward shape of his insect legs, every single thing works against him and makes him victim of gravity. The theory is that he is supposed to hold himself up with his pincers up front, but the articulations cannot resist the weight and after a couple of minutes he is liying on the ground.

I find it hard to understand why NECA gives a useless base to Dog Alien but nothing to this guy. An specific base for him since giving the shape of his body, not all bases work with him. I ended up using one of my spare PAK bases here tough but a good option for NECA was to give him sturdy ratchet articulations that hold the pose in place and not this run of the mill ball joints.

This figures is the embodimient of style over functionality, since he is incrediblly pretty and cool but is pretty hard to notice that if he is liying in the ground like a green corpse.

He comes with the same accesoryes the Kenner toys had: a little chestbuster with a posable tail and a green color. I asume this thing is the Mantis Alien in baby form and is one of the cutestst things i ever seen, with his tinny arms and silver little fangs.

The other accesory is a re-print of Dark Horse comic that came with this same guy 24 years ago. I love hos NECA didnt forget a single detail in here and is bringing back this silly little comic full of the 90s cliches.

I am in love of this guy, really. But i am just amazed NECA didnt do anything to fix the stability issue - the single thing that keeps this guy from total perfection. Now if only NECA release its own version of the Bull Aliens or the Fliying Queen, that would be rad. But in the mean time, i will hunt a Gorila to pair him up with this green monstruosity.

QUEEN FACE HUGGER

In 2017 i was extremelly hyped with NECA´s new version of the original Kenner toys from Alien. This serires redesigned the old characters with modern quality (and prize) and even reproduce the blister Alien toys had in 1992 to match the nostalgic magic. One of the figures i was extremelly doubtfull with was the Queen Face Hugger but i finally ended getting it.

Why my doubts about this figure? This creature was one of my favorite Alien toys from my childhood, it was such a unique "Alien" but this version of NECA is just.....tiny, small and is full priced as a whole figure. The blister is actually quiet light as well.

The figure itself is actually pretty good looking tough, colored in a vibrant scarlet with black tones, this is like the heavy metal version of the normal Face Hugger, a creature that is already really disturbing and scary by itself (since its basically a vagina with fingers), the idea to meet one of this things that is five times bigger is terrifiying.

Two extra legs/pincer in front and a transparent membrane between the legs/fingers give it a really spectacular look tough this figure is not very articulated at all, really ironic for a creature with this many legs. The legs have a ball joint as well as the front claws and his tail is bendable and thats it, the legs can rotate and move a round a little but and move the front claws is really useles.

By moving the legs here and there you can create the illusion that the thing is walking around like a spider, but thats all the poseability you will get from it. Also, his tail is too heavy and his legs are too thin, soo the creature obviouslly constantly fall´s back. It kind of looks like its about to leap but is really imposible to give it a standing pose.

The way to fix this is by using the heavy tail again, use it like an extra leg in the back and all the other legs fall in place and the creature stand abouve the ground in a very ghastly way but sadly, the tail end´s being hidden.

Now the original Kenner version actually had a mouth in front with an extendible jaw just like any Xenomorph but NECA removed this feature completelly and i dont know wath to think about it. This creature surelly looks more realistic and discrete without the mouth, but i was expecting NECA to go more extreme with this designs, like theye did with Mantis and Snake.

Compared with all the other Xenomorph, this thing is nothing but a tiny spider that can be squased by them by accident. Compared to human figures, this Queen Face Hugger is really as big as a human torso, soo in fact is in the same scale the Kenner version had soo no complaing in there, just the price....asking full price as a bigger hulkier Xenomorph really hurts the view over this creature, as good looking as it is, this thing should be an accesory included with the Scorpion or Snake Alien.

As an accesory, he have a "Beta Queen Face Hugger", a much more smaller version of the monster with exactly the same quality but without articulations, only the bendable tail. This can raise a lot of biological question like "does this things grow bigger after they come out of theyr egg?" or "they reproduce somehow and create smaller breeds?".

But the truth is, NECA wanted this little guy to act as a Royal Face Hugger, a deleted creature from Alien 3. The popular deleted scene consist on a guy holding a dead Rotal Face Hugger (the one infected Ripley) with one of his hands. This Beta version matches the scale for that and my guess is this is the reason why NECA deleted the mouth of the creature, they wanted to match the onscreen version more than the Kenner version.

Theyr effort was destroyed when they later release an Alien 3 accesorys set that included a Royal Face Hugger (this same figure but in brown colors), soo is a shame they only ruined the design of the Queen Face Hugger for this.

The other accesory is the mini comid from Dark Horse, a reproduction in high quality paper of the comic included in thw Kenner release, a pretty awesome touch.

I really dont know wath to think about this figure...is really good looking but is not very fun to play with and even if it have the rgth scale and comes with a baby version of itself, the Queen Face Hugger feels like a waste of money and space, more like an overpriced accesory thatn an actual action figure.