ALIEN Day is almost upon us. April 26 is widely recognised by fans and more official channels as a day fans of the ALIEN series celebrate our beloved movie series. A movie series about a species of implacably hostile biomechanical extraterrestrial parasitoid creatures that brutally murder fellow human beings. Lovely stuff. In past years 4-26 has been the day various ALIEN licence holders and fans indulged in making a variety of public announcements. This year should be no different. Big names are often attached and while the past couple of years have been a little scant in this regard, this year is potentially very special.

Currently in the works are two major productions, a streaming ALIEN movie (which is rumored to being considered for a limited cinema release) and an ALIEN television series are both in the works. 20th Century Studios obviously feel the ALIEN property has great potential in it still. As principal photography for the movie has been progressing for a few weeks now, we may soon hear some details about what this production has to offer. Let’s hope 20CS takes advantage of the upcoming ALIEN Day to capitalise on making a reveal, either story details, character info or possibly even some images from the movie sets. It would seem to be an appropriate time to make such announcements. We shall see what happens in two days time.

Other typical announcements unrelated to these two upcoming productions may likely come from licence holders revealing new product lines or fans releasing their own content online. Who knows what new merchandise and goodies, both licenced and otherwise, will be announced? Either way, ALIEN Day is a fun day! Well, it’s a fun day if you are into appreciating face ripping space monsters that want to decimate humanity and the various industries and enthusiasts that support this fascination.

-windebieste.

French publisher Hachette has made their 1:2 scale DIY ALIEN kit available for purchasers in the United Kingdom. Subscriptions are now available. This subscription appears to  be intended for the residents of the UK only.

Originally released in France a couple of years back, this part works assembly project arrives periodically in the mail in kit form. Here’s what the publisher, Hachette, has to say about this item, “Subscribe now and you’ll receive your first pack with kits 1-4 for a special price of £24.99 with free P&P. After that, you’ll receive subsequent packs with 8 kits monthly for £94.99 + £5 P&P. There are 13 packs in the collection containing 100 assembly kits in total. As part of your subscription benefits”, you will also receive 3 FREE gifts during the course of your collection. I’d imagine a project as complex, detailed and containing so many features and ancillary parts would take time, requiring a staggered global release. So maybe Hachette will yet make this subscription available to other locations (US, Canada, the rest of Europe, Australia, et cetera) at some future date? No information regarding this action is available at this time. Loving the look of this project. Who doesn’t want a four foot tall Alien loaded with electronics and moving parts that hisses at passers by in their living room? Cat owners be warned!

-windebieste.

I’m not certain how my appreciation for bootleg ALIEN toys commenced. It’s lost in time as much as the production dates these things were actually made. Nonetheless, over the past two decades, I’ve been collecting these oddities. Of particular interest to me are the craptacular samples that are obviously shameless reproductions of genuine licenced product. These items, in particular hailing from Mexico, are often in possession of a weird charm along with a complete and unapologetic disregard for production values at any level. Three items below are perfect samples in this regard. Each one of these ALIENS bootleg toys features the same purloined figure, Kenner’s Scorpion Alien, as a base for these unlicenced product items. It’s the most commonly bootlegged Kenner ALIEN figure of its era and many samples were created by unknown mexican manufacturers during the past twenty years.

Above left can be seen a blue figure mounted on heavily modified Kenner card back featuring characters from their 1990s product with the word “ALIENS” prominently on display, twice. Assertively appearing twice may be of curious note on its own but it may possibly aid in unraveling the ensuing confusion. The card next to it features pilfered Kenner art from their PREDATOR line of toys with another Scorpion Alien mounted on card. …but ummm, OK. Then to round off the trio of unlikely nonsense in hand you will see a bootleg Spiderman figure, packaged in a bag with a counterfeit Kenner ALIENS toy for company. Alright. This nonsense doesn’t get any better from here, I assure you and the best way to approach these items is with head scratching appreciation, a good sense of humor and the realisation someone was bold enough to create these items and pass the poor quality product onto the public.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of this nonsense. There are so many mexican bootleg ALIEN figures and toys made available over the past twenty years, it’s impossible to know what’s been made – and when – as production dates are always lacking. I’ve endeavored to document as many samples as possible and these entries form the backbone of the area on HIDEOUS PLASTIC dedicated to such lurid junk.

If you want to know more about these less than legitimate toys, then please do visit the section dedicated to Bootlegs, Knock Offs and Other ‘Illegal’ Aliens.

-Windebieste.

Today I expanded the bootleg section of HIDEOUS PLASTIC to include some rare Chinese made knock-offs of Kenner’s 1990s ALIENS colonial marines. Several carded and opened Samples of ARMY HEROES FORCE PEACE KEEPER action figures have now been added to the lengthy, growing list of weird and wonderful ALIENS bootleg toys and figures. During the 1990s, Kenner released a range of popular ALIENS toys which have since been bootlegged by various unknown manufacturers. Today’s addition includes liberally unlicenced interpretations of toy versions of Ripley, Bishop, Hicks and other popular ALIENS colonial marines characters. Confront the very Manly lt. Ripley! Witness the ultimate fate of Kenner’s USCM! Marvel as they are abducted and conscripted into the ranks of Dollar Tree style ARMY HEROES FORCE PEACE KEEPERS generic troops!

er… yup. I kid you not.

Thank you Marc Cawiezel and Brian D. for your kind permission to use these images.

-Windebieste.

It looks like publisher Hachette Partworks isn’t finished with their half-scale ALIEN kit just yet. A page on their website has appeared requesting fans to register their interest in the subscription based publication which provides purchasers with weekly installments to “BUILD YOUR OWN TERRIFYING XENOMORPH!” hinting for a 2023 (re)release.

As the Hachette ALIEN kit has been available in Europe for some time now, it looks like the company may be expanding their customer base to other continents. Could the US be the intended target, here? 2023 could be a fun year for ALIEN collectors if this item does see a more global release. I’m hoping to see its eventual appearance here in Australia, too. I don’t know if that will ever happen but I’ve registered. I’m happy to support this company and have this project become available around the world. Sign yourself up to this tantalising release (re-release?) wherever you live. Show Hachette we want more.

Thank you Daniel Pin for calling this news to my attention. Sweet.

-Windebieste.

Freshly added to the section dedicated to unlicenced mash ups and other unexplained ALIEN merchandise phenomena is a series of images featuring boxes of Chinese knock off ALIEN Resurrection pseudo LEGO merchandise made by POGO. POGO, really? Yeah. POGO.

Astonishing box art for equally astonishing bootLEGO minifigs. I’d love to get my hands on some of these boxed items. You can find these new additions along with an assortment of other incredible and weird nonsense that has to be seen to be believed right here. Thank you Paul Snell for providing these images.

-Windebieste.

Ah, what do we have here? Looks like more bootleg ALIEN weirdness from Mexico. Let’s get started with the recently released King Alien, a translucent albeit spurious figure of unknown origin. It suspiciously appears to be cobbled together from various other ALIEN parts and painted in a diverse range of colours. But wait! there’s more. Much more…2022 has been a productive year for Mexican bootleggers. I’ve seen a substantial range of new and unlicenced figures being released this year and they’re all wicked ‘n’ wild. You can find all the new additions I’ve become aware have now been added to HIDEOUS PLASTIC’s section dedicated to celebrating this alluring nonsense. Click on that link and prepare to be knocked out by the most grotesque unlicenced ALIEN creations available. I love this lurid, outlandish nonsense so much! Thank you, Mexico. Continue reading →

What do you call a three headed vinyl action figure featuring two wolf heads, a xenomorph head and all in one fell swoop loosely resembles Godzilla? Fully licenced, that’s what you call it. There’s definitely something to be said for this Bandai produced vinyl action figure.

This is Galberos, hungry three headed lupine guardian of the Underworld! Or maybe he’s simply a Kaiju character from Japanese television show, Ultraman who got lost on the way home. Either way, I love this wonderful chimera-like sofubi and he is now documented in HIDEOUS PLASTIC’s section dedicated to Unexplained Phenomena. Click on that link!

Snailiens, ALIEN PEZ dispensers, bootLEGO Xenomorphs, and many other “WTF?” curiosities of the cosmic freakshow and other denizens populating the universe of ALIEN bootlegs, unlicenced product and other anomalous merchandise await you…

-Windebieste.

Images have been circulating online recently of new Mexico bootleg ALIEN toys. These appear to be themed along a hybridisation of Godzilla and a xenomorph. At this point, I’ve seen at least two different variants, silver painted and a more “bronze” painted version. As is always the case with these clearly unlicenced, outlandish nonsense from Mexico, no manufacturer details, pricing or availability is known to me other than the fact these lurid things are 8 inches tall and definitely belong in the crazy box. Nothing here makes any sense. Just imagine the size of the facehugger that attacked… Godzilla? Hilarious!I am hoping to have a sample for review at some point in the not too distant future. This weird stuff does take some hunting down but I hope to acquire one as soon as possible. That will be at least six weeks away, at the very best as shipping from Mexico to Australia is always a lengthy exercise. I am looking forward to having one on hand and adding it to my collection of loopy unlicenced Mexican ALIEN items very soon.

-Windebieste.

The HIDEOUS PLASTIC area dedicated to unlicenced ALIEN products, toys and action figures has had new entries made to it. Notably, Snailiens and 3D printed BootLEGO items. Thank you Sean Pound for your contribution to this update.

The amount of weird & wonderful items now residing in this cordoned off area is growing steadily. Inside, you will find Snailiens, ALIEN-MAN, bootLEGO, Pokemon/ALIEN cossovers… and a variety of other unlicenced goodies that deserve more legitimate production but will most likely never see such attention.

Go check ’em out!

-Windebieste.

Prime 1 Studio, maker of high end collectibles, has provided an update to their upcoming ALIENS Alien Warrior statue. While it looks like the design of the actual Alien Warrior has been finalised – and looks superb! – attention is now being focused on fine tuning the figure’s base.It already looks fine from these images but it’s just easier to have Prime 1 Studio recount in their own words what is now being done. “As you’ll see in these Before and After photos, we re-sculpted the base to feature more detail and to take up a smaller footprint for ease of displaying. Take a look at the Production Sample pictures, and you’ll see the base embellishments are concentrated closer together, the acid burns in the steel grating are more film-accurate, and we added creepy Xenomorph resin all throughout the back of the base, among other things. For everyone waiting for the Warrior Alien, we thank you for your continued patience as Prime 1 Studio works to make this statue the very best version of itself!” Sounds like the quality of sculpt all round for this item is reaching the lofty goals of their earlier ALIEN figures without any compromise.

Here’s a Facebook Gallery of images of the current work in progress.

-Windebieste

Today, I have added the first update item to this site’s new section, ImPerfect Organisms; an area dedicated to ALIEN production error samples. This update features a paint mishap displayed on an ALIEN Wave 3 Brett ReAction figure. Released from confinement of his his 3 pack box, Paul Snell, inspected the 3.75 inch action figure to find Brett’s face prominently displays this paint anomaly.

While this is a minor production error on this sample, it’s only the first of a much larger investigation, spearheading the much larger and varied twisted world of anomalous loose 3.75 inch tall ALIEN action figures. After all, as we have been instructed in the past, “Big things have small beginnings”. So be it.

Thank you Paul for sharing these images of “Birthmark Brett” with us all. He’s awesome! Anybody wanting to share images of their production error samples with us all, please let me know and I will consider posting them. Wherever possible, I provide credit to images as appropriate. Have a great day!

-Windebieste.