UPDATE: This listing was ended by the seller because there was error in the listing.
It happens occasionally where more than one Kenner ALIEN is listed in a sale on eBay. Here, we have 3 for auction with a starting bid at US$449.00.
None of them are complete but let’s take a swift pass on each one and see what they have to offer.
Here’s something interesting – I’m always digging up something “interesting”, hey. It’s a selection of unlicenced merchandise available on RED BUBBLE featuring a custom made ALIEN logo. Stickers, T-shirts, throw pillows, mugs, phone cases, tote bags… just about anything that can be printed on, actually. All of them featuring a knock off variant of the classic Kenner ALIEN logo. This one is somewhat amusing.
Sure, it’s unauthorised but it’s a great idea – and a lot of fun with the central graphic design inspired by Kenner’s original 1979 ALIEN logo. The bold title, egg shape surround and red, white & black colour scheme were common to the original Kenner logo appearing on their product range of toys released in 1979. Continue reading
Welcome to Day 6 in a week’s worth of vintage print media surrounding the 1979 Kenner ALIEN toy. Today’s post features another item from Starlog, a popular movie and television SF magazine of the time. This excerpt from October 1979 not only promotes the vintage toy but also includes the tragic News item of the minature (sic) Space Jockey prop being destroyed in a fire when displayed in Hollywood’s Egyptian Theater. Such a waste. It was a great prop specifically built for the movie, permanently lost the day the movie opened. 
Appearing next to it on page 12 is our 18 inch tall toothy pal, the Alien. Once again, we see a prototype is being used to promote the toy. Similar photos appear in many places as part of Kenner’s promotional material for the item. A modified version appears on the Kenner board game top and elsewhere.
Significantly, this News item, published in October tells the reader the toy will be “coming soon to your local toy store” and will be available for Christmas. Taking into consideration magazines would frequently appear on shelves a month prior to the issue date appearing on the cover, this information provides us with a release window of around October or November 1979 for when the Kenner ALIEN action figure was released to the public.
These large toys were being purchased by Christmas shoppers exactly 40 years ago.
-Windebieste.
Retail catalogues featuring images and details of the 1979 Kenner ALIEN toy sold outside of the US are also known to exist. Here are a pair of excerpts from two catalogues distributed throughout Australia. These items would have been printed in either late 1979 or sometime in 1980.
Yes. I live in Australia. No. I don’t own either of these print media items. Anyone will be severely hard pressed to locate either of these promotional publications today. Please let me know if you have either of these catalogues. I’d love some fresh, complete and hi-res scans of these rare print items. Anyway, on with the “Show and Tell” session, Kiddies. Continue reading
JCPenney was a string of department stores across the US and each year it published Christmas catalogs featuring hundreds of pages of consumables ready for shoppers to peruse and buy. The 1979 Christmas edition featured an ad for the Kenner Products ALIEN toy. This composite image is excerpted from page 481 of the catalog.
Also on the page is the ALIEN Blaster Target Set, which is a rare and collectible item in its own right and is worth significantly more than the retail price of US$9.98 listed here. If you want one now, in any condition, you can expect to pay hundreds of dollars for it. Our interest is more focused on the Kenner toy on the right. Give or take a few cents, at US$14.88, this was the recommended retail price for one of these toys in 1979. Continue reading
Welcome to Day 3 in our week long exploration of vintage print media and articles surrounding the release of the Kenner Products ALIEN toy in 1979. Here we have an excerpt from an issue of Starlog. This brief article appeared in the July, 1979 issue of the famous SF film and television media focused magazine.
Soon after the movie’s release, licenced merchandise hopefuls were preparing to service a market that was more bemused than welcoming. I am familiar with most of the items listed here to varying degrees. Many of them I own but I have never owned a Ben Cooper costume or Don Post Facehugger, for example. Continue reading
After my earlier post about a MISB Kenner ALIEN figure being sold for US$3500, I think it’s a good opportunity to explore how much these old toys sold for when they were originally released 40 years ago, in 1979. Fortunately, evidence exists of their original price in the form of vintage catalogs. Price stickers on boxes from the period also reveal similar values. Let’s take a look at a pair of toy catalog samples. These things reveal a lot. 
Firstly, let’s get this out of the way. This pair of catalog extracts are from an unknown source – if anyone knows where they originally appeared, please let me know. Anyway, let’s look at the item on the left first, simply because “HE’S A CUTIE”. Fantastic. Continue reading
UPDATE: This item has been sold.
Here’s a nice item on eBay right now. It’s a mint in sealed box (MISB) 1979 Kenner ALIEN toy. It not only includes the unopened box but a bonus of the original JC Penney shipping box it was delivered in. Such shipping boxes are rare and as such will drive the usually high value even higher. You can purchase this item right now for US$3,499.99. Both items are packed into a protective acrylic case, ready and perfect for display in your awesome mansion packed full of old expensive toys.
It’s a nice pair of items, for sure, and well displayed. Is it really worth US$3,500? Probably. I’d say so. There is a “Make Offer” option with this listing so the vendor will probably accept the best one. Either way, you can bet it will exceed the three thousand dollar mark when actually sold. My only issue with this item is there simply aren’t enough photos. Continue reading
It’s old news. Almost 40 years old, actually; as this December 5, 1982 newspaper article from the Lakeland Ledger documents how “Film-inspired play things can be risky child’s play for makers”. Written 3 years after the release of the old 1979 Kenner Products ALIEN toy, here we have public information about how unsuccessful the notorious action figure actually was for the company.
The article discusses the risky business of licencing toy lines in the late 1970s from popular movies. It prominently mentions the Kenner 18 inch ALIEN action figure. Kenner’s loss on the publicly ill received item was around the US$1m mark; a rough conversion makes that figure about US$3.71m today. Now, that’s a lot of money by anyone’s standard.
-Windebieste.
