Video Review – 2021 ALIEN Day ReAction Figures.

ALIEN Day has been and gone and while any new announcements were scant at best, once again Super7 celebrated the occasion by releasing a set of ALIEN ReAction figures. Six new Alien creature items and an exclusive ALIEN Day release of Pvt. Hudson appeared on their web store. Here is Baptiste Coudert video appraisal of these recently released figures.

Generally a mixed bag all round with familiar sculpts mixed in with fresh ones. …and yes, the Runner/Dog Alien is definitely the inspired item in this release. An interesting batch, that’s for sure. Thank you Baptiste for making this video appraisal.

-Windebieste.

NECA Snake and Rhino Concept Sketches.

It’s Facehugger Friday over at NECA. To celebrate this irregularly appearing feature, they have released a pair of concept images of their already released Snake and Rhino Aliens Kenner tribute action figures.

These are neat and full of detail, including a couple of hints of what may lie in store for us in the future. The lower right corner of the Rhino concept page includes head details of what appears to be an as yet unreleased item in NECA’s range of Kenner tribute figures, the two horned Bull Alien. Is this small detail intended to serve as a hint of what’s to come? …or did the sketch artist, Stefan Folkins, just add it to the page because of other reasons..? Maybe he just felt like it. I guess we’ll just have to wait and find out. It’s a great pair of images either way and they both serve as a creative insight into these figures early design process.

-Windebieste.

REVIEWED: Lanard ALIEN Toys, Wave 2.

Finally, after waiting for more than a year, Lanard Toys ALIEN collection have landed on Australian shores. I bought a set of three, the Drone, Warrior and Runner figures. I picked up this trio of little darlin’s earlier this week from Toyworld. These things are great. Yesterday, I spent all day playing with them and using them to terrify the neighbour’s cat. Oh, and I wrote a review as well. You can read ’bout my thoughts on the Lanard Toys ALIEN Collection Wave 2 right here. The neighbour’s cat sure didn’t think much of these things but who cares?  I love ’em. Any love for the neighbour’s cat, though? Not so much.

-Windebieste.

AustrALIEN Collectors on Facebook.

Being a resident of Australia as I am means being isolated from the rest of the world. Especially as I am into ALIEN movie themed toys, action figures and other great stuff that is simply difficult to find in this country at best. Or in many cases, dismissive and impossible. For this purpose, a few of us living the lives of frustrated down under ALIEN collectors have banded together to form a group on Facebook dedicated to Australian ALIEN collectors. Naturally, we have provided ourselves with the obvious and catchy moniker, “AustrALIEN Collectors”.

OK. So it’s also a cheesy name; but we’re not fussed. I like cheese as much s the next domestic rodent does. Anyway, established just a few weeks ago on April 26 (ALIEN Day), we’re currently a small group of around three dozen members and slowly growing. If you’re an Australian (or New Zealand) ALIEN fan and interested in discussing the trials and challenges of being a collector fan in this country or just want to show off your prized (and not so prized) ALIEN goodies in your collection, please join us. Other international members are also welcome.

Buy, sell and trade activity is also welcome, as are all discussions relating to any ALIEN movie experience in this country. Come on, show us your collection of ALIEN movie tickets from Knox City cinemas. …or Darwin. We’d love to see what you’ve got. Got a question about the availability of a particular ALIEN product in Australia? We will know. Do you have rare and/or unique items you’d like to show us? Please do. Want to discuss ALIEN space monstery goodness merchandise of any kind from 1979 to present? We’ll talk.

Anyway, our philosophy is simple. Living in Australia isolates us from the rest of the world; but by setting up this Fan group, we believe our isolation may also be our biggest strength.

-Windebieste.

Lanard Toys – ALIENS Arrive in Australia.

After some indications on Facebook reporting that Lanard Toys ALIEN items were spotted in Toyworld stores, I decided to check out my local site. I could see the afternoon was clouding over, rain was forecast. Nonetheless, the closest store is an easy thirty minute walk for me. Entering the store and stepping up the counter, I did not have to venture far inside before I found proof Lanard Toys ALIEN items have indeed arrived in Australia. Here is proof. The Queen posing on the countertop, freshly removed from her packing case. So yes. The Lanard Toys ALIEN Collection line is now available in Australia. As this item was freshly unpacked from inventory that had just arrived, it lacks any pricing. The woman serving the counter was still unpacking what looked like a truck load of fresh stock that needed to be processed. I don’t think they were all Aliens. That would be awesome! She was busy but still willing to answer questions. At this point, only the ALIEN Queen had been divested from today’s delivery, and was yet to be entered into the store’s system. The woman at the counter was unable to provide me with any price as the item was not yet processed and not yet available for sale.

Not to worry. I am so happy these items have arrived in the country. I have been told recently that it would be another two months before we can expect to see them here. Obviously, the stagecoach has arrived early.

We now have ALIEN Lanard Toys in Australia. Great stuff! Yes this did make me happy. Was it happy enough to not worry about walking home in the rain? No. I took a bus.

-Windebieste.

HIDEOUS PLASTIC – ‘Phase 2’ Commences.

I recently completed adding the MPC ALIEN kit and all of its variants to HIDEOUS PLASTIC, which was a goal I’ve been wanting to achieve for a long time. It’s significant in other ways, too. This action completed what I always considered to be the final stage of ‘Phase 1’ of the greater HIDEOUS PLASTIC Project. I am now progressing to ‘Phase 2’.To celebrate the commencement of this effort, I’ve added some new banner images to the site. These will randomly display along with the already extant 1979 ALIEN banners. These do look neat and indicate the site’s transition of interest, and related content yet to be added.In all actuality, ‘Phase 2’ began a long time ago with various components now already in place. ‘Phase 2’ is intended to focus on ALIENS action figures, toys and model kits, specifically made and sold between the years 1979 and 2000. All of them, if possible. This will be a massive undertaking to say the least and I expect will take me years to complete. Some items of interest have already been added.

Items such as Kenner Prototypes and unlicenced/bootleg items already have a solid presence on the site. You can navigate to them easily from the Sidebar on the Right side of the home page or from the drop down menu just below the site’s banner. That’s a ton of work done right there, freeing me to now concentrate on adding officially released product to the site. I’m glad I took advantage of posting those items when they became available as they are rare and difficult to source. I do not have to hunt for them now. That would be be a nightmare. I will take this opportunity to thank everyone who made those pages possible. Images, content and information are all credited as appropriate wherever possible. Thank you, all.

There is still a lot yet to be done. Documenting all the ALIENS toys, figures and model kits from the final two decades of last century is the next goal. That will take some time – I am looking at several years worth of effort to make the detailed entries I envision. This will all take time to accomplish. I will need help as it will be a significant challenge and there also exists a large range of potential content I am only vaguely aware of, at best. I hope I have the energy and perseverance to do so. Mind you, this site has come this far and been fun to manage, so I know it can be done.

“How far I can take this Project?” That’s a good question. It’s something I have been asking myself from the very beginning and been the underlying work philosophy dictating my approach right from the start, all the way back to 2015. It’s been six years since commencing the HIDEOUS PLASTIC Project and I haven’t given up yet; and indeed, the contrary is true.

I have succeeded with my efforts culminating in one book already published. That alone was a massive undertaking, featuring a set of challenges. If I take my time and maintain the plan, I may yet publish another book, Vol.2, sometime in the next few years or so. A book focusing on toys and figures based on the four ALIEN movies made during the twenty years spanning 1979 to 2000. That’s always been the plan. Well, let’s see how far along the process path we can go this time. In a sense, it’s like starting over; but with some significant advantages along with a fresh batch of challenges to go with it.

If this all works out, the longer range vision is to document similar ALIEN content that has appeared on store shelves between the years 2001 and 2020; or as I like to think of it, ‘Phase 3’. That’s not being given much consideration at this time, though. Nonetheless if I am still working on this Project in five years, I will be in a fantastic position to give it my focused attention.

That is all for now. I hope you can join me as I embark on this challenging new phase of HIDEOUS PLASTIC’s development. Thank you for your support. Have a great day.

-Windebieste.

Video Review: ALIEN-MAN.

More of an appraisal and exploration of the strangeness that is ALIEN-MAN rather than a review. Here is a great video from What’s in the box!?!? covering all you really need to know about one of the most unusual and widely known custom ALIEN art objects ever cobbled together. The incomparable ALIEN-MAN!

It’s all there in the video. It comes complete with information about the artist responsible, Xevi Solar, and how his now defunct website was populated by all manner of strange custom toys, things that should have been made but of course, were never intended to see life in the real world. Nonetheless, in his own way, ALIEN-MAN has survived the purge. He’s out there. Waaaay out there! He’s loose in the world, waiting for you bring him to life. Just like the instructions provided in this video, you too can own ALIEN-MAN and have him grace your collection – and confound others while you’re at it.

Thank you, Ian Berghammer, for taking the time to create this informative video.

-Windebieste.