Bootleg ALIEN Joy.

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.

UPDATED – ALIEN ReAction Figure Guide.

Today I added the latest ALIEN ReAction figure page to the guide dedicated to these collectible toys. This page features all 7 figures released on ALIEN Day in 2021 consisting of six Aliens along with a minor variant of Hudson. You can find this page here. This area of the site has grown to become a major section on HIDEOUS PLASTIC and it currently stands at 25 pages in length. It is dedicated to documenting every ALIEN ReAction figure item Super7 has released to date; and is now complete.

Want to know something about any of these dozens of ALIEN figures? You’ll find it here.

As to whether Super7 will one day return to making these grotesque collectible toys emulating classic 3.75 inch Kenner format, no details are available. A new ALIEN streaming movie and television show is coming sometime soon. Will Super7 be one of the companies to jump aboard the inevitable licencing train to produce more pocket size space monstery goodness for us to consume? …or is this the end of the line for the ReAction ALIEN product range? Will we see a 10th Anniversary celebratory release of ReAction ALIEN figures (Say, a pair of vac metal coated silver versions of the Alien and compression suited Kane) on April 26? That would be sweet and timely but it’s unlikely at this stage.

Nonetheless, Super7 have released a slew of product that is more than inspired by old Kenner toys. These modern day interpretations on Classic vintage play things owe their existence to a cancelled children’s toy line that failed to see production more than forty years ago. Commencing a decade ago in 2013, Super7 started filling this void and making these wonderful weird things available to us. Thank you Super7, Brian Flynn and your team for this most astonishing effort that made our childhood dreams (and nightmares) come true.

-windebieste.

KATblog – Kenner Card Backs & Dioramas.

It would appear not all card backs for blister packaged products are created equal. Superficially, this goes without saying; but over at the Kenner Aliens Toy blog, Eric Fischer has researched the curious nature of how Kenner used graphics content appearing on the backs of some cards to feature dioramas on a select few ALIENS product line items of the 1990s. It’s a fascinating read with the exploration also delving into how NECA has recently emulated a similarly constructed and lit diorama to help promote their Kenner ALIENS tribute product line. Go visit the Kenner ALIENS Toy blog and read all about diorama’s appearing on limited versions of ALIENS card backs… and elsewhere.

-windebieste.

UPDATED: Bootlegs, Knock Offs and other “Illegal Aliens”.

Ah, some of my favourite bootleg & knock off ALIEN items were deliberately intended to be confused with more official products of their day. Take 1996’s Wing Sang Toys’ extremely dubious Extraterrestrial, which is clearly intended to be confused with Kenner toys ALIENS range of action figures released that decade. The Extraterrestrial was released in different colours with blue and red being the most common. A version was also released featuring a pair of circular clip on wings. It’s a wild item but it doesn’t end there. The toy also included a variety of weapon accessories, too.Somewhere, in the offices of Wing Sang’s marketing department, some bright toy designer figured it would be a great idea to have an attractive blue and silver painted knock off ALIEN toy fitted with circular red and silver wings. They also determined it should be armed with gold vac metal plated weapons including what appears to be a powerloader grabbing power claw and crossbow. I did not make this nonsense up. Honest.

Anyway, if you want to know more about this WTF curiosity, it has been added to HIDEOUS PLASTIC’s section dedicated to Bootleg & Knock-off ALIEN toys.

Man, there’s some weird stuff in there now.

-windebieste.

UPDATED: ImPerfect Organisms – Righty Kane.

A couple weeks back I posted some info about “Lefty Brett”, a 3.75 inch ReAction figure with two left arms. Today, I have his crew mate, Righty Kane. Much like Lefty Brett, this version of Kane is an incorrectly assembled ReAction figure. This time, however, he is featuring two right legs. There’s one obvious question to be asked about a facehugged Kane. If a host gets facehugged and the Alien adopts traits of the host character, does that mean the Alien emerging from this version of Kane will possess two right legs? Well, maybe we’ll get to find out. Just watch this space!

Kane (right legs x2) is now added to HIDEOUS PLASTIC’s ImPerfect Organisms, an entire section dedicated to factory faults, production errors and other head scratching anomalies that probably shouldn’t have made their way into public hands.

-windebieste.

KATblog – Kenner ALIENS Mini Dropship.

Ah, first post for the new year! Let’s make it supportive of another Kenner ALIEN enthusiasts efforts, hey. Over at The Kenner Aliens Toy blog, you will find details about Kenner’s cancelled and subsequently re-purposed SPACE MARINE MINI DROP SHIP VEHICLE.Back in the 1990s, this would have been a great companion piece of military hardware for Space Marine Ripley and her fellow troops to combat those pesky xenomorphs, had it gone into production. Thank you Eric Fischer for the insight into this item, which was cancelled prior to full production but ultimately be resurrected as part of a completely different product line at a later date. Great stuff!

We also have a companion article exploring this enticing unproduced Kenner Mini Dropship toy here on HIDEOUS PLASTIC you may like to check out.

-windebieste.