UPDATE: This listing has ended.
Just quickly while I have a spare 30 minutes I’ll just add this little item to the front page. Here’s a lovely 1979 Kenner ALIEN toy for sale on eBay for US$279. Most of his parts are there but he’s missing his dome. As usual. Nonetheless, it looks to be a neat sample of the toy. The vendor has also made special note in the description that this item has “1979 molded into the jaw trigger for authenticity”. Let’s consider this statement below.
Kenner stamped all of these figures made in the USA with some basic manufacturer’s information; and visible on the right side of the trigger at the underside of the back of the head are the words “CPG PRODUCTS CORP. 1979”. It is a sure indication your Kenner ALIEN is a genuine item produced in that country. However, it’s absence does not necessarily mean a figure is a facsimile, or a bootleg or otherwise unlicenced or unauthorised product – and its presence doesn’t guarantee authenticity, either.
Kenner manufactured the greater bulk of these toys in the US but they also produced these figures in Canada. Canadian ALIEN toys were packaged in a bilingual English/French box. The figure inside the box also has differences. These range from slight colour variation in the styrene used to internal changes as well. Even the screws that secure the figure together are different, possibly due to differing production standards and manufacturing laws or possibly as simple as parts available in that country. Another definitive and easy way to determine whether a figure was made in Canada is to check the right side of the trigger for this production information. If this information is absent, chances are high it was made in Canada and not a bootleg or some other nefarious manufacturer. Canadian figures lack this information entirely and yet they are as legitimate as the same toys made south of the border.
This is important. Not just because it means there are variants of the toy but the Canadian/International version of the figure was made in much smaller numbers. As such, the ‘international’ variant of the toy is significantly harder to find. It is scarce on the ground and the US version outnumbers it at a minimum ratio of 10:1. In other words, for every ten ALIEN figures you may find out in the wild, only one of them will be from Canada. What’s more, that’s only if the odds fall in your favour.
So the real significance of the lack of any such information on the toy is an indicator of how rare it actually is. US ALIEN figures are in abundance. You can hop on eBay right now and find a dozen Kenner ALIENS if you want to and they are all US editions of the toy. Currently, there are zero Canadian figures available. Does this give the Canadian figures more value? Most people won’t care but for some collectors it certainly makes a difference because their scarcity as a variant means there are (at least) 2 production versions of the figure available – one from the US and one from Canada.
The item listed in this sale is the common USA version; but don’t hold that against him, he might need a little attention and a good cleaning with some kitchen detergent but he does hold a nice pose – and that’s got to be factored in as well. I’m sure he’ll find a good home. It won’t take long.
-Windebieste.
