UPDATE: This listing has ended, presumed sold for US$650.
Here’s a nice pick up for someone wanting a good looking Kenner ALIEN toy including the box and all other inclusions. It’s available on eBay right now for a measly US$650 (or best offer). Cheap! Well, almost all other inclusions. We’ll check out this item further below.
Despite being opened, he’s 99% all there. You get almost everything and depending on how pedantic you are as a collector, this item will make a fine addition to your trophy shelf. All critical components you would want appear to be present in this package – almost. Here’s a quick checklist of how your expectations for this item are going to be fulfilled.
The Toy. It’s fastend to the internal insert card and photos don’t reveal a lot about the figure itself. We can see the head dome, which is frequently lost, is present here and it is highly likely the figure will also live up to all other expectations. It does come with a caveat, however, and we’ll address such issues rising from this exception below.
The Box. Yep. You get the box. It’s a little rough around the edges and showing signs of wear but I’ve seen a lot worse on these four decades old package pieces. It’s in more than acceptable shape, though. Both windows are present in the front and top. It really is fantastic to have such a reasonable shaped, intact box included at this price.
The Poster. Kenner included a double sided black and white poster with these toys and it’s present in this sale. It looks to be in a reasonable and good condition, too. The presence of this item is always welcome as they are frequently removed and lost.
The Insert. These old toys were originally shipped inside these blue themed boxes fastened to red insert cards. These cards were largely disposed of when opened and can be absent from boxes. The original folded corrugated red insert card is present in this box.
The Ties. Now, this is where this items gets interesting. Kenner originally released these toys strapped to the red insert card using black laddered zip ties. The sample in this listing is held in place by wire core plastic coated twist ties. The ties used here are not the original fastening system used by the manufacturer to hold this toy in place inside the box.
While it is no big deal for most people hunting down one of these old toys for the original ties to be missing, it does raise other issues and questions that need to be asked. As these are not the original ties used to secure the toy in place, it means the figure itself has definitely been removed from the box. With this in mind, the actual condition of the figure must come into question. Is the dorsal crest missing? Do the jaws work? Are all the mouth parts present? How much play and wear and tear has the figure actually experienced? Are the legs loose? …and so on. A small detail like this can carry greater implications if you are not careful with a purchase like this.
In all actuality, there may be nothing wrong with the toy itself; and I wouldn’t like to infer the figure is inferior quality simply because the original packaging isn’t complete. Nonetheless, It’s important, for a buyer to be aware that at any point during its forty year life, this item could have spent any amount of time outside this box, been played with and and then returned to its place inside the packaging using ring in twist ties.
Just keep this detail in mind when buying one of these old toys inside a box such as this, where it appears to be held in place and never removed. eBay’s default condition of it being “New: A brand-new, unused, unopened…” is simply not true and unfortunately, there’s no detailed text description accompanying the listing at all. It’s important to be wary of such claims being made to this end.
-Windebieste.
