Year: 1990- Size: 4 inches.
- Product Line: Unproduced by Kenner (Tonka). Never released.
After Kenner shutdown their ALIEN line of products towards the end of 1979, the company never expressed any further interest in the licence while under the ownership of General Mills. It wasn’t until Kenner was sold to Tonka in 1987 that the company would return to making ALIEN action figures. Unfortunately, they’d missed the boat for the 1986 sequel but popularity of the movie and it’s action oriented content ensured an attractive return to the property was inevitable.
During the 1990’s Kenner explored a number of options to re-enter what was previously a minefield of social unrest for the company; but the times were changing and toys based on R-rated movies such as ROBOCOP were becoming a familiar feature in the toy shop landscape. It was time to bring ALIENS to toy shelves – without the trauma of conservative parental groups complaining about it.
Kenner’s original intention was to revisit and produce the line of 3.75 inch figures that had previously been cancelled in 1979. Recasts of those first generation prototypes for this purpose are known to exist, and were also abandoned. Instead, Kenner decided to adopt a less serious tone for their re-entry into the 3.75 inch action figure market with a completely new design approach meaning those older figures once again remained unproduced.
Kenner’s new 1990 3.75 inch figure was a deviation in philosophy and adhered less to screen accurate design than its precursors. Instead, Kenner took liberties, changing it substantially and altering features. While the figure is still obviously an Alien in toy form, it possesses notable changes not appearing in any of the creatures appearing in either of the previously released movies. For example, the new figure design features 6 posts on the figure’s back rather than the original 4 as seen in the movies.
This is the first Alien figure not designed to specifically represent one of the creatures from either of the movies. It points towards Kenner’s later expanded range of ALIENS action figures released in 1992. The deviations from screen accurate to more outlandish appearance commenced with this item.
This figure was not associated with either, the earlier 3.75 items and not a part of the range of action figures Kenner would release in coming years. Nonetheless, it displays characteristics of both and serves as a bridge, a missing link of a sort, that connects these two eras in Kenner’s ALIEN action figure history. An important piece, obscure and under appreciated.
Here’s a pair of hard copies of the unproduced figure and a complete set of silicon molds that were used to create these prototypes
Images courtesy of Derek Ho.
Another casting from those same molds. Also present in this group of images is Kenner’s in house Product Statement and Data Sheet documenting critical features and packaging details of the figure. According to this information, this item was to feature a ‘grappling hook’ ability and be blister packed onto card.
Images courtesy of Steve Dwyer.
The pair of photos below are of a scratch built kit bashed torso of the Warrior Alien. This item is probably the same torso depicted in the polaroid image attached to the Kenner turnover sheet appearing in the image above.
Images courtesy of Derek Ho
