Alien Body Doubles

 Double Vision!

As with most of Kenners products, there tend to be instances of reusing a mold with a different color or accessory or a modified part, etc. One notable example was the Batman line. One mold, used many many times over. New color+new accessories=new figure!

Aliens was no exception. 

To maximize their expensive figure tooling & molds, Kenner would create more than  just one figure. For example, the very popular and intricate Gorilla alien was given a different tail, head, legs, and arms, and bam: Mantis alien!  It's easier to produce solid pieces of plastic with limbs, and recycle the complex torso & arm mechanism. To Kenner's credit, the reuse of certain figure parts but then adding some new parts was pretty innovative.

Below are such examples;

Gorilla/Mantis

I think this was a simple stepping up of an already great product. For series 2 in late '93, they went back to the Gorilla alien. The arm mechanism was cool, so just use it again with different arms and head, and all in translucent plastic. A great re-use! And a lot people claim the Mantis as their favorite. It's easy to see why.

Bull/Rhino

The Bull is among the most popular with collectors. Following the same logic as with the Gorilla, for series 2 they revamped the Bull. Translucent plastic is key aspect of series 2 figures. The Rhino has some great sculpting details too; his head has cracks and scuffs! All across series 2 there's an increase on sculpt detail compared to series 1.

Panther/Night Cougar 

The panther was released in 1993. By series 3 in 1994 the line was winding down and losing steam. In an effort to reduce costs and not create any new molds, they just reissued the Panther in a new color scheme. (Technically this is an example of a simple repaint, not a recycle). 

Apone/Hudson

"Hey, we gave Apone a cyber arm. Let's give one to Hudson too!" It would've been cooler if they just used the Hicks body for ALL the Marines (except Vasquez & Drake), but managers and designers thought otherwise. So for Hudson they used Apone's body. Since series 2 was starting off on shakey ground, and perhaps in an effort to lower costs, Hudson has fewer paint details. But the few paint apps he does have are far "louder" than the 1st series of Marines. Silver? No, metallic blue. A beige gun and weapons? No, red and yellow! 

You can see there's no silver detailing on Hudson's front and back "shoulder pads". And unlike Apone, Hudson's cyber forearm & hand are metallic blue. 

Hicks/O'Malley 

Just like Apone/Hudson, it's interesting to see the simplified (reduced) paint detailing between Hicks and O'Malley. Here, it's mostly in the legs; O'Malley has just the knee pads and boots painted, with no detailing or cutouts of the knee pads. You'll also notice the gun holster and knife on either thigh are unpainted. The belly padding has no detailing either. Brighter colors, but less colors.

Of the series 2 Marines, Vasquez was the only fully original sculpt. 

The Panther/Night Cougar aliens are the laziest examples; no unique or different pieces between them. Just a color change. If anything, they stepped it up on the Night Cougar with his cool red stripes!

Thank you for reading!

Rhino Alien - Japan variant

 The Stickers!

Recently, I acquired a Rhino Alien from Japan. As noted in previous posts, like this one here, many of the later figures from the line were simply US cards with a Japanese sticker on the bottom rear. On the front, nothing special.

While inspecting & comparing this new Rhino with one I had in my collection , I noticed that there are 2 versions of these stickers! See below.

Upon even further examination, it would appear this isn't exclusive to just the Rhino. The Mantis appears to have to 2 sticker versions as well! You can see mine below, and the other version here.

(Like how I snuck the Mantis into this article?)

I haven't seen any other figure with these card back sticker variants. We'll call them "single sticker" and "double sticker", respectively.

This just reinforces how variable and inconsistent the Japanese release of these figures were. This variability combined with their rarity really makes collecting a complete set *extremely* difficult. 

If you notice, both versions of Mantis seem to be packed with the Rhino Alien "Ice Storm" mini comic.

I was ready to turn around and sell this Rhino figure, as I already had one. Good thing I inspected it first!

Thanks for reading!

French - Canadian Kenner Aliens

 Cette fois c'est la guerre

Bonjour! Happy Aliens Day!

In late 1992, Kenner released the first series of the Aliens line of action figures. Interestingly, about the same time, there was a set of Series 1 Aliens figures released in Canada. 

These figures are the same as the US Series 1 counterparts EXCEPT for being bilingual; English and French text on the packaging.

I first came upon these by accident. I believe it was a Hicks or a Bull Alien. I had purchased them just thinking they were ordinary versions, but upon receiving them noticed the French text. I was already aware of the Euro carded versions of figures (multi lingual cards, including French!)

Interestingly, an expert source from France confirmed that these Canadian English/French cards were also distributed in France!

Now, since all Series 1 figures were already distributed in Europe on multilingual cards, seeing figures on exclusively French and English cards was curious.

Historically,  Kenner Canada (or Hasbro Canada for these?) would distribute "exclusive" French text packaging; they did that sort of thing a lot (vintage Star Wars was most notable). They did release a French-Canadian version of the 1979 figure as well.

Nevertheless, it was a fascinating new branch of this wonderful toy line! 

Happy Aliens Day to you all!

envoyez les Marines !