Scorpion Alien - A Kenner Legacy in Exploding

Exploders

The Scorpion Alien from Kenner. It's a fine example of balance between form & function, aesthetic & practicality. One of the best & most popular figures from the line, this figure perfectly captures the look of the creatures as seen in Aliens. Yes, there are some details that are not movie accurate. But it's a toy first and foremost, so it needed some interesting visuals; colors & spikes.

Other than the near perfect movie accuracy, this figure has a wonderful play feature. Depress a button on it's rear spine & he explodes! Simple, fun, and true to the movies (especially Alien³).

But what's really interesting is that this exploding feature was not new to Kenner. In fact, they used it previously on 2 other toy lines. These included Beetlejuice and Terminator 2. As we compare these three exploding figures, you'll see how the mechanism design improved with each generation, with the Scorpion alien being the best version of this "tech". 

The first figure to utilize this feature was Beetlejuice (1990). I can't find any earlier figures from Kenner that use this feature (Let me know if Kenner used this feature again on any subsequent lines!)

Pretty simple; squeeze his legs together, and his torso pops off. He's made of 3 parts - head & inner body, a front chest half, and a back half. His inner body has a hole in the bottom, with a spring, that then sits on a post on the hips. The little latch that holds & releases the inner body is white metal, and is positioned to the right side of the hip. 

Other than the metal latch in the inner body, not much holds the 2 halves together. They just sit on the hips, with a short semicircle ridge along the hips. With slight jostling, the torso can fall off, leaving the head & body still attached. So a good concept but not quite perfect.

Next figure to be an exploder is the T-1000 from the Terminator 2 line (1991-92). 

He has the same break up; head & inner body, and a front and back torso half. Again, the head & inner body have a hole with spring at the bottom, and it again sits on the post on the hips. A metal latch again, but now positioned facing the front of body. Also, no leg squeezing, but rather a button on the back of the hip, on the waistline. This trigger is pretty sensitive compared to the Beetlejuice or the Scorpion alien. Press it and bang: blowed up.

The new latch orientation and new hip-notches make the torso a bit more sturdy. No jostling will make him prematurely fall apart. And the implementation of a button trigger reduced the size and/or need for internal leg mechanisms for the latch function. The design is improved.

Finally, the Scorpion alien. Released in 1992.

He was likely designed around the same time as the T-1000. But the Scorpion clearly improves upon the T-1000's design. The layout is the same: head & inner body with hole & spring on bottom, which sits on post on hips, with a front chest & rear back half.

But the latch now faces the rear, towards the spine. And on the rear spine is the cleverly hidden activation button ( it's part of his boney spine!) On the hips are two pairs of very tall tabs that slot into each torso half. This creates a very nice lock on the torso, so you can play with the Scorpion all day long without any issue. 

He won't blow apart until you want him to. And when he does, watch out. I think he has the most powerful spring in this bunch. And that rear button is tough to press sometimes. No premature exploding can happen. You can drop him without his body blowing apart.

Very interesting that Kenner used this feature so frequently. Clearly the person(s) who designed this must've been very happy to see it live so long across multiple product lines.

 Thanks for reading!