Nomura Kenner Aliens (Japan, 1992-1994)
Happy Aliens Day! Happy LV-426 Day!
Kenner Aliens are a substantial action figure line from the 1990's. Maybe not a giant product line like Batman or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, or even Jurassic Park. But they were a respectable line. It was large & popular enough that sales of the figures were global; the US, Europe, Canada, and even Japan had their own package designs & variants.
The lesser known of these variations of the Kenner Aliens line are the figures released in Japan. Distributed by Nomura, these figure card backs are wild to say the least. And they are perhaps the rarest versions in this line. I've only seen each figure listed below 2 times in my 25 years of collecting (some only once!).
What's really fun about these Japanese variations is the inconsistencies with their packaging. You'll see them below; some are regular US card backs with Japanese stickers on the back, others have no Japanese text, while others are full Japanese printed text throughout, but some are a combination of both.
It was in the middle of my collecting years that I first encountered a Japanese text Kenner Alien. It was the Flying Queen. At the time, I didn't know if the text was Japanese, Chinese, or Korean. But it was legit, not a forgery or bootleg toy. A few years following that purchase I found a Nomura Swarm Alien. It was an extremely lucky find, as I had not seen any other Japanese Kenner Aliens figure. To be honest, I had a lot of free time and would sift thru literally hundreds of eBay pages. My search keyword? " alien figure". Oof. But that's how it's done; put in the time.
Despite diligent eBay monitoring, it would be another 10 years before I saw any more Nomura figures. I would sometimes search "Kenner Aliens" auctions only available in Japan, or sometimes they'd pop up in UK auctions. I've managed to nail the search process down nowadays.
In the last few years I been very lucky in acquiring more Nomura Aliens figures. And they are never cheap, but not because of sellers trying to rip anyone off. It's due to the high exchange rate. Add to that a very high shipping cost and you can expect a single Nomura figure from Japan to cost about $40-$60 when said & done.
Here's a list of Nomura figures I have seen;
-Gorilla
-Queen
-Ripley
-Rhino
-Queen Facehugger
-Snake
-Crab
-Swarm
-King
-Arachnid
-Queen Hive Playset
- Alien vs Predator 2-pack
Now, just because I haven't seen any others doesn't mean they don't exist. I'd safely assume that there does exist a Bull alien, and a Mantis, and Apone, Hicks, Bishop, and the rest. But then again, maybe not? I have also seen vehicles; Stinger & the EVAC fighter.
There are Nomura Predator figures too, but I just don't feel like having them in this post. Plus I haven't been seeking them out, so I can't offer as much opinion on them than as with the Aliens figures.
What further complicates collecting these variants is the fact that some figures had no special text, or stickers, or anything else to differentiate then from their US or European counterpart. Some figures were simply sold in Japan as-is. A perfect example is the 12" Alien vs Predator set. I've seen that offered from Japan a few times (3?), and it's straight up US box. Exactly the same, unaltered. Maybe it's not an import though? Maybe it's simply from a Japanese collector who bought a US 12" Alien vs Predator. You just can't be too sure.
See for yourself these awesome and wild packaging variants.
Thanks for reading, enjoy this lovely Holiday!
***UPDATE: 5/3 - HUGE thanks to expert collector Daniel Pin, we have added photos of more Nomura carded Aliens & Predator figure (see below). Thanks Dan!***
