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 !

The Vasquez Trio - Vasquez, Hudson, O'Malley

 Only 144 exist!

FALSE!

Released in 1993, 3 new Marine figures were planned to be part of Series 2 (along with the new Aliens figures) and included; Vasquez, Hudson, and O'Malley. I do remember seeing them on the cross-sell, but never at the stores. Their costumes were really bright and goofy, supposedly to gain attention on the pegs. The most memorable bit was Vasquez's pulse rifle, a perfect copy of one in the movie. I never met anyone that had any of these Marines as a kid. Supposedly no one got these three figures until 1996 when they were re-released in the KB Exclusive Alien vs Marine 2-packs. Their card art is a bit odd compared to other series 2 art. (Read more about the different series & card variations here). 

So, I think there needs to be some clarification on these particular figures. For many years little has been known about Vasquez, Hudson, and O'Malley (I've dubbed them the Vasquez Trio). There have been various claims about ANY versions of the figures;

-they were never released in the US

-they were only available as prototypes and never sold at retail

-they were only released overseas, as UK Exclusives

-they were sent back to the China factory where they were all destroyed, except for 12 cases of each Marine

Back in the day, Lee's Action Figure News & Toy Review only had them listed as "NCSR" (No Current Sales Record) or as "UK Exclusive". Tomart's Action Figure Digest on multiple occasions claimed that they were never available in the US. However, a later issue in Tomart's claimed that KB bought out all remaining stock of these three Marines and liquidated them late in the line's run. This was in support of the overall product line and led to the KB exclusive Alien vs Marine 2-packs.

Seeing these figures in the Euro packaging was the only time I'd ever personally seen them carded, and only in magazine ads, and rarely if that. So for years I assumed they were only released in Europe, never in the U.S. 

Online sites and sources also always described them as "Overseas only" releases. And again, the only carded versions pictured were the European ones. No pics of them on US cards. So that should have been the end it. Those three Marines were only released overseas.

Then, out of nowhere, around 2005, a whole set found their way onto eBay. And these were RARE, because these weren't the usual Euro carded versions: they were US card versions, never before seen. Wow. I was very lucky to have grabbed them.  I don't remember what the story was from the seller, though I don't recall anything specifically dramatic. The listing wasn't presented with too much fanfare or fuss. But after that everything changed: US card styles DO EXIST!

For the next few years more would pop up. Not a lot, but a few times a year. And not always all 3, sometimes just one of the three. Scarce, but they exist!

Most common: O'Malley. In fact, I picked up another O'Malley a year or two after buying all 3.

Rare: Vasquez. After my set, I didn't see another for a few years. In the last 15 years I would say that I've seen about 12...give or take. So less than 1/per year (very speculative, no real data to support that math).

Rarest: Hudson. Other than the one from my initial set in '05, I've only ever seen maybe 4-5 since then.

So these figures WERE released on US cards. But it's still tough to determine if any were actually sold in the US. I haven't seen any with price stickers from any American retailer (I have seen ones with price stickers from Malaysia/Philippines, and Australia retailers).

To add to this, I've seen photos online of collections with loose Vasquez/Hudson/O'Malley figures. Yes, I know they could've been obtained from overseas, or from comic shops, or online, etc. So loose pieces are not proof of US sales.

Then I noticed something with one of my O'Malleys: he had the "Mail Away Predator" sticker on the front. In short, those stickers are ONLY on US figures released at US retail. The details on those offers state "open to US residents only...etc" (they did do the same mail-away promotion overseas but not with a sticker).

So these WERE sold in the US, or at least planned; even if they're packed and ready to ship from the factories, they still might not be ordered for US retail. It's well documented that by the first year, retailers didn't want more human characters but instead more creatures. So these US carded figures, ready for delivery, maybe never made it to the US in the end (OR, as I believe, a small quantity did get ordered & delivered to certain US retailers).

Then there are the Fan Wikis. There's one in particular that claims that the US carded versions were only shipped to the Pacific market (Australia, Southeast Asia) after US retailers refused to order ANY human figures. And that there exists only 12 cases of each figure total (which would put the total amount of these figures at 144 of each). What's funny is those exact details were pulled right from an eBay listing that was selling the Vasquez trio. I remember that one. Such a specific claim with zero sources. 

There's a document that came to light in 2022: an internal audit from Hasbro that put together all the sales numbers of many of the Kenner/Hasbro products from the 1970's thru 1995. And on that, from 1992 to 1995, Aliens had a total sale of 44,000 units (suffice to say this particular document doesn't account for the KB repaints, Alien vs Marine 2-packs, or Hive Wars series). Very interesting but otherwise incomplete data, but Hey, better than just guessing & pulling numbers out of thin air! That amount also accounts for the figure from 1979 as well, with 1,651 units sold between 1979 & 1980. We'll subtract that for our calculations below.

I also don't know if they included in that number all sales of Predator figures. It's very likely they did, so we'll include them. We'll use 3 years, as only part of 1992 and part of 1995 had sales of these figures, so we'll combine them into 1. And we'll  count 42 distinct figures for the Aliens & Predator line.

Upon further reading, the audit is not individual product sales but instead product shipments. And figures are not shipped individually but in cases. So, that's 12 figures per case, which puts the math at: 12 figures/case X 40,980 cases = 491,760 individual figures. Equally distributed over 3 years,  that's a total of 163,920 figures/year (including vehicles).  That's 12,294 of each character.

That math assumes the same figures shipped every year for 3 years, but that's not reality. Over 3 years some figures only existed the last year of manufacturing while others might've been manufactured and shipped all 3 years. Those specifics are unknown. But we have some general facts we can use, like release years, that *might* help generate a better number.

Generally, you could assume that Hudson/Vasquez/O'Malley were manufactured and delivered at least once, in one year, in the United States. But let's try to go further; the Trio makes up 3/42 of the entire 491,760. And the unit numbers for '93 thru '95 are 288,276//179,100//4,980 (quite the decline). That means there should exist 33,536 of the Vasquez Trio in US packaging. That's 11,178 of each. Far more than the alleged " 144 of each". Let's say half of those were sold and opened by kids, leaving 5,589. 

This is my take on the matter. I acknowledge it's still speculative, but it makes more sense that there were small batches sold at retail in the U.S. I refuse to accept that all were destroyed or shipped exclusively overseas but for only 432 in the whole world. Does that 432 include the US cards sold in Australia & southeast Asia?  I don't know, but I bet the Hasbro memo is for domestic sales only.

Key takeaways;

- likely far more than 144 of each figure exist on US cards.

- US versions of these figures were likely sold at retail in the U.S., but in very, very, very low numbers. My position is that there could have been at least a total of 1,863 of each of the Trio.

Are these figures rare? Absolutely. But they're not " only 432 exist" rare. They're definitely more than that. For reference, 

 

Thank you for reading.