Customer Reviews

Cult Classics Presents: Classic Alien Action Figure

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I found this figure at a store for $10. As others have pointed out, the figure is beautiful. The detail in the body and head are excellent. The tubes coming off the jaw, the action of the jaw, the body tubing and surface details are all lovingly crafted. The detail under the cranial bubble could be a lot better. It's too smooth and it looks like some of the detail was drawn in with a pen, but this is a minor quibble. In dim light, it looks fine.

As others have pointed out, the figure's "20 points of articulation" do not work exactly as advertised, but I was able to fix mine. When I opened my package, only a few of the joints worked. Since I'd read other reviews here, I was careful about not breaking anything. I used a little vegetable oil to lubricate everything. This helped, but the head still did not turn, the feet did not move, and the shoulders did not work through their entire range of motion.

Then, I tried Evan Michael Sizemore's idea. I heated some water in the microwave and soaked the stubborn joints. After a brief soak and some careful fiddling, all the joints loosened enough to move them. I injected more vegetable oil. More fiddling, and I now have a fully articulated Alien with no broken parts.

In the end, this is not a toy. It's a collectible, and it must be treated that way. It looks great, but it's still sort of fragile and it took a lot of work to make the thing pose properly. That coupled with the pen job on top of the head means I can only give three stars. If you can get it for a good price and you have the patience to sort out the joints, it's a worthy addition to any collection.

This is a fantastic figure. Hands down the BEST looking sculpt for the original H.R. Giger design to grace a toy. It is simply too beautiful to describe--it's almost satisfying enough to just look at it. For this reason alone I highly recommend it to any Alien fan.

But then why the mediocre rating, you might ask? Because this figure is simply WAY too fragile! If you look at it the wrong way it'll break. Here's the deal: I got the figure today in the mail (while in the middle of watching ALIEN, nonetheless) and within 20 minutes of getting him out of his box, the toy broke. Now, I was expecting this because I too read the reviews, but still... The right arm broke at the shoulder and elbow, as well as the right foot. I managed to glue them together again but... let's just say this particular figure no longer has "20 points of articulation". Currently he's standing atop my Hi-Fi stereo and, judging by today's events, he won't be doing much less.

Here is my WARNING to you all: If you have ANY intention of "articulating" Alien's "articulation", you MUST (1. run the needed body part under steaming hot water for a good minute or more, or (2. warm up and soften needed body part via hair dryer. Even when he feels all nice and soft (because he is BRICK SOLID right out of the box) don't trust him! USE CAUTION AND CARE--DO NOT FORCE anything to move, otherwise it will promptly rebel by ending its own existence. Once properly heated, however, he should "articulate" just fine... well, mostly. But he'll harden up real fast again--so don't plan on striking him in a brand new pose every 3 minutes.

Oh, and the inner jaw must be pulled out by hand (assuming you can fit even the tinniest of fingers into his puny mouth--I couldn't, but did anyway). The mouth snaps shout unless the inner jaw is extended, in which case he bites down on it.

Case in point--beautiful figure, a real treat for the eyes, but in all honestly, after you've painstakingly fixed your personal Alien toy into a pose that tickles your fancy, you likely will not find yourself doing much else with it unless you like playing with a really stiff toy. All in all, I rate this guy's "fun factor" by his durability factor in this case.

If only you could pose him with ease and without the risk of ending up with half a figure we'd have ourselves the perfect toy. Oh well.

God, this thing is beautiful. When you sit in a room and have tea with it, you notice all the little things it can do. It has the 20 places that move - as promised - and it has an ocean of little things that make you think "really sexy." The mouth and its motion, the body and its motion; everything is wonderful in the wide world of Alien movement.

Of course there has to be a problem.

When having your tea party you might notice these as well; you have the mouth that can fall off and you have the body that does not want to work correctly. You also have little pieces that want to crack and shatter and give way as the Alien falters, mouthlessly cries "Daddy" to me, and makes me feel terrible. It is a doom unto itself, making me feel like I am watching something I always wanted fall away and disappear much like the dinsaur.

It would be like waking up Cthulhu only to find him hung over and wanting to go back to sleep.

This little beastie hurt me.

And the price that is attach to it makes you think that you are really not in the best place in the world when it comes to having something fabulous. And, as I said before, its - it really does - because the little man with the double mouth is just a daydream in some regard.

Good sculpt, but the paint job could be better. As has been pointed out before, the detailing under the 'bubble' head is very cheap looking. The figure is very fragile and prone to break if tested. It's too bad. I wish they had done a better job.

The company which produces this toy must have little or no quality control. I purchase this for my son who is just now getting into judge dredd, he has a comic where dredd does battle with alien so as many parents do, I decided to get an action figure for his dredd figure to do battle with (can't have batman without joker). Anyway, this toy came broken! I opened the package and all seemed fine, I showed it do him and a few moments later the foot came off while I watched!! The total time which elapse was maybe fifteen seconds!

On closer inspection I noticed exactly what had happened...there is a ring at the ankle region where the foot slips on and a post is driven through the two pieces thus holding the foot in place, the ring had obviously been broken during the manufacturing process and glued back together...I could clearly see the clean break and the two dabs of glue which had been place there to keep the two halves of the ring together.

what was I to do? the package had been opened, I could already foresee the hassle of return mail and then the emails of no guarantee once opened or "how do we know your son didn't break it?" blah blah...perhaps I could have returned it without a problem but my son was so disappointed, all I could do was put some heavy duty epoxy on there and get alien back into the battle ASAP.

The detail was great, but if a company is selling something which is supposed to be far more spectacular than the average action figure than why can't they be as detailed in the QC as they are in the actual LOOK of the darn thing?

Buy this at your own risk and make sure you've got some serious adhesives! As for myself, I should have paid more attention to the reviews, which I usually do religiously when buying amazon, but hey, parents sometimes just gotta do what they gotta do.

I've seen other people say that this is a display piece and that it's not meant to be played with.

I expect something marketed as an action figure to be able to be played with. This isn't a Sideshow polystone statue; it's a toy.

That said, I'm a collector, and I'm very gentle with the few figures I do open. This toy was broken four minutes after coming out of the package.

The joints were initially very sticky, but quickly became too loose for my taste. I was trying to move one of the ankles, using only as much force as it had taken to free the other, and it snapped. The foot broke right off.

I read another review that said the ankle had appeared to be broken in the factory and glued back together. I examined the break more closely, and it's quite possible that the same thing happened to my alien. The joint will not spin, and there appears to be glue residue on the brittle plastic. Even if it wasn't knowingly sent down the line broken, the joint was still impossible to move without breaking.

If you get this figure enjoy the initial reaction to to beauty of the sculpt, but be ready for letdown.

My son bought one for xmas, it broke within minutes. Sent it back for another one, it too broke

within minutes. Amazon should not represent this product.

Bought this for my son for Christmas - he's on an Alien kick. He just about fainted when he saw it (it's so cool!). Then he opened it and discovered that the leg that looked loose in the package was actually broken off. Boy, was he bummed. Luckily, Amazon took back for a refund. Now I have to find him a different one. Guess I should've paid more attention to the other reviews. I'll know better next time.

What a piece of junk.

Beware, It looked great in the package but when removed, I found a figure with a warped head and joints that appeared to be glued together. Neca really dropped the ball on this one.

This toy broke with in one hour of use. It was not dropped etc. My son was just adjusting one of the arms and it broke by the elbow..POOOOR quality of a toy.