In 1992, Kenner brought a “Rated R” movie franchise to the toy aisles, and elementary school playgrounds were never the same.
This is another figure & toyline that is close to my heart. I can remember summers back in 92, playing at the school playground in 3rd grade with my friends and their Aliens toys. I had this particular figure, the Gorilla Alien, a few others like the Bull Alien, and the attack Evac Fighter, which was amazing. Today we take a look at the Gorilla Alien from the first wave of figures.
For a line based on an adult-aimed film, the property lent itself amazingly to a toyline. Kenner went off of the concept that the Aliens would take on the characteristics of the creature that was it’s host. Gorillas, bulls, mantis’, snakes, etc. Add that great concept with amazing sculpted detail and cool action features, and you have a very unique and fairly successful line of toys.
I am missing the little rubber facehugger accessory that came with the figure, however it still has enough cool action features in itself. Firstly, the large head is made of hollow rubber. Dip it into some water, squeeze to load up, and now the head is a water-squirter, to shoot those pitiful marines with “acid!”
Secondly, the two bones on the back are actually levers, which when squeeze, make the large Gorilla-like arms spring open and closed, perfect for grabbing more helpless marines and pulling them off into the darkness.
Here is a closer look at some of the sculpted details on figure. For the time, this sculpting was amazing, and still is. All of the details are there, and the spray paintjob of metallic blue against gloss black really helps bring the details out. This carried throughout the line, with sprayed translucent plastic and hyper-detailed sculpts.
I may be biased since this line was part of my childhood and I can still remeber playing with these toys, but I’m fairly certain any fan of Aliens or Predators would find something to like in this line. Sure some of the poses and scale are a little off, and they do have that 80s-90s stocky build, but for what they are, they are incredible. The line lasted 3 years, and even had a resurgence in the late 90’s with a few assortments of Kay-bee Toys repaint exclusives & new figures with “Alien Hive Wars”.
Those were some very impressive sculpts for the time for sure. Great shots, btw. I love the forced perspective used to make him look as big as the NECA Alien.
I loved this guy! I remember the playground battles and the envy of all my friends who had the exploding scorpion alien. This series was also my first big “convince mom to buy you somethnig expensive” trip down the toy aisle. Before the Spawn line hit, almost every action figure was 5 dollars or less on the pegs, but when I saw ATAX (for a whopping 8 dollars) at Target, somehow the stars aligned and my mom bought it for me. Between ATAX, Bishop, and the much loved Alien Queen (a seriously kickass birthday present), I had more than enough humans and aliens to fight off my Predators.
Man it was awesome to be a kid in the 90s. So much invention in the toy world.
Yes, I had ATAX as well! Oh man, you had to go mention Spawn now… hmmm, future WW?
I was upset when I saw the post last time about Voltron toys because it reminded me of the day my mom made me give them to my cousin, but as soon as I saw this post it brought fears/happy tears. It reminded me how awsome these figures were and how I still have the complete first line of them (including the two vechiles), the facehuggers that hug the faces of some of my toys now, and the little comics that came along with the figures. Thanks for the post for real.
Wow…this takes me WAY back. I wanted this line SO badly, but my mother wouldn’t buy them for me. I cite this line as the line that drove me to be the nostalgic completidt that I am today. “Fine..you won’t buy this for me now? Wait until 20 years from now, and I buy these, THEN some!” lol
In any case, yes being a kid in the 90’s was awesome. I remember watching cartoons for the toy commercials! And the sad part is that I remember them all! From the popular TMNT and Aliens, all the way down to the obscure Snaliens and Monster Force lines!
I was a kid in the 90’s, and I remember having the Mantis alien and accidentally breaking its head off in an epic backyard battle. I vaguely remember having another alien figure, it might have been the Gorilla alien but I’m not sure…