Tag Archives: Sigourney Weaver

#0464: Alien Minimates

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

ALIEN, RIPLEY, KANE, & PARKER

ALIEN MINIMATES

You know how I said I hadn’t reviewed enough Minimates lately? You know what else I just haven’t reviewed enough of? Alien and Aliens stuff. Just not enough of it.

So, welcome to another Alien-themed review, which, by the way, is also yet another Christmas Review. Yeah, they seem to be the song that will not end. At this rate, I kind of expect to sporadically be reviewing last year’s Christmas gifts until this Christmas. Won’t that be fun?

When Diamond Select Toys picked up the Aliens license, there was some confusion as to whether this meant we’d also be seeing Minimates of the characters from the first movie. As it turned out, yes, though as more of their own thing, and less as a subset. So, without further ado, Alien Minimates.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

These four were released as part of a boxed set celebrating the 35th anniversary of Alien. They were supposed to be out last year, you know, for the actual anniversary, but they encountered a few delays, making them a mid-January 2015 release.

ALIEN

It would be ridiculous to release a set without the titular creature, so here it is! It’s referred to simply as “Alien” on the package, but this is the design most commonly known as the Big Chap, the creature from the first movie. The figure is a little over 2 ½ inches tall and it features 16 points of articulation. The figure is built on the standard Minimate body, with a non-standard head, hands, and feet, as well as an add-on for the torso and tail. From the neck down, all of the pieces are identical to those of the three Alien Warriors included in the Aliens Minimates Army Dump set. Since the Alien designs in the two movies are similar, this is a pretty sensible re-use, and the pieces are still fantastically sculpted. My only real complaint is that the hands technically should have six fingers, instead of the three fingered Aliens design, but at this scale and style that’s minor. The head is the one new piece, and it’s very well done. It features the first movie’s signature head dome, as well as the skull detailing underneath, and it looks really good. It’s also a bit bigger than the Aliens head, which looks a bit better in retrospect. The paint is also identical to the normal Aliens Warrior from the neck down, with the exception of the upper arms, which have a slight change in detailing. There’s also some detailing under the dome, outlining the skull. All of the paintwork is clean and sharp, and the detailing is really great. The Alien’s only accessory is a clear display stand.

RIPLEY

Much as you can’t do the set without the titular character, it would also be odd to get an Alien set that didn’t feature Warrant Officer Ellen Ripley, the sole survivor of the original film and the true star of the film series. Ripley is 2 ½ inches in height and features 14 points of articulation. She’s based on Ripley’s appearance from the second half of the film, while she’s running through the Nostromo avoiding the creature. She’s built on the standard Minimate body, with a sculpted hairpiece, a watch, and rolled up sleeves. The hairpiece is a re-use from For A Few Dollars More’s El Indio, which is a perfect piece for Ripley’s look… in Aliens. Sadly, it’s totally off for her look in Alien, where her hair was a fair bit longer. Looking through their back catalog of pieces, there isn’t one that’s a natural fit for Ripley in Alien, so I suppose they were just trying to make the best of what they had. It just doesn’t really work. Ripley’s paintwork is generally pretty good, aside from one issue: the likeness on the face isn’t quite there. It’s not terrible, but it doesn’t really look like Sigourney Weaver. DST did a pretty good job capturing Weaver in the Ghostbusters line, so I’m not sure what happened here. Fortunately, there are a few alternatives, so it’s not a total loss. The rest of the paint is quite well done, with lots of really great detail work, which even continues onto her back. Ripley includes a flame thrower, Jonesy the cat, and a clear display stand.

KANE

Alien35th6In spite of John Hurt’s resistance to his likeness being used, Kane seems to turn up quite a bit in Alien product. Not a huge shock, seeing as his role as the carrier of the first Xeno is pretty pivotal. Kane is depicted here in his Nostromo uniform, which he wears early in the film, prior to setting down on LV-426. I actually don’t recall him being without his jacket for very long, so it’s omission is a little odd. Seeing as the figure includes a chestburster piece, I would think his “last supper” look might be more appropriate, but I suppose DST felt like being different. The figure is roughly 2 ½ inches tall and features 14 points of articulation. Kane is built on the standard body, with a sculpted hairpiece and a watch (same as the one on Ripley). As far as I can tell, the hair is new to the figure. It seems to me that Kane probably could have made do with a re-use if it meant giving Ripley a new piece that was more appropriate, but there might be more to it than that. Regardless, the piece is well sculpted and seems like a pretty good match for his look from the movie. Kane’s paintwork is very nicely done. Everything is nice and clean, and all the colors seem just right. The likeness isn’t spot on, but I’d chalk that up to Hurt’s likeness not transferring to the style. The eyes and mouth are definitely right. Kane includes a facehugger, a chestburster, an extra head, and a clear display stand. The facehugger is a little difficult to get on at first, but it’s very well sculpted and it even features the appropriate detailing on the inside. The chestburster and extra head allow for a recreation of the memorable “birth scene.” The ‘burster is well sculpted and fits pretty well in place. It also covers enough of his torso to make this look like the appropriate uniform, so kudos to DST on that!

PARKER

Alien35th4Parker probably marks the set’s oddest inclusion, as he’s not a character who’s incredibly key to the plot. That said, he’s one of the last survivors, and my personal favorite character, so no complaints there. This figure has the notoriety of being the first Parker figure ever, so that’s cool. Parker is about 2 ½ inches tall and features 14 points of articulation. He’s based on Parker’s look roughly mid-movie, after he’s ditched his coat. The figure is built from the standard Minimate with a sculpted hairpiece. The piece is new to this figure and it’s a good translation of the look from the movie. Parker has a pretty decent paint job. His uniform is well detailed and everything is nice and clean. The only real issue I have is that his skin tone just seems to be too light for Yaphet Koto. This ends up throwing off the likeness, which is otherwise pretty spot-on. Parker includes a flamethrower, a flame attachment (though that could easily be paired with Ripley, too), and a clear display stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This boxed set was a Christmas gift from my parents. I’m going to take a shot in the dark and say that it’s my last gift of the Christmas 2014 season. Obviously, this set, being based on the first movie, isn’t going to ignite me with the same excitement as the Aliens Minimates, but I do think they turned out pretty nicely. The real weak link of the set is definitely Ripley, who really isn’t accurate to her appearance in the first film. But hey, put a pulse rifle in her hands and you’ve got a pretty great Aliens Ripley, so it’s not a total loss!

#0443: Ripley – Spacesuit

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

RIPLEY – SPACESUIT

ALIEN REACTION

It’s Day Six of my Christmas Reviews, and they’re moving along strong. Today’s review is the second half of the ReAction review I started yesterday. When you’re dealing with Alien, the two most important characters are the Alien and the lone survivor, Ripley. Yesterday, I looked at the Alien, today I’ll look at Ripley.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ripley was released in the second series of Alien ReAction Figures. She’s 3 ¾ inches tall and she features 5 points of articulation. Ripley is presented here in the space suit she wears during her final run-in with the creature. From the neck down, Ripley is identical to Series One’s Kane figure. Since the Nostromo’s space suits were all roughly the same design with different colors, it’s a reasonable re-use of parts. It certainly doesn’t hurt that Kane was my personal favorite figure from the first series, mostly due to his superb sculpt. At first, I thought the head might just be a re-use from the first Ripley, but a closer look shows this is definitely not the same piece. It’s not as good as the first Ripley, but I imagine a large part of that is due to the need for it to fit in the helmet properly.  This results in the figure looking much better with the helmet on, which is the better of the two options, I suppose. It might seem the figure has no paint on the body, but that’s not the case. All of the plating and straps have been painted with a slightly different white, allowing for some distinction between the pieces of the suit. It’s really an impressive effect, and something that could have been left out. The figure’s head features mostly straight forward work, which is fine I suppose. Ripley includes her helmet for her suit, which fits very well. True to the movie, the helmet lacks the head light seen on Kane’s suit, which means they tweaked the helmet at least a little bit.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like the Alien, Ripley was a gift from my amazingly cool parents. While this might not be the most exciting figure that the line has to offer, it does offer Ripley in a fairly key look, and it gives us another figure using the fantastic Space Suit sculpt from Kane. I can’t really fault Funko for wanting to use that body again.

#0083: Ripley

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

RIPLEY

ALIEN REACTION

It’s Day 5 of the post-Christmas Review, where I cover the figures I received during the past holiday season.  I’ve looked at one figure from the world of ALIEN before, but for Christmas I received a full set of Funko’s new Alien ReAction line.

The story behind this line is that back in 1979, when ALIEN was released, Kenner acquired the license to produce a line of figures similar to their Star Wars line.  They only released two items, a board game and a large scale version of the Alien from the film.  The Alien was pulled from shelves when it began scaring children, and when that happened, Kenner thought better of their plan to make toys from an R-rated horror film and scrapped their planned 3 ¾ inch line.  The prototypes had been shown and were well known in the toy community as one of the holy grails of unproduced figures.

Flash forward 35 years.  A small company by the name of Super 7 acquired the original prototypes and the license to make them and began taking orders for a fairly small run of the figures.  A few months later, there was a significant amount of buzz surrounding them, and it looked like they might become a very difficult to get item.  But all was well!  Longtime toymaker Funko swooped in to save the day, and partnered with Super 7 to get the figures a wide release!

So, after 35 years of waiting, the first wave of ALIEN Figures has been released.  Today, I’ll be looking at the film’s heroine, Ripley.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

So, Ripley was obviously released as part of the first wave of the Alien ReAction line.  Ripley had a few looks in the movie, but she’s shown here in her jumpsuit that she wears for the majority of the film.  She stands about 3 ¾ inches even and she has 5 points of articulation.  The sculpt isn’t super detailed, but given that it was actually sculpted in ’79, I’m gonna cut it some serious slack.  It’s not bad for the time period, though it’s difficult to see much of Sigourney Weaver in the face.  The jumpsuit looks about right for what she wore, although it doesn’t have some of the finer details that the one in the movie did.  The paint is also on the simple side, but it’s to be expected.  All of the lines are clean, and there’s no real slop to speak of, so it’s well applied.  Quite frankly, anything more detailed would look strange on this sculpt.  Ripley also includes the flamethrower she carries at the end of the film.  It’s a little bit undersized, but that once again fits the aesthetic that the figure is attempting to capture.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Ripley, along with the rest of the first wave of the Alien ReAction line, was a gift from my awesome parents.  They missed being here in time for Christmas, but they arrived shortly after, and they were certainly worth the wait.

This isn’t a figure that’s going to appeal to everyone.  You’ve definitely got to have a love of the style of figure that this represents.  But, it’s a perfect style for figures from this movie, in my opinion.  It captures the feel of the time period perfectly.  Ripley may not be a perfect representation of Sigourney Weaver’s portrayal, but it’s definitely a fun little figure!

#0005: Lt Ripley

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

LT ELLEN RIPLEY

ALIENS (KENNER)

So, change of pace.  Moving away from the Batman stuff for a bit.  Today we’re looking at a figure from another Kenner line:  Aliens.  This line is nominally based on 1986’s ALIENS, though it was originally meant to be a tie-in line for Operation: Aliens, a scrapped Saturday-morning cartoon adaptation of the film.

Ellen Ripley is the sole survivor of the Nostromo, drafted by the colonial Marines to save a colony that has been attacked by a hive of creatures like the one Ripley faced before.  At least that was what she was in the movie.  I have no idea what her backstory would have been in Operation: Aliens, though if the comics included with each figure are anything to go by,  she was going to be one of the marines.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The figure is a pretty decent representation of Ripley from the movie, though her palate’s been tweaked a bit to make her more colorful.  The figure’s also a bit soft on the details, but that makes sense given it was based on the cartoon design.  The face actually isn’t too bad of a Weaver likeness for the time.  The figure included a pretty cool flamethrower, but I’ve since lost that. [EDIT-But I found it again, and brought it back for her Flashback Friday Figure Addendum!]

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Though the figure was released in 92, I didn’t get mine until 2003, when I saw ALIEN for the first time.  I know I had this figure and the accompanying Hicks before seeing ALIENS itself because I sat through my first viewing of the film clutching both of them very tightly.