12" Alien - Action Figure Reviews

Series: N/A

Craftsmanship: 9.3 / 10
- The only thing missing is the acidic drool
- Great articulation and display base
- Sculpt and paint captures the essence of Giger’s most famous creation
- Face-huggers are a nice touch

Playability: 9.0 / 10
- Big nasty figure for your 12” figure to fight
- Ankles could be broken and “mini-mouth” jammed
- Face huggers could be lost
- Not one for the kids!

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12" Alien from McFarlane Toys

Let’s just sum this one up with, “Woooo-hoooo!”

Nothing quite sends a quiver up a sci-fi fan’s spine faster than H.R. Giger’s most famous creation. Although it didn’t actually get much screen time in the original

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Alien, the creature played a menacing role and went about stalking the crew of the Nostromo with deadly accuracy, striking from the shadows.

This Alien isn’t hidden in shadows – it’s on full horrific display for people to appreciate!

At a glance, this 12” Alien looks like a

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polystone statue with no articulation and zippo play value. Look closer and you’ll discover 20 points of articulation placed strategically to allow much poseability and a construction that allows for high playability.

Here’s a quick rundown of the articulation; ball-jointed ankles and shoulders; seam joints at the thighs, hips, biceps, elbows, wrists and tail where it joins the body; a ball-jointed torso; and hinged knees. As extras, the tail is bendy and it features the trademarked spring-loaded mini-mouth. You’ll never be wanting for a different pose because almost any pose you can think of can be achieved. When installed on the base, it’s a very stable figure. It can be made to stand off the base, but he becomes far less stable and the poses are limited (though you can bend the tail down to act as a third point of contact). McFarlane really thought about the detailed base too, because it has four pegs to which the Alien creature can be installed. (The creature has a peg hole in each foot.)

The articulation is mostly unobtrusive, mostly because it’s a jet-black figure. Upon closer examination you can see when the joints aren’t in the default positions because the details don’t match up, but this is only a nitpick because the trade-off (having a highly poseable figure) outweighs this.

Alien fans will love the detail of the sculpt. If I had to pick a detail as my “favorite” it is the top of its head, which is encased in a clear plastic bubble. It slightly distorts the edges and makes it look almost like jelly. The rest of the figure is equally as good, with Giger’s techno/organic mix. If you have a powerful enough light positioned behind the creature you’ll notice that most of the figure is made from semi-translucent material. Positioned like this, the creature becomes even cooler to look at. Really, the only thing missing is some acidic drool.

Playability is very high but there are two things to consider. First, the spindly ankle joints could break under rough play. Second, the spring-loaded mini-mouth (released by a small button at the back of the creature’s head) could get jammed or gummed up depending on how you play with him. Other than those issues, you get a very playable action figure. Besides being a great monster to pit against your other 12” figures, the creature comes packed with three face huggers so diorama possibilities are wide open. And you can act out all those sci-fi crossovers we’ll never see: Star Wars vs. Alien, Hellboy vs. Alien, and so on! Maybe most attractive, is pairing the Alien up with McFarlane’s 12” Predator figure in honor of the upcoming Aliens vs. Predator movie.

McFarlane scored big points with the 6th Movie Maniacs series that featured Predator and Alien figures and there is full-fledged series based on the Aliens vs. Predator movie coming out soon that looks pretty cool, but if you want the ultimate Alien collectible and action figure you can’t do better than this.

- Omni
(June 27, 2004)