Dog Alien (Movie Maniacs)

by McFarlane Toys

Poor Alien 3; seen as the worst movie in the Alien Quadrology, the film directed by David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club) was much different to the film we all saw in cinemas. Originally 3 hours long with a much better storyline and paced plot, it was cut to shreds by studio execs who wanted a crowd-pleaser, but just ended up making the critically destroyed film that disappointed lots and lots of people.

Nonetheless, the Alien from Alien 3 was still pretty cool - a rogue face hugger attached itself to an inmate's dog and the poor K-9 split into pieces as the host alien dug out, soon to grow into this - the Dog Alien, the final figure from McFarlane Toy's Movie Maniacs 6.  

The Dog Alien is a big figure and it's very poseable, which is a change for McToys' typically frozen figures. The excellent sculpt which metamorphoses Giger's original Alien into a more sleek dog-shape features a ton of articulation, including 4 ball-jointed shoulders, ball-jointed neck and midsection, joints at all the wrists/feet and even a moveable tail (discussed later). 

The Dog Alien can be posed walking/crawling along the ground as seen in the above picture, with one arm raised for attack, or in a standing pose thanks to the articulation and the tail, which support it in a cool attack pose reminiscent of the cooler death scenes from the Alien VS Predator game.

Paint is top-notch on this figure; everything is detailed and highlighted to complement the excellent sculpt, and the Alien fits in with the other figures from this line. Featured is a nifty play-action - press the button on the back of his head and his second mouth pops out! There 

are some minor complaints about this - for one, the mouth doesn't come out very far and it's more phallic in shape than it is a second mouth shape, and the button to make it work is on the back of his head – a blaringly obvious distraction to the cool head sculpt. Regardless, it's a great little action for a very playable toy.

Like the Warrior Alien, the Doggie also features a long bendy tail, and like the Warrior Alien, it's utterly beautiful. Each part of the tail is segmented like a spine but it moves easily and can be posed and played with in all kinds of ways, perfect for just trailing behind the Alien or whipping and strangling a human. The end of the tail is obscure but accurate to the source material – it's shaped like the fin of a giant squid, which I always thought strange about the Alien.

Some minor complaints about the Dog Alien that don't really change my high opinion of it. The hands are strangely sculpted for attack and for walking, which can make the Alien look weird in some poses. There's a couple of more places where articulation would have been an improvement, like elbows and knees (for both of the knees), but this isn't a big problem, just something for McFarlane to improve upon in later figures. To complete the figure is a really crappy "Movie Maniacs" marquee stand with an Alien 3 poster; I used to be a big fan of the marquees but they've become really cheap and terrible over the past few years and are no longer of any use to the figures.

The Dog Alien is another fine Alien figure from McToys, who've finished up the MM6 series as one of the coolest ever, esp for Alien/Predator fans. Now I want to see more!! More Alien toys!! Lets see some Aliens from the movie Aliens, as well as some cute Collectors Club exclusives, like a Bag Of Chestbursters or a Bag of Eggs, w/ Face Huggers, that would be really cool.

- Shocka

(October 17, 2003)