I’m not certain how my appreciation for bootleg ALIEN toys commenced. It’s lost in time as much as the production dates these things were actually made. Nonetheless, over the past two decades, I’ve been collecting these oddities. Of particular interest to me are the craptacular samples that are obviously shameless reproductions of genuine licenced product. These items, in particular hailing from Mexico, are often in possession of a weird charm along with a complete and unapologetic disregard for production values at any level. Three items below are perfect samples in this regard. Each one of these ALIENS bootleg toys features the same purloined figure, Kenner’s Scorpion Alien, as a base for these unlicenced product items. It’s the most commonly bootlegged Kenner ALIEN figure of its era and many samples were created by unknown mexican manufacturers during the past twenty years.
Above left can be seen a blue figure mounted on heavily modified Kenner card back featuring characters from their 1990s product with the word “ALIENS” prominently on display, twice. Assertively appearing twice may be of curious note on its own but it may possibly aid in unraveling the ensuing confusion. The card next to it features pilfered Kenner art from their PREDATOR line of toys with another Scorpion Alien mounted on card. …but ummm, OK. Then to round off the trio of unlikely nonsense in hand you will see a bootleg Spiderman figure, packaged in a bag with a counterfeit Kenner ALIENS toy for company. Alright. This nonsense doesn’t get any better from here, I assure you and the best way to approach these items is with head scratching appreciation, a good sense of humor and the realisation someone was bold enough to create these items and pass the poor quality product onto the public.
This is just the tip of the iceberg of this nonsense. There are so many mexican bootleg ALIEN figures and toys made available over the past twenty years, it’s impossible to know what’s been made – and when – as production dates are always lacking. I’ve endeavored to document as many samples as possible and these entries form the backbone of the area on HIDEOUS PLASTIC dedicated to such lurid junk.
If you want to know more about these less than legitimate toys, then please do visit the section dedicated to Bootlegs, Knock Offs and Other ‘Illegal’ Aliens.
-Windebieste.