Monthly Archives: October 2024

ALIEN Romulus – VHS Release.

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It looks like there’s going to be another home release for ALIEN Romulus. Mentioned on the movie’s Alien Romulus Facebook page the movie will also be available for VHS. Yes. That’s correct, VHS. A long redundant format but nonetheless an essential and important technology in the history of home entertainment.This will be a limited edition release of the movie. I wonder if it will be locked into NTSC format? This follows on the tail of a previously released promotional excerpt of the movie sent to News outlets on VHS tape a couple of months ago. This release is no doubt intended to celebrate the anachronistic 1970s and 1980s style tech prominently on display throughout the movie. No additional details or price is available. I’m still waiting for an official announcement regarding a physical release on DVD or BluRay to be made here in Australia. While it may be a fun item to add an old school video cassette to any collection, a retro VHS tape requiring prehistoric (Anything before the internet was publicly available) hardware to work just won’t be adequate.

-windebieste.

NYCC24 – MONDO Kenner ALIENS Re-release.

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New York Comic Con 2024 is currently underway. Clothing, licenced apparel and toy  manufacturer MONDO have announced their upcoming line of figures inspired by Kenner’s 1990s ALIENS action figure line of toys. A post on X has this single image from the event teasing this not yet ready to reveal toy line.I’ve also found a YouTube video of a tour of the NYCC24 MONDO booth, with an interview with Hector and Peter from MONDO giving a brief insight into what this upcoming series of action figures will entail. Skip to 20:45 in the video for the details.

Here’s a rough and ready transcript of relevant parts of the discussion I’ve made regarding MONDO’s upcoming Kenner ALIENS tribute figures. These do sound impressive:

Hector (MONDO): “We also announced ALIENS. We are doing ALIEN.”
Jay (Interviewer): “Are you doing Kenner style?”
H: “Kenner style. Just imagine kind of what we’re doing with Turtles. Suping it up. And they come with the marines.”
J: “That’s what I… when you say that, I was like ‘awesome!'”
H: “We can’t… we have to include the marines. No one has redone the actual marines, y’know.”
Peter (MONDO): “These are like gonna be big.”
H: “These are big and chunky, they’re gonna be that size.” (He points to a figure inside an acrylic display case, standing about 10 inches tall.)
J: “Oh damn!”
P: “It looks so awesome. I can’t wait for people to see it. It’s a dream project for Hector, specifically. We’ve always talked about Mantis Alien. If we ever get this, we GOTTA do Mantis Alien. We’re doing it! We’re doing it!”
H: “Mantis, but there’s so many. Oh yeah. The Flying Queen. The Bull. The gorilla…”
J: “There’s just so many!”
P: “They were great designs!”
J: “They were!”
P: “They were super fun!”
J: “…and NECA did it, like, if it was a real movie character but I love that you want to make them weird.”
P: “So it’s something for everybody. Thanks to Disney and Fox for letting us do it. They were very cool about it.”

A ten inch tall interpretation of Kenner’s Mantis Alien figure? This sounds very promising to me. I’m looking forward to more announcements when they are made. Especially considering these three men are clearly very, very excited about this upcoming range of tribute ALIENS figures. No details regarding availability, price or release date has been made available. Sometime next year, I am guessing.

-windebieste.

eBay – Rare 1979 Kenner Promotional Material.

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Contrary to popular belief, the original 1979 Kenner ALIEN toy isn’t rare. Kenner made so many of these old toys, you can always readily find anywhere upwards of a dozen of them available on eBay at any time. What’s genuinely rare, however, is any print material Kenner produced to promote the toy. Listed on eBay today is one such item. Promotional brochures like these were provided to prospective retailers seeking information on (what was at the time Kenner’s unrevealed) eighteen inch tall movie inspired ALIEN toy. These brochures promoted and provided basic information to stores to aid in its wholesale interest for the toy to be stocked on store shelves in late 1979.

It’s a great item, too. Full colour on both sides and folded down the middle to become a large four page leaflet. One of the interesting features of this vintage document is it lacks any image of what retailers were being asked and expected to stock on their shelves in large numbers in 1979. There are no images of the ALIEN toy present on the brochure. At this stage of the movie’s pre-release life when this item was published and distributed, 20th Century Fox made no reveal of the creature at all, cannily and consciously concealing it’s identity from audiences until the release of the movie. This was done to achieve maximum shock value when the movie was released. This practice also extended to all commercial licence holders wanting to take advantage of the movie’s release. Curiously, within the interior of its folded page, this alert appears “CONTRACTUAL OBLIGATIONS PREVENT US FROM REVEALING THE AWESOME SECRET OF THE ALIEN OR ITS FULL CONFIGURATION AT THIS TIME” making it a promotional brochure distributed without any images of the toy it was intended to promote. It’s difficult to imagine how retailers were inspired to stock these toys in any number under these conditions. They were just expected to do so following the runaway success of Kenner Star Wars merchandise that had previously wildly outsold all expectations.

A truly curious marketing relic. Bidding starts at US$9.99. CHEAP! …but not for long.

-windebieste.

ALIEN Isolation 10th Anniversary Soundtrack.

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ALIEN Isolation’s 10 Anniversary is being celebrated by game publisher SEGA with an official release of the game’s soundtrack. SEGA’s facebook page outlines the details. The soundtrack of the game was created by The Flight & Christian Henson featuring Original ALIEN themes by Jerry Goldsmith. It looks like ALIEN Isolation’s popularity over the years has brought about this welcome release, right on the tail of News of a new ALIEN Isolation game now in early stages of development.
The publisher tells us about these old skool designed pieces of media, “The 20-track album releases in celebration of Alien: Isolation’s 10-year anniversary – Available digitally, on blood green vinyl and motion-tracker green cassette. Featuring original packaging art by Nimit Malavia”. The collectible green vinyl album and iconic motion tracker adorned cassette sound tracks are both available for pre-order from Iam8bit with the digital edition downloads for both Apple and Spotify also now available. No CD soundtrack version appears to be included as part of this 10 Anniversary release. Given that ALIEN Isolation is a game featuring a design language which predates digital home media, the publisher is keeping in character by releasing the physical versions of the soundtrack on long superseded analog media. Do people still have cassette players? I guess such releases are more targeted to the collector market rather than for the audiophile. Not a problem. Grab a cassette for your physical library and then a digital copy for you to listen to on any digital device of your choice. Done deal.

-windebieste.

ALIEN Isolation 2 …announced?

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Various gaming News sites have reported the announcement of a sequel to SEGA’s outstanding 2014 video game, ALIEN Isolation. These announcements have been made by the original game’s creative director, Al Hope. Al posted brief details on X regarding the development of ALIEN Isolation 2 during the 10 Anniversary of the original game’s release, which occurred on October 7. Yesterday. Al had this to say about this currently in early development title, “Today, I’m delighted to confirm, on behalf of the team, that a sequel to Alien: Isolation is in early development. We look forward to sharing more details with you when we’re ready.” . Unfortunately, the post hasn’t been live for long and has since been removed from X. Why? Who knows. Possibly due to the announcement not being officially sanctioned by …SEGA? …20th Century Studios? …Scott Free Productions? …some other third party we have no idea about? While Mr. Hope’s post is now no longer live, it appears the much wished for follow up to one of the best ALIEN games – and for that matter, one of the best horror video games – ever made is finally receiving a follow up title. Continue reading →

52Toys – ALIEN MegaBox.

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Chinese toy manufacturer 52 Toys (Five Two Toys) is showing off several new licenced ALIEN themed products at this year’s Wonder Festival event, currently being held in Shanghai. It looks like they are displaying at least three new ALIEN products at the event. A highly stylised Alien figure in the 1/12 scale, an articulated facehugger with what appears to be wheels underneath; and what also appears to be a new entry in their ongoing series of ALIEN MegaBox figures. I’m curious about that facehugger. I’m hoping there are some cams – or other mechanism – inside the toy that will allow the legs to move up and down as it is pushed forward. That would be super neat feature not done previously to my knowledge in a toy or figure. The other item of significance is the Alien which can fold up and become a cube. 52Toys have now made a variety of these Alien themed MegaBox figures. An Alien, Queen Alien and powerloader have been afforded similar treatment in the past, each of them being able to use their articulation to fold and reduce the figure to the volume of a small cube. There is no mention of price, availability or when these pieces will become available. You can visit 52Toys current product range on this Facebook page.

-windebieste.

Hot Toys – ALIEN Romulus Figure.

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Hot Toys have revealed their forthcoming range of pop culture product items in a series of event preview photographs on Facebook. These early images are from their booth at the Wonder Festival, 2024 in Shanghai, China. Included in these early images is a photograph of their ALIEN Romulus Alien character item, a 1/6 scale collectible figure.
Here’s a few words from the manufacturer regarding this upcoming reveal appearing at Wonder Festival, “Get ready to be WOWed by our stunning collection of our China firstly-unveiled figure collection, including Tony Stark (70s Version) from Avengers: Endgame, Venom and Doctor Doom from Marvel Comics; Savage Opress, Jar Jar Binks from Star Wars saga; Scarecrow from The Dark Knight, Batman Beyond (Black and Gold version) and Batgirl (Purple and Gold version) from Batman; Arkham Knight videogame; T-800 and T-1000 from The Terminator series; and Alien from Alien: Romulus will also be showcased. These beautifully-crafted, highly-detailed figures is sure to thrill fans and collectors.“ No other information is yet available regarding details on price, availability or quantity but this figure appears to be a masterclass all on its own in terms of proportions and accurate attention to detail, as fitting for Hot Toys reputation for such product. The Wonder Festival event is being held during October 2-3, 2024 at Shanghai New International Expo Center.

-windebieste.

R-One Studio Resin Kit.

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Taiwan resin kit maker, R-One Studios has announced pre-orders are now available for their 1/16 scale ALIEN PLEROMA kit.This is an unpainted resin kit supplied unassembled to customers. It is comprised of fourteen parts that will need to be built and painted by the purchaser. Its full height when completed is 34cm/13 inches tall. If you are interested in this kit, you can pre-order it directly from R-One Studios.
This product is an unlicenced garage kit and will be available at the special discount pre-order price of US$125; and full retail price of US$140, plus shipping. Pre-orders end on October 15, 2024. This neat looking kit will be shipped to customers between Dec 2024 and Jan 2025 for more images, visit the R-one Studios Facebook page.

-windebieste.

Playmobil – Special Operations Agent 70600.

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Some of the most fascinating ALIEN products are those not associated with the property at all. Some are backhanded unlicenced tributes that share some tangential association at best, they are tributes or have some form of suspicious connection to the property. Take ‘Special Operations Agent 70600’ by Playmobil, released in 2022. This is a curiosity worth a closer look. Let’s do that now.
There’s a few details here which are worthy of note. The mustard colored suit worn by the Playmobil figure bares at least a passing resemblance to that of executive officer Gilbert Kane as seen in ALIEN; and it may be considered a coincidence. Also of passing coincidence is the default sky blue color choice that appears on the Playmobil package. It also carries a passing resemblance to the color choice of the 1979 Kenner ALIEN toy packaging. Yeah. That’s just a coincidence, too. Right? Of course it is. All Playmobil products display this color on their packaging. Now, what about the ‘Special Operation Agent’ numerical designation and product number, 70600? It very closely resembles the product number appearing on the aforementioned Kenner ALIEN toy box, 70060. That’s got to be a coincidence, too? Right? RIGHT???

It’s interesting then, these multiple design choices assembled in a single unit could be labeled as a ‘coincidence’. It’s more likely that ‘Special Operations Agent 70600’ is a tongue in cheek Easter Egg tribute as these design elements come together so perfectly on this product. There’s no doubt in my mind someone at Playmobil was having a fun time dreaming up this retail item, knowing too well there’s a slight undercurrent of subversion at play here, making it a wily tribute to Kenner’s infamous vintage toy.

Both Playmobil and LEGO are owned by the Brandstatter Group. Playmobil’s ‘Special Operations Agent 70600’ may be the closest  we will ever witness in regards to official ALIEN content, that is an R-rated movie, be produced by either Playmobil or LEGO. Especially considering Playmobil is consciously marketed to a younger age group, children ages “4-10”. Notably, a similar age rating is printed on the 1979 Kenner ALIEN box, “AGES 5 AND UP” and appears in a matching location on the upper right corner of the box. No doubt, just another coincidence of convenience. Just like the “WARNING: CHOKING HAZARD” badging obliquely and unintentionally references Kane’s encounter with the facehugger.

On the other hand, LEGO have produced sets for The Lord of the Rings and more recently, for STRANGER THINGS. So, maybe we’re yet to see genuine LEGO ALIEN product at some point in the future. Come on LEGO. We, the adults who purchase a lot of LEGO for our own collections, would love some genuine licenced LEGO ALIEN play sets and minifigs.

-windebieste.