Listed on eBay right now is an incomplete Kenner ALIEN toy in an incomplete box. Both the toy and the box are lacking critical pieces you would expect to find to make it a truly worthy display piece. Let’s see what you get for US$650 – and just as important, let’s see what you don’t get.
The figure is near complete and of significant note the vendor lists it has having a “replacement dome”. Being open about the presence of reproduction parts is welcome. Not everyone is going to be aware the head covering included in this listing is a facsimile. Nonetheless, the missing part has been replaced with a copy. Other than that, the figure is complete. The dorsal spine is present as are all 4 mouth parts. That helps a lot but the reproduction piece really doesn’t help and I’ll get to that at the end of this appraisal. Potential melting and the presence of strange residue on its lower back should also be noted. Similar residue coating also appears to be in the mouth, as well.
Taking a look at the box and it’s obviously in poor condition. The top is completely missing along with both flaps used to hold it in place. The front window is also absent. A number of tears, dents, buckles along with other imperfections and blemishes scattered throughout the box don’t help its appearance at all. As all these issues are present, it’s critical to know what the underside of the box is like. Unfortunately, no information is available. A quick message to the vendor regarding the underside will be advisable if you are planning to purchase this item. Either way, the box is in severely degraded state.
Fortunately, the other packaging item, the red insert card, included in this listing appears to be very good. Penetrations for the original zip ties don’t look too torn or damaged. Those holes in the corrugated red card are frequently damaged and here they are not. Also of note is the correct folding of the top and bottom of the insert card in their correct orientation. Vendors will often fold these inward but here they are correctly folded outward. This insert looks to be in very decent condition and is probably the best condition item in this listing.
Finally, we turn our attention to the poster that would normally be present in this box. Nope, sorry. That’s not going to happen with this item because the poster is absent. Posters are often missing from these old boxes. It’s not unusual but its absence does factor significantly towards lowering the value of this item.
So what is this Kenner ALIEN and box really worth? It’s certainly not complete in any way you choose to describe and the multiple imperfections across the board dramatically add up to diminish its value. If this item had the poster, then yes. It might be worth US$650. As it is the missing poster is just one item in a long list of issues this listed figure has. Missing the original dome, the presence of unidentified residue on the back and mouth, the suspected heat damage on the back, the severely degraded quality box which is missing at least 4 critical parts and the absent poster dramatically reduce the price. US$400-500 would be a reasonable price for this item. It’s simply lacking in too many areas to warrant a higher price tag.
One final consideration, of all the things purchasers of these old toys want to see is 100% original parts. The presence of the facsimile dome prevents this figure from the desirable goal of being 100% genuine. It’s a simple task to make this figure achieve that goal – just ditch the reproduction dome. There’s no denying this figure isn’t complete; but it can still be sold as 100% genuine without including that 3rd party piece of junk. It actually has a better chance of selling without the faux part being present in the listing. Incomplete figures with 100% genuine parts are far more appealing to serious purchasers than incomplete but including repro junk that jacks up the price for no reason. It’s presence will lower interest some buyers would otherwise have as ‘feature complete’ does not mean 100% complete or 100% original. Lose the dome and all of a sudden this listing becomes more desirable despite its generally rough condition.
It’s still a Kenner ALIEN toy – and that’s where the real value lies – not in reproduction parts. Go for 100% genuine and missing parts rather than lesser quality if you can regardless of completeness.
-Windebieste.
