UPDATE: This listing has ended; presumed Sold.

Here’s something a little unusual.  A 1979 Kenner ALIEN toy complete in box. The figure is nice. The box is a bit beat up. The red insert card looks OK. So far, it’s all very normal and relatively common. It’s the presence of two posters that is of genuine curiosity, here. All this can be yours for US$1,750 on eBay. Including both posters! It’s a lot of money to spend on an old toy just to have a duplicate of the poster, though. Yet, that second poster can easily be sold on eBay for anywhere between US$50 and US$120 dollars. The figure itself is a good quality sample, complete with all components in place and has the added attraction of being able to hold a pose, which itself is uncommon. …but is it worth US$1,750, even with a duplicate item thrown in for added value? Probably not. Mind you, the vendor is willing to take offers on this item. So it will sell. That’s a certainty, despite the fact this item is neither rare nor in mint condition.

Sure, the figure is in excellent shape but “mint” condition is only applicable to product samples that exactly match the condition they were in when dispatched from the place of manufacture. As these old toys do suffer from material degradation that has occurred to them over the past forty years, “mint” is a loosely applied term, at best. I personally prefer to refer to figures in such excellent condition as “extremely well preserved” specimen. Unfortunately, fatigue over four decades has resulted in the styrene they are made from becoming brittle and easily damaged. Not a condition you would consider appropriate to be considered as “mint”. As all Kenner ALIEN toys are forty years old and made from the same styrene material, none of them can deny the process of slow decay – and forty years is a long time for this gradual break down to become evident. So no. None of them are any longer in “mint” condition.

It’s a great looking figure in a not so great looking box with two posters packed inside. That’s a sweet bonus and a fantastic pick up for someone, no doubt; but the price it’s being offered for is definitely well above what you can expect to pay for an item that is neither rare nor mint. Shave off one thousand dollars and this would sell in no time. What you can expect either way, this item won’t remain listed for very long.

-Windebieste.