In what appears to be a never ending 40th Anniversary celebration of 1979’s release of ALIEN, NECA have added a fourth wave of figures to their line up. Comprising this line up will be Lambert and Ripley in compression suits and yet another release of the Alien. These items are expected to be released in May, 2021. Here’s what NECA have to say about this upcoming release, “Wave 4 will include previously released fan favorites Ripley(Compression Suit), Lambert(Compression Suit), and Giger’s Alien, with various upgrades and improvements. Both Ripley & Lambert will feature photoreal facial deco of Sigourney Weaver and Veronica Cartwright! Giger’s Alien features new paint deco based on HR Giger’s original concept artwork.Each figure will come packaged in a 40th Anniversary Kenner inspired window box to commemorate the occasion.”

Personally, I’m welcoming of these figures in the bright blue retro anniversary packaging – what I am not finding so inspirational is the blatant re-issue of previously released items. There’s nothing truly fresh here. I’d love to see Lambert in her Nostromo crew gear; but no. Apparently, we have to have yet another re-issue of previously released compression suited character. Actually, all the figures in this line up have been seen before and those early iterations were great. I guess this time around they will be packaged in a nice, blue box instead of a clamshell. *sigh*. No doubt these will be great releases and if you missed out on either Ripley or Lambert in their compression suits in previous NECA releases then this is an opportunity to land them. Nonetheless, I can’t help but feel the horse has been flayed down to its backbone with this content.

-Windebieste.