If you’re looking to buy a vintage 1979 Kenner ALIEN toy right now is a good time to look for one. There are currently at least two dozen of them listed on eBay right now. They come in various conditions from extremely well preserved in near pristine condition and in boxes right down to miscellaneous loose pieces ready to use as replacement parts on an incomplete sample you may already own. There’s a lot to choose from. The image below represents some of what’s currently available. Sure, the pricing on each of these things is still well above what some people are prepared to pay for an old toy but you can rest assured, those high prices aren’t in any way genuinely associated with any false claims to it being rare. If they’re not rare, as clearly and obviously indicated here, then what is the driving factor for the high price on these old toys? A lot of it does come to to “cool” factor, for sure but there’s more than that at play here. Importantly, it’s the toy’s reputation that drives these high prices. These toys were intended for children “AGES 5 AND UP” and failed miserably at retail due to the movie ALIEN being released with an R rating in the US. The Kenner ALIEN was the first mass market toy released to retail with an adult movie rating and it happened accidentally. It also caused conservative parents to respond to its release in an extremely unfavorable way. Some claiming it was “demonic”, “offensive” or just downright inappropriate for children.

It’s an amazing toy; and after more than forty years, you can still buy one. Which is an important consideration in another way. The presence of so many of these things available on eBay today (more than four decades later) is testimony to how many of these ALIEN toys Kenner actually made, around one hundred and fifty thousand units has been estimated – possibly more. So much for it being rare, hey. I have seen other ALIEN action figures made by different companies along with other related ALIEN merchandise released this century become truly rare, difficult to find and also priced accordingly. But this grotesque thing? Yes. It has a special standing. It was the first action figure of its type. That simple fact alone counts considerably towards its status as a collectible. So many reasons this item is regarded as one of the toy industry’s historical landmarks. This weird articulated thing is deservedly famous – albeit for all the wrong reasons.

Go spend a few hundred dollars and grab one for yourself. They’re great!

-windebieste.