Kenner’s ALIENS figures of the 1990s are some of the best known toys across the entire ALIEN property. However, upon release many of these toys often inaccurately depicted the characters they were intended to represent. These characters were often goofy and outlandish, with these interpretations being the result of translating an R-rated property into palatable product suitable for four year olds to play with. As a result, they often missed the mark. Toy customiser, Matt Cauley, has taken on board the task of re-interpreting the human(oid) characters in this toy line with a more screen accurate representation. The result is nothing short of a astonishing reworking of 19 characters, including a fresh vision of all previous Kenner designs along with missing characters to complete roster of Colonial Marines. Head over to the Matt Cauley Design web site to check out all 19 figures and read up on Matt’s varying solutions for approaching this daunting task.

This unique set of customised figures is an art project and not available for sale. 

Here’s the figure for Rebecca “Newt” Jorden. This is a fine example of a character Kenner never created for their line of ALIENS toys. Here, Matt has filled this void and given Newt the full treatment. Newt is only 1 of 19 characters given this Kenner-like attention at the hands of this talented toy customiser. The figure, like all of these unique pieces, is mounted on a custom made card with a variety of accessories including a purpose made sticker sheet and comic book. It looks terrific, and as an art object is near flawless.Here’s some comments posted by Matt in regards to the construction of this item, “To create Newt, I took a Mego 3 3/4” Uncle Jesse figure from the Dukes of Hazzard line. The smaller size and somewhat rounder physique actually works perfectly for the character. In the interest of keeping things simple, I opted to use an Ellie Sattler head from the Jurassic Park line. A hollowed-out Cpl. Hicks head makes for a perfect helmet.Newt now can fight Xenomorphs side by side with Ripley!” Fascinating and wonderful.

For the whole roster of colonial marines, including many that were never before envisioned by Kenner during the 1990s, head over to Matt Cauley Design and take a peek into an alternate universe where ALIENS action figures could be something completely different.

-windebieste.