During the course of the last 40 years, there’s been dozens of ALIEN action figures manufactured by many, many licencees.  The 1979 Kenner ALIEN toy was one of the first (pre-dated only by the MPC model kit). It’s also been reproduced at least 12 times.  As so many iterations of the figure have appeared over the past 4 decades, it’s not surprising some confusion may exist between different versions.  Take this ALIEN figure for sale on ebay for example.

He’s missing a few parts here and there; notably the dome on his head, the spike on his back and his tongue pieces are all absent.  These items are commonly missing from these old toys and their absence will significantly devalue the figure.  Nonetheless, he’s an original Kenner toy but the vendor has erroneously listed him as a Gentle Giant figure. 

Here’s the vendor’s description: “A Gentle Giant Release! Alien is the legendary 1979 science-fiction/horror film directed by Ridley Scott. … Gentle Giant has taken a vintage action figure of the Alien xenomorph and digitally scanned it, then reproduced it at a much larger scale.”

So, is this a problem?

Yes. It is.  For a start, it’s simply inaccurate at the most fundamental level.  While the Gentle Giant tribute ALIEN figure is a great item, it’s still just a glorified reproduction of the original 1979 figure.  They also tend to be very expensive and were originally released at US$495 each.  This sale conveniently has this figure listed at US$250, probably under the assumption it’s a busted up version of the Gentle Giant item.

Fortunately, samples of this very used looking Kenner toy have been known to sell for around that much – but that amount is certainly the absolute maximum price to expect from a Kenner toy in this condition.  Usually in this commonly found state, these old toys will sell for around US$130 (Sometimes more.  Sometimes Less.) – so paying this amount will be doing yourself a disservice if you were to choose to buy it as Kenner ALIEN toys in this state usually sell for a lot less than US$250.

Especially if you were planning on actually purchasing a (cheap) Gentle Giant figure and this tired looking, battered relic landed on your doorstep.  For my own purposes, I wouldn’t complain; but someone else might.

I Guess it would be a bigger problem if the listing was for a genuine Kenner toy, an item in much greater demand; and instead the purchaser received a Gentle Giant figure – a larger figure but a reproduction item – instead.

Here’s the updated and upscaled Gentle Giant figure from 2015 compared to the original 1979 Kenner ALIEN toy.

This kind of mistake happens frequently. Occasionally, vendors finding these old toys in the wild do minimum research and then sell them for what they can knowing the figure at its most basic it is a collector item.  Just be careful what you buy!  Do your own research and if you’re lucky you may even pick up a Kenner figure, cheap.   Possibly even much cheaper than this.

-Windebieste.