- Manufacturer: Super7
- Released: 2019
ALIEN Day, April 26, has been and gone, celebrating 40 years of all fun things ALIEN. It also brought with it the usual selection of announcements we have learned to expect for ALIEN themed merchandise we can expect to become available over the coming year. At the forefront of this celebration was Super7’s latest release of their popular Alien and Kane figures in brand spanking fresh retro finish.
Appropriately, these new variants of this pair of figures are each backed with card designs featuring early ALIEN poster concept art by renowned movie poster designer, Bill Gold. This design choice not only lends a suitable retro finish to the backing sheets but also graces us a striking set of unforgettable images. There’s no doubt the packaging for these two items is eye catching, memorable and unique. A fitting design choice for celebrating the movie’s 40th Anniversary in 3.75 inch ReAction figure format.
As for the new figures themselves, we’ve seen them before. Multiple times, in fact. That’s not to say these items are bad; they certainly are as eye catching as the packaging they are secured to – and that’s a good thing. Truth be told, there’s a lot to like about them both. The blue Alien figure is the 3rd iteration of the character to be made in transparent material filled with glitter. It’s a very effective and startling use of this presentation where it worked extremely well for the earlier ‘Midnight Star’ and ‘Supernova’ variants of the figure – both of which are now becoming difficult to find and frustratingly expensive when you do.
The translucent plastic in which it’s cast is sprayed black on select parts to add a shadowing at the head, shoulders, elbows, torso, hips and ankles. This treatment adds significantly to the figure’s appearance giving these locations a sense of depth. Alternatively, it also lends a dirty sooty look to the otherwise pristine blue presentation. Otherwise, it’s a very nice piece and a worthy addition to the long running line up.
Kane is no less impressive. No other ALIEN figure in this line up is comparable in regards to its treatment. Red is a major theme here, with Kane’s bright red painted helmet, torso and shin pads complementing the translucent pink fabric components of the compression suit very satisfyingly.
As this is the breached faceplate version of the figure, there is a pale facehugger permanently fused to Kane’s face. It’s a great piece and it’s very welcome largely due to the fact no figures in the entire ALIEN ReAction figure line up possess this finish.
There really is nothing to complain about these 2 items. They’re fantastic iterations of what has come before. That’s not even in question and if you don’t own either of these characters in any of the other variants, then you can’t go wrong with this pair. Also very welcome is the ease of availability for these two figures. These items are not cursed with being difficult to find exclusives released only at a convention or other event that lasted a matter of days and you now must brace yourself for rapidly escalating eBay prices. You can visit Super7’s store right now and buy them – without the costing load of paying eBay scalper fees. That’s all very welcome. Very, VERY welcome, actually!
The only real problem with these items that may be raised is one of repetition. These two characters appeared as Super7′ first entry in their ReAction figure line up as a pair of pale blue, limited edition convention celebratory ‘prototype test shot’ figures 6 years ago exclusively at San Diego Comic Con in 2013. Since then, this is the 18th variant of the Alien and the 10th version of the compression suited figure Super7 have released to date. That’s 28 versions of these 2 figures alone. As a result, I am developing a strained Love/Hate relationship with these things as they are essentially the same items cast once again in what amounts to nothing more than a different color. Hand a blind person several different versions of the Alien character ReAction figure to be evaluated and they will handle them only to tell you they’re all exactly the same.
These 2 characters have seen repeated release without any real respite since 2013 and Super7 aren’t letting up. SPACE VILLAIN blind box Wave 3 has also recently been released. Today, actually. That release adds 3 new variants of the Alien and another version of compression suited Kane to the line up. Which begs the question, do we really need 20+ variants of the same figure cast in different coloured opaque and/or translucent plastics and filled with or without glitter? Super7 obviously think so. It will be interesting to see what gets released later. This practice is all market driven. If people buy it, someone will make it.
All the same, that’s a discussion for another time. These two figures are great items. The card art is undeniably fantastic and the figures themselves are remarkably repurposed, each with a new finish. As a whole, they’re worth getting direct from the manufacturer who has ensured they’re easy to acquire. The Alien card back alone is significantly better than Super7’s previously released ‘Hammerhead’ tribute figure – which by my reckoning had the weakest card art of all these figures released to date. The 40th Anniversary card art of this pair beats that earlier iteration’s packaging into whimpering submission.
So despite the obvious repetition are these items worth adding to your collection? Yes. Yes, they are. Simply because the presentation on both items is outstanding and easily among the best Super7 have done with this licence to date. It’s right up the top with their original release Series 1 retro themed pre-order blue card figures from 2013. This pair of items complement that set of six figures perfectly.
Score: 8/10
Sure, the repetition is setting in like concrete but this pair of 3.75 inch figures are the best versions of what Super7 have had to offer us in the ALIEN property for a long time. Fantastically realised in stunning presentation despite the tired fact we’ve seen it all before.
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