• Manufacturer: NECA
• Released: 2016

I didn’t mind the ALIEN vs PREDATOR movie from 2004. As a goofy crossover that owes its origins to the Dark Horse comics more than the original movies featuring the eponymous beasties, it was an adequate if not wholly satisfying effort. In many ways, it fulfilled other unexpected desires of my youth.

I’d always loved the adventure novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jules Verne, H. Rider Haggard and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Writers whose pulp fiction yarns chronicled groups of daring explorers visiting remote parts of the World, the weird things they’d find and the fantastic adventures they had while exploring.

In may ways, Anderson’s presentation was a Boy’s Own adventure story written in the epic spirit of such Authors. In this regard it’s one of the best movies made this Century depicting such juvenile ambitions. Except instead of discovering dinosaurs and fantastic treasures it featured Aliens. …and Predators… duking it out inside an ancient pyramid buried beneath Antarctic ice.  Well, that’s completely OK with me.

Here we have NECA’s Glow in the dark figure based on an Alien from that movie. It’s a straight recasting of the AvP Alien warrior from NECA’s Series 7 which was a great figure to start with but this variant is cast in lurid green and glows in the dark when exposed to bright light. It’s intended to represent the ‘thermal vision’ mode of the Predator’s mask and is a serviceable justification for its existence.

The important thing is IT GLOWS IN THE DARK! Who cares if the vision mode it is intended to represent is consistent or accurate with the games, movies, comics or not?

The reason you buy this fellow is so you can charge it up under a bright light, switch off all the electrical equipment in the room and show it off to your pizza chomping pals really late on a Saturday night after drinking too much beer. Listen to their howls of “Oh, Man. That is one SERIOUSLY COOL piece of Alien shit you got there!” as they drunkenly fall victim to its mesmerising radiant strange form throbbing in the darkness.

“That’s… *BURRP!* …too awesome, Dude.”

That’s it. End of review. That’s all you need to know.

This figure has all of NECA’s wonderful sculpting that you expect from anything in their current clam shell packaged 7 inch range. The articulation is terrific. The glow in the dark lightweight paintwork is adequate at best but not fantastic. The fact it glows in the dark is the real reason this item should interest you. It was intended as an exclusive to Toys ‘r’ Us item in the US but it appears to be readily available at most specialty retailers without too much difficulty or scarcity so it’s easy to find. Even if you are not interested in the movie, this 8 inch tall effigy is currently the easiest way to purchase a glow in the dark Alien of any sort.

NECA’s Thermal vision warrior Alien joins the cadre of other glow in the dark Alien figures made by other companies including Titans, Gentle Giant and Super 7; a tradition where luminous features – either fully or partial – can trace their history all the way back to the original Kenner ALIEN toy released in 1979.

SCORE: 8/10.  It glows in the dark. What more do you need to know? Brilliant!

Check out more ALIEN action figure reviews on HIDEOUS PLASTIC.