This decrepit 1979 Kenner ALIEN toy recently came into my possession and he is in a particularly bad state of disrepair. Woeful, to say the least as his condition is one of the worst I have seen in a long time. Nonetheless, he’s a Kenner ALIEN – still relatively valuable – and he’s going to receive some much needed attention. I am going to endeavor to get this old guy back on his feet.

Before we engage in those tasks in transforming this wrecked old toy into something worthy of display once again, let’s recount his recent history. It’s one of those rescue missions you hear about on occasion, saving this imperfect vintage toy from oblivion.

This largely derelict sample came to me from across the other side of Melbourne, in West Footscray. Discussing some of its history with me, the previous owner, Chris, told me he had “found it years ago in an old sports bag on hard rubbish” collection. Found after being turfed out with unwanted waste and rubble to be collected by the local council garbage truck. Yeah. How lucky is that? Chris went on to tell me the fortunate find “fairly freaked me out at the time” which I can fully appreciate considering how sought after these 18 inch tall vintage toys have become. Now this is waste recovery at its most splendid, I say.

It’s an intriguing little piece of its otherwise unknown history, being dumped on the roadside along with a pile of other rubbish as part of abandoned kerbside collection, destined to become landfill. Lucky for this Alien, he was recognised and recovered, kept for some time and has since made his way into my possession. Now that he’s in my care, he’s going to receive as good a makeover as is possible. He will certainly be a challenge as this figure is a real mess but I’ve handled and repaired dozens of these things over the years and I am confident of a positive result. Let’s take a quick assessment of this broken old soul and see what we have to deal with. First, we should give him a name. Mr. FORD is good. I like that. As it serves as an acronym for “Found On Rubbish Dump”, it fits him perfectly. So, Mr. FORD it is.

As is obvious, Mr. FORD is an incomplete sample. Dirty, obviously missing pieces and many still extant parts are damaged. He can still be made to look decent but poor old Mr. FORD will never be as good as new. It’s outside the scope of his potential to ever become comparable to a more well preserved Kenner ALIEN toy sample. Beyond that, there’s potential for significant rehabilitation and a good future for this old toy.

That’s not to say, he doesn’t have serious problems and we will look at them during this exercise. Inspecting the head below, we can see it has a noticeable separation along its length where both halves now display a wide gap. I should be able to fix that as I understand the cause. Both arms are severed and luckily, the right arm is included with the figure. The left arm has long since gone missing.

Mr. FORD’s upper torso is solid if not complete. Obvious amounts of dirt and grime coat the figure and the rich details of the front torso half are layered the thickest. The rear of the figure displays the commonly missing dorsal crest and associated damaged slot along with the misalignment of three out of four of those “weird tubie things on its back”.

Nothing unusual there and I should at the very least be able to repair and straighten those parts present. I’ll get them securely seated in a parallel arrangement once again so they no longer loosely float around like they currently do.

Just a couple other quick final observations to be made on this significantly degraded old toy. Severed above the ankle, Mr. FORD’s right foot is completely missing. It’s lost to time and not included here. It will need to be replaced. His left leg is present but also has issues that we will explore later.

Fortunately, Mr. FORD’s right arm is present. It’s not in perfect condition but I’ll happily accept it in the state it is in. After all, the left arm is completely missing and that is disappointing but I am happy with the raft of Wins already available to me with this figure. The arms easily break off of these old toys and missing limbs are very common. Today, an estimated 40% of Kenner ALIEN toys have at least one arm missing. On some samples, both are missing. So, I’m grateful he’s got just one.

Other issues will become immediately apparent once this figure is disassembled and cleaned as Mr. FORD is in a significantly degraded condition. This is one filthy grub-monkey but there is a strong possibility he will once again be able to stand tall, free of the display stand I am using here to currently prop him up. To aid in this goal, I have a number of tricks – and other resources – up my sleeve that Mr. Ford will greatly benefit.

Right now, however, Mr. FORD is in dire need of a bath. At least he doesn’t smell of stale cigarettes or wet dog odor. I have handled one Kenner ALIEN toy in the past which appeared to be the long term resident of a rank dog kennel for an unknown number of years. Infested with loose fur both inside and externally, the dominant smell of stale canine was an unattractive problem to overcome. At least I won’t have to deal with that issue here.

At this point, let’s see if we can dismantle Mr. FORD and give him a much needed bath. Hopefully I can remove the four screws present in his back with ease. Otherwise, this whole exercise will come to an abrupt halt.

Now. Where’s that screwdriver? Let’s see how stubborn Mr. FORD really is…

Part 1: Recovery.
Part 2: Dismantle & Clean.
Part 3: Working on the Head.
Part 4: Attaching the Arm.
Part 5: Attaching the Tail.
Part 6: Replacing a Leg.
Part 7: Reattaching the Dorsal Quads.
Part 8: Final Assembly.