- Year: 1979
- Size: 3.75 inches.
- Product Line: Unproduced by Kenner (General Mills). Later, re-visited, re-envisioned and finally released by FUNKOxSuper7 in 2013.
The history of these items is well known and thoroughly documented. They were originally intended to be manufactured and sold by Kenner in 1980 with the intention of matching sales of their extant Star Wars toys made in the same scale. Prior sales of Star Wars figures in 1978 was over 40 million units. It was an enormous expectation on Kenner’s part and they embraced their new ALIEN licence wholeheartedly.
The earliest known prototype of the 3.75 inch range is a kit bashed sample of the figure using Kenner’s 3.75 inch Hammerhead Star Wars figure as a base. This improvised sample was used as a concept piece to introduce the line to internal meetings at Kenner. The construction of this piece would have occurred sometime in mid 1979, prior to the release of their large 18 inch ALIEN figure.
Here, we see both halves of the original hand sculpted acetate head of the figure. The sculptor, Bill Lemon, preferred to sculpt using acetate rather than traditional wax media. This unique item is the only hand sculpted head for the figure.
An unpainted hard copy sample of the complete figure. After the acetate sculpt was finalised, resin hard copies were created from molds made from the acetate sculpt.
Vac molded head halves were then created for the functioning head. A need to accommodating the simple moving part of the the figure’s manually sliding tongue dictated the head needed to be hollow at this early stage.
Finally, hand painted hard copies of the figure featuring the functional vac molded head were mounted on a resin cast body. The tongue moves in and out of the head by sliding the button on top forward and backwards. This prototype is one of 2 complete hard copy figures made with the intention of having the range of figures displayed at Toy Fair, 1979. This particular figure was intended to be a back up in reserve.
Here is the actual ToyFair prototype figure sent to Toy Fair. Aside from missing parts such as several dorsal spines and the tail, it is the mate item to the one immediately above and completes the pair of hand painted hardcopy prototypes made for the Toy Fair. These were the last prototype items for this figure Kenner made in 1979.
A marketing faux pas curtailed and terminated the development of the ALIEN items when public expectations of Kenner’s 18 inch ALIEN action figure were met with the realisation that the large size flagship item of this new and promising product line line was based on an R-rated movie and was deemed inappropriate for children. The 3.75 inch line was cancelled right after samples were sent to New York for the Toy Fair. Production on these items immediately ceased.
This wasn’t Kenner’s final calling for these prototypes. Later, during the early 1990’s and under the ownership if Tonka, Kenner were to attempt the release of these figures a 2nd time. To this end, the already extant prototypes made in 1979 were recast as presentation pieces to evaluate the viability of bringing these figures to store shelves. Typically, these mustard coloured resin prototype castings were painted in bright colors including the gold finish we see on the 1990 production sample below.
The revived interest by Kenner to release these pocket size figures was shelved in favor of more outlandish ALIENS items released in 1992 we are now familiar with.
Image courtesy of Derek Ho.
More than 30 years after being made and then scrapped, these prototypes were the inspiration for ALIEN figures spearheading the 3.75 inch ReAction range format in 2013, a popular line that continues to enjoy healthy growth to this day. Read more about the The Curious History of ALIEN ReAction Figures. Currently, no less than 15 variants of the ReAction Alien character owe their existence to items displayed on this page.
Images courtesy of Steve Dwyer except where noted.
Would you like to know more..? Additional information by Steve Dwyer can also be found in this article posted on Cool Toy Review.
