Mr. Tendril’s BIG Make Over.

It is time for me to get to work on a new mini-Project. One that is going to be documented fully in a series of pages. A mini-Project that involves the reconstruction of an old Kenner ALIEN and transform it into something special with some care and attention. This is clearly a substandard Kenner ALIEN figure in sad shape that I’ll be dealing with here and many of his parts are missing or broken; some have even been replaced in a most unorthodox manner. I’ll be embracing those changes. This will be a challenge – but a fun one, at that! Let’s get it on.

Let’s take a closer look at this amazing, low grade figure and explore the potential it still has to offer.

Firstly, this isn’t a figure to reliably cannibalise for spare parts. Every piece is either damaged or had select details painted in silver flourishes. In this regard, there isn’t a single part on Mr. Tendril that hasn’t been touched by the casual application of silver paint. So, he’s not a great source of spare parts for other rebuilds. His remaining right arm might possibly be salvageable – as it appears to have had only the finger nails and the elbow spur painted – and I will explore that avenue later. Arms are valuable and rare so if I can reuse it elsewhere, I will do so.

The other notable feature the figure can boast is the inclusion of a pair of rubber rat tails used in its prior customisation. That’s right… rat’s tails. Both the shoulder crest and tail are missing and a flaccid rubber rat’s tail is mounted in lieu of these parts in each of these locations. These improvised rubbery limbs lend a very disturbing quality to the figure. They loosely wriggle and twirl about as it is handled. It’s quite disgusting, actually. Surprisingly so.

It’s with these issues in mind I’ve decided to give Mr. Tendril a makeover. I had something different in mind when I first purchased him. That treatment of the figure involved a much more dramatic alteration but I’ve reconsidered my options and changed my mind since then. His arrival has given me pause for my original plans and I have decided to embrace the weird and lurid qualities the figure already possesses. I don’t want to disturb them too much. I’ll be working around those additions rather than remove them. My original plans can be executed on some other banged up Kenner ALIEN. So I’ll save that customisation for another time.

The truth of it all is, the unique artlessness of the paint application combined with the repulsive rubber rats tails inserted into its spine are intrinsic qualities I don’t want to mess with. I’m going to embrace and retain these features and keep them intact during this makeover.

I’ll be updating the progress of Mr. ‘Tendril’s BIG Makeover’ when I can. Currently I’m in the middle of moving house and such niceties as regular updates are going to be a little erratic and less reliable than I would like them to be.

Either way, I’ll be back again soon!