Aliens versus Colonial Marines Action Figures
NECA 2013
Based off the second Alien movie; Aliens, NECA released some of the coolest Xenomorph figures to date. When I saw that classic brown Xenomorph with two colonial marines, I knew they’d make an awesome addition to my games room. These figures are detailed, well made and look freaking awesome but in saying that, I haven’t felt compelled to pick up any of the other Alien figures since the initial release.
Being my first NECA figures, I was excited to share my thoughts on them.
Initially when I started searching for Alien figures, I was really interested in the Alien vs Predator movie action figures McFarlane were producing; specifically Alien Attacks Predator. I discovered NECA was attempting to revisit the 1986 movie, Aliens with their own action figures. There’s been a slight resurgence of the popularity of the Aliens franchise with the game Aliens: Colonial Marines finally being released in 2013, so after re-watching all the movies, reviewing some of the games and even playing all the way through the Aliens: Colonial Marines game on PC, I decided to start my Aliens action figure collection by pre-ordering their 9″ Brown Alien (Xenomorph) Warrior and waiting over three months (sigh).
These are the first NECA figurines I’ve ever bought and after countless visits to the website, staring at product shots and slowly seeing people in the states posting shots, I have to admit the figurines were a lot different than I expected. The amount of articulation was almost overwhelming and overly complex but with some excessive fiddling the figures can really strike much more ‘life-like’ and dynamic positions. The grooves and notches in the arms and legs with combination of solid and flexing plastics mean the figures have an amazing amount of detail with some of the best articulation I’ve seen. Probably not going to be a surprise for long time NECA fans but coming from a mostly 90’s toy collection, it’s awesome to see this kind of control.
The Warrior Xenomorph doesn’t come packaged with any accessories or extra items; not a big deal when you consider it’s size and detail. It’s got some great detailing like a hinged jaw with an extendable inner-mouth and a hyper-detailed bendable tail that matches seamlessly with the hard plastic ‘spines’ protruding from it’s back. The highest spine is actually removable to allow further head positions.
A lot of the stock photos online and on Ebay don’t do this figure justice. I was a little nervous I’d be receiving a lanky, unwieldy figure… And it is but the trick lies in the amount of articulation it has through it’s legs and using the tail to help support it. You wouldn’t stand the Xenomorph Warrior upright, he’s much more at home crouching, crawling or sprawling out. This figure feels a bit heavier than the Colonial Marines (I could be wrong), but the Xenomorph’s centre of gravity certainly is higher up forcing you to pose the figure closer to the ground, much closer to how the Xenomorph behaves on film.
The Xenomorph figurines are always going to be the highlight of the toy-line for me but personally, it’s the Colonial Marine figurines, Hicks and Hudson, that really make this an exciting action figure line. It’s probably expected, but I got a real surge of nostalgia for my old G.I. Joe’s when I got my hands on Hicks and Hudson. I can say with certainty that both these figures are much more detailed than a G.I. Joe and pack a lot more firepower (I guess fighting a Xenomorph would be a lot tougher than going up against Cobra Commanders with falcons and boxing gloves).
These figures are shorter than the Aliens figurines to keep them all to scale (7″ compared to the Aliens 9″), but they retain the 30 points of articulation and come packaged with motion trackers, plasma rifles, shotguns, shoulder lamps and welders. Hicks comes with his signature shotgun (w/holster) while Hudson has a motion tracker. Teamed up together, they form a pretty core Marine squad on a bug-hunt. I have my fingers crossed for a smartgunner and a squad leader (Sergeant Apone with his own pack-in cigar!) but for a first wave I’m pretty stoked about the line-up. Seems like we’ll be expecting new versions of Hicks and Hudson with different battle expressions, combat helmet and a new Marine, Sgt. Craig Windrix with flamethrower (who wasn’t from the film, but has been created as a tribute).
My first concern with these figures is the way the straps on Hick’s shotgun holster are glued together; It’s a thin strap with a drop of glue on either end. For Hudson my concern came with his shoulder mounted flash-light. When I tried to attach it to his back the peg wasn’t lined up perfectly which resulted in it bending. The plastic at the base of the peg was pulled and stressed but I did manage to guide it in without breaking it off completely. It now sits firmly but unless I want to resort to using blu-tac or gluing it on permanently, it’ll need to remain in Hudson’s back.
Both Hicks and Hudson have been cast and built from the same mold so there’s plenty of similarities but with different details on the combat gear, different head sculpts and a few different weapons, they feel unique enough positioned next to each other.
The first wave of the NECA Aliens action figures consists of Hicks, Hudson and a brown Xenomorph. NECA are also releasing an alien two-pack with a red and black Xenomorph from the comic books with more two-packs to be announced in the future. At this point, the line has been expanding very healthily with an amazing looking Alien Queen, Ripley, Dallas, Bishop and a series of Xenomorphs (such as the dog Xenomorph and the coloured Xenomorph’s).
To kick-start my collection, I’ve purchased two Xenomorphs and both Hicks and Hudson. I like the fact the Aliens look the same. It’s confirmed that some of the future Xenomorphs will have blue highlights and with a confirmed black and red Xenomorph two-pack, I didn’t want to start compiling a rainbow spectrum of Xenomorph’s.
The NECA toy-line seems to have a few key differences over the McFarlane toy-line in terms of their overall priority’s and goals. McFarlane figurines didn’t have a lot of articulation. They were molded to be slightly posable but the priority seemed to be statues depicting key events and characters from the films. NECA feels like they went in the complete opposite direction with over 30 points of articulation for each figurine, these literally feel like action figures created for adults.
As I mentioned at the top of the post, I’m pretty conservative about which action figures I do own and unfortunately, I don’t have any of McFarlane’s Aliens action figures to compare NECA’s with. I enjoy writing up these articles because it gives me a chance to explore and experiment with the figurines, create backdrops, scenarios and discuss them from the viewpoint of a hands on, casual collector.
check out some more images from the NECA Aliens line below.
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