Hot Toys’ Alien Warrior Mostly Comes Out at Night, Mostly

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Aliens, James Cameron's follow-up to the sci-fi horror classic, Alien. To celebrate the event, 20th Century Fox has overtaken the fan holiday of Aliens Day on April 26 (LV-426 is the planet where all the action happens in Aliens) to bring out a number of new collectibles and to promote the upcoming sequel, Alien: Covenant. Major corporations co-opting something as silly and fun as a fake holiday fits right in with the Weyland-Yutani mantra, and while we can debate the value of tactics like these, we are getting some products that might otherwise have never happened like replica Reebok sneakers and new Hot Toys figures.

I'm perfectly at peace in being complicit in allowing things like this to happen because I want to own cool things that celebrate the culture I enjoy. I love the Alien series. Most of it anyway. I also really enjoy toys. While NECA's been doing a tremendous job pumping out Alien figures at a steady and affordable pace, Hot Toys has been chilling on the sidelines with its Marvel and Star Wars licenses. The Hong Kong manufacturer once released a number of Alien figures, but it was well before the company became the juggernaut it is today. The revisiting of the franchise will give Hot Toys a chance to show off it's new skills with the Alien Warrior, a xenomorph that's been done a number of times before, but never quite like this.

At 13" tall, the Alien Warrior is not a threat to be taken lightly. The creature design, based on HR Giger's concepts, is incredibly intricate, and the larger size gives Hot Toys' sculptors plenty of room to include all the final details in xenomorph biology. While smaller-scale figures could be argued to be as horrifyingly accurate, the scale here really allows for nuance that would otherwise be missed.

Curiously, even thought the xenomorphs have unique body structure to hide joints, Hot Toys went with a synthetic skin to mask the articulation as best as it could. There are very few visible joints, which allows for a seamlessness in the design. That uniform structure comes at a slight cost however, as many Hot Toys collectors can attest, the "skin" is often problematic with the company's figures. In addition to being fairly restrictive in posing, the skin can crack if left posed for too long, or get crinkles that don't come out. For a monster like the xenomorph that is all about insane poses that no ordinary human could create, it's shame we likely won't be able to put this figure in any crawling or attacking stances.

The figure will come with some acid blood bursts, as if it's being attacked, and you'll be able to open the jaw to find the extendable inner mouth inside. The bendable tail is a nice touch, but again will likely be hampered by the same restrictions as the elbow, hips and knees.

The Aliens Alien Warrior will be available on April 26 at Hot Toys flagship store, though other regions are not expected to get it until Q2-Q3 of this year. When Sideshow Collectibles has more details, we'll update this post.

Update: The Alien Warrior is available for pre-order for $249.99, and is expected to arrive during Q3 this year.