Almost a year ago now, retro toy company Super7 made an exciting announcement that it had acquired and licensed the original molds to a legendary line of ‘Alien’ action figures that were designed but never released back in 1979. While they’re not quite ready to bring home yet, the company will finally open up preorders at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, and convention attendees will be offered some special exclusives.
At the tail end of the 1970s, still riding high from the huge success of its ‘Star Wars’ toys, the Kenner company inked a deal with 20th Century Fox to produce a compatible run of 3 ¾” action figures for the studio’s next surefire science fiction blockbuster, Ridley Scott’s ‘Alien’. Apparently, it escaped almost everyone’s attention that ‘Alien’ would be an R-rated horror film, not exactly a property conducive to marketing toys to children. Plans progressed as far as designing and creating prototypes for several figures (including heroine Ripley, Captain Dallas, Kane, Ash and the alien itself, jokingly called “Big Chap”) before someone realized how inappropriate this tie-in would be and pulled the plug on the whole project. Tantalizing photos of those prototypes taunted toy collectors and fans of the movie for years.
Now, with appropriate permissions received from both Hasbro (current owners of the Kenner brand) and 20th Century Fox, Super7 will finally make these unproduced figures a reality, boxed up in vintage style packaging for good measure. Expected to ship sometime between October 1st and December 31st of this year, a complete set of the five “ReAction” figures will be available for preorder at Comic-Con (July 18th – 21st). The figures will only be sold together, not individually, for $100 shipped within the continental United States or $125 elsewhere. If that sounds expensive for five tiny pieces of plastic, you probably haven’t paid a visit to Toys R Us to price action figures lately. Honestly, for a desirable collectible like this, it seems pretty reasonable to me.
Additionally, Comic-Con attendees will have the chance to obtain any of four exclusive “Early Bird” packages:
- A retro-style ‘Alien’ action figure catalog – Free for stopping at the Super7 booth at Comic-Con.
- An ‘Alien’ action figure stand – Free when you sign up for the Super7 mailing list.
- A vintage style action figure display case, Space Club Membership Card, ‘Alien’ photos and a sheet of ‘Alien’ stickers – Free with preorders placed at Comic-Con.
- A two-pack of unpainted “test shot” prototype action figures for Kane and Big Chap – $40 at Comic-Con.
Aside from the ‘Alien’ action figures themselves, the other Early Bird items (even the test shot prototypes) will be handed out at Comic-Con, no waiting required.
More photos can be found at this Super7 Flickr page.
If you can’t make it to Comic-Con, regular preorders (without the Early Bird exclusive items) will open after the convention.
Super7 also plans to release a set of four ‘Alien’ collectible “fast food” glasses in August.
NJScorpio
Wow…I was just considering flying across the country, and attending Comic-Con, JUST for the exclusive unpainted figures.
I’m still considering it…
Julian
Do you think this will mark the beginning of a trend? New, old-style action figures of franchises of yesteryear? I’d love some Back to the Future-figs, or the unproduced series of ‘Hook’. I actually asked MattyCollector about this, since the prototypes are available (which means: even the molds), so it shouldn’t be VERY expensive. I’d love to see the Lost Boys’ treehouse (http://i41.servimg.com/u/f41/13/61/08/23/hook_310.jpg)
Josh Zyber
AuthorI suppose it depends on how well these sell. There are a number of unproduced G.I. Joe figures from 1995 that I’d love to see get made.
Retro style action figures are fairly popular at the moment, but most of them are made in the 1970s Mego style, like the controversial Django Unchained figures from last year.
Julian
Tell me more about those 1995 Joe figs. I just picked up a Defiant last week, by the way. Finally!
Josh Zyber
AuthorWhen the G.I. Joe toy line was canceled in 1994, a number of planned figures for 1995 were scrapped. Among these were some new Ninja Commandos and a line of Star Brigade aliens called Manimals.
More details here:
http://www.yojoe.com/archive/unproduced/
Julian
Thanks for the link!