Was toy merchandising partly to blame for the mass expansion of the Alien Franch

Love it... I liked the Rhino-Alien. Headbutts like a Bro!

I remember those well. A friend of mine had the Alien Queen, which was pretty faithful to the film. I think when James Cameron took Aliens in more of an action / adventure direction than a horror one it was bound to be fodder for toy merchandisers. I know there were a couple of toy tie-ins with the original Alien, but It would be hard to imagine parents buying their kids a chest-bursting Kane figure that shot out blood and went into epileptic spasms when you pushed a button on its back.

Most of those toys were based off of the Aliens marines, and the Dark Horse comic lines. The toys from the original were quite true to the Alien film. The standing Drone even came complete with translucent dome with humanoid skull underneath. The toys based on the comics and Aliens film, were where you really saw the crazy deviations, like the bull and gorilla. They brought back Apone with a robotic arm and even had Drake survive with no scarring from the blood that drenched him in the film. ( this was all in the mid 90's if I'm not mistaken well after the Aliens film was released, and the toy push would have happend ) If you are looking to place blame, I would hit Dark Horse for over-saturating the Alien series with too many crap stories that led to the creation of a majority of these toys.

I found dark horse comics more entertaining that last two alien movies.

Never had alien toys... shame.

When I was a kid I had a flying queen [img]http://i1050.photobucket.com/albums/s402/Albertocrazy86/flyingalienqueenmoc.jpg[/img] and then I lost it! ... facepal to me :p [img]http://i1050.photobucket.com/albums/s402/Albertocrazy86/del0cp.jpg[/img]

I can remember seeing this commercial in 1979.Talk about a big tease.I was about as old as the kids in this commercial.I wasn't allowed to see the film and mom said there was "No darn way" I was ever gonna get one of those Alien toys.I also remember seeing adverts for three and a quarter inch Alien action figures with a Nostromo playset.Years later I found out that parent groups banned the Alien 12 inch figure so the toy company scrapped its plans for the smaller action figures and playset....Darn it :( Here's a link to the 1979 toy commercial: http://youtu.be/uKSv85mJEmY

This was bugging me.Did some searching and found this site.I'm pretty sure this pic shows un-released Alien action figures from 1979. [IMG]http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n34/mortis45/FreddyInSpace3/alien2.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n34/mortis45/FreddyInSpace3/alien3.jpg[/IMG] I found this too.I didn't even know about these. [IMG]http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z292/djrees_2007/ALIENM-02.jpg[/IMG] A Ben Cooper Halloween costume :) [IMG]http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z292/djrees_2007/1_9a2464930f9d148d5b7f6e33a8c39caf.jpg[/IMG] Here's a link to the 1979 Alien movie toy page: http://www.freddyinspace.com/2012/06/vintage-video-of-week-1979-kenner-alien.html

Great photos @djrees56!! I had no idea that they were thinking of doing small figures at the time as well as the large Alien. [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=j6HaJqYe6TQ]This related video[/url] shows that large Alien figure in more detail. I remember the commercials and man I wanted that SOOO bad. I went to a toy collectors convention in the late 90s and came across a guy selling one in the box for about $600 (that was in the pre-ebay days, so they were extremely hard to come across). Sadly, I didn't have that kind of cash to snap it up. He was telling me that Kenner pulled them off the shelves due to the exact thing we all expected - it was way too inappropriate to market a toy based on a graphically violent R-Rated movie to the under 12 set.

Thanks Space Screamer.I saw one of the big original Kenner Alien toys in K-Mart around the 1979 era.They wanted $30.00 for it brand new.In the late 70's paying $30.00 for an action figure was ridiculous.Star Wars action figures were 65 cents each,plus tax.Its a miracle the Alien ever made it to the shelves with that kind of pricetag.It was 1979.I remember complaining because admission to movies had gone from $1.25 to $1.75..for "yutes" admission that is..I'm gonna stop dating myself here:) Its still bugging me....I want to find the commercial for the small action figures and Nostromo playset.I remember the playset was a cut-away of the spaceship with different decks.I remember it looked really cool.I think it even had an airshaft tunnel that was used in the commercial by the kids playing with it to demonstrate the toy :)

Ok,I found this other site that shows an un-produced Alien/Aliens playset but its not the playset I'm referring too.Still would be a nice addition to a collection :) [IMG]http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z292/djrees_2007/Alienplayset.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z292/djrees_2007/Alienplayset2.jpg[/IMG] Nice detail...with the dropship pieces molded into it...there's the derelict ship looking nice and derelicty...lots of cool detail to add to a Queen alien attacking scenerio so you send in the troops,blast em'(machine gun sound)hehehehehehe,Oh no,look out for the facehugger containers,quick run to the...ahem...sorry was that out loud...umm...I appreciate the playset from an artistic point of view...yeah thats it..its art :) Here's a link to the page this playset was on : http://www.alienlegend.com/Memorabilia/Unproduced/index.htm