Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Aliens (1986) by Kubrick

Ripley and power loader



Ripley manning power loader




Power Loader vs Alien Queen



Kubrick Alien Queen



Check out the high heels - every queen needs her heels LOL!!



The brood - Alien Queen with her warrior aliens and her eggs

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Aliens (1986): Power Loader

What a thing of beauty to behold!! One of those things that a 1/6 collector such as myself lives and die for - a Power Loader in 1/6 scale. This beauty from Hot Toys is worth every dollar paid - beautifully crafted and produced with everything working as it should. You gotta see it first hand to appreciate it! The other jaw dropping, mouth drooling item was the 1/6 ED209 from Robocop but that's for another entry.

After the movie's premiere, the Caterpillar construction equipment company reportedly received inquiries from people interested in buying the power loader that Ripley uses to fight the Alien Queen, who were unaware that it was fictional and didn't exist outside of the movie.

Here we see Ripley posing beside the power loader.

Ellen Ripley getting ready to kick some Alien Queen's behind!!


The power loader without its occupant




Ripley manning the power loader.



The power loader has working revolving lights and the interior panel lights up as well.

"Come and get it, you alien BITCH!!"

Next up: Kubrick Power Loader with Alien Queen, her Alien Warrior and eggs

Check out Hot Toys Movie Masterpiece 1/6 scale 12-inch Nostromo crew member Kane (link here)

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Aliens (1986): Private First Class Jenette Vasquez (Smart Gunner)

The M56 Smart Gun used in the movie "Aliens (1986)" was based on a German MG-42 machine gun, using a heavily modified steadicam harness. The handles were taken from a Honda motorcycle. The clutch cable was used to fire the gun from the rear handle.

The M56 Smart Gun consists of four major components: the operator's combat harness; the Head Mounted Sight (HMS); the articulation arm and the gun itself, all of which are beautifully reproduced by Hot Toys, including the extra DV9 batteries.

Handling one of the M56 Smart Guns was none other than Private Vasquez (played by Jenette Goldstein) who is in the same squad as Corporal Hicks (played by Michael Biehn) and proves that a woman can give as good as a man.


Close-up of Vasquez with gun. The M56 fires 10x28mm caseless ammunition and has a capacity of 300 rounds. The name "Smart Gun" comes from the advanced firing computer which is integrated into the weapon.


Aliens (1986): Corporal Dwayne Hicks USCM

The wonderful thing about Aliens for me were the United States Colonial Marines (USCM) with their warship the USS Sulaco, dropship, APC and so called sci-fi weapons of AD2179 which still used rounds (?!!). The marines were armed to the teeth but the firefight was one-sided with them being swarmed in the nuclear-powered atmosphere-processing station and had to rely on Ripley to rescue them.

Hicks is geared from head to toe with M10 pattern ballistic helmet, USCM 'warm, temperate' BDUs, M3 armor vest, helmet mounted sight with microphone stalk, shoulder lamp, motion tracker, hand welder and armed with the M41A Pulse Rifle (made from a Thompson SMG with an attached fore end from a Franchi SPAS-12 shotgun), a Remington 12 Gauge Model 870P Shotgun, M4A3 pistol and combat knife.

The M41A fires 10x24mm caseless ammunition and has a maximum capacity of 99 rounds.


Close-up of helmet with passive infrared sight which flips down over the right eye and acts as a Heads Up Display.

Close-up of Motion Tracker

Close-up of back with shoulder lamp and Remington 12 Gauge Model 870P Shotgun in holster

Another member of the team is Vasquez (Smart Gunner)

Aliens (1986): Xenomorph

The sequel to Alien was released in 1986. Aliens was directed by James Cameron (he also directed Terminator) and starred Sigourney Weaver, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, Carrie Henn, Bill Paxton and Paul Reiser. This time, it was Colonial Marines out to kick Alien butt but they got their asses chewed instead.

Medicom released this xenomorph in 1996. It was the only available poseable alien figure back then and this was the ribbed head version from the sequel as opposed to the smooth transparent head version of the first movie. This was part of the AVP concept as Medicom also produced the Predator at the same time. Mind you, this was back in 1996 and the AVP movie didn't come out until 2004. Since then, Hot Toys have produced some tremendously well-sculpted 1/6 xenomorphs.



Friday, November 16, 2007

Alien (1979)

This sci-fi horror film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Sigourney Weaver as the action heroine, introduced us all to the xenomorph and the disturbing art of H.R. Giger.

Captain Dallas (Tom Skerritt), Kane (John Hurt) and Lambert (Veronica Cartwright) leave the ship Nostromo to investigate an apparently unidentifiable signal from a moon orbiting a nearby planet. Kane gets it in the face by a facehugger which emerges from an egg.

Parker with flamethrower, Ripley in spacesuit, Kane with facehugger and Ash (revealed to be an android later) with cattle-prod.

The adult xenomorph, chestburster and eggs

The xenomorph design has strong Freudian sexual undertones and multiple phallic symbols (especially the head!!) while adopting an overall feminine figure (not apparent in kubrick but more so in the many other better sculpted figures).

It has an elongated shiny head with no eyes. A humanlike skull is revealed in the sculpture beneath its translucent anterior shell. The mouth houses a tongue-like body part with a second mouth on the end.

Check out Hot Toys 1/6 scale Nostromo crew member Kane

Monday, November 12, 2007

Action Boy/Kid Action

Kid Action with his pet black panther...



and that ends the Captain Action saga.

Captain Action as Kato

Kato has his Hornet Sting darts, nunchaku, shuriken, kusari-fundo, shuko hand claw, knuckleduster and micro-radar watch


Captain Action as The Green Hornet

Check out this link for Enterbay's 1/6 scale 12-inch Bruce Lee as Kato collectible figure

Captain Action as Green Hornet

Green Hornet has his gas pistol, stinger cane, fedora, mask and coat.


Hidden shoulder holster under his coat

TV scanner with phone receiver, pocket watch and gas mask

Captain Action as Kato

Captain Action as Green Hornet and Kato

Inspired by the success of the Batman series, The Green Hornet TV series aired from 1966-67, which introduced martial arts master Bruce Lee to American audiences and starred Van Williams as the Green Hornet. Unlike the campy Batman series, the TV version of The Green Hornet was played straight. The series detailed the adventures of Britt Reid, debonair newspaper publisher by day, crime-fighting masked hero at night aided by his manservant/chauffeur/bodyguard/enforcer Kato. Interestingly, Britt Reid is a blood relative of The Lone Ranger. The character of Dan Reid, who appeared on the Lone Ranger programme as the Masked Man's nephew, was also featured on the Green Hornet as Britt Reid's father, making the Green Hornet the grand-nephew of the Lone Ranger. And while Batman had his Batmobile, Green Hornet has Black Beauty, which could fire explosive charges from tubes at its bumpers, had a concealed-when-not-in-use, drop-down knock-out gas nozzle in the center of the front grille, and could launch a small flying video/audio surveillance device through the trunk lid.

The music of "Flight of the Bumblebee" was the theme for The Green Hornet and this music was featured during a key scene in the 2003 film, Kill Bill, Vol. 1, which paid tribute to Kato by featuring dozens of swordfighters wearing Kato masks during the film's key fight sequence.

The Captain Action figures had a lot of accessories.

Kubrick Green Hornet and Kato

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Captain Action: Dr Evil as Kabai Singh

Dr Evil as Kabai Singh. These were the only two villian costumes for Dr Evil to change into, the other being Ming the Merciless. However, Dr Evil was a blue skinned alien and it would have been odd for the two villains to have human faces and blue hands, hence I opted to put the costumes on Captain Action figures for a more authentic overall look. Kabai Singh's outfit and accessories were much better than Ming's and makes for a better villian for The Phantom.


Captain Action as The Phantom, "The Ghost Who Walks"

The Phantom was the first fictional character to wear the skintight costume that has become a trademark of superheroes and the first to wear a mask with no visible pupils, another superhero standard. The Phantom was made into a movie in 1996. The movie was set in the 1930s, and starred Billy Zane in the title role, Kristy Swanson as Diana Palmer, and Catherine Zeta-Jones as Sala, an evil aviatrix.