Action Figure MAFEX Big Chap (Alien)

[P.]

yesm but those heels weren't very high (more like a thick additional layer than heels) and were easily compensated by predator's artificial head (and artificial feet, which had something like it, too).

 

[abake]

Agreed.


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[mandoba72]

Perhaps I was referring to the NECA alien predator height scale (especially from the I.A.T website scale chart) where the xenomorphs are taller than the predator yautja.

Strictly speaking yeah the two actors are the same height.

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[burtial]

I got mine in. Lots of articulation for a Xeno, but he falls apart a lot.

 

[P.]

it's... green?

 

[burtial]

Mine is in places. I really wish I had remembered about this figure being on PO and had cancelled it. But oh well.

 

[a-dev]

Thought it looked green in earlier pics but I thought, hoped, it was just the lighting. Another disappointment with this figure.

 

[Jmek]

Mine is in places. I really wish I had remembered about this figure being on PO and had cancelled it. But oh well.

Why would you want to cancel it?

 

[abake]

I got mine in. Lots of articulation for a Xeno, but he falls apart a lot.

Great review, thanks for sharing.

Well, it's quite clear where the money went in this figure: R&D for the articulation... because it clearly didn't go towards paint apps. The engineering for all that articulation is quite amazing, but some of it looks over-engineered. NECA's figure, with all its flaws, seems to solve some of the articulation issues more elegantly -if only they had better materials and factories!

The green color really is a head scratcher, if they wanted to do something different to the usual (incorrect) all black, they could've gone with dark tans or greys with the highlights in black, like the Kotobukiya statue. It looks like a really fun toy to mess around with, but definitely not a 100 dollar fun toy to mess around with.
I don't regret ordering it because I'm a huge Alien fan, but I really doubt I'm getting my money's worth with this. At any rate, I'm looking forward to having this in hand to study and compare.

 

[burtial]

Why would you want to cancel it?

I had a feeling it was going to be the quality level it turned out to be. lol

 

[Jmek]

I had a feeling it was going to be the quality level it turned out to be. lol

I hear Ya. The paintwork is disappointing, especially compared to the Kobotakiya and the ease of the limbs popping off looks a pain. However the sculpt looks fantastic. Thanks for posting the best review of this bad boy thus far too

 

[abake]

I had a feeling it was going to be the quality level it turned out to be. lol

A couple of comments on your review:

- When trying out the different "tongues", you were using the wrong lower jaw, that's why it didn't close correctly.
- The hands are different, one set has the fingers splayed out, the other two have slightly different sculpts of the fingers fused together.
- When you were putting the dome back on, it looked like there is a notch at the front, as well as in the back, to secure the dome better. Is that so?

Again, thanks for the review!

Oh, and the different colors on the kneecaps is due to some photo of the suit in action, where you can see how one knee had the paint scraped off, so it looked lighter than the other. Giger had to repaint and "fix" the suit every day after shooting, because it would get damaged during filming and the KY-Jelly they used would dissolve the paint.

 

[a-dev]

Oh, and the different colors on the kneecaps is due to some photo of the suit in action, where you can see how one knee had the paint scraped off, so it looked lighter than the other. Giger had to repaint and "fix" the suit every day after shooting, because it would get damaged during filming and the KY-Jelly they used would dissolve the paint.

I dunno, doesn't make sense that they would notice something like that and recreate it in the figure and yet at the same time make him green. When did it ever even maybe kinda look green? I can't think of any shot.

 

[The Jerker]

Yeah, both of my knees are green. That's just some paint variance during production.

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[abake]

Ah well, I thought there could be a reason for it... after all, they did pay attention to a lot of little details, even sculpting Bolaji's legs correctly.

 

[P.]

When did it ever even maybe kinda look green? I can't think of any shot.

 

[abake]

If all goes well, I should be getting my Mafex alien tonight.
I’m hoping to get a good one, although it seems the wonky domes are the norm, rather than the exception...


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[Jmek]

If all goes well, I should be getting my Mafex alien tonight.
I’m hoping to get a good one, although it seems the wonky domes are the norm, rather than the exception...


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Fingers crossed for you

 

[abake]

Thanks man!

The perfect organism arrived this afternoon, and as I was working from home, I've had a bit of time to mess around with it.
So thanks Jmek, but alas, the domes were wonky...
However... it turns out it's a stupidly easy fix!

Just to get that out of the way quickly: the domes are of a softer, almost rubbery plastic. They have a notch at the back to secure it, and another very small one at the front that goes into the skull's nose. The problem is that the domes probably expanded, so that the notch that goes into the nose doesn't fit securely, thus the domes' front end hangs out and over the mouth. If you don't mind not being able to remove the domes to peruse at the underlying skull, a very small tab of superglue in the nose hole is enough to keep the domes secure and perfectly placed. Of course, this means that the domes flare out a bit at the sides, but nothing terribly noticeable or unsightly in my humble opinion.

So there you go, dome issue is easily fixable.

Now, on to the review. I will refer to the NECA v2.0 figure and the Kotobukiya statue for comparisons, as they are in roughly the same scale.
Alas, no pics, as my camera is ****, and it's night.

Sculpt
Just like Kotobukiya's statue, this is The Man in a Suit.
As far as I can tell, this pays much more attention to Bolaji Badejo's proportions than any other (action) figure so far. I already mentioned it, but the fact that they actually sculpted the shape of Badejo's legs correctly (the way they come together at the knees and then spread apart again) tells you everything you need to know about their approach to sculpting this figure. The slight folds of the suit are there, the thick ankles where the pants of the suit went over the shoes are there, even the way the articulation is designed at the point where arms go into the shoulders mimics the look of the the sleeves of the suit.
The detail is very nicely sculpted, though not as fine as the Kotobukiya statue. Compared to the NECA figure, the overall sculpt seems "cleaner", the NECA figure has a busier texture, and the shiny black color and dry-brushing make the texture and details stand out a bit more.
The different heads are a great bonus, and while it is a bit of a pain to have to switch heads to get the open mouth look, and then have to switch jaws on the second head to actually get the different tongues in, the end effect is great. I had yet to see any figure achieve that amazing look from head on of the open mouth with the inner tongue ready to spring out, and this figure just captures that perfectly; as well as capturing the look of the original Giger statue/stunt head with closed mouth.
My only nit pick would probably be that the neck looks unseemly thick from the front, but I guess that has more to do with the articulation. More on that later.
So, overall, best sculpt ever.
This is probably as close as we'll get to having the perfection of the Kotobukiya statue in action figure form.

Paint apps
Maybe we should talk about articulation, yes?

Yeah, paint apps are uninspired at best, non-existent at worst...
Let's start with the head, where the skull is the absolute highlight. The details on the skull are simply fantastic, with clean lines and no sloppy residue. The fact that they went the extra mile and actually painted both skulls differently shows an attention to detail that is amazing. It's also important to point out that the material they chose for the domes allows for just the right amount of visibility into the skulls, with wonderfully applied black/grey to darken specific areas. In this area, the figure compares favorably to the Kotobukiya and blows away the NECA. BTW, the dome on the Giger/stunt head is almost transparent, whereas the Rambaldi/hero head has a pearly finish -nice touch!

Unfortunately, that's it for carefully applied paint apps and attention to detail. There's a quick dash of brown sprayed on the sides of the head, some black on the cheeks and rest of the head, and some silver with a black wash on the teeth.
The rest is just some carelessly applied dashes of black airbrush on the incomprehensibly green base color of the figure. Oh, there's some black squiggles on the shoulders...

I can understand that they didn't want to go with the all-black variant, which can end-up looking a bit lack-luster, but then they should have chosen a better base color and maybe expanded a bit on the color palette.

Kotobukiya is light-years away, and even NECA's thick dry-brushing seems more effective.

Articulation
There's great articulation, then there's fantastic articulation and then there's overkill.
This falls somewhere between the latter two.

First off, all the joints work wonderfully well and are very cleverly engineered. The figure just poses fantastically well, and there is no fear of breakage. So far I've managed to pop-off the left arm twice and the torso once, but everything pops back on easily, and once you know the tolerances of each articulation, posing the figure is a breeze. The joints feel very sturdy and so far seem to hold their poses perfectly. I won't go into details on how many and what type of joints the figure has, suffice is to say that it is the most poseable alien figure I've ever had. Even better than the Revoltechs. There's such an amount of innovative engineering put into the articulation of this figure that it boggles the mind. Well, it does mine, at least. The way the shoulders, the feet and the hips are articulated is amazing. For example, you can tug lightly on the thighs and the articulation at the hip drops down a notch so that you can tuck the sculpted detail of the thigh under the pelvis when you lift the leg for a crouching position; or you can also twist the thigh around so that the detail doesn't interfere and then lift the leg into a sitting position... (BTW, I was very bothered by that sculpted detail on the upper thighs sticking out in most -if not all- the photos I'd seen, but it's all a matter of posing the thing correctly and the sculpt just blends into the pelvis area)

Everything moves in this figure!
Yes, even the back tubes. Not just the fifth spike, but all four back tubes. What the hell for? I don't know! The feet are three pieces that move independently from each other and then there's the ankle articulation! So that's where I think they went a bit overboard, but it all works very well.

So, no contest, best articulation on an Alien figure I've ever seen.

Accessories
Well, it comes loaded with accessories, if you count the extra head, jaws and tongues.
The tongues are cleanly sculpted and the paint apps (just bone color, silver for the teeth and a black wash) are fine. They do look nicer than NECA's efforts, which always look a bit messy.
Of the two extra pairs of hands I really only find the fused fingers sculpts of any real value. The other ones are non-fused fingers, just more splayed out. A bit of a waste of plastic IMHO.
The chestburster and facehugger are great. Paint apps are nice and the sculpts are very good. I especially love the facehugger, as it works as a dead, curled up facehugger or you can wrap it around any unsuspecting figure. The way the fingers hold on the the head is truly eerie.
The transparent stand/base are a bit boring, but quite functional. A plaque with the Alien logo would've been nice.

Packaging
I don't really pay much attention to it, but maybe NECA should... that's the way you package a figure and avoid warping without those goddamned twisty ties!

QC
Mine came with a small paint chip on the lower abdomen and some minor shavings on one of the domes, but nothing that really bothers me. I got rid of the shavings easily and the small paint chip can be remedied easily as well.

Overall
In hand the green isn't that noticeable, the dome issue is easuly fixed, it's perfectly in scale with NECA's humans, and it's loads of fun to pose. It's frigging awesome. Go buy one.

 

[Drone]

Right on! Thanks for the extremely thorough review, and it's great to hear that the dome issue is easily fixed. Aside from just one photo shared earlier in this thread, every other sample I've seen has made it look more and more like the over-sized domes are a wide-spread affliction that affects both domes to some degree, and I'll bet the owner of the flawless looking samples in the aforementioned photo used a similar trick to secure the front of the domes.
I've got mine currently sitting in my BBTS Pile of Loot, just awaiting one more item to arrive before I ship it. In the mean time, I'll go out and buy some super glue.