NECA: Alien Movie Franchise Figures

[The Skull]

Thanks for the vid Skull.

Yeah, Ripley's face looks horrendous. As said I know what they're going for - her exact expression from the packaging photo - but the paint really needs to be perfect for something like that and I fear someone's gonna have to get pretty lucky to get a decent one. That and super-clean thighs let it down. Still though, it's not all bad by any means.

From a couple of feet away it looks good, but yeah when you look at it closely the off paint really throws this off, Newt is the jem of the set.

With the close-ups from Skull's video, the teeth look like they're sculpted kinda square-ish with some pretty big gaps between them. I'll try to fix it with a repaint when I get one, but this may be something that just won't quite look right, even with improved paint.

The eye bothers me the most, I just opened it and filmed it right away and was viewing it from a 2 inch view finder and I didn't see how bad it was till I re-watched it, I should have been more critical in the review

Ripley looks like Rosie O' Donnell from Riding the Bus with my sister.

 

[Alice]

The eye bothers me the most

I know eyes are an easy fix with some paint, so wonky eyes on figures never bother me that much. I can see how people that don't repaint figures can be annoyed by it, though.

 

[holtrax]

Thanks for the vid Skull.

Yeah, Ripley's face looks horrendous. As said I know what they're going for - her exact expression from the packaging photo - but the paint really needs to be perfect for something like that and I fear someone's gonna have to get pretty lucky to get a decent one. That and super-clean thighs let it down. Still though, it's not all bad by any means.

Newt looks just as bad..

 

[Jester]

The scorpion alien was my favourite as it had the most resemblance to the Warrior Alien in the movie. Of the others, I think I ranked them like this

Gorilla
Snake
Bull (the first one I ever got I believe)
Flying Queen (loved the flapping wings feature)

Drake was my favourite marine because of his gun that actually somewhat resembled the smartgun in the film.

My favourites were Hicks (even though I never had him as a child either) and the Scorpion, purely by virtue of the fact that it exploded.

Then Hudson I think. I never had a Hicks (but I sure as heck was able to find O Malley!!!)

Maybe if the line had gone on longer we would have eventually seen a flannel-clad Marine call McKenzie.

 

[JacktheRipper]

Those were made first:

 

[Sachiel]

The 'Alien' Ripley figures look good. Maybe if they completely painted the faces for the 'Aliens' versions they would have turned out nicer.

 

[P.]

 

[DiFabio]

 

[Jester]

Those were made first:

I was referring to the old Kenner figures.

 

[scarrviper]

I can see what they were going for with that new ripley head, and I do like the new hair, but something is really off with that paintjob on the face.

 

[Caped Baldy]

Honestly, as much as I love NECA they just can't seem to get Sigourney's likeness right. I don't know if it's the paint job or if she's just really hard to sculpt accurately, but something has been off with the head sculpts.

The likeness on other characters they've done in the past and recent (Dutch, Terminator, Sarah Connor, Vasquez, Ash, etc) are light years ahead it's not even funny.

 

[memyselfi]

Honestly, as much as I love NECA they just can't seem to get Sigourney's likeness right. I don't know if it's the paint job or if she's just really hard to sculpt accurately, but something has been off with the head sculpts.

The likeness on other characters they've done in the past and recent (Dutch, Terminator, Sarah Connor, Vasquez, Ash, etc) are light years ahead it's not even funny.

Agree.......... Hopefully the hair sculpt will remove easily to use on other head. IMHO the Alien jumpsuit head sculpt looks the best.

 

[a-dev]

Honestly, as much as I love NECA they just can't seem to get Sigourney's likeness right. I don't know if it's the paint job or if she's just really hard to sculpt accurately, but something has been off with the head sculpts.

The likeness on other characters they've done in the past and recent (Dutch, Terminator, Sarah Connor, Vasquez, Ash, etc) are light years ahead it's not even funny.

I've been happy just to get Ripley figures in this scale at all but pretty much yeah - they almost could have made these same figures without paying for her likeness and gotten away with it. I mean there might just be enough of a resemblance where she'd have had a case but barely.

 

[Manu81]

which ripley do you think it will be better with the powerloader? that one or the previous one? when you see the new one from the side, I can see sigurney weaver likeness

 

[a-dev]

I was planning to use this new one pretty much as my default Aliens Ripley but unless mine have significantly better eyes and teeth than what Skull ended up with I guess I won't after all. Perhaps I'll kitbash and try to combine the best parts from this and the single-release figure. For example the dirty vest on the 2pack figure looks way better than on the single figure.

 

[Manu81]

I was planning to use this new one pretty much as my default Aliens Ripley but unless mine have significantly better eyes and teeth than what Skull ended up with I guess I won't after all. Perhaps I'll kitbash and try to combine the best parts from this and the single-release figure. For example the dirty vest on the 2pack figure looks way better than on the single figure.

yeah! I don't know what to do...I am preparing a diorama with the queen, two warriors, the powerloader, vasquez, hicks, hudson, bishop, alien eggs and ripley.

I was thinking about the possibility of buying the pack...this ripley is more sigourney than the previous one (at least I can recognize her...the other one I barely recognize her likeness...I understand about the teeth, also about the paintjob...but after vasquez may be I will give neca a chance

 

[guyver1]

After re-watching the review I think the eyes on Ripley Look really bad

Is anybody in awe how Neca made Newt balance so well on this Ripley figure

 

[theuzi9mm]

thanks for the review/vid skull.

For those who have it in hand, are all of Newt's hands painted with such a slathering of paint on? I know try to make hands look dirty but you can dry brush the darker color on for the same effect. These look like they either didn't sand down the sculpt, or just went to town with the paint brush and applied it thick as molasses

That one even the hand folds seem way too exaggerated....like she's got dried mud on her hand which ok if you want weathering, that's find, but it's a bit thick imho.

Decent looking otherwise though, I eagerly await mine.

 

[a-dev]

Yeah that also looks bad. They look like zombie hands.

 

[Alice]

I can see what they were going for with that new ripley head, and I do like the new hair, but something is really off with that paintjob on the face.

Honestly, as much as I love NECA they just can't seem to get Sigourney's likeness right. I don't know if it's the paint job or if she's just really hard to sculpt accurately, but something has been off with the head sculpts.

I can promise you guys, the reason the likeness looks so bad on the NECA Ripley figures is pretty much exclusively due to paint (or lack of, on the Aliens Ripleys). I know you guys love the injected flesh tones, and I agree that injected flesh tones do have benefits, but, in the end, I think it hurts just as much as bad paint.

On painted heads (like the Alien Ripleys) there's the chance you'll get caked on paint, and, at this scale, even a thin layer of paint can drown out the subtleties of a sculpt. Not to mention the chance of just outright bad or uneven skin tone paint apps. My Ultimate Sarah Connor is probably the best you're gonna get from an assembly line. Sculpt comes through just fine, and even though the tone is a bit tan for Sarah, it's about as even as can be expected.

With the injected flesh tones you have a lack of paint that becomes a problem. You have a flat flesh plastic with next to no shading to accentuate the sculpt. Not to mention the rest of the paint is such a stark contrast to the plastic flesh. As is the case with Aliens Ripley's lips, you just go from plastic flesh to pink paint in a jarring fashion with little to no blending whatsoever.

The sculpt is pretty spot on for 1/12 scale. All the trademark Sigourney features are there. One small thing about the sculpt that could be slightly throwing it off is the fact that most of the time, even when Sigourney has her mouth closed, her lips are still slightly parted. She does it so often it's almost a defining feature.

Agree.......... Hopefully the hair sculpt will remove easily to use on other head. IMHO the Alien jumpsuit head sculpt looks the best.

The hair is one other thing that kinda makes the likeness look a bit off. I think the shape of the hair sculpt is fine, but I think it looks a bit big and lumpy on top. Sculpting hair and getting it to look natural is kinda challenging at this scale though.

As far as swapping the hair pieces, I'm sure they'll use the exact same method of attaching the hair on the new figure, and if so, swapping between the two will be as simple as heating the head up, popping the hair off and putting it on the other head.