Kenner Alien Catalog

[RSS]

It's hard to imagine with all the decapitated looking McFarlane monstrosities currently at Toys R Us but it was downright crazy of Kenner to make toys based on the R Rated Ridely Scott film "Alien'.

It's obvious that Kenner, high off the fumes from the model glue that is the Star Wars franchise decided to not let any other Fox Science Fiction film escape their clutches. The results were vaired, Alien toys weren't appreciated and sold poorly but now they are coveted secondary market pieces.


Check out the Kenner Toys Alien Merchandise

For more Fashion Mockery and 70's toy love visit us at Plaid Stallions.com


More...

[wolfie]

I've got some cards that have Alien pictures on them and they have Kenner on the back. Did the cards come packaged with the figures?

[Bo8a_Fett]

Really wanted one of these and the model kit that was out about the same time.....did however get the commadore 64 game which was......erm......yeah well it was....it just was...thats all

[palitoy]

I've got some cards that have Alien pictures on them and they have Kenner on the back. Did the cards come packaged with the figures?

From the board game maybe?

[monkey tennis]

Commadore 64...ROCKS !!!...their about the same...as rocks that is.

[Earth 2 Chris]

Kenner REALLY liked the "headshot in circular shape with name at bottom" motif, didn't they? Alien looks like it could have been an off-shoot of the Six-Million Dollar Man line, just like their Man from Atlantis stuff did (or would have). I'm surprised Star Wars toys made it out without Luke's head in a circle with the logo beneath it on packaging.

Alien does seem a bit adult for a "kids line". Maybe it's the parent in me now, or I'm just an old fart.

Chris

[palitoy]

Kenner REALLY liked the "headshot in circular shape with name at bottom" motif, didn't they? Alien looks like it could have been an off-shoot of the Six-Million Dollar Man line, just like their Man from Atlantis stuff did (or would have). I'm surprised Star Wars toys made it out without Luke's head in a circle with the logo beneath it on packaging.

Yeah, having all these catalogs you start to notice a lot of things about companies and the directions they choose. Kenner indeed loved the head logo stuff (i use that too at work), Mattel loves to recycle and Hasbro had been repackaging the same G.I. Joe stuff since 1964.

[cjefferys]

That Kenner Alien was one of my most wanted toys at the time, but I never got one. A couple years after it's release, I remember seeing an Zellers advertisement and they were clearing them out at $9.99 each. I begged my mom to drive me there so I could pick one up, but she decreed that I was "too old to waste money on toys like that" (I was around 12 or 13). Now I never let her forget how much the thing is worth and that I could have had one for 10 bucks (I have no doubt that I would still own it, box and everything, at this point). Thanks mom.

[toys2cool]

I should've gotten one in the box a few years back when I had the chance,now they're to freakin' expensive

[Wee67]

I never thought about it, but that is an odd choice for a kid's toy. That movie scared the poop out of me when I was kid!

Then again, that could've been the slogan for this line- the toy with colon cleaning action!

[ctc]

Hmmmm....

Kenner gets a lot of flak for their Alien toys, but y'know.... Alien wasn't the first R-rated movie that had a toy line. Jaws was. And I think Jaws is credited with being the first summer blockbuster; AND the first super-marketed film. (Although I know the film/merchandaise formula was perfected a couple years later with Star Wars.)

So I don't think Alien was such a stretch for them. I had a lot of Jaws toys when I was a kid and wasn't old enough to see the film; so Kenner was probably banking on a similar effect.

Don C.

[Bionic Joe]

A shame these came out when i was to old and could care less about toys, I rember my friends little brother geting the Kenner large ALIEN for christmas, I also rember checking it out thinking this is so cool , Wish i was smart enought to buy one at K-BEE toys at the mall when they had them on clearance

[megoat]

I had the Alien figure when I was kid. I LOVED it. Sold it at a yard sale in the early 80's.

Also, I don't know if I'm dreaming this or not, but I think I had an Alien comic book/graphic novel adaptation of the movie. Perhaps by Marvel? Does this exist? This woulda been circa '79/'80.....

[Bo8a_Fett]

Yeah I still have my graphic Alien comic by Archie Goodwin and Walter Simonson, which I think first cropped up in Heavy Metal. I also have the "movie Novel" (a4 size photonovel) which came out around the same time....they are both great.

[mego73]

Hmmmm....

Kenner gets a lot of flak for their Alien toys, but y'know.... Alien wasn't the first R-rated movie that had a toy line. Jaws was. And I think Jaws is credited with being the first summer blockbuster; AND the first super-marketed film. (Although I know the film/merchandaise formula was perfected a couple years later with Star Wars.)

So I don't think Alien was such a stretch for them. I had a lot of Jaws toys when I was a kid and wasn't old enough to see the film; so Kenner was probably banking on a similar effect.

Don C.

JAWS was rated PG (with an extra disclaimer of "might be too intense for younger children" sort of a prototype PG-13)