It has to be said that Ridley Scott's Alien franchise changed the look and feel of sci-fi almost overnight. Just as Star Wars ushered in a period of glamourous space opera, Alien and subsequently James Cameron's Aliens brought it right back down to a gritty and overtly hostile surface once more. The original Alien toys were few and far between, with the Kenner Alien figure the only real release at the time - although it was quickly retired from shelves as it scared the customer base - MPC also made an 8" model of the Alien itself, which again was short lived. Kenner did try again with a series of large action figures and attendant vehicles, but licencing restrictions meant they didn't accurately reflect the films and were not very popular.
Galoob's Action Fleet series arrived to save the day however, having had massive success with a range of wonderful Star Wars vehicles - all similar size, but varying scales - they added a small range of Aliens toys and one Predator vehicle at the same time. I was really lucky to find the Aliens toys at a discount store - no sign of the Predator one though, presumably camouflaged in some way!
The APC, Dropship and Narcissus are really great models, even though they are designed as toys. They are fairly accurate representations of the vehicles, each coming with two small minifigures. the Cheyenne Dropship deploys its weapon bays and landing gear and has an opening cockpit. The APC has a moveable plasma turret, opening side door and full featured interior. Narcissus opens in a clamshell fashion and has a small cryochamber for Ripley and opening airlock.
In a similar vein, Galoob explored another alien infestation with an even larger range of Starship Trooper toys. These consisted of a range of bugs in various sizes and the main military ships and vehicles.
The bugs have some great action features like the massive Plasma Bug with firing plasma bolt and the Tanker Bug, with magnetic points on its back to allow the troopers to clamber about on the carapace.
A large version of the fearsome Warrior Bug with electronic sound effects dwarfs the standard Action Fleet models and large scale ships were released to fit the range of 6" figures.
Along with the standard models, were a range of Battle packs with a smaller creature or weapon and a handful of figures, such as the hideous Brain Bug.
The Hopper Bug was made as a static figure and a larger battery operated version, which clambers along, with wings and jaws threshing.
The TAC Fighter was also made in a large scale, to fit the big figures.
Possibly the oddest addition is the large Dropship with battery powered 'walking action'. The landing gear moves, allowing the vehicle to shuffle forward!
Today, Aliens merchandise has grown massively, with many different makers producing models and collectables at lots of different grades and scales, but for me, the Action Fleet range were a very bright highlight in an otherwise murky universe.
Loved these movies, and the vehicle designs were great, for their gritty authenticity in these 'worlds', but was never keen on them as objects in themselves, so never got any.
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