For Your Eye Sockets Only

 What can I say about Alien Earth, the new TV series on Disney+?

Superlatives don't really cover it.

Think supremely fantastic and cringingly yucky in equal measure, maybe somewhere round the dripping joints between films like the Thing and Sputnik grafted onto a waiting open Alien.

Not for the faint-hearted and completely compulsive. 

For me the current icky award goes to one of the show's smaller varmints.

But before I reveal it, it's interesting to dawdle over some precedents ... But watch out!

This golden oldie sets the scene, a movie that terrified me as a kid and one I know as the Trollemburg Terror! Is it one you know?

This is the box art to a model kit.

Cuneo's painted slithering devils spring to mind as well, as introduced to us on MC by Wotan 17 years ago.

I just couldn't help jiggling this into a clip, but it's Cuneo's artistry.

Similarly Bill brought us his fondness for rubber uglies on MC and this oily eye-squid fits right in (a phrase which comes into its own on Alien Earth! 🐙 )

Once more I was compelled to meme it.

But none of these wrigglers can prepare you for the truly cringing orb that is Alien Earth's small and parasitic crawling eye!

You've been warned!

Yuk!

Window SIL and other Giger Covers

In between ALIEN filming HR Giger was in demand for record sleeves too.

One I recall when I was young is ELP's Brain Salad Surgery, it's cover boasting the spikes and bones of Giger's biomechania. The central window gives you a glimpse of ....

A high-cheekboned lady reminiscent of SIL in SPECIES. 

More cheekbones appeared on Debby Harry's Kookoo cover and this time Giger's gone skewer crazy.

 I'm sure there are more Giver sleeves. Do you know any readers? Has he designed anything else? Book covers? Wallpaper? God forbid, Bathroom furniture? 

Nodding Holder

 

I recently saw this nodding bird in its holder in a junk shop and I immediately thought of its iconic use in the beginning of ALIEN as the data flashes over it.

An inspired prop!

I never had one as a kid. You?

LOOEY SAYS LOOK WHAT I FOUND!

Riffling through the boxes in my shed, I came across General Vader, uh, sorry, Von Dar!

Bought for the princely remaindered sum of $2!

Also after muttering about Konami Aliens, I came across these big chaps.... 1,2 & 3!

Plus a Zen master!

"We think there may be a... uh, xenomorph involved..."

What do you think?

Looey

Oz Base

H U G G E R

LOOEY'S PROPS: ALIEN COVENANT SISTRUMS

Hi Woodsy! Your lovely Daleks Blaster project reminded me of a recent project I worked on.

As a bit of a Horror fan yourself, you might appreciate this too!

My swansong in the fillum industry was Alien:Covenant as an ailment made working in a standard movie studio impossible. I got to make a bunch of background musical instrument props for David's Laboratory, which I was able to do from the comfort of my Mountain Hideout. 

The brief was a final reckoning with what the role of Prop Maker has become in today's mechanised production process. I received a sheaf of photo-realistic full colour renderings of what was required. There was no collaboration required, so my only joy in the job was producing objects that were absolutely identical to the illustrations!

Sadly when seen on screen, my final efforts were just out of focus blobs!

Anyway, this is just back story to a much more interesting tale.

How I got to design a monster (and some water pistols!) for the TikTok Horror series Greystanes...

https://www.tiktok.com/@greystanesseries

A L I E N : R O M U L U S

I went to see the new ALIEN film ROMULUS last night at the local flicks. I'm always excited by a new ALIEN film.

Will you be going readers?

Cinema-going can be quite dear these days and the entrance fee now for adults is £11.99 in my bit of Britain. I used to go every week for years, when it was discounted but nowadays its only for certain movies. The last one I saw was Despicable Me 4 with my Grandson during the summer.

I've kept the ROMULUS ticket as I have for all my cinema visits many years. Somehow they seem important to me but I'm unsure why. Somewhere I've got my old ALIEN ticket!

Will you be going to the cinema readers? What was the last film you saw there?

I really enjoyed this film but I'll not say anything about the film in detail as its still doing the rounds. Needless to say. ALIEN fans will like it because its more of the Giger, Scott, O'Bannon and Schusset ALIEN mythos that we love. Like all flicks it has its good points and bad points but for now ...

the ship's hull is melting so I have to go!

SPACE JOCKEYS ANYONE?

 With ALIEN ROMULUS creeping up on us I can't help thinking about one of my favourite ALIEN characters, the derelict pilot, the space jockey.

What a guy!

Googling for skeleton space pilots I came up with these cool covers.  Can you think of any more space jockeys?

There's an interesting pictures essay here about the origin of Giger's Space Jockey. What do you think?

https://alienexplorations.blogspot.com/2009/02/paintings-that-inspired-space-jockey.html

*

tinkering with an image of a micronometer I added a statue figure!

A L I E N R O M U L U S

 Like many of you I'm a life-long ALIEN fan, so I'm looking forward to the latest instalment, ROMULUS.

Here's the trailer.

Are you going to watch the film readers?

New Teeth on the National Health .....

We've always been a two Kenner Alien household. I was aware of the toy through a photo in Starlog magazine, but it was never generally available in Australia.

My father bought me one on a trip through Singapore. My life partner Marilyn bought hers at The Land Beyond Beyond a specialty comic store in Sydney, before we had even got together!

While hers remained in it's original box, mine went adventuring and somewhere along the way, lost his transparent brain case.

I'd tried 3D scanning Marilyn's, but my technology wasn't up to it at that point.

Anyway, I recently sold the unfinished parts of my Lost in Space Robot to an avid collector who will lovingly restore it. He took the grand tour of our secret mountain hideaway and his eyes instantly locked on to Marilyn's Alien sitting in it's box, high on her shelves.

He couldn't resist asking asking her if she'd consider parting with it and a unedifying but friendly round of haggling ensued.

He ended up securing a new item for his collection for A$1500.

As she was pulling the box down and cleaning it up (I'd forgotten the toy came with it's own mini poster) she discovered there were two brain cases inside. My Alien's one wasn't lost at all!

Yesterday I gave him a good clean and reattached his brain with a few blobs of black tac. Then for good measure, I repainted his outer set of teeth.

The original vacuum metallised ones had evaporated over the decades, but a quick lick 

of Green Stuff World Chrome paint has returned him to indistinguishable dental glory!

Here he is in my home cinema with his more

 detailed NECA cousin.

Happy endings all round!

Looey

Oz Base

THE TOP'S OPENING!

 

PREDATOR V ALIEN! WHO WAS SCARIER?

We can't have a Predators week without mentioning Predator the movie! Here's the original trailer from, yes, 1987! Its that long ago!

And for those of you who collected the action figures back in the day - it was 7 years before any were released -  here's an old 1993 TV ad with Predator's new foe, ALIEN!

and perhaps the one ALIEN toy I would love to find in any condition is the 18 inch Kenner. A thing of legend and like those Mars Attacks cards decades earlier, this lofty beast was just too darn scary for Parents and some kids!

Its official, ALIEN was way scarier than Predator, so c'mon, forget about my tie, man!*

Here's the 18 incher's TV ad that says it all!

Did you or do you have any Predator or ALIEN toys or games or kits readers?

* This post is dedicated to the late great Carl Weathers, who played Colonel Al Dillon in Predator, who sadly passed away this year.

In Space No-one Can Hear You Knit

Sent in by MJ

Southcoast Base

THE ALIEN GIANT BLASTER TARGET SET

The HG Toys ALIEN Target Set is one of those legendary toys that hardly ever cross mortal hands.

The first time I became aware of it was in Andy Foley's TV Toy Zone catalogue around 1990. That was just a picture.

I then saw the real thing on the toy fair stall of the late Mr. Star Wars Jim Stevenson, a legend himself.

This example was on Worthpoint so I saved the pics.

Has anyone got an alien target?

Anti Life: I hugged my own Face!

I tried to watch Anti Life last night. Didn't know anything about it but there were various clues as to it's origin very early on.

When someone lies down in a long haul cryo-chamber with a clear screen you immediately think of ....

Even more blatant is a fluid dissolving a metal table. Really?

All that was missing was a nodding bird.

Anti Life is an ALIEN clone. 

Rather like the creatures themselves, each clone is worse and ANtI LifE is a real gloopy mess. The name is even a poor anagram of ALIEN! I mean, C'mon! 

Poor Bruce Willis. After such an illustrious career he more or less ends it before he got unwell with this knockoff drivel.

In the end I was bored senseless and began looking for Jonesy and switched off half way through 

Did I miss anything?

SNALIEN

I'd never seen a Snalien before until I came across the Hideous Plastic website from Oz.

I love these creations. They remind me of snail Netsuke from Japan.

So glad snails are gentle really.

But hey, what's this ....

Is there a snail in your world readers?

I'M STILL DISPENSING

 I had to chuckle at this custom Pez I saw online.

Would you accept a sweet from its drooling extending jaws?

What would a facehugger Pez look like? Yuk!

All we need now is a Shaker Maker set customised as a shake and bake colony!

What a cool birthday prezzy it would make!

HIDEOUS PLASTIC

Like looking for Jonesy I stumbled across this site looking for something else. It uncoiled from the piping and grabbed me!

I give you Hideous Plastic!

From devoted AustrALIEN superfan Phil ‘Windebieste’ Wlodarczyk this site captures the spirit of what fandom has done with its love of all things with acidic blood. There's Snaliens, boxes, books and lots of Kenner toys!

Check it out but don't dally under dripping pipes first!

https://www.hideousplastic.com/?page_id=73

THE KENNER ALIEN MOVIE VIEWER

Hi,

Here is a short You Tube item from Toy Tinker Tim on a toy movie viewer. 

The viewer took various film cassettes, and was hand-cranked, as were many of these viewers. 

The cassette shown is based on the movie Alien, and is called Alien Terror, copyright date 1979. It is a short reel of film highlights, without sound. 

Clearly this was a toy aimed at younger children, yet Alien was R-rated in the USA, meaning that no one under 17 was admitted unless accompanied by an adult. 

In Britain the film was rated X by the British Board of Film Censors - no one under 18 admitted at all, but now down to a 15 - no one under 15 allowed to view. 

Most of these toy lines would have been in development and manufacture long before the film was submitted to the film censors, and rated, but it is hard to see R and X ratings helping to sell a toy line aimed at children. 

There were plenty of other toys based on adult-rated films, or sometimes on a children's spin-off cartoon series. Very weird.

Kenner Alien Movie Viewer 1979 - YouTube

Have you or did you have one?

Paul Adams from New Zealand

SPINMASTER ARMOURED BATMAN V LANARD ALIEN: HOLY XENOMORPHS!

Hi Woodsy

Another slow day at work so a bit of fun with these figures I "sweetened", Enjoy!!
Regards
MJ
Southcoast Hive