Today's review covers the last of the MM6 line, the deluxe Alien Queen. For those not in the know, every year for the past couple years, they have released a "deluxe" figure with the Movie Maniacs. A couple years ago it was KING KONG. Last year it was JAWS. And this year, in keeping with the Aliens/Predator theme, it's a huge Alien Queen with diorama and victim.

The old girl should be showing up at Media Play, Toys R Us and comic shops right now. I have some on-line choices for you at the end of the review. Average price is around $25, although $30 won't be uncommon. And I swear this is the last McToys review for awhile -- at least until the TERMINATOR 3 toys hit.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, you can always reach me at mwc@mwctoys.com. If you enjoy this review, take a minute to check out my other site at Michael's Review of the Week, and let me know what you think. Now on to the review!

"Deluxe Alien Queen"

She was the big bad in ALIENS, the mother of all Aliens, the Martha Stewart of outer space. And this is not the woman every great man wants standing behind them. But she will sure look good standing on your shelf!

Packaging - ***

The box is big, because the playset is big, but they do the best they can to conserve space. However, shelf damage is pretty likely, and the text is, as has become the norm with McToys, light. There is a little paper in the box though that gives you some basic instructions for putting what few pieces there are together.

Sculpting - ****

This was almost a half star less, but I just couldn't bring myself to be so critical of such a fantastic-looking diorama overall. The Alien Queen is amazing, easily matching -- and perhaps even topping -- the level of detail and quality you'd get in a high-end resin statue. One of the advantages here of course is that she's big. The larger the scale, the easier it is to add all that great detail. It's not a given though, since adding detail to a big figure means even MORE detail than with a smaller figure, raising the cost of the work. They've rewarded us here with a fantastic sculpt, with tons of detail and amazing work.

The sculpt work on the diorama itself exhibits the same attention to detail. There are loose wires hanging down, a broken grate, busted pipes, and of course our poor hapless victim, attached to the wall with green goo. She even has a chest-burster that can be retracted and pushed through her chest! The action works great, and proves how simple is often better. I almost pulled a half star because of the victim sculpt, though -- there's something about her face that doesn't have the same level of realism that most McToys work does. But it really is a minor thing, and certainly not worth detracting from what is one of the top three best playsets for the year.

One other aspect of the sculpt is scale. While scale is often off for large figures, it looks to me like they came pretty damn close this time around. Place the Queen with the other Aliens, and compare her to the human on the diorama, and you'll see that she's very much in scale with what you'd expect from the film.

Paint - ****
One of the areas that collectors have been taking for granted from McToys lately is the paint operations. There was a time when Mcfarlane toys did NOT sport the consistently amazing paint applications that they do today, and they should get some credit for making major improvements. This set is perfect, with just the right use of washes, and plenty of careful detail work.

While the playset shows off the majority of the colors, the Queen herself sports the best looking paint work. The excellent paint ops highlight the excellent sculpt, working together to make the figure greater than each individual part.

Articulation - **1/2
Ah, the bane of McToys. Interestingly enough, for a company with such a terrible articulation reputation, they actually make some extremely articulated figures. This isn't one of them, although it's not as low in articulation as, say, the MATRIX RELOADED playset. The Queen has neck, ball jointed shoulders, wrists, face/jaw, hips, tail (a cut joint where it joins the body) and a bendy tail feature as well.

There are a couple unique joints well worth mentioning. First, the whole face can move forward, jutting her jaw out as in the film. This is accomplished by having the sides of the jaw made from soft, pliable rubber. Hopefully, it won't tear over time, because it looks excellent in this pose.

Another unique articulation point is the neck. It's not articulated in the traditional sense, because it can't lock into another position. Instead, it's made of a softer material, with a very soft rubber skin covering, that allows it to turn and move but not stay put. You can move the head smoothly with your hands on the back of the head armor plating, and it's a nice feature. By the way, the neck is sculpted underneath the soft rubber skin.

The bendy tail is probably the most valuable piece of articulation though. You'll be able to put her secondary weapon in plenty of poses, and use it to balance her rather impressive girth. And speaking of that girth, I have my fears that she will suffer from the dreaded “McToys wilt” over time. Her legs are very solid, and they attach to the base with thick, hard plastic pegs permanently molded to her feet. It's obvious they were engineering this piece with the possibility of wilt in mind, but did they do enough to avoid it? Only time will tell, but I'm really hoping that she won't slowly begin to tilt to one side during the next few weeks.

Accessories - ***1/2
I'm counting the diorama base itself as the accessory to the Alien Queen. I've already mentioned how great the sculpting, scale and paint application is. The base has a couple other nice touches as well.

First, it comes in two pieces - the one that the Queen stands on, and the one containing the “victim.” These snap together underneath, and the pieces can turn slightly in relation to each other to give you even more options in your display. I suppose you could even count this as a form of diorama articulation!

Second, the unfortunate woman has “chest burster” action. A chest burster can be pushed forward through her chest, or pulled back and hidden. This is accomplished with a simple, solid rod running from the back of the playset through her chest. There's no fancy mechanisms, and that's great - it works cleanly, and is very unlikely to break or get lost.

Value - ****
This was $25 at Aisle Sniper, and that's a great deal. Most stores, such as Electronics Boutique or Media Play, are also selling these for $25, and you won't get a much better value. Considering the sheer size of this figure, it amazes me that McToys was able to produce it at this price point and this quality.

Overall - ****

Fantastic sculpting, amazing paint ops...decent articulation. I thought the Kong and Jaws sets were pretty damn good, but putting this next to them really shows how far McToys (and the entire industry) has come over the past three years. This is a HUGE figure, with a well done playset. If you can only pick up one of the MM6 line, make it this one.

Where to Buy -
These are popping up at specialty retailers like Electronics Boutique and Media Play. On-line options include:

- Aisle Sniper has them in stock and ready to ship for $24.99. That's where I got mine.

- Beans Toys has the best price I've seen at only $22.99 plus shipping. I've bought from them many times, and always gotten great service!