Ever since we got the briefest glance of an Alien skull in the Predator ship in PREDATOR 2, fans have been clamoring to see these two titans of '80s horror movies go head to head. There has already been a successful Dark Horse comic based on the theory, and now, finally, come August 13th fans will get their big screen version.

You also knew there'd be toys. McFarlane Toys did a great set of Aliens and Predators last year as their Movie Maniacs series in 2003. They've continued with the license, and are tying it in with the film's release. The first new (sort of) figures are now hitting stores.

There are four figures in this first assortment. All are billed as Movie Maniacs repaints and are actually rehashes of previously released figures, so that's where my "sort of" came from. Two are re-decos of the Alien vs. Predator deluxe boxed set that McFarlance did last year. Of other two, one Alien and one Predator, are re-decos of two of the single released Movie Maniac figures. I'll be reviewing the Warrior Alien redeco tonight at da Poop, and over at Michael's Review of the Week I'll have a review of the Predator from the deluxe set.

McFarlane will also be doing an entire series of 5 figures for the film, and a 12-inch Alien and Predator as well, all to be released later this summer.

"Warrior Alien from Aliens"

This is really confusing, so I'll do what I can to make sense of it. There are two Alien repaints. One, simply called Alien, is a basic repaint of the Alien from the deluxe boxed set. The other, the Warrior Alien that I'm reviewing here, is called a repaint of the original Warrior Alien, but he isn't. His body is from the deluxe boxed set, with a different head sculpt and minor mods to the hands, arms and tail. And yes, that makes it rather confusing.

Packaging - ***1/2
It's those clamshells! These have all the best clamshell qualities - easy to store, stand up to abuse, show off the figure nicely, particularly good for MOCers - but I still wish McToys would spend a little time on adding some worthwhile text to the inserts.

Sculpting - ***1/2
Don't let anyone fool you - this figure is almost an exact duplicate of the Alien from the boxed set from the neck down. He has a new head sculpt, along with new tail, hands and arms. But while the head is very different, you'll have to pay a lot of attention to tell the rest of the differences.

The hands are almost identical, with slightly altered fingers. Very slightly. The arms have boney alien thing-a-ma-jiggies from the elbow to the forearm, and the tail is quite a bit different, although it's still bendy. The changes (outside of the head sculpt) are all very minor though, and if you aren't paying close attention you won't even notice them.

There's a ton of detail work here, and the original version pulled four stars in this category. However, the original had a major thing going for him that this one doesn't - he had the uber-cool clear dome. This one has a painted solid dome as part of his new look, and it isn't nearly as sharp looking as the original.

The head sculpt overall isn't bad, and the longer I looked at it, the more I liked it. I stil prefer the clear dome of the original, but this one has some excellent detail work in the ridges and bumps.

Also worth noting is that with the new head, the original action feature is gone. The first version of this figure had an inner jaw that jutted out with the push of a button. That was pretty cool feature, even if it wasn't always perfect.

Articulation - **1/2
The original version of this alien was one of the best articulated in the series. This figure has all the same articulation, but scores a whole star lower. Why? Because the ankle joints on mine are so weak and flimsy, that keeping him standing for any period of time is impossible, with or without a stand.

He has a ball-jointed neck, ball-jointed shoulders (with some restricted movement due to the sculpt), cut biceps, cut elbows, cut wrists, cut hips, cut thighs, ball jointed waist, and ball jointed ankles. Not including a stand with this figure hurts big time here, because even if his ankles were stronger, his foot sculpts aren't really intended for standing without some sort of support. You can't do much with the leg articulation when there's no stand to support him.

His tail is also bendy, and works quite well.  You can use it to help support him if need be, but that takes away some of the cool posing possibilities. Damn, I wish they'd included a stand.

Paint - ***1/2
Here's a category where this figure blows past the original. I really disliked the silvery gloss look they gave the original, and was looking forward to the flatter, more neutral color scheme. There's very little slop, and the work on the head, teeth and face is particularly impressive.

The color scheme is great, and I wish we'd seen something more like this with the original.

Accessories - Bupkis
Yep, there's zippo, nadda, zilch. There's probably not much you can really give an Alien - he's not a big user of stuff - but a base, even a small one, would have been nice. Not having some sort of stand makes it tough for him to stay on his feet.

Fun Factor - **
As a kid I would have loved monster figures like this, but in the 1980s, the 12-inch Alien that was released by Kenner was considered to disturbing for kids. I don't think this one is all that disturbing for the monster-minded 10-year-old, but he's not going to have much fun with the crappy ankles. If the articulation was better, the fun factor would have been better as well.

Value - **1/2
At ten bucks or so, he's a nice, solid value. Of course, if he was a new figure at that price, he'd do even better in this category. With a completely re-used body and legs, and no accessories, he's only average in this category.

Overall - ***
This isn't a required figure, particularly if you have the boxed set version. It is a re-deco though, and has a fairly nice new head sculpt. But the changes to the body aren't drastic enough to make this figure stand out on the shelf.  If you need the exact Alien from the deluxe boxed set, pick up the other repaint. If you're looking for a cool Warrior Alien, pick up the original. Only if you're a completist in the line do you need to pick this one up.

Where to buy
I'm assuming stores that carry the general Movie Maniacs figures and other similar Mcfarlane product, like Meijers or Media Play, will also be carrying these. Perhaps Toys R Us as well, but I doubt if Target or Wal-mart will have them. Online options include:

- Killer Toys was nice enough to send this one along to me to review, and has them up for $10 each.