Toychest Time Machine: Aliens vs Predator



The Ultimate Battle Between Beast and Hunter.

With the timely arrival of Robert Rodriguez's Predators hitting theaters this Friday, I thought it might be fun to take another trip through the Toychest Time Machine for a look at some of the merchandise spawned by the original film's debut (and subsequent sequel).

You see, long before Hollywood shat out the insulting Aliens vs Predator (take your pick, they both suck), the only way fans could ever see a deep space smackdown was through the power of imagination... and action figures. Bad-ass, goo-spewing, tendril whipping action figures.

Released by Kenner in the early 90s, both Aliens and Predator had their own line of toys that were specific to its franchise PLUS a few bonus packs that included a character from both the Alien and Predator universes. From what I can recall the figures were pretty detailed and well-painted, not to mention that they featured a variety of kick-ass gimmicks such as "Spiked Tail" Predator, "Renegade" Predator and "Scorpion" Alien to name a few.



In particular, my favorites of the series were the "Wild Boar" Alien who had spikes that flipped out on its head like a porcupine and a "deluxe" Space Marine named A.T.A.X. (see above) who I don't recall from any of the films. A.T.A.X. came with a really awesome Alien-inspired black/copper exoskeleton that meant (at least in my imagination) he could be used as a double agent for either side.

While the Predator line had some interesting additions as well (there was one that glowed in the dark) they were definitely less varied in their appearance. I can still remember having a blast with these guys as a kid, especially when you tossed in a Ninja Turtle or two and "bear-hugging" action Hulk Hogan. Now that's a Royal Rumble.





8 comments:

  1. Paxton said...:

    Well, there were 2 separate Aliens vs Predator comic book series before the movie. They were by Dark Horse Comics.

    The first one was where they got the majority of the plot from the first movie (minus all of the Predators created modern civilization crap).

    I'm totally looking forward to the Predators movie.

  1. Strange Kid said...:

    Dark Horse did have a few comics with them, didn't they? I don't know why, but I could never quite get into sci-fi as far as comics were concerned. That and horror are hard subjects to convey in print (IMO) and with great exception to the fine work of E.C. of course.

    As for the new Predators movie? It looks wild. I never knew that Adrien Brody was such a buff-looking mothaf*cka. Insane.

  1. Paxton said...:

    Yeah, at first I thought, "Wow this is an eclectic cast for a Predator movie; Adrien Brody, Laurence Fishburne, Topher Grace". I'm like, "what the hell are they going for?"

    The trailers look awesome though.

  1. Anonymous said...:

    Dark Horse comics also had Aliens vs. Robocop which was completely terrible.

    I still have the Aliens vs Predator pack in the first picture shown.

  1. Strange Kid said...:

    @Cortez: Aliens vs. Robocop? How could they mess that up?! I'm guessing these were all done in the 90s... shiny foil cover et al.

    I could kick myself for giving up A.T.A.X. You know, it was surprisingly hard to find decent pics of these figures. I wonder how "rare" they've become.

  1. Jon Guerra said...:

    Had a lot of these toys. The coolest one was the Predator that looked like the original "Predator" from the movie. I had a crazy set of story lines involving the toys. One was a group of Predators were stuck on the "Aliens" home world they had to fight to survive. The group of Predators all had different personalities, there was the Jerk, the tough guy, the wise old guy, and the movie looking Predator was the young inexperienced one. ...um....I've said to much.

  1. Strange Kid said...:

    @Jon: Haha, no that's perfect! If you think about it, what you imagined as kid would probably make for a kick-@ss film... moreso than the two rather lame duds that Hollywood churned out.

    I'm sure M. Night could have benefited more from playing with his Avatar action figures a little more (too soon? haha).

  1. Paxton said...:

    And let's not forget Robocop vs Terminator.

    Another great premise and this one was handled a bit better than Alien vs Robocop. And it makes a little more sense (robot vs robot).

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