abake
Rex Tremendae Majestatis
Here it is!
The official abake review of the Medicom Alien figure!
So, is it the end-all, be-all of Alien figures? Is it a Mini-alien? Does the rubber suit suck? Read on valiant Alien fan and find answers to all these life-defining questions!
As you all probably know by now, I am a rather rabid Alien fan. It is something close to an obsession. No, I’m not kidding.
Next to my bed there is a small table, and on top of it I placed the NECA 21” figure, and every night I go to sleep gazing at it. Now, of course, there is a new figure next to it, the subject of this review: the long awaited Medicom Alien!
There’s already been a bunch of photos posted here and on other boards, and I have already given my first impressions, but I just really want to do this, I really want to review this figure; just like I really had to do the review on the NECA figure! Yes, the figure is that cool that it deserves a review.
Sculpt/Accuracy
It sounds strange to write about a sculpt when the figure is an articulated body within a rubber suit, but somebody must’ve sculpted something to make the suit of…
At any rate, most people already know it, but here it goes just in case: this is a Medicom body with a rubber suit on. In that regard, this is the most accurate figure you will ever get! It actually mimics the production of the movie, where Bolaji Badejo wore a rubber suit that was cast from a sculpture that was in turn made on top of a casting of his body! Conceptually, you can’t get more accurate than that, and on that basis alone, Medicom deserves to be applauded. Designing such a suit, manufacturing it and putting the whole thing together is quite an achievement IMHO, an engineering feat equal to what Hot Toys does.
So, other than conceptually, just how accurate is it?
I will start with the bad:
The oxen jaws on the feet don’t have the detail of the teeth.
That’s it.
That’s the only thing I find blatantly inaccurate. Oh sure, there’s the proportions which are a bit off (but I’ll forgive them because they’re using one of their regular bodies underneath) and the fingers are splayed instead of fused (but that is accurate to one of the sculpts), but those two are forgivable in my book.
I love the profile on this figure, which looks better than the NECA figure (which is somewhat hampered by the bulbous dome and underbite –both sad victims to poor Chinese manufacturing), very sleek and menacing!
The detail is soft on some spots, but it’s not really distracting and the overall feel is fantastic. Too bad the paint apps are so poor.
Paint Apps
I’m not going to lie to you. They’re poor. The color palette is uninspired, the application spiritless. In my mind there really is no excuse for it. The only thing that comes to mind is that the material they used to make the suit prevented any other type of color application, but here comes the next point: the paint flakes/chips/strips/rubs off alarmingly easy! As soon as you take it out of the box, the paint will start to rub off. I’m not kidding. It comes off faster than the HT brand. I suppose this is something we have to accept with these rubber suits/bodies, but if so, they could’ve made it a little more impressive to begin with.
I will probably try and use some water-based paints to do some dry-brushing and try to breath some life into it.
Having said all that, I must confess there is a perverse little voice telling me “hey, this is super accurate! It’s the same way the paint came off on the real suit!”.
In any case, don’t leave the figure posed in such a way that the suit comes in undue contact with itself, i.e. keep the arms, elbows, legs, knees etc. straight. Otherwise the paint will rub off much faster and you might even damage the suit itself.
Articulation.
The good news: it the fabled Medicom body underneath!
The bad news: it’s wearing a rubber suit!
Articulation is limited because of the rubber suit, especially around the hips, but that shouldn’t be surprising. Everything else works very well (knees, elbows, shoulders, ankles, wrists, neck). It’s the mid-section that really doesn’t move much. So no, you will not be able to do the stooping pose or the crouching pose.
The joints are nice and firm on mine and hold the pose very well, except for the neck (very loose). In fact the joints feel and move much better than on any other Medicom figure I own, with the possible exception of Vader.
I haven’t tried anything too extreme in the posing department, and to be honest, I wouldn’t recommend it. If you twist something wrong and it breaks there’s no way you can just get a new body and replace it, because I seriously doubt the suit was meant to be taken off. And if something rips, I don’t see that it would be easy to fix.
To me this one will stay mostly in those looming, vaguely threatening poses the creature on the Nostromo was so good at.
The official abake review of the Medicom Alien figure!
So, is it the end-all, be-all of Alien figures? Is it a Mini-alien? Does the rubber suit suck? Read on valiant Alien fan and find answers to all these life-defining questions!
As you all probably know by now, I am a rather rabid Alien fan. It is something close to an obsession. No, I’m not kidding.
Next to my bed there is a small table, and on top of it I placed the NECA 21” figure, and every night I go to sleep gazing at it. Now, of course, there is a new figure next to it, the subject of this review: the long awaited Medicom Alien!
There’s already been a bunch of photos posted here and on other boards, and I have already given my first impressions, but I just really want to do this, I really want to review this figure; just like I really had to do the review on the NECA figure! Yes, the figure is that cool that it deserves a review.
Sculpt/Accuracy
It sounds strange to write about a sculpt when the figure is an articulated body within a rubber suit, but somebody must’ve sculpted something to make the suit of…
At any rate, most people already know it, but here it goes just in case: this is a Medicom body with a rubber suit on. In that regard, this is the most accurate figure you will ever get! It actually mimics the production of the movie, where Bolaji Badejo wore a rubber suit that was cast from a sculpture that was in turn made on top of a casting of his body! Conceptually, you can’t get more accurate than that, and on that basis alone, Medicom deserves to be applauded. Designing such a suit, manufacturing it and putting the whole thing together is quite an achievement IMHO, an engineering feat equal to what Hot Toys does.
So, other than conceptually, just how accurate is it?
I will start with the bad:
The oxen jaws on the feet don’t have the detail of the teeth.
That’s it.
That’s the only thing I find blatantly inaccurate. Oh sure, there’s the proportions which are a bit off (but I’ll forgive them because they’re using one of their regular bodies underneath) and the fingers are splayed instead of fused (but that is accurate to one of the sculpts), but those two are forgivable in my book.
I love the profile on this figure, which looks better than the NECA figure (which is somewhat hampered by the bulbous dome and underbite –both sad victims to poor Chinese manufacturing), very sleek and menacing!
The detail is soft on some spots, but it’s not really distracting and the overall feel is fantastic. Too bad the paint apps are so poor.
Paint Apps
I’m not going to lie to you. They’re poor. The color palette is uninspired, the application spiritless. In my mind there really is no excuse for it. The only thing that comes to mind is that the material they used to make the suit prevented any other type of color application, but here comes the next point: the paint flakes/chips/strips/rubs off alarmingly easy! As soon as you take it out of the box, the paint will start to rub off. I’m not kidding. It comes off faster than the HT brand. I suppose this is something we have to accept with these rubber suits/bodies, but if so, they could’ve made it a little more impressive to begin with.
I will probably try and use some water-based paints to do some dry-brushing and try to breath some life into it.
Having said all that, I must confess there is a perverse little voice telling me “hey, this is super accurate! It’s the same way the paint came off on the real suit!”.
In any case, don’t leave the figure posed in such a way that the suit comes in undue contact with itself, i.e. keep the arms, elbows, legs, knees etc. straight. Otherwise the paint will rub off much faster and you might even damage the suit itself.
Articulation.
The good news: it the fabled Medicom body underneath!
The bad news: it’s wearing a rubber suit!
Articulation is limited because of the rubber suit, especially around the hips, but that shouldn’t be surprising. Everything else works very well (knees, elbows, shoulders, ankles, wrists, neck). It’s the mid-section that really doesn’t move much. So no, you will not be able to do the stooping pose or the crouching pose.
The joints are nice and firm on mine and hold the pose very well, except for the neck (very loose). In fact the joints feel and move much better than on any other Medicom figure I own, with the possible exception of Vader.
I haven’t tried anything too extreme in the posing department, and to be honest, I wouldn’t recommend it. If you twist something wrong and it breaks there’s no way you can just get a new body and replace it, because I seriously doubt the suit was meant to be taken off. And if something rips, I don’t see that it would be easy to fix.
To me this one will stay mostly in those looming, vaguely threatening poses the creature on the Nostromo was so good at.
