Reaction Predator

Oh my, the Predator seems to have shrunk! No, not really. This pocket-sized Predator is produced by Reaction figures, and it only seemed fitting that I reviewed him in a jungle!

Mini Arnold does not approve. The Reaction Predator has strong standing abilities, and Mini Arnold wrongly thought this stream would sweep him away. Silly Mini Arnold! The Reaction Predator has a great paintjob, a stream won’t even wear off the white paint on his skulls!

Like in the movie, this Yautja comes with his deadly wrist blades, and this figure comes with the shoulder gun and mask. While the gun prevents his head from turning, his arms and legs rotate at the shoulder and crotch. Don’t get this figure if you want full articulation. But come on, who could resist a Predator that can fit in Star Wars vehicles?

Oh no, he’s trapped Mini Arnold on a waterfall! This Predator is 3.75″ scale and stands around 4″ tall, giving the Reaction Alien some competition. There are many styles available, including this masked one, invisible (clear plastic), open-mouthed, closed-mouthed and special editions such as blood-splatterd and heat-vision. In fact, the line consists of only Predators! The figure I’m using for Dutch is actually a Chap Mei figure.

I’m going to have to wrap up this review because the Predator is closing in on Mini Arnold and he can’t hold his breath underwater forever. All in all, if you need a cheap Predator figure that can terrorize Boba Fett and Alan Grant, go for this one. There’s a wide variety, and they are cheap enough to build an army of them or collect them all.

RATING- FOUR OUT OF FIVE 3.75″ SKULLS.

Kenner Alien Queen

Oh, boy. Kenner has either gone insane or realised something we haven’t.

Where do I begin? This is another figure from Kenner’s Aliens, which are actually from a cancelled cartoon called ‘Operation: Aliens’. This particular figure is the queen alien, although you might not be able to tell at first glance. This was not actually the only queen that Kenner produced: There was this one, a winged one and a movie-accurate queen that came only in the queen’s egg chamber playset.

This queen looks like the movie queen and five other xenomorphs blended together and re-constructed by Dr. Frankenstein. It has six (!) arms, a tail sprouting out from her back, strange, torn feet and what I can only describe as claws instead of tubes on her back. Why they chose to give her an extra pair of tiny arms sticking out from her chest goes past me, as it certainly seems useless- too small to hold figures, yet too big to hold facehuggers and other accessories.

Talking of accessories, this figure comes with a huge black chestburster, or as the packaging describes it, a ‘deadly’ chest hatchling. Why is deadly in quotation marks? Maybe it just has a mean nature. I don’t know, it certainly seems deadly as it crawls through your ribs! Unfortunately, I don’t have mine. It must have run off.

This figure has two action features- squeeze an airbag on the back of her head to extend her inner jaw (and, depending on how far it is extended, you can suck it back in when you let go.) or press a button on her hip to swing her entire upper body her right, knocking over any figures near her with her tail. These are really fun features, and really make sense considering that’s standard xenomorph attacks. I’m surprised none of the other figures do this!

All in all, this figure is not at all accurate, but super fun! If you had only one xenomorph figure from Kenner, I would make it this one.

RATING: FIVE OUT OF FIVE ‘DEADLY’ CHEST HATCHLINGS.

Kenner Mantis Alien

Back in 1993, Kenner decided to release a bunch of aliens toys based on their cancelled cartoon, ‘Operation: Aliens’. Because of course kids love facehugging impregnating parasites that come free with a rib-cracking prize. And, as it turns out, they actually did. The toys were a big hit (at least to start off with; the line soon fizzled away.) The Mantis Alien is one of the best ones from the line. To start off with, it looks gorgeous. It looks like it would be lemon and lime flavoured, too, or is that just me? (By the way, if you were wondering, it tastes of plastic. Oh.) The concept never really made sense to me, though: Did a facehugger impregnate a gigantic mantis, or was there a really tiny facehugger?

Anyway, like all the alien toys, it comes with an action feature:

When you squeeze the two tubes or fins on the back of the mantis alien, the arms pull on any figure, in this case Obi Wan Kenobi. Sorry, Obi, not even the force can save you now. What? You die anyway!

You can also pull or push the tubes left or right to move both arms in the chosen direction and shake your unfortunate prey figure all around. It’s really fun, but the Gorilla alien from the line does this too. (Plus it squirts water. But I bet it doesn’t have a distinct ‘lemon and lime’ feel. Probably liquorice. I don’t like liquorice.)

The one I have is the UK version- all we got is repaints of US versions. The US version of this alien has gold teeth and green tubes, so beware if you like one colour over the other.

Overall, This figure is out of this world! (I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. I needed to write that pun.)

CONCLUSION: FIVE ALIEN EGGS OUT OF FIVE

Oh dear, wrong time!

‘This isn’t London!…Oh wait, yes it is, but it’s 70 million years too early….’

If you’re a Doctor Who fan, you definitely need to pick up the Spin and Fly TARDIS. It’s designed for the 3.75″ figures, and as the Ninth Doctor would say, it’s fantastic! It’s not really bigger on the inside, it’s just a backdrop of the TARDIS interior, but it makes up for it- when you lift it up, it makes de-materialising noises, and when you place it on a flat surface, it makes materialising noises- obviously! The TARDIS light flashes when it’s making noise or still in the air, and stays on for about 3 minutes after the noises stop. Which brings me to a point-it’s really loud! It sounds like a real TARDIS, not a plastic one! Definitely do not give to children in the early morning when it’s switched on. The TARDIS is quite durable, too, and I’ve had mine take a few turbulent flights that ended up in crash landings…

The gimmick of the Spin and Fly TARDIS is that it comes with a clear ‘flight cradle’ that clips into the base, allowing you to hold the cradle while the TARDIS wibbles and wobbles around on top while you zoom it around the living room. Of course, it doesn’t spin by itself, but who cares? It’s already exceeded expectations by this point.

The one in the picture is the Twelfth Doctor’s version with a red interior, but the previous Doctor’s green interior-ed TARDIS is out there too.

So, if you want a TARDIS that is smaller-yet-louder than life, look no further than this one! Now, I’m going to help the Doctor escape that dinosaur!