In celebration of the Alien franchise, April 26th has been deemed Alien Day! The date was chosen to honor LV-426, the planetoid that the Nostromo crew, and years later the Colonial Marines, would encounter the Xenomorph species. NECA is celebrating the day as well, by releasing a special edition figure that will be available via Toysrus.com.
UPDATE:
The figure will exclusively be available from TheNecaStore.com and will not be coming to Toys “R” Us online. The figure is available to everyone!
If you are an Alien Club member, you can via TheNecaStore.com (which counts towards the year end bonus). Non-club members can also visit TheNecaStore.com to purchase the figure as well! NECA was generous enough to send along a sample of their Aliens – Kenner Homage – Space Marine Vasquez 7″ Scale Figure for us to check out.
“Celebrate Alien Day 2017 with a special edition tribute to the classic Kenner Vasquez figure from the early ’90s! Private Jenette Vasquez comes with knife, sheath and pulse rifle accessories.
The 7” scale figure features the likeness of Jenette Goldstein, and has over 25 points of articulation. The blister card packaging is an homage to the classic as well — it’s the perfect companion piece to the 2016 Alien Day Exclusive Ripley action figure!”
We have nearly 50 high resolution photos to check out as well as a review. Click the links above to order the figure. Read on for our photos and review.
Aliens – Kenner Homage – Space Marine Vasquez 7″ Scale Figure
Pros
- Great take on the original Kenner figure
- Excellent paint apps
- Good articulation
- Looks great with Kenner Ripley
- Strong joints
Cons
- None
Overall
The Space Marine Vasquez figure comes packaged in a standard NECA blister card. The packaging features Kenner inspired packaging art, including a new painting of Vasquez for the insert. On the back, you can see a check list of many of the Kenner inspired Aliens and Predator figures. Vasquez sits in a plastic tray using two twist ties to hold the figure in. She includes a Pulse Rifle and a knife.
When the original NECA Vasquez figure was released last year, it was one of the best Colonial Marines released by NECA. The great sculpt and likeness were complimented by a nicely handled paint deco. The sculpt here feels largely the same, minus the armor, head gear and Smart Gun. The head sculpt is new though. It was excellent then and remains excellent now. So, even if this release matched that figure in terms of quality and paint application, it would be a winner. Some how, the Kenner inspired Vasquez looks even better. NECA adjusted the paints used a bit, refining the details and adding an even more lifelike look to the head sculpt. Vasquez now even sports her trademark teardrop tattoo on her cheek. Other areas are handled with just as much care, with excellent paint washes and lightly layered colors throughout. The skin quality, using the translucent skin colored plastic, looks especially great here. The colors are a great overall throwback to the Kenner Vasquez figure, with a blue bandana, red shirt black pants and yellow boots. They even added a functional knife sheath strapped to her calf.
Vasquez includes a Pulse Rifle and a knife (stored in the sheath). The original Kenner figure included a massive rocket firing weapon, which is sadly not replicated here. Outside of that, this is a fantastic release. The sculpt looks really good, the paint work is excellent and all of the joints were nice and tight without any paint locking issues. Vasquez looks great with Kenner style Riply as well as the Kenner style Aliens previously released. Check out a few select photos below and the full gallery after that.
Sector 09 backdrop available via Extreme-Sets.com.
Alien Day Space Marine Vasquez Figure - Toyark Photo Shoot
So I guess a Operations Vasquez (without the Smart gun and armor, how she appears through the majority of the movie) is a likelihood for a future release. I was wondering if they were going to make one.
Can't say this makes me all that nostalgic, since the Vasquez figure was never released in the US, aside from a Kay-B Toys exclusive or something...and that was at the tail-end of the line.
I got one! I still say the shipping is WAY high, but it's worth it.
Wow...this is a hell of a surprise!
That said, now that the body armor has been removed, we can certainly see that NECA has accurately sculpted Jeanette Goldstein's ample...*a-hem*..."attributes." I mean, yikes.
By the way, I'm just curious...is this the original torso used for the smartgunner Vasquez? I mean, was the armor sculpted onto that figure, or was it glued over it?
That possibility is probably going to prevent me from buying this one and trying to jury-rig a custom using parts from the smartgunner Vasquez. I was never into the old-school Kenner Space Marine figures, as even back then I thought they were goofy looking as hell, so this figure, as awesome as it otherwise looks, holds no nostalgic value for me. I'd love to have this figure, but only in the original film colors.
That said, now that the body armor has been removed, we can certainly see that NECA has accurately sculpted Jeanette Goldstein's ample...*a-hem*..."attributes." I mean, yikes.
By the way, I'm just curious...is this the original torso used for the smartgunner Vasquez? I mean, was the armor sculpted onto that figure, or was it glued over it?
That being the case, maybe it wouldn't be so hard to make a custom after all, depending if the heads are removable or not (does anyone know?). All I would have to do is swap heads and paint the Kenner headband red, easy. *EDIT* Shit, forgot about the pattern on the bandanna...not so easy. *grumble*
BTW, when you say Toys R Us is carrying these, is that just online or in-store as well? After all, they had the Kenner Ripley in-store (I can still find her here and there, as a matter of fact). If so, any chance they would they actually have them out on pegs today?
UPDATE:
Will not be coming to Toys "R" Us Online any longer. Got confirmation a few minutes ago.
Is it just me or is the likeness better on the "Kenner" figure?
Will not be coming to Toys "R" Us Online any longer. Got confirmation direct from Randy a few minutes ago.
A cool repaint but not a must-have figure which is the way more limited/exclusive figures should be. It also does feel inevitable that we'll see this redone in proper movie colors through some more generally accessible means of release.
Indeed. I'd buy a movie-accurate version of this figure in a second.
I ordered it right away this morning. My jaw dropped quite a bit when I saw the $17.31 shipping charge. At that price, I'm hoping to have her by the weekend. Sheesh. Or maybe Randy is hand-delivering them? I love NECA and support almost every toy line, but man, their shipping charges are pretty insane.
That's ridiculous, I wouldn't pay it.
Btw, is their height difference accurate? It's pretty steep.
So yeah, the height difference looks pretty accurate.
Makes me wonder if the Club Exclusive will be something like O'Malley instead of an Alien....the sort of figure that would be dead at retail. An alien exclusive that would make $$$ at retail seems like a poor choice- but a Kenner Marine in funky colors that nobody has ever heard of? Now that has exclusive written all over it.
I get that they're wearing really high 80's pants, but their crotch pieces look so weird...
Otherwise nice looking figures though. NECA has really evolved over the years.
Full Thread: NECA Alien Day Vasquez - Toyark Gallery
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