I prefer the term "acticulated figurine" myself...

April 27, 2016 12:22 PM

The Failed ‘Operation: Aliens’ Cartoon and the Kenner Toys it Inspired
posted by Artw (19 comments total)

To have had Dutch and Ripley teaming up to take down the galaxy’s biggest threats would have been a real treat.

The writer came so close to making a perfect "Dutch treat" pun here, but didn't catch it in time.

Although I think if these two characters ever did go out for dinner, a liberated woman like Ripley would gently but firmly insist on paying for both.
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:43 PM on April 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

Seriously though, I remember being kind of confused by these toys (as well as the Robocop and Police Academy lines) as a kid, because I recognized that they were based on movies that I wasn't even allowed to see yet.
posted by Strange Interlude at 12:51 PM on April 27, 2016 [8 favorites]

I had a pencilcase from a pound store I am 99% sure was something to do with this. It said "ALIEN SPACE CASE" on the side.
posted by Artw at 12:52 PM on April 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

I knew who posted this before I even looked at the username.
posted by octothorpe at 1:19 PM on April 27, 2016 [4 favorites]

I was going to show restraint and not buy into 4/26, but this came along.
posted by Artw at 1:23 PM on April 27, 2016

I swear I remember that commercial. Could I have remembered that commercial?
posted by Twain Device at 3:35 PM on April 27, 2016 [1 favorite]

I remember that commercial. I also remember the toys briefly being hugely popular during the interim between the fall of TMNT and the mid-1990s Star Wars action figure reboot.

At the time, my only knowledge of the Alien(s) franchise came from a coverless MAD magazine paperback which included a satirical treatment of the original movie. Because of certain humorous liberties that were taken, I ended up confusing Alien with 2001: A Space Odyssey for several years.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 4:11 PM on April 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

Learning that there was supposed to be a TV cartoon is pretty mind-boggling though. I wonder if there's a surviving series story bible or animation style guide that could give some clues as to the overall approach. Although I totally get that Aliens is in its own way just as much of a sanitized post-Vietnam/Reagan-era Cold War military fantasia as GI Joe or Rambo (which also had a kiddie cartoon) were, I really wonder how in the hell they were going to get around the, y'know, Alien aspects of the property. The xenomorph life cycle just doesn't seem like something that can be properly depicted in children's animation without leaving the whole facehugger/chestburster phase out.
posted by Strange Interlude at 4:53 PM on April 27, 2016

My younger brother had a Terminator action figure, which was bizarre for me. "We can't even see this, why do you own this?" ran through my head every time I picked it up.
posted by pxe2000 at 5:35 PM on April 27, 2016

My brother still has these toys. Back then he would buy two of them, one to play with, and one to keep trapped in the plastic case forever "mint"
posted by dis_integration at 5:38 PM on April 27, 2016

We had a lot of these in our action figure box. All of the characters in the box would be used for my own stories and purposes, and the aliens were always elemental demons of various sorts. They were some of my favorite villains in the fake RPG scenarios I'd make up for the heroes (usually Ren from Pirates of Dark Water and Zen, the Alien Who Recycles).
posted by codacorolla at 5:44 PM on April 27, 2016

I had many of these toys, and the bull themed xenomorph had copious incongruous battles with Kenner's Sky Winch Batman. I remember Alien 3 being marketed heavily in the advertisement pages of my Star Trek and Superman comic books. My parents were probably pretty frustrated with my obsession with Aliens, but I think my mom was pretty flexible with some of the violence given I was (a) a pretty low key, mellow elementary schooler and (b) the original Alien was such a better movie compared to all the other sci fi deal I was into.
posted by midmarch snowman at 5:52 PM on April 27, 2016

Seeing how Robocop and Ace Ventura and Youngblood got the weird Saturday morning treatment, I'm more surprised this didn't become a thing. The animation depicted reminds me a lot of ExoSquad, which was pretty thoroughly skewered (along with all the other violent 80s-90s cartoons) in Violent Combat Robots.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 5:55 PM on April 27, 2016 [3 favorites]

Huh, I just remembered The Toxic Avenger had an environmentally themed Saturday morning cartoon. That's another truly bizarre pick.
posted by codacorolla at 6:22 PM on April 27, 2016 [3 favorites]

As did Swamp Thing.
posted by mr. digits at 7:37 PM on April 27, 2016

And yet, no Garfield VideoDrome Friends Fun Hour.
posted by blueberry at 9:29 PM on April 27, 2016 [2 favorites]

Or Aliens Vs.Predator Babies...
posted by Captain l'escalier at 3:33 AM on April 28, 2016 [3 favorites]

My husband wanted to buy the big Alien toy when a whole bunch of them were on sale at the local Two Guys store. I was not enthused, it was SO ugly, and he decided not to buy it. He has always regretted that.
posted by mermayd at 3:35 AM on April 28, 2016

Back in the pre-internet era, I came across an Alien remake using the action figures on cable access. It was crudely done, but hilarious. (The guy lit the stream from some kind of aerosol can to simulate the flame thrower.) Has anyone else seen this? Is it documented on the internet of all things?
posted by batou_ at 6:06 PM on April 29, 2016