Written by Marc H. Cawiezel in June 2006, posted online August 2006, Updated on November 26, 2018
Please feel free to contact me with any comments, suggestions, questions or information. E-mail Me
Back in 1979, Kenner released their eighteen inch ALIEN figure much to the delight of kids who knew a cool thing when they saw it and much to the horror and outrage from a lot of uptight parents. Eventually Kenner caved under all of the negative press and the figures were quickly pulled from store shelves.
This toy was beautifully sculpted, done in such a huge scale and was really scary looking! The glowing head creeped me out so much, I hid it in my closet at night! It really was a toy that was way ahead of it’s time! Unfortunately for toy collectors and fans, this quickly squashed any plans Kenner had for a smaller four inch ALIEN toy line.
Painted and unpainted prototypes exist of five action figures. In the 3 ¾” range made popular by the Star Wars brand you had Ripley with flame thrower, Dallas with flame thrower, Ash with motion tracker, Ripley in Spacesuit and an in scale ALIEN figure in the 4 ½” range featuring a retractable inner tongue. Some of these prototypes have appeared on Ebay within the past 10 years and as would be expected, the asking prices were quite high. Please check out Tomart's Action Figure Digest #23 (Cover and pages 14-16), #46 (page 34), #100 (Cover and pages16-17), #147 (pages 39-40) and #148 (Cover and pages 25-29) for more info and pictures on this line.
(pics courtesy Tracey Hamilton.)
In 1987, special effects make-up artist Steve Wang who designed the original PREDATOR and was head of the design team on that film was asked to produced a prototype for a proposed PREDATOR action figure by a company calling themselves the Diamond Toy Company.
It stood about 9 ¼” tall and would’ve been scaled down to around 5” tall had it been produced. It featured a removable helmet, laser canon/back pack and twin wrist blades. It was done so late in the film’s production that the toy company decided at the last minute not to produced it just in case the movie flopped.
The original is now owned by PREDATOR producer Joel Silver and it proudly sits in his office. Steve was allowed to make a mold of it for himself and since then, several resin copies of it have been sold and traded within the garage kit community. A few black and white pictures of the figure have been published(Amazing Figure Modeler Magazine #3 Summer'95 ran 3 shots of the painted prototype on page 42) and it truelly would’ve been a figure way ahead of it’s time had it been produced!
Back in 1989 Matchbox Toys put aside all of their common sense and attempted to cash in with their license to produce toys based on horror movie icon/child killer Freddy Krueger. One of the first items released was a Captain Action type dress up figure called Maxx FX. This 9” doll called “Max” was supposed to be a makeup effects artist who could change into any horror character he wanted.
What could’ve been an unbelievably cool line with a near limitless costume expansion sets potential began and ended with the Freddy Krueger set due to protests from upset parents. There were three other Costume Sets planned and shown in prototype form on the back of the box. These other costumes would’ve included a cool Frankenstein, Dracula and best of all, a snap on ALIEN outfit!
In 1992 Hasbro introduced their line of Battle Trolls action figures and vehicles. This line only lasted one year with two different figure assortments released. These figures were somewhat articulated and featured characters based on pop culture figures or themes. These characters had names like Franken-troll, The Troll-minator, Troll-bot, Touch Down Troll, Count-Trol-ula, Super Troll, Cap’n Troll, Sgt. Troll, Nunchuk Troll, Officer PaTroll, Punk Troll and Troll-Clops.
Hasbro had plans to expand the line in 1993 and these new figures were shown at the New York Toy Fair but were never released. These figures had some much better designs than the previous year and Hasbro was set to introduced a line of villains called the Evil Horde. These new additions included a way cool JOKER type figure from BATMAN and coolest of all is a figure that must’ve been called Xeno-Troll looking very much like a Giger-esque ALIEN! (Thanks to Alex Bickmore for the use of the picture!)
There exists a 4 ½” blue plastic ALIEN WARRIOR prototype figure that I was told was from Kenner’s early toy presentation shown at the New York Toy Fair back in 1990 or 1991 when the ALIENS toy line was still in it’s early planning stages as a possible 3 ¾” line. The figure looks very much like a warrior alien from ALIENS. There could be as many as four or five more figure prototypes from this presentation but I can’t confirm it.
Breaking News! 4 pieces of original Kenner artwork was sold recently on Ebay for what appears to have been a planned expansion to the ALIENS toy line back in 1993 or 1994 that was to be called POWER BRIGADE. The drawings show Marines wearing hi-tech weapon suits. The only shred of info I have is a post-it note that was stuck to the back of one. This is what it said: “Beef Up, Edge & Attitude, added Battle Mech Tech“. One piece of art even shows a marine before and after his armor is put on.
One figure has a kicking action feature and appears to be named DIETRICH after the marine in ALIENS. He was to feature a cap firing action that would go off when his kick feature was used. The post-it note for him says: “Kick Blaster, Caps located in Power Mech Kick, Real attitude-Scars & Mohawk”.
The art is dated 5-3-93 and signed by an artist calling himself TYE. If this art is 100% true, the date on the note puts it roughly in the time frame of when Kenner planned to add the PREDATOR HUNTERS to the mix and the APC Vehicle. Better pictures will be posted once I receive the art in the mail.
There were plans in early 1994 to introduce PREDATOR HUNTER characters to the SPACE MARINES ranks. The new recruits would’ve included such characters from the PREDATOR film with names like Dutch, Hi-Tech Dutch, Blain and Big Knife Billy.
These were listed in an early 1994 issue of the monthly Previews and Advance Comics catalogs that were available at comic shops. These figures were supposed to ship around June 1994 and would’ve been included in the same assortments that had the Space Marines O’Malley, Vasquez and Hudson before those three figures were rudely dumped and sold overseas due to sluggish sales of earlier Marines assortments here in the US.
In Advance Comics their product description reads as such: “Both Dutch figures are presumably based upon the character played by Arnold Schwarzennegger in the first PREDATOR feature film. However the Dutch figures look nothing like Arnie. Also for reasons known only to Kenner, Dutch is now a member of the Space Marines“. Interesting... were the product description writers privy to pictures and info never before released to the public? Nearly 13 years later, this is still a mystery.
Many other ALIENS and PREDATOR related toys were listed in those same issues that did eventually come out. Because of the above comment, it’s my suspicion that Kenner must have had these figures at least at the drawing board stage or possibly as rough mock-ups or even as prototypes of some kind!
There were two unproduced Space Marine vehicles that reached the prototype stage but never released. The first is the huge Drop Ship Vehicle Playset. Action features on this massive toy would’ve included an opening cockpit, two fold out missile pods, a rotating rear turret that could telescope upward and rapid fire 6 Alienator missles, an alien containment chamber and a detachable mini scout ship which forms the nose and cockpit section. Below are 2 pictures of the original prototype mock-up and I finally acquired a 1993 Kenner Toy Fair catalog and have posted the picture from it. Collector Eric Caldicott told me of a video on You Tube from Toy Fair 1993 showcasing a goofy guy demonstrating the ALIENS line along with the drop ship! You can view the video here Clicking here
The second is the Mini-Dropship. It did get so far as a prototype and an actual production sample with box and decal sheet! Even though it was cancelled for the ALIENS line, it did see production as part of the VR Troopers line of toys. In an effort to save on tooling costs, Kenner/Hasbro simply increased the size of the FIREBAT vehicle that came with the 3 3/4” G.I. JOE: A Real American Hero play set of the COBRA TERRORDROME. Below are pictures of the unpainted prototype and a custom painted VR TROOPERS Pursuit Jet that I did back in 1994.
A special note should be made of a possible APC Vehicle that Kenner might’ve been planning for the Space Marines figures. I saw a listing for it in the monthly PREVIEWS and ADVANCE COMICS catalog back in 1994 along with the two Drop Ship vehicles. I have no idea if the APC reached prototype stage or if any early drawings exist of it. It was scheduled for a May 1994 release and 12 years later, this item still remains a mystery.
Kenner had the brilliant idea to expand and refresh the ALIENS line in 1994 by including the PREDATORS in the mix and was to call it ALIENS: HIVE WARS. Unfortunately for collectors, this was to little to late and the line was abruptly cancelled when stores stopped placing orders. There was to be an action figure three pack featuring an Alien, a Predator and a Space Marine.
Packaging art exists for this item.....
Along with original art work for a 15 page Dark Horse mini-comic that would’ve set the story line up and would be included in the three pack.
Three possible names existed for the comic and included ALIENS vs. PREDATOR vs. HIT SQUAD or H.E.A.T. SQUAD or H.E.A.T. FORCE. Maybe H.E.A.T. stood for Horrbily Exagerrated Alien Terminators! The comic features quite a few un-produced toy characters which will be explained in more detail below.
As far as un-produced figures go there were alot! There was to be some kind of Hatching Pod/Egg ALIEN. The actual name of this figure is unknown but judging from the prototype pictures, there were two versions planned.
One version and the rarer of the two was to have an egg pod with four petals that opened to reveal a new type of ALIEN sitting inside in the center. This alien has a very long chin and a spiky tail and four fingered human looking hands and arms. This figure appears in the un-produced Hive Wars comic where it’s shown that the four opening pod petals double as wings! To see another great shot of this toy, please check out Tomart's AFD #60 page 38. (Picture was taken from an Ebay auction. If anyone knows who the sellers is, I'd love to know so I can contact them and find out what happened to the figure!)
The second and more common of the two had a two part opening egg that revealed a more insect looking alien inside with longer arms, smaller hands, a second set of shorter arms, two stubby legs and was attached to the egg via it’s rear end.
By far the three coolest, rarest and most unique of the unproduced figures are all PREDATORS! While some of their actual names are unknown, the Female PREDATOR or SHE-PREDATOR was officially called the "Air Attack Predator." She featured a huge two handed blade accessory, a winged cape on her back, and swivel joints in her shoulders. It is possible her action feature was to resemble something to do with flying.
As there are only three and a half known examples, the Air Attack Predator has proven to be the most elusive and mysterious of the Predator prototypes with little or no information available outside of two published photos in Tomart's Action Figure Digest #60 on page 34 and Tomart's AFD #162 on page 29.
(Thanks to Tracey Hamilton for the use of the picture.)
Above image credit Alex Bickmore / Toy Archive
Next is the Underwater or SCUBA PREDATOR. He's very unique in that he would've included articulated ankles and neck joint so that you could tilt them back to get him into a swimming pose. He was to include a three forked trident type hand held weapon and a swiveling shoulder mounted spear gun on his right shoulder. His skin texture resembles that of an alligator and his finned head with mouth regulator resembles a fish. He has two peg holes on his face so it appears a helmet of some kind might've been planned.
To see two more great shots of this figure, please check out page 34 of Tomart's AFD #60, and page 29 in
Tomart's AFD #162 page 29.
(Thanks to Tracey Hamilton for the use of the picture!)
The third one was most likely going to be a deluxe figure judging by his size. He was called the Heavy Infantry PREDATOR. He’s a huge brute with four arms and a huge back mounted spring fired missile launcher. He also came with a removable helmet and bladed staff weapon.
The Night Recon PREDATOR was produced as part of the Hive Wars line with a different color scheme, but not his cool accessories! Originally he was to
come with a rifle/gun, helmet and a reptilian cyborg bird! The version that was released simply came with a knife accessory.
The knife actually belongs to the Corporal Hicks figure from the HIVE WARS line and fits into the hole on his
right leg! The original hand painted prototype featured glow in the dark painted highlights on the eyes and teeth that
would have added to the Night Recon theme.
Lastly in the SPACE MARINES corner we have the unproduced R-Zor Marine who's armor and look resembles that of
a PREDATOR. He went by a few other working names including Q-zor, R-zor Warrior and Razor Marine.
He was to come with snap on dual arm blades (one set for each arm) and a strange looking handheld weapon. Some packaged
samples have been sold to collectors of RZOR and the NIGHT RECON PREDATOR figures, but they were simply put on
existing ALIENS blister cards.
There was also a Marine Squad Leader figure who was to be part of the above mentioned Hive Wars three pack. Most of the info I've put together on this figure was taken from the un-produced comic book.
This all new character appears to be named Smash Mason. Prototypes exist showing him in a bright neon red colored outfit with black and silver highlights and a tied back blonde ponytail! This horrific look just reeks of the hero fashion found in most comic books of the 1990's. He came with two hand held silver guns with hoses attached that plug into pegs on his back. These new beefed-up, hi-tech marines were very similar to what Hasbro ended up doing a year later with their failed revamp of the G.I. Joe line called G.I. Joe Extreme.
(Thanks to John at the Alien Collectibles Archive for the use of the pictures!)
There was talk of a proposed Dutch Schaeffer figure to go along side the PREDATOR figure from Kenner’s ACTION MASTERS line of die cast metal figures. I have no idea if it reached the prototype stage or if any artwork is floating around out there of the figure.
It looks like there were also plans to release the Ripley figure from the ALIENS four pack as an individually carded figure. A carded mock-up sample exists showing a drawing of the Ripley figure stuck on a mock up backer card along with the Ripley trading card that was included in the released four pack. (Thanks to John at The Alien Collectibles Archive for the use of the picture!)
Around 1993 and 1994 Kenner attempted to market their ALIENS toy brand overseas in the UK under the name OPERATION: ALIENS. It met with some success and some merchandise was produced back here in the states bearing the Operation: ALIENS logo.
One such toy that almost made it to store shelves was a hand held electronic LCD game produced by Tiger Electronics Inc. (#78-552). The package describes the action of the game as: “You are under alien attack! You must stop the alien invasion before it’s to late! You are Commander Drake. Use your smart gun to blast the aliens into oblivion! Destroy the Alien Queen’s Eggs before they hatch into more alien invaders! Your marine comrades will leave you their weapons for you to use in self defense!”
I wrote to Tiger inquiring about it in 1994 and they were kind enough to write me back telling me it had been cancelled and best of all, they included an actual packaged and working sample! That’s the power of the pen my friends! Outside of the one I own, I have no idea how many of these cool games were actually produced but someone from England just sold a loose one on Ebay for only a few bucks!
Galoob originally planned on releasing the three ALIENS and three PREDATOR Micro Machines blister
carded sets as nice box sets. Packaging prototypes and photos exist of these boxes and the ALIENS Micro Machines Box Set
was pictured as having the unproduced ASH figure with his head knocked off included with it.
The PREDATOR Micro Machines Box Set prototype features an unproduced white truck from the guerilla's camp
that was used as their water pump/generator. The Predator Ship that did come out on the blister card was not pictured
in the box set though so obviously it took the trucks place and made for a much more exciting piece for fans.
Rumor has it that there might’ve been plans for an ALIEN RESURRECTION line of Micro Machines toys too, but I can’t confirm it. Galoob did get so far as to prototype a Transforming Action Set featuring the NEWBORN ALIEN’s head that turned into the interior of the Auriga ship from the movie. Judging from the few pieces the set came with, one action feature would’ve involved the escape pod and some kind of alien chestburster figure. (Pictures were taken from an Ebay auction listing.)
By far the coolest ALIENS related toy never released would have to be the LV-426/Outer World Station Action Fleet Playset. Truly a work of art, it would have been the crown jewel in any ALIENS fan's toy collection! It folded open to show the outside of the colony complex complete with flip open Derelict Ship with pull out Space Jockey. The interior of the colony and the atmosphere processing station were well represented too.
Action features would’ve included fold down ramps, opening doors, wiggling face huggers in stasis tubes, a tunnel for the Bishop figure to escape thru, the Alien Queen’s hive with opening alien eggs, a figure catapult, pivoting weapons, mini figures of Bishop, Gorman, the Alien Queen and Ripley in the Power Loader! Painted and unpainted prototypes exist along with an original box prototype all of which were sold recently on Ebay for hundreds of dollars each! (Thanks Willie for the use of the pics!)
Other unproduced ALIENS Action Fleet related items include the Jordan Tractor-Prospector Vehicle as seen in ALIENS: The Special Edition. This cool looking eight wheeled all terrain vehicle came with mini figures of Newt’s parents and a display base. (Picture was taken from an Ebay auction listing.)
Two incredibly cool PREDATOR Ships (one Red and one Blue) were also planned. These were two designs that were borrowed from the Dark Horse Comic PREDATOR: BAD BLOOD #1. The blue one featured dual firing canons (two on each side), an opening cockpit and two PREDATOR mini figures. This was well designed and looked as if it could’ve been from one of the movies! (Picture was taken from an Ebay auction listing.)
The red one sort of resembled a lizard or insect and featured a pair of movable wings, an opening cockpit and an opening rear cargo hold on it’s back. It too would’ve included two new PREDATOR mini figures. Prototypes exist for all of these and were sold recently on Ebay for huge money! (Picture taken from an Ebay auction listing.)
Artist extraordinaire Dave Dorman designed a total of eight figures for this line, but only six were actually produced. It’s unknown wether the other two made it to the sculpting or prototype stage but AliensCollection.com did get official word from Dave Dorman that the two mystery figures were to be Colonial Marines even though none were seen in the film!
This way cool unproduced figure would’ve been done in the same scale as the ALIEN RESURRECTION Signature Series line and would’ve been a single figure sold in 1999 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the original ground breaking film.
It was sculpted with great care with the design team using every available bit of 2-D and 3-D reference material to make it as accurate as possible. It was sculpted in a very dynamic pose and the prototype comes in eight parts (two arms, two legs, torso, tail, back spines and head). Several multi colored plastic prototypes exist.
It’s my opinion that this figure would’ve been the coolest ALIEN figure to date! The detail on it rivals or even surpasses the amazing work done by McFarlane Toys and the original 18 inch Kenner figure! If this was somehow released today, it would still stand up to today’s high sculpting standards! It’s unknown if any packaging designs exist and I haven’t seen any artwork for it either.
McFarlane Toys released a line of action figures based on the long awaited and ill received ALIEN vs. PREDATOR film in 2004. Of interest to collector’s would be the fact that McFarlane showed the Celtic Predator figure coming with a pyramid column adorned with human skulls and spinal cords and the Scar Predator figure was shown as coming with a different pyramid column and with an unmasked head in their online catalog.
It’s assumed that McFarlane wanted to pinch some pennies on production costs on the toys so he omitted these two pieces much to the dismay of collectors. Some resin castings of these two unproduced columns have been sold on Ebay for around $30 each. I'm trying to get pictures of these castings and will post them if my source comes thru. In the meantime you can check still check out the photos still available at spawn.com by Clicking here to see pictures of the SCAR and CELTIC PREDATOR Figures from the AVP line. They can be found in the 2004 section of MOVIE related toys.
Another incredibly sad ALIENS and PREDATOR related toy cancellation were the three follow up play sets to Tree House Kids wonderful Deluxe ALIENS Playset released in 2004. For 2005 they had planned a cool PREDATOR inspired Jungle Playset. The set would’ve included trees, a PREDATOR and figures of Mac, Dutch, Dillard, Poncho, Hawkins and Blain.
PREDATOR Packs similar to the ALIENS Swarm Packs were also planned and would‘ve included clear exclusives of the PREDATOR. Further play sets such as an urban theme as seen in PREDATOR 2 were also planned.
The Nest deluxe playset from ALIENS would’ve included the Alien Queen with egg sac, multiple alien eggs as well as figures of Ripley ready to flamethrower the hive and Newt. A variant chase Ripley/Newt figure of Ripley holding the young girl would’ve been inserted randomly in sets. Both the PREDATOR and Queen Nest sets made it as far as the early model or prototype stage and were shown at some convention shows before they were abruptly cancelled. (Thanks to Ian Caldicott for supplying me with THE NEST Photo!)
Future plans for the ALIEN series included a possible Space Jockey playset from 1979's ALIEN and potentially a battle-damaged APC/Hive playset from ALIENS. The sky was to be the limit! I’m not sure if the Space Jockey Set ever made it past the drawing board stage and I have no idea why the ALIENS set did not sell well enough at retail to warrant future sets.
And that brings us up to date and to the final toy tragedy. Palisades Toys had some success with a four inch series of action figures based on the cult classic film Army of Darkness. They got the rights to do Terminator 2 figures in the same format and were going to sell them in blind boxes in 2005 or 2006.
It was announced shortly after that that they had also acquired the rights to do ALIENS and PREDATOR related film figures in the same four inch format. Unfortunately Palisades Toys announced this year that they were closing their doors and all 2006 projects they had in the pipeline were cancelled. Pictures of the T2 figures were shown at conventions and on some toy websites but it’s unknown if the ALIENS or PREDATOR figures ever reached the drawing board or prototype stage.
Thus ends the long 27 year saga that is Unproduced ALIEN and PREDATOR toys. It’s a sad story but one I felt had to be shared. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed putting it together.
Due to memory space restrictions, the pictures in this article are just a very small sample of the images I have saved. I'm always looking to see more pictures and I would be willing to share them with anyone who emails me. If any information or pictures can be provided to clear up any facts presented here, please contact me at the email link below.
Items I’m currently looking for for my own personal collection include the following items:
ARTWORK
ANY and ALL artwork, instruction sheets and packaging samples having to do with any of these toys!
ANY info or artwork on the Predator Hunter figures or the Aliens APC vehicle
ACTION FIGURES
Any of the unproduced ALIEN 3 ¾” figures in particular the ALIEN
Alien-TROLL Figure
Hatching/Flying Alien Figure from HIVE WARS
Female PREDATOR Figure from HIVE WARS
ACTION FIGURE ACCESSORIES
Maxx FX ALIEN Costume
Smash Mason’s 2 HAND GUNS
Rzor’s HAND WEAPON/GUN
Scuba Predator’s TRIDENT/SPEAR WEAPON
The 2 different PYRAMID COLUMNS for the Celtic and Scar Predator figure’s display bases from McFarlane’s AVP line.
VEHICLES
Aliens Drop Ship Playset
Box Sample for Mini-Drop Ship
OTHER ITEMS
Tree House Kid’s ALIENS THE NEST Prototype Playset or Photos
ANY of the Galoob Unproduced Toys/Figures
Galoob Aliens/Predator Action Fleet Catalog
Any Kenner or Galoob Toys (1994? or 1995?) Toy Fair catalogs featuring ALIENS or PREDATOR toys.
Over the years, I've collected TONS of prototype photos from many sources. Some from Ebay auctions and many from fellow collectors. I believe in giving credit were credit is due so if you recognize any photos here and know who might've taken them, please let me know.
Please check out back issues of Lee’s Action Figure News & Toy Review #1 for a cover story on the original 18" ALIEN doll and Tomart’s Action Figure Digest #23 (Unproduced ALIEN 3 3/4" Figures Cover story + 3 pages), #34 (ALIENS The Return cover story + 3 pages), #46 (1 page featuring 2 color photos of the 5 ALIEN 3 3/4" figures), #60 (3 pages on HIVE WARS plus some prototype pictures), #100 (Cover and 2 pages on the ALIEN 3 3/4" line) and #106 (7 page color guide to ALIENS/PREDATOR related toys). Tomart's AFD #147-#148 just hit the stands last month and this month and features more info and photos on the original ALIEN toyline in Parts 3 and 4 of The Kenner Legacy series of articles. Lee’s Toy Review #161 includes a great 12 page color pull out price guide section on ALIENS and PREDATOR related toys and collectibles. (Thanks to Scott Baker for that info!)
Click here to go to ALIENSCOLLECTION.COM, the best ALIENS related sites on the web!
Click here to go to Alex Bickmore's great toy website SUPER TOY ARCHIVE. Lots of toy lines are showcased along with lots of rare prototype pictures!
Click here to go to the Tomart's Action Figure Digest's web site for back issue ordering information.