Hot Toys Alien Warrior - What a piece of junk!

This won't come as news to many of you, but I just felt I had to vent regarding the deterioration of my Hot Toys Alien Warrior in only a year or so.

One of the reasons I bought it was that it was so poseable. Inspired by the many extreme poses in the various reviews, I was really excited about showing it crawling one day, and standing upright the next. However I quickly realised that the paint on the rubber parts of the model comes off very easily, so in reality I've kept it in the same pose for weeks on end, only changing it occasionally.

Even so, nothing prepared me for just how badly the rubber sections would deteriorate:





I promise you, that's from standard handling - I haven't "played" with it. The stuff just comes off in your hand.

Then there's the fact that the tendon in the mouth tore the very first (and last, until today) time I opened it:



As for the joints. Well from the off I had issues with the feet and legs not staying in their sockets. I tried all the usual fixes, and managed to improve the joints marginally, but even so the left foot was a lost cause and has thus been superglued in place pretty much since I got the figure.

What's worse though is that having had it in the same pose for a few weeks I went to gently bend the right leg today, and the damn thing just snapped!



FFS! Combined with the fact that hardly any of the limbs stay put, the arms dangle loose in their sockets, the rubber is torn and the paint is worn away, I'm now left with this pile of junk:



The sad thing is, I really love the figure, and have defended its design on here and elsewhere. But here's the real kicker - I bought it on eBay from Canada and it cost me £130 shipped to the UK. The state it's in would be bad enough if it was a high street toy which had been properly played with, but a high end collectable? Outrageous. And of course, I can't take it back to the shop.

Anyone considering buying one of these - beware. Unless you're very lucky and get a perfect specimen out of the box which you then intend not to touch, I'd steer well clear.

I guess the only way forward now is to fix it with glue in a pose I like, and maybe try a re-paint. Some consolation I suppose.

It really is one the most disappointing figures I own... I actually still like the look of him (even though its not screen accurate) but the damn thing is looser than a 3 dollar whore. I haven't had the paint issues or broken tendons/joints. But every time I move him the feet fall off and/or the right leg falls off. And I can only get a few very stable poses to work.

Just a very poorly executed figure I wish the joints were as nice as the AVP Alien which to date is the best one they've released, even though its not the best looking.

The ball and socket joints are really awful on it. You can see that the left leg is off in one of the pictures above! I also forgot to mention that the rear tubes pop out whenever you bend the torso, because they're such a poor fit that as the rubber shifts position it pushes them out of their slots.

galactiboy, it wouldn't surprise me if you went and had a close look at some of the rubber sections on yours, you'd find peeling paint.

My God!

I'm familiar with all the problems you've mentioned and have had most of them myself, but I've never seen anything in the same degree as yours. What kind of environment are you in?

Just a house in the UK! Nothing unusual, no excessively sweaty hands or anything.

You should have bought the Alien from Enterbay..

BY FAR the worst HT figure I own.

I actually regret getting it.

It truelly is a crap figure - the quality is undeniably and exceptioanlly bad. Mine is left to stand up-right in a straight position for the past 18 months or more. No fancy pose. I paid £90 for mine from eBay new.

DSD said:

galactiboy, it wouldn't surprise me if you went and had a close look at some of the rubber sections on yours, you'd find peeling paint.

Click to expand...

I'll check it when I get home... I know I've gotten some paint loss on other Alien figures from handling, so could be some. But I don't think its to that extent. I think you may have gotten the grand-daddy of f'd up Aliens

Oh,yes. Hot Toys's biggest failure. My blue one is just a head now for a Predator to hold. My brown one's legs are permanently glued into its pose just so he stands up and nothing falls off.

If Hot Toys ever does the Big Chap, I hope they do a second version for Aliens replacements.

So the brown version's no better then?

I suppose it might be a fun project to try and paint it up closer to the film, and maybe even try some additional sculpting. I suppose...

I just checked mine and I dont have any paint issues, but it is still a crap figure.

Heeeey! Friend!
Take a look here, it may be useful for ya.



Take it out and drill it in.



0,7 mm steel used here, glue and insulating tape.





Holes were drilled with the little drill and bolts were screwed in tight.
“Milliput” epoxy polymer used to fix it all. Don’t forget to worm it up with fan after final forming.



Another leg was only fortified (glue, Milliput).



Insert steel holder inside the new hole in the ball joint, glue it and Milliput it tight.



Warm up thigh inside with boiling water and insert ball joint.
Don’t forget to place rubber sleeve BEFORE doing it )))



Enjoy!



PS One more advice.
Carefully disassemble hands and another leg and Milliput it BEFORE it gets broken. And IT WILL get broken one day, believe me.

PSS The most S-hiTTу alien of ever! ^_^ Hate him ><

That's very helpful, thanks for taking the time to post those pictures. I'm not sure if I'm really cut out for that sort of work though. Still, I can hardly make it worse!

You always welcome.

It takes only 4-5 hours + time for Milliput to become hard.
You'll need thick steel and scissors for metal. Not difficult to find it.
Hope, that everything will be OK with alien 2 terrible figure, but 100 needed for Aliens collection.

For fixing painting I used acryl paints and gross varnish.
Damaged rubber pain were removed with nail tweezers ^_^

Yeah, I still love mine even though he took a hitter to the floor about a month ago. I had a Collector stand placed below the stairs in our place and my fiance had thrown down a shirt for my son and it hit the alien on the way down knocking him off and busted his knee. I just super glued it into a pose I want and have him posed that way. I knew he was fragile before I bought him, but it really is the nicest LOOKING Alien Warrior imo. and since I dont plan on handling him much (or changing the poses very often) Im still very much happy with him.

This is probably a contributing big reason why Hot Toys is not proceeding with the Alien Queen. Fans will go nuts and crazy for it but if you can't perfect a paint that can stay on rubber for a LONG time...then why would fans spend possibly around $400 on it knowing it'll break down after about a year?

I'd love to have a HT Queen...but if her paint breaks down like this...then most likely not.

HT Queen

Click to expand...

Hope that only connectors will be covered by rubber and all other parts will be plastic including chest and neck. If NO - I will buy sideshow statue for a long years.

I really am tired of the rubber that HT is using on their Aliens.

There's no reason that they can't be made of plastic like the Preds.

With that said, I really like all of the versions of Aliens that they've done so far.

And I'm REALLY looking forward to their Giger Alien.

OMG... DSDs' alien got blazed! He looks like he got burned with his own acid!
Now I don't want to sound all smug when many board members are unhappy with their Hot Toys Alien figures, but someone has to speak up for the ones that turned out good.
I got the AVP Alien when it first came out a few years ago and it is still in perfect condition. This is despite numerous handlings by my son, about a hundred falls from the shelf due to my clumsyness, posed this way and that, and exposure to sunlight/heat/cold.
It is a hardy little bugger, the joints in good condition, the rubber perfect and the perspex dome still shines.
So guys, sorry to all who got a bad one, it sucks... especially at these prices, but it must be noted that there are good ones out there (but this may be resticted to the AVP Alien Warriors).