NECA Aliens Series 12 (Bomber Jacket Ripley, BDUs Vasquez, Battle Damaged Alien Warriors) Review

NECA Aliens Series 12 (Bomber Jacket Ripley, BDUs Vasquez, Battle Damaged Alien Warriors) Review

The third installment in NECA’s freshman foray into collector clubs is Alien Series 12, which is based on the later half of the second film with the remaining survivors. Rolling out this wave is four figures instead of the usual three: Bomber Jacket Ripley, BDU’s Vasquez, and two different battle damaged Xenomorphs. Note: I didn’t get the second half of the popup space base display when it shipped. I’m not gonna lose sleep over it, though.

Let’s get into it.

NECA Aliens Series 12 (Bomber Jacket Ripley, BDUs Vasquez, Battle Damaged Alien Warriors) Review

Ripley: This is what, our 23rd Ripley release I think?? I’ve lost count. But in all honesty this may be my second favorite overall, just behind the jumpsuit version. The only thing different from previous Aliens Ripley figures is the rocking bomber Jacket. She comes with a pulse rifle and a new fire effect. I’m glad that NECA is branching out more into special effect accessories, but the fire feels a little too static. It doesn’t feel punchy enough, and kind of resembles a giant yellow feather duster. If anything you can make people have sick lightsaber battles with them.

NECA Aliens Series 12 (Bomber Jacket Ripley, BDUs Vasquez, Battle Damaged Alien Warriors) Review

NECA Aliens Series 12 (Bomber Jacket Ripley, BDUs Vasquez, Battle Damaged Alien Warriors) Review

Vasquez: From the moment Kenner Vasquez showed up on my doorstep earlier this year, I knew immediately that we were going to get this version of her eventually, as it looked way too different from her first figure. There is great attention to detail on this version as I previously didn’t know she had “LOCO” printed on the back of her BDU’s, even after watching this movie a good six hundred times. Vasquez also includes a pulse rifle, and the same fire effect Ripley has. She also comes with a pistol, and a knife that she can’t hold no matter what you do to try and rectify that. No suicide grenade though! Maybe it will show up if NECA ever makes Gorman, and then I can have them recreate their tender embrace from the film.

Battle Damaged Xenos: I loved the original versions that were in the two packs with Hudson and Hicks, but these ones are based on the ‘Ultimate‘ redesign of the Xenomorph Warrior. Aside from the articulation rework and a few paint changes, they are the same figures. The blue one still has that lovely head explosion and the brown one has a couple of spatters on the chest. I understand it was more cost effective to re-release these, but if they could have included multiple heads, removable limbs, or swappable blood splatters I would have went out of my way to pick up another three or four easily. They would have been great for army building or just dynamic diorama settings. Side note: at the time of this review being published the base version of that figure has yet to be released. Weird that they have a video game and battle damaged versions but not the original.

NECA Aliens Series 12 (Bomber Jacket Ripley, BDUs Vasquez, Battle Damaged Alien Warriors) Review

Would I Recommend this wave?

Overall it feels completely optional unless you want to recreate specific scenes from Aliens for a diorama / display, or you’re an insane fanboy like me. There are already a plethora of Ripley figures out there, and unless you can’t find the previous ones for a low cost this is just as good a version to have. The same goes for Vasquez. I would only recommend this version if you can’t find the “PRETERNIA DOT COMS NECA TOY OF THE YEAR 2016” smart gun version. Finally, if you already have the battle damaged Xenomorphs and you prefer the Ultimate body design over the previous then give them a go, otherwise I’d give it the Tom Brady pass.

Aliens Series 12 is currently available to purchase on Amazon.

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David Boyce

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