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Alien Facehugger | ||||||||||
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deep-space mining crew is unexpectedly awakened from a cryo-sleep cycle months before schedule. It is discovered that a signal that indicates intelligent life has been picked up by the ship's computer, and an overriding mission directive is invoked—investigate the possibility of intelligent life.
An exploratory crew leaves its mothership, the Nostromo, and explores a derelict alien ship, found on the desolate planet LV-426. Underneath the naturally mummified body of a space pilot, they find a cavern filled with pods covered by a layer of blue laser light. Interrupting the light seems to activate the pods, and soon Cain, one of the crew, is examining this up close. In a flash, something launches itself from the pod and attaches itself to Cain's face, cutting through his protective space helmet as if it were butter.
What follows is one of the most terrifying scenes in film history. A face-hugging alien covers Cain's face, and any attempt to remove it causes its prehensile tail to tighten around his neck, forcing the ship's doctor to abandon any attempt to rid Cain of his parasite. Within hours, however, this handlike alien entity has dropped off naturally, dead. And while the crew celebrates the end of this bizarre incident, they soon find that it is only the beginning.
The alien facehugger is probably one of the creepiest concepts in science-fiction horror ever portrayed in film. Planting an embryo of a much more deadly alien, the facehugger does its job and dies. It is, in effect, a middleman in the breeding cycle of a creature far deadlier than anything humans have ever encountered.
Creepy. Scary. Deadly. All words that describe this vile alien thing. Words that most people would not associate with the alien facehugger are "cute" and "cuddly." Until now.
Palisades Toys have produced a life-sized stuffed plush replica of this alien menace. Measuring three feet in length from the tip of its outstretched fingerlike legs to the end of his coiled tail, this is a large toy. The packaging, in the familiar Alien black and green, is shaped like the egg pod this creature is born in. Remove a few twist ties and the facehugger is free! Watch out! It likes faces!
Incredibly icky—yet somehow cute
Alien is considered one of the best of the horror-science-fiction films. Aliens, the sequel, was one of the best science-fiction sequels ever created. And, yes, one of the most horrific scenes in film history involves this acid-blooded, fleshy creature, which resembles a creepy, grasping hand with a snakelike tail. The sight of it undulating on Cain's face was icky enough. Once its task was revealed, it indelibly etched itself into the modern human psyche.
And the franchise is popular. Toys of all kind have been made based on this series, from accurate sculptures of the various characters and aliens, to many action figure toylines, to spaceships. The gamut has been covered.
I doubt anyone would have taken seriously the idea of making a cute, stuffed plush doll out of this horrific thing. But Palisades did it.
Made mostly from a glossy golden velour, the creature has eight legs, each incorporating wires so the legs can be bent around hands, arms, even faces.
While this is a stuffed toy, the detail is still impressive. The main body is in three major sections and looks vaguely like a lobster's or crab's. A wire stretches four inches down the tail, but the tail is, for the most part, wire-free.
Details, like spiny ridges running in parallel up the body of the creature, and the rear sacs, are all there. The tail is segmented across the top in parallel sections all the way down to the tip. The tail is cut on a zig-zag.
The underside of this thing, which was not really scrutinized in the films until Alien vs. Predator, the most recent entry in the franchise, goes mainly undetailed, and that's probably a good thing if it's meant to sell to kids (the package claims it is appropriate for ages 8 and up), but instead the underbelly is made of the scalelike cloth that has appeared on various stuffed dinosaurs and reptiles in recent years.
Overall the effect achieves two things. It is a fairly accurate representation of the hideous facehugger, and at the same time it is indeed cute and cuddly.
Two things would have made this a better toy—a straight tail and a wire running all the way through it. This way the tail could wrap around a person or pose in positions other than the zig-zag the tail is cut from.
Of course, this could have caused strangling hazards for children, so I can understand this decision.
Palisades' Facehugger Plush Replica is as bizarre a toy as you can imagine. Whether you find it unsettling because of the horror films it represents, or from the fact that it has been rendered in soft, fluffy velour, it will be a conversation starter, make no mistake.
I have also seen Palisades' Chest Burster Plush Replica, which is even more accurately detailed. If you liked this one, you really must get its companion. And coming up—a Queen Alien chest burster. — Sean
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