In my opinion McFarlane Toys created the best version of the Alien Queen with its 6-inch Alien Vs. Predator Playset produced in 2005.
She’s a real beauty!
Ebony black with tinges of green accenting her extended head crown the Alien Queen is a snarling nasty creature with spikes protruding from her back, head crown, long, prehensile tail and carapace.
The Queen has striated body parts particularly noticeable on her large thick neck, chiseled shoulder blades, chest and back.
Two long articulated arms extend just under her shoulder blades and appear to made exclusively of uncovered tendons, muscle strands and bone.
Both hands feature long tapered fingers ending in sharp clawed fingers.
A dual set of crablike feeler like arms protrude from her chest. Long spike feelers protrude from her lower back and her angular hips have two large sinewy legs -one on each side. Her log flexible tail can be bend and moved with some restrictions.
Her legs resemble an animal’s legs with twin knees ending at long feet with stubby toes.
Her eyeless head and cranium fit snugg under her oversize protective bony crown.
A large maw with spiked teeth opens to reveal her small inner jaws.
Included with the Alien Queen is a base fashioned and painted to look like earth and rock with three Alien eggs.
The Alien Queen’s sculpt is amazing with tight, crisp and well-delineated bone plates, muscles and tendons and spikes-lots of spikes.
This is a complicated figure and McFarlane Toys sculptors pulled it off perfectly with lots of detail, cleverly hidden articulation points and a paint scheme that screams dark and dangerous.
The figure poses easily on and off its base and when coupled with the Playsets Predator the two halves fit together for a real Alien/Predator slugfest.
Equally impressive is the McFarlane Toys Regenerated Cyber Spawn also released in 2005.
It’s easy to spot the Japanese Anime/Manga influence of the Cyber Spawn. It reminds me of the various ‘tech’ warriors fighting machines such as Robotech.
Before McFarlane Toys downsized in the mid-2000’s it produced a remarkable assortment of figures.
One such assortment involved Todd McFarlane’s creation: Spawn.
Dozens of variations of Spawn were created ranging from a barbarian Spawn to Medieval Spawn. The Cyber Spawn was a part of that Spawn expanded universe of figures.
The Cyber Spawn colors reflex the original Spawn with red, black and silver/white.
Starting at the top of the figure the head has distinguishable humanoid features in black. Surrounding the head is a crimson helmet decorated with long crimson spikes extending from the back of the cranium.
The head rests in a black and silver tech cradle with silver pipes and cables placed in front.
A large crimson chest piece extends backwards into spikes that flare upward. Below that is an angular silver-segmented mesh.
The chest unit tapers into a crimson hip assembly with black front trim.
Heavy crimson legs, jointed at the knees features small silver spikes running down them vertically, side spines, protruding knees ending in blunt spikes, lower leg encasements with black side spikes and large upper foot encasements with a single red spike on each foot.
Under each foot are silver segments for each foot pad.
The Cyber Spawn’s arms start with large protruding shoulder encasements with triple spikes. Smooth crimson biceps/triceps coverings, lower arm oversize gauntlets with a black gloved hand for the left arm and a silver tri-pincer for the right hand.
It is a massive figure with shiny crimson metal highlights, silver instrument, wire and cable accents and black spikes and coverings.
The sculpting on the figure is amazing considering the complexity of it. Articulation is well hidden and planned out and the color application offers distinct separations of the various parts and casings.
The Cyber Spawn would go on to inspire a whole set of Cyber Units including motorcycle mounted units.
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