The term Big Chap originated on the set of the 1979 Alien movie as a reference to the fully grown Alien creature as opposed to the facehugger and chestbuster stages.
In 2014 NECA brought us a 7" scale version of the 1979 Big Chap Alien, and he is a beauty.
Arriving in the green and black themed blister pack, the figure referenced the 35th anniversary of the Alien movie on the front panel.
Out of the box, and the Big Chap stands a shade under 9" tall. The Sculpt is really strong in the head and chest. The head includes the transparent dome with the skull detail sitting underneath. The jaw is a work of art and is traced back to the body with some tendrils or similar. The chest is skeletal and under this external rib cage are more tendrils and "pipes" that move down to the groin and on into the legs.
The arms continue the skeletal theme and finish in elongated 5 fingers hands. Turn the figure round and there are a number of appendages that come out from the back like giant tubes. The tail is flexible and can be twisted into most shapes. The whole top half is a real tribute to HR Giger's design.
The legs, for me, are the let down on the sculpt. They feel a little skinny, and am not sure if this is due to a lack of reference material from the film, or it is my imagination that is expecting them to be beefier.
Painting is essentially grey with a grey wash, but the finish they have achieved has some sheen to it so does look accurate. The skull, under the transparent dome, is painted in a bone colour as is the protruding inner jaw.
Articulation is limited for the figure. The head can turn, but only slightly due to the shoulders and the attached tendrils. The jaw is articulated, but again has limited movement. The inner jaw can be pulled out, which is a nice feature.
The arms are on ball jointed shoulders so can move out to 90 degrees to the body, they can also be rotated so you can ge the arms above the head in a striking pose if needed. The elbows are jointed and their is a wrist swivel.
There looks to be a joint under the chest area, but there is no movement here so I suspect this is more for assembly. The hips are on a simple swivel joint only which further adds to the issues with the legs as they can't be bent into a crouching pose or similar. There is a thigh swivel and the knees are jointed, but without a ball jointed hip you can do little with the knees and thighs other than get the figure to balance properly and stand up. The ankles are ratchet pivots, but only one way (no rocker) so they again are simply to achieve an upright pose.
The tail is the god send, being flexible it can be adjusted to any position - the most valuable of which is the ability to act as a counter weight or a 3rd point of contact with the floor to allow the figure to stand. The joints are however all nice and tight so once posed the Big Chap doesn't slump or sag like others in the first two series.
I scored the Big Chap a 3 out of 5. The top half is great, the bottom half let down by being a bit too skinny and lacking articulation in the hips. It will be interesting to see how much of this figure is re-used on the upcoming 2015 Alien Isolation release and how much improved that figure will be on articulation.
