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Celebrate SDCC with Zavvi and add more goodies to your archives using code MDD Starting at 12.30pm on Thursday 9th at 15% discount - the % will drop every hour until 8% and then remain valid through until 10am on Friday 10th July. Valid on everything at THIS LINK including both in-stock and pre-order items You can also use it on the Z-Box

I am really pleased to present my review of the brand new Disney Store Exclusive Marvel Select Ant-Man CLICK THROUGH for the review and gallery Please consider following us on FACEBOOK and TWITTER for more reviews, news and store reports.

I am now two thirds of the way through Aliens Series 4 from NECA. CLICK THROUGH for my review of Dallas in Spacesuit, and while you are there have a look round the rest of our newly expanded NECA Alien Archives Please follow us on FACEBOOK and TWITTER for more news and reviews, and keep an eye on our SDCC 2015 page which is now live

The Colonial Marines have landed. May I present my reviews of Hicks, Hudson and Windrix from NECA's Aliens series 1 and 2. CLICK THROUGH for the review page Don't forget to follow us on FACEBOOK and TWITTER for more news and reviews - and don't forget our SDCC 2015 coverage

Our NECA Alien Archive wasn't in bad shape, but the release of the new Ripley figures and the upcoming Power Loader has prompted me into a retrospective overhaul of the Archives. After updating the galleries on most of the existing reviews I am now filling in the gaps, starting with the 2014 release of the 1979 Alien "Big Chap" from Series 2. CLICK THROUGH for the review And follow us on FACEBOOK and TWITTER for more news & reviews.

It's Wednesday the 1st of July and that means TWO things. Firstly, it is the Action Figure news that caught my eye this week - but also we are just over a week away from San Diego Comic Con CLICK THROUGH for the news round up which this week is very NECA heavy as they build up to what fans hope are some significant reveals at SDCC Please follow us on FACEBOOK and TWITTER where we will be relaying all the key news from San Diego.

The Deacon was never truly explained in the Prometheus movie once it hatched towards the end of the film. It bears a lot of similarities to the Alien Xenomorphs, so most likely was a lower evolution of this original Alien. The Deacon was produced and released by NECA in 2013 as part of their short lived Prometheus line. Arriving in a slimmer than usual clamshell, the packaging is designed to be dark and foreboding with very little artwork on the front, and the sides too are blank whereas usually they would contain images of the figure Flipping the card round and the rear contains a short paragraph about the Prometheus movie and a large image of The Deacon figure. Underneath this is a line up for the rest of the range. Within this line up two figures, Holloway and Fifield, never made it to store shelves and the whole Prometheus line had to be wrapped up prematurely due to extremely low sales. Out of the box, and the Deacon is a relatively small figure standing at just over 7" high but on a very slim frame. The sculpt is a good representation of the movie prop, and you would argue that the issue in the look of the Deacon was more down to the film rather than this figure. That being said each body part is sculpted with twisted muscle and sinew and the head is smooth and broken only by the gaping maw with its row of human-esque teeth and the huge gruesome tounge. The figure is cast in a dark blue plastic, and the paint job is then a simple black wash followed by splodges and streaks of black which are meant to represent the goo that accompanies the birth of the Deacon. The whole figure is a high gloss finish to project a slimy texture and sheen to the skin. Sadly the black goo paint doesn't really work. I don't profess to know how it could have been done better, but the way it is the skull in particular looks really poor. Articulation is always hit and miss with NECA, particularly of this year and even within this range. The David 8 figure was a masterpiece with tonnes of articulation, whilst the Engineer was a huge disappointment. The Deacon probably sits about half way. The head is on an articulated ball joint so can be spun a full 360 degrees and looks up and down. The lower jaw is articulated so it can be opened a few degrees to expose the tongue. Rather than a ball joint, the arms are attached with a hinge so only open to the side and can't be moved to sit any further forward or backward to the torso. The elbow is likewise a basic hinge and the wrist, although looking to be on a ball, can only really be rotated. There is a waist joint so the top torso can be swiveled from side to side. The hips feel like a ball joint and can be moved a in most directions, just not a great deal. The knee joint is both a hinge and swivel and the ankles swivel also. Sadly the figure is almost impossible to stand on its own, even with this leg articulation, as the feet are sculpted to be standing on its tip toes. Thank fully NECA have included a rectangular clear base which has two peg holes for the feet and a support behind each peg to fill in the gap under the tip-toing position. The stand does a job, but anyone who doesn't like the use of stands in a display is going to have to think creatively to have this one standing up straight The Deacon is packed with a few accessories. The first is an Engineers fossil head complete with the Pressure suit helmet which can be displayed in place over the head or separate. This is really well sculpted and is painted really well too - better than the figure they put out. It doesn't do anything, but designed as a diorama decoration piece only. Also included are two proto-worms, the long lost relative of the facehuggers. These are molded onto what feels like a flexible metal strip so they can be bent to shape. Sadly they lack any real detail at this scale, and the pose-ability isn't good enough to have them rearing up ready to attack. They are also sculpted with two holes in each snake which are there to prevent the rubber splitting when you bend them. I suspect collectors will have them laying limp to the side of the Deacon or throwing them in that bits box. The Deacon is a difficult figure to rate as many of its down sides are from the design in the movie more than the job NECA has done. That being said the arm articulation is a short cut and the paint job is too basic and heavy handed. The inability to stand on its own is a shame and the snake accessories are a good idea executed badly. For me I will give the Deacon a 2 out of 5 score. Prometheus is a niche market, and I am glad I own the majority of the figures produced - and if you are interested, now is a great time to pick them up at rock bottom prices. I predict a possible re-surge in interest if and when the new movie hits the cinema.

NECA's Prometheus range from 2013 was short-lived due to limited interest from the buying public. I am one of those as I didn't really fancy these figures the first time round, but since picking up the excellent series 2 David-8 I decided to back track the other figures and add them to my archives. My latest addition is the series 1 Engineer. Series 1 contained two versions of the Engineer and in this review we are looking at the Pressure Suit version. The Engineer stands a touch under 9" tall, so he is a big figure and on par height wise with the Xenomorphs that he would have a hand in creating. The sculpt is faithful to the movie with a good level of detail that is reminiscent of the skeletal areas seen on the Xenomorphs. The head is the best part as it just captures the nonplussed expression of the Engineer from the movie. The legs look a little under detailed vs the top half of the figure, but not that it looks out of place. Paint application are essentially a bone colour with a darker wash to bring out the detail. This is where the issues start for me. Firstly the forearms down to the hands look like they have been missed with the darker wash and look unpainted. Having looked at movie stills I can see why they did this as the actual character has a lighter colour on his forearms, but for me this hasn't worked and I would have preferred them to carry on the wash down to the hands. The head isn't so much painted as it looks to have been cast in the base colour, there is no detail in the face other than the eyes which are painted with a heavy red rim. That loses any detail in the sculpt and again is a shame. Where as David-8 was supremely articulated, the Engineer is not. The head can look a little to each side, but not far as the neck restricts full movement. The shoulders can get about half way out from the body and that is forcing them. The elbows bend to 90 degrees and the wrists rotate. There is a torso joint that allows a touch of sideways movement but no waist movement. Into the hip joint and NECA have tried to allow some movement by sculpting the groin area in a rubber but even with this the legs can't really achieve much other than a neutral stance. The knees bend, both ways actually as you can bring them forward a little which is a bit unnatural. There is also a swivel in the knees and the feet are on rockers. Despite this the Engineer is a pig to stand up and even when standing he appears to be leaning forward and looks a little drunk. No accessories were included with the Engineer, and he came simply packed in the NECA clamshell with actual figure images on the side and rear. If David-8 was the pinnacle of the Prometheus line, then sadly the Engineer is the low point. There are issues with the paint and articulation and a figure that doesn't stand up is always an issue in a collection. Only the sculpt can be seen as a positive, but not enough to get up to 2 stars. I hear-by award the Engineer : Pressure Suit a lowly and disappointing 1 out of 5

When NECA first showcased its Prometheus 7" figures in 2013 I was really excited for the human characters above any of the Aliens. I didn't warm to any of the Aliens in the film, but did like the space suit design. Unfortunately due to limited sales the line only realised one of these to retail, David, and Holloway, Dr Shaw and Zombie Fifell never made it into production. As a collector of the Alien licence, I have always had one eye on adding Prometheus figures to the collection if and when the price is right and just recently I finally picked up David for a decent price on eBay. David was one of two figures that made up Series 2 of the Prometheus releases and comes in the standard NECA clamshell pack. The pack used a black and blue theme, with panels on the lower front, both sides and rear. With the rear including some blurb about the character and details of other figures in the series. Out the pack and you get the David 8 figure which comes packaged with the un-helmeted head already installed, and the helmeted head and glass helmet packed as accessories along with David's tablet. The sculpt on David is awesome, with a great likeness on both heads for Michael Fassbender. The space suit comprises of an inner blue suit with various panels added on top. Around the back is a back pack and a number of sculpted tools and instruments on the belt - such great detail considering this is the back of the figure and won't be on show. The helmet is almost a complete clear sphere and slots over the head into the sculpted neck piece and locks in place. A wire goes from the rear of the belt and up into the top of the helmet. The Paint job is crisp with the body done out in a blue under-suit and then grey panels. The blue suit includes some darker blue trim and a wash to give it a grimy look, something NECA always does really well. The armour has a slight metallic sheen and again is washed to bring out the detail. The head really stands out against the darker space suit, and the face is really well painted - although on mine the "helmet" version looks loads more detailed than the standard head. The helmet version has a brilliant bright yellow panel on the head with David emblazoned upon it and the decals are finished off with a Weyland Megacorp logo on the chest. Articulation is much better than a lot of NECA figures I have reviewed recently, it even puts the newest Alien Ripley figure to shame. The head is on a ball joint and rotates a full 360 degrees and can look up and down quite a considerable way. It is also swappable and has the easiest peg for swapping heads that I have come across to date on any figure from NECA, Diamond or Hasbro. The arms are ball-jointed at the shoulder and can be pulled out to 90 degrees to the body. There is then an elbow joint and a wrist joint. The hands are sculpted so David can hold the Tablet accessory in either hand. There is a chest joint, which is neatly hidden behind the space suit chest panel, this gives a little movement but really is unnecessary considering David does unusually have a waist joint to allow him to swivel at the waist. The only downside here is if you lean David back too far their is a visible waist joint. The hips are on a peg and hinge mechanism which means if you really want to you can get David almost into the splits or a sitting position. There are double jointed knees and ball jointed ankles and all this allows you to really play around getting David into numerous action poses. So what went wrong? As an Action Figure, David is a thing of beauty and as it stands is almost the best figure I have seen from NECA at the time of writing (June 2015) in fact if you use David as a benchmark on paint, articulation etc then NECA seem to have dropped back a bit when you line him up against the newer releases like Alien Series 4. To be fair this is a lot to do with cost and every company is scaling back articulation. The fact of the matter is that Prometheus as a film wasn't well received and the Deacon and Engineers were no "Alien" I am very happy giving David 8 a 5 out of 5. There is very little to fault on the figure and he joins that very elite group of top scoring figures here in the Archives. It is just a pity that the other humans didn't make it to retail to allow a nice display of the main characters.

When you are a 3.75" collector, as I was for a number of years, big figures and ships are just the norm - it goes with the scale. However when you collect 6" - 7" scale figures anything bigger than a standard figure becomes a bigger deal and will ultimately be a centre piece for any collection. In 2014 I picked up some great bigger/deluxe figures such as Neca's ED-209 and the SWB6 Jabba and Speeder Bike. However the mother (literally) of them all has now landed courtesy of Neca once again. There is no denying the Alien Queen is a relatively expensive piece, retailing around £85-£100 depending where you shop. Having now received the Queen I can say she is worth every penny and will be the talking point of any Aliens collection for many years. Up until the start of 2014 I was the owner of the McFarlane Alien Queen which was a very nice piece. Once I heard about the Neca do-over I cashed in on the McFarlane before the prices dropped on these and began the waiting game for December for the new version to arrive. She actually arrived at Xmas thanks to my fantastic family and after letting her sit in her box for a few days I released her this week. You will have to excuse the photo's on this review as the figure is simply too big for my usual setup and was therefore shot being unboxed in the kitchen The Queen arrives in a window box that is pretty stunning on its own. It is covered in Artwork depicting the Queen's Eggs and a couple of victims awaiting impregnation. The Queen herself is visible via a 2 sided window in the top left of the box that wraps round onto the left flap. The rear of the box shows the full figure in all her glory along with the blurb which talks about the 35th Anniversary of the Alien Franchise, and the features of the figure. Once you slide her out of the box you will be busy for a few minutes carefully removing the numerous ties that are in place around the figure. She essentially comes fully assembed aside from 6 rear spines which slot into place and 2 optional secondary jaws that can be inserted into her open mouth. I found the spines went on easy enough, but the jaws were a bit fidly and I eventually left them off the figure for now. She also comes with a v-shaped acrylic stand and two metal rods which is used to support her weight. She simply sits her chest onto the stand, there is no insert on the figure itself. The rod determines whether she is standing full upright to her impressive 15" height or crouching lower. Although practical, I do feel the stand is the one bad mark against this figure. Purely on the laws of pysics she has to have something to help her stand, but not sure this was the best way. However, there is some talk that the stand will be redundant upon release of the Power Lifter in 2015 and the two figures will stand and support each other in combat. There is so much articulation on the Queen you could play for days getting her in different poses. The Arms and legs are obvious but the top spines are also on a ball joint, as is the head. The tail is basically a wire rod surrounded by rubber so can be placed in any position imaginable. The secondary arms are also moveable. My favourite is the opening jaw which I seem to be changing from wicked grin to the open (and hissing) mouth and back again on a daily basis Size wise she dwarfs any other Alien figures, particularly the Marines. Her paint job is excuisite, but is more of a blue hue to match the blue Aliens Warrior as opposed to the Brown one that I have. As an Aliens fan I am very biaised, but I think this is as close to a perfect figure as I have found so far at what I would class as a medium price point in terms of overall figure collecting. The stand is a niggle, and I also worry about her long term durability both of that tail and the joints themselves. I have already heard stories of the Queen taking a tuble off a shelf and breaking arms/legs a bit too easily - so the sooner I can get her into a cabinet the better. This is a sure fire big hit for Neca who are going from strength to strength at the moment. I give the Queen 5/5 and look forward to adding Bishop, Kane, The Dog Alien to the shelf very soon and then await the highly anticipated Ripley figures in 2015

Alien warriors from the 1986 Aliens sequel were always going to go down well with Army builders, or more accurately Hive builders. NECA opened up their new Alien series with the Brown Alien Warrior in 2013 and followed it up with a Blue version in series 2 in 2014. As well as these both colours were then included in the Marine vs Alien 2-packs. In these releases they had battle damage applied in the form of sculpted alien blood. The blue came packed with helmeted Hicks, while the brown came with helmeted Hudson. As all these figures are practically identical, this review is applicable to all four versions of the Alien Warrior that NECA have put out to date (2013 to 2014) The Xeno comes in the usual Neca clamshell with some nice artwork on the sides and back. The rear of the card has a bit blurb about the Alien warrior and shows other figures available. On the brown release you will find Hicks, Hudson and on the blue release you will find Sergeant Windrix and the 1979 "Big Chap" Alien. Once out of the box the first impression is that he feels a bit "floppy" for want of a better word. All the joints feel a bit loose The sculpt, as always with Neca, is very good with plenty of grotescuqe detail across the body. Paint applications are good for what is essentially a black figure with a blue wash (or brown figure with darker brown wash). The finish is nice and glossy and the Blue version is a close match to the Queen figure. Articulation is pretty good, there is a good range of movement on the arms, legs and a bit on the head. I have always struggled getting any Aliens Xeno figures into a pose I am happy with - I think this is just because on the film we never really see one head to toe unless they are in a mass crowd. This Xeno can be posed standing or crouching and the rubber articulated tail is really useful in counterbalancing the pose. All in all this is a solid basic Aliens Xenomorph and does the job in any Aliens themed collection. Durability is a worry with the floppy joints and I am still to find a decent pose - but I will keep trying. I give the Series 2 Warrior a solid 3 out of 5, applicable to both colourings

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.