I’ve been a fan of the Alien series for as long as I can remember. Chris Walk and I recently talked about it on Gourmet Scum Radio, just to geek out about how much we love the Xenomorphs. When I heard that Diamond Select Toys would be releasing Minimates based off of the classic films, I flipped out. Crossing one of my favorite toy lines with one of my favorite film series?! I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to collect them and review them for you Towelites.
We were gifted a set of the Aliens Vs. Marines Minimates from the good people at DST for review, and boy did 
these collectibles impress. The articulation, paint job, and movement of the figures all set the bar a lot higher than previous collections. We’ll get into the details of everything, but let’s get to some pictures first.
We start off with three different types of Aliens. The closed mouth, the open mouth with protruding “tongue”, and one that’s battle-damaged with acid blood all over it’s body. The figures stand slightly taller than most Minimates, and as you can see, they have a ton of detail on them. Their tails alone are split up into two pieces to stabilize their taller frames and be menacing at the same time. You are also seeing a longer arm/hand piece; much like you would on a larger figure like Hulk or The Thing. Instead of muscle and girth like those figures, these are to have a longer reach and be more deadly.
For the humans, we have the only action figure devoted to Paul Reiser in the form of his a-hole character, Carter Burke. You also have Pvt. Wierzbowski, a Colonial Marine whose scenes are barely memorable. Slightly more memorable, but still admissible, is Crew Chief Pvt. Spunkmeyer. He’s the co-pilot on the drop ship who notices the Alien drool before meeting his demise. This set definitely could have had more recognizable characters from the film like Hudson and Drake, but I know that future sets will feature these characters.
One of other things of note in this set, is the packaging. Unlike most Minimates that comes in either a two or four-pack of figures, these were released to be bought individually. You can actually choose what figures you want; which is great if you want to grab a horde of Aliens to take on your Marines. I really appreciated that they weren’t in a ‘blind bag’ like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Minimates line started off being, before they offered the option to get the figures as a key chain. I don’t mind that they broke up the pack and let you pick what figures you wanted, and it’s nice to see who you are getting your hands on.
As you can see below, I took a bit of liberties by mixing a Walking Dead Minimate body with Burke’s head, in order to get the effect of an Xenomorphic tail impaling him. Sorry, but he really deserved it!
I had a lot of fun with these figures and the collectibles are a welcome addition any lover of the Alien series. I love that DST is always expanding on their properties and making their figures even better. I can’t wait for Series 2 and even more different types of Aliens and Marines to add to my collection. Make sure you head over to DST to grab yourselves these figures or from your local comic book shop!
