Alien Update

People have asked me whatever happened with that eBay auction I got involved in, for the 1979 Kenner 18-inch Alien action figure. Well...I won it. And by "won," I mean I ended up working several days of overtime to pay for the thing. But it seemed to be worth it -- after all, it was advertised as coming with nearly intact original packaging, and the original dome and hard to find spike pieces.

Finally, yesterday, it arrived at my house. Everybody was in bed and asleep when I got home from work after eleven PM, and carefully, ever so carefully, opened the package, slicing away layers of bubble wrap like a surgeon to finally reveal the dark jewel hidden within.

It was beautiful. It was everything I'd hoped -- tall, imposing, scary, with shiny metal jaws and a long bizarre head. After taking it into a dark room to ascertain that its face did indeed glow creepily in the dark, I sat back and cracked open a beer to share with my new Alien friend that had cost me so much, but was so worth it.

Then his arm fell off.

I couldn't believe it. It felt like part of my heart fell with it. The thing had been out of its box for ten minutes. I looked closely at the empty socket and saw that the plastic pivot piece adjoining the shoulder to the torso had snapped clean off, probably long ago, and had been faultily repaired by the previous owner. I went upstairs, sent a message off to the seller telling him what had happened, and went back to finish my beer, staring glumly at my one-armed Alien.

What was I going to do?

Clearly, I needed this guy.


You remember Geri, don't you? The toy repair guy from Toy Story 2, who carefully inspects and repairs Woody, and says, "You can't rush art"? Yeah, that's exactly who I needed. So this morning, I started calling hobby shops and model train shops, and this afternoon, after I dropped Jack off at kindergarten, I dropped my Alien off with an old man who looks astonishingly like this fellow in the picture. He had a long, well-lit workbench full of small, specialized tools, and I watched as long as I could as he carefully opened my Alien's left arm to retrieve the broken piece of rubber connective tissue that was rattling around inside. We hunched over it together discussing possible courses of action and he outlined a plan using a piece of rubbing tubing fitted over the current amputated pivot that would allow the Alien full restored use of his arm. Then he gave me a small paper claim ticket and sent me on my way.

I expect to hear from him sometime soon.

I hope my Alien will be okay.

And to the seller who sold me this figure -- I'm giving you until tomorrow morning to respond to my message.

After that, it's feedback time.