LEGO Minifigures Series 6 Classic Alien LEGO, 2012
Day #501: October 4, 2012
Classic Alien 1990s Folklore Artifact
LEGO Minifigures Series 6
Item No.: 8827 Manufacturer:LEGO Includes:Blaster, laser blast, stand Action Feature:n/a Retail:$2.99-$3.99 Availability: February 2012 Other: #1 in a collection of 16
The Classic Alien is a nifty leftover of our shared folklore, as "the truth is out there" and alien autopsies and Chupacabra were all sort of a weird cultural interest during the 1990s. They've basically faded from the forefront, but they have been around in the fabric of pop culture for decades. Between The X-Files and Communion, they eventually mutated into comic characters appearing on the likes of South Park, the movie Paul, and American Dad's Roger. This "realistic" alien had its figurative fangs removed over the years, just like we de-fanged ALIEN's eerie creature, and now it's available on a schoolboy-friendly $3 collectible minifigure. Given humanity has precious little folklore based on other worlds, it's nice to see this figure jump to LEGO like vampires and minotaurs and cheerleaders. (Did you ever date a cheerleader? Exactly. That's how we know they're a myth.)
The lack of a proper "Space" line is no doubt why these figures didn't appear sooner, while we wait around for some sort of indication that we aren't alone in the universe, these grey aliens remain our stand-in. The figure has a newly sculpted light bulb-shaped head and bizarre, almost shiny skin on his body. The big eyes are painted black with little white reflections on them, which gives this fairly stoic-looking alien a little personality. It's not like he's smiling or anything.
Darker grey hands match the lines which make up his drawn-on physique, but beyond that there's little to him. It's just a body with a new head and the recycled space blaster from numerous other great figures. Of course, simple doesn't mean bad-- this is a top-notch figure and I'm glad I got it.
Seeing items like this in kid's toy lines really does wonders to show how our culture mutates its icons over the years. While always a little silly, this style of alien creature was the go-to template for so many TV shows, fake videos, costumes, movies, stories, and even video games. "The greys" also show how science slowly sucked the fun out of science fiction. Well, OK, pseudoscience. For whatever reason people agreed this is what aliens look like-- despite none of them actually coming by to say hello-- robbing us of more fantastic new ideas like The Outer Space Men from the 1960s, George Lucas' numerous creatures, even Klingons. But enough of me complaining, I like this figure, this figure is really cool, I just wish our cultural imagination would crank out some more cool alien concepts, preferably without anal probes as a piece of the mythology.
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