Welcome to the first installment of this year's Halloween countdown: The ABCs of 31 Days of Toy Terror! This is the 11th year of 31 Days of Toy Terror and it's still something I eagerly look forward too every time the Halloween season rolls around! While I don't strictly collect horror figures and I certainly don't buy as many horror figures as I used to, I still have a bunch of horror themed figures in my collection. I also generously stretch the definition of horror figures, sometimes, to allow for aliens, robots, and all sorts of supervillains who are frightening, intimidating, or just plain creepy. This year I'm challenging myself to review one figure for every letter of the alphabet, which also leaves me a few extra reviews for unique and interesting stuff that just happens to show up during the Halloween season. To kick the season off right, today I'm starting with a figure from one of the horror themed line I loved as a kid: Kenner's Aliens and Predator line!
For the letter A, I'm taking a look at the Acid Alien from Kenner's 1998 Aliens: Hive Wars line. Released the year after the film Alien: Resurrection and it's tie-in toyline, Aliens: Hive Wars was a bit of a dumping ground for multiple molds that Kenner had worked on but hadn't released when the Aliens/ Predator line was ongoing. It was also released exclusively through KB toys, who managed to score a lot of exclusives of previously unreleased figures through different manufacturers. This fellow was pretty cool as he really looked like one of the movie Xenomorphs, particularly the dog alien from Alien 3. I'm not sure what makes this guy more of an "acid" alien than the rest, though. Maybe Kenner just needed a cool moniker for this guy? Let's check him out after the break...