Non-Bot Reviews: 52Toys Megabox Alien

I’ve gone back and forth over the years about whether Alien or Aliens is the better film, but for the last few, I’ve settled on Alien as my favorite, mostly due to the Ridley Scott of it all (he makes good science-fiction films, and I jive with his aesthetics). Despite being a fan of the whole Alien franchise, though, the only merch I’ve got is a tiny Loyal Subjects minifigure of Ripley as she appeared in Aliens, that was gifted to me.

As for this particular Alien figure, it existing (and being on sale at TFCon) gave me a chance to kill two birds with one stone: Get an Alien in a similar style, and check out 52 Toys’s Beastbox/Megabox line.

Beastbox is a rarity in the hobby: A line of transforming robot toys that has nothing to do with Transformers, aren’t copying Transformers designs, and are totally original. I think the last time I saw this was back when the Unrustables were a thing. Anyway, Beastbox is a line made up of colorful robotic critters, in all kinds of shapes, usually some sort of animal. No matter what they are, though, they all transform into five-centimeter cubes, which can then go into stackable clear boxes. It’s an interesting idea, and collectors seem to be really into it, so I figured I’d have a look. The majority of Beastbox is original creations, but they’ve actually managed to secure the license to a small amount of other properties, including Alien and Predator. The boxes that are based on franchises make up the Megabox subline, and that’s what this guy’s a part of. And, well, I’m not immune to Guy From The Thing I Like, so this became my first foray into this toy line, thanks to that dealer at TFCon having him available.

Alien Mode

This Alien’s specifically branded after the first movie on the box, which makes sense, because it’s specifically a stylized rendition of the first film’s creature, colloquially called the Big Chap, meaning he’s got a smooth head-dome with a skull beneath it, standard human legs, and a few other design tells.

In terms of size, this figure’s bigger than a Core Transformer, but smaller than a Deluxe. He’s a little taller than a Star Wars figure (or a Kamen Rider Sho-Do), but much more massive and dense. To the right sized figure, he’s a large, imposing threat.

Funny enough having said that, Beastbox’s critters are usually on the cuter side, and so this Star Beast’s become chibified, or superdeformed, or whatever you want to call “having a big head and a smaller body” is. His head’s large, his body’s squat, and they seem to be trying to make him look “cuter” than the standard menacing monster.

Speaking of the sculpting, while the Alien was always bio-mechanical, this Megabox is definitely aiming for “a robot in the shape of the Alien” rather than “the actual Alien,” with a lot of the detailing across his skin, and on his limbs, looking more explicitly robotic than the original creature, including details like bolts, and geared joints.

Still, all the familiar details are present, including the pipes on the back, the spiked tail, the extra fingers on the hands, and ribbed chest. That head, in particular, is really impressive, with the stylized skull beneath the translucent dome, the rows of sharp teeth, and the little inner mouth. I kind of wish that dome was a little more opaque (the skull was more or less covered up in the film), but then they wouldn’t get to show off the work they did, so, fair.

I think the only part of the sculpt that doesn’t work for me is the round “shoulderpads.” There’s specific details on the Big Chap’s collarbones that they’re imitating, but the Chap’s ones are a lot smaller and out of the way, while these ones are huge, and don’t seem to have an elegant place to rest (I’ve settled for loose “screen accuracy” by tilting them as far back as they’ll go, and slightly flaring them outward.)

That, and they tend to get in the way when posing his arms and head. Oh, and I kind of wish the tail were a little bit bigger. Still, that’s not much, and this really feels like a labor of love when it comes to faithfully translating this famous space beast’s design into a cute, chibified robot.

There’s not much to say about the colors, due to the Alien itself not being terribly colorful. So this guy’s almost entirely unpainted black, though they picked a good shade of plastic, shiny enough not to wash out any of the details.

Outside of that, he’s got that transparent dome, a bone-colored inner skull, silver-painted teeth, and that’s it. Most of the more interesting Beastboxes are elaborately colored creations, so I feel like I missed the boat starting with such a plain one, but I can’t fault the toymakers themselves for being faithful to the design.

So, here’s my biggest takeaway from this figure: He’s surprisingly sturdy and durable-feeling. I don’t know what the intended audience for Megabox and Beastbox stuff is (the box does say 14-plus), but this guy feels like he’s made out of the kind of chunky, shiny, durable plastic that Transformers: Armada toys were made out of. I say he’s surprising, because given his kind of niche, collector nature, I was expecting something more fragile, but nope, this guy feels like you can knock him around, and drop him, and you’ll suffer no ill effects. Even his clear head-dome feels sturdy and stable. What stops him from literally just feeling like an Armada figure, though, is some of his joints. Not just because he has them, but because a fair few are a bit more loose and floppy than I’d like. Not to the point of critical, figure-killing looseness, but his feet, hips, and especially his tail are all a bit looser than I’d like. It feels like they all needed about a half-millimeter more of plastic in the joints

So, his articulation’s interesting in that it’s really extra in some places, but limited in others. I’ll take a moment here, and go top to bottom: He’s got toe and heel articulation, due to the transformation, and ball-jointed feet (which are, again, a bit looser than I’d like). He has an impressive set of double-knees, and ball-jointed hips, though their outwards movement’s a bit limited. He’s got no waist joint, but his tail’s got six joints in it (though, again, the whole thing’s a bit floppy). They’re just upwards-and-downwards joints, though, so he can’t tail-whip his opponents. Up top, he’s got ball-jointed shoulders (when the shoulderpads aren’t in the way), but a lack of elbows, with his arms being pre-bent. Meanwhile, he’s got ball jointed wrists, and mitten-style articulated hands (which look funny with the double-thumbs that don’t move). Finally, his head’s on two ball-joints, and his mouth can open, activating his spring-loaded gimmick (more on that later). He’s not quite as bendy as I’d like, but it seems to have been done in the name of durability, which is, again, impressive. He’s got enough expressiveness to menace and loom over other figures pretty well, at least.

For features, the Alien’s got an actual-factual spring-loaded gimmick, in the form of his little inner jaw. Basically, you slide the inner jaw in, press it down at his chin, and close his mouth to lock it in place, and then open his jaw to spring it out.

A good part of this gimmick is that it only springs out when his mouth’s fully opened, so you can have him open-mouthed without the inner jaws deployed, if you like. It’s pretty simple, but it’s just fun to do, and how often do you see something like this on a non-retail, collector-oriented figure?

Next up, he’s got a surprising amount of accessories with him, and they represent the entire Alien lifecycle, which I appreciate.  First up, we’ve got an Alien Egg.

While it’s also kind of stylized and chibified, it doesn’t come off as a robotic replica the way the main alien does. It’s colored beige, with a really nice-looking inkwash over the whole thing. It’s got four panels uptop that can open, and as a nice extra detail, the interior of each is painted pink. Critically, the bottom’s flat, so it can stand unaided.

Next up, we have the Egg’s occupant, a Facehugger, a crab-like creature with a long tail, who, well, does the thing in the name.

He’s got the same aesthetic as the main alien, in that he’s moreso a robotic version of the original horrible, horrible creature, and is also cast in the same nice beige-with-inkwash as the Egg. If you ask me, I think they scaled this guy way too large, though. For one thing, you can’t plausibly fit him in the egg, and trying to cram him tail-first is tricky without toppling the whole thing.

The other issue I’ve got is his articulation. He’s got a triple-jointed tail, and a sort of mid-body swivel, but his eight legs have no joints in them at all, they’re just a solid piece, which makes it tough if you want him to hug the faces of other action figures.

It’s also kind of unclear which side of his body is meant to face outwards when you use that mid-body swivel, I’m guessing based on approximated film-based details. So, yeah, kind of the weak link here.

Lastly, we have a newborn Alien, or “Chestburster,” because, you know. Even if you haven’t seen any of the movies, you know.

It’s a tiny accessory, about the size of a small Transformers pistol, and unlike the rest of the set, is made out of soft, rubbery plastic.

Also, unlike the rest of the set, this guy isn’t stylized at all, he’s fully just a tiny version of the Thing from the Movie.

I do kind of wish they’d followed the lead of the Egg, and given him a flat bottom so that he could stand on the ground.

The little guy can’t really do anything except flop over, fit in the egg (though he’s not supposed to go there! Wrong part of the lifecyle! Is what I’d say if I was a joyless turbo-nerd), and be held by the main Alien.

Still, I like that it’s here, and having the full set of forms from the film makes the whole set feel complete.

Transformation

The instructions that come with this figure are about mid-tier in terms of helpfulness, suffering from a few illustrations that left me wondering what I was looking at, but he also comes with a QR code that links to an instructions video, if you’re really stumped. But basically, you’re wadding him up into a cube. I will say, it’s more complicated than I was expecting, and there’s a LOT of tiny tabs that need to click into place. Fortunately, the rigidity of the plastic means I’m not worried about anything snapping, and honestly, the transformation’s forgiving enough that you can finish it with a few tabs out of whack, and just adjust things after the fact. I’d say the trickiest bit is getting those shoulderpads of his to tab into the sides of his head, but also, managing to make that connection happen is sort of the rosetta stone that gets everything else to start fitting into place.

Probably the most interesting thing about this transformation is that he’s an “everything integrated” design, where the accessories also become a part of the cube. The egg goes inside the cube, and forms a bit of the structure (and the Chestburster goes inside it), and one of the final steps is plugging the Facehugger into one side of the cube.

Attatching the Facehugger is probably the only part that’s a bit dicey, as you need to make sure all the pegholes are in order, and there’s enough thin tabs on the Facehugger that, despite what I said earlier, I do worry could get stressed, so I handle those last steps carefully.

Cube Mode

It’s a cube.

The marketing behind this is that every Beastbox and Megabox changes into a 5 Centimeter cube, and that’s what it is. I’ll admit that I don’t quite “get” the specific reason for making a whole line that does this, but it’s nifty enough in practice.

Importantly, the whole thing holds together really well. Well, okay, I still find myself squeezing and adjusting the fit of the tabs, but between the tight joints, and the tightness of the tabs that do fit, he’s not in danger of becoming un-cubed.

It’s kind of hard to say much about this form, so I’ll talk about how the Alien specifically turning into a cube feels like a shout-out to a bit of pseudocanon: In the original Alien, there was going to be a sequence where Ripley encountered a strange box, which would then reveal itself to be the Alien contorted and folded up. It didn’t make it into the film (and there’s conflicting reports about whether it was even shot), but it made its way into a comic adaptation.

I don’t know if this is a coincidence or not, but it feels like enough of a shout-out to ping my “I know too much about this one movie, specifically” senses.

So, there’s one more accessory in this form, a box for the box. It’s a transparent bright neon green cube, with an opening hatch, that you can slide the box into, with some text on it that implies the robot is charging up in there (“Box Charger)”.

Curiously, the set came with a piece of clear bendy plastic that the instructions told me to fold in half, and slide in there as an extra barrier.

I don’t know that it’s really necessary, but I wasn’t about to mess things up.

Outside of the writing in the box, there’s tabs and extensions on the top and bottom of it, with the idea being that if you have more than one Beastox or Megabox, you can clip them together, and make a stack of creatures.

Overall

I’m pretty impressed with what’s here, both as an Alien fan, and as a Toy Guy in general. This is a cute, stylized version of an iconic creature, in a surprisingly durable form, with a bunch of neat accessories. It’s got some limitations, like loose joints, and a few absent points of articulation, but the whole package feels chunky and pleasant, and it’s a good version of the Alien to have. The box mode is interesting, and while I don’t think I quite get the appeal, it’s a neat bit of engineering, and I respect the line’s dedication to a theme, inscrutable as that theme is. But most importantly, what impresses me here is how toy-ish this is. It’s a durable, solid, knockaround figure, with a spring-loaded gimmick, and you never see collector-oriented, boutique stuff like this that’s dedicated to being fun and chunky.

I picked this guy up for $60 Canadian at TFCon, which is a little steep, but feels worth it considering how dense of a package the whole thing is. Though I’m told that the non-licensed Beastbox figures go for less cash, so if you’re ambivalent about the Alien, but the idea of the line interests you, there’s cheaper, and more colorful ways to get into it. Certainly, if they’re all as sturdy and robust as this guy, you’re in for a fun time. As for me, I kind of regret not picking up the other two Aliens sets they did, the Queen, and the Power Loader, but I didn’t want to go in on the whole sub-line blindly, and then they sold out before the show was over. Now, if anyone knows a good way for a Canadian to get them, hit me up.

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