Lanard toys are probably not revered by many of the collectors here,
and mostly regarded as cheap military figures the real Joes have to rescue or Cobra decapitates on the cheap.
I am of course referring to The Corps figures. Like 6 bux for an less than articulated specialist team of 3 that you hand the kids to bury in the sandbox just so your real Snake Eyes doesn't go missing.
Last year they procured the license for Aliens and sold them at
Wal-Mart. $10.00, cool! An inexpensive way to pick up more Aliens in a 3 3/4 size.
You got an Alien, some accessories and one of those cheezey Corp figures. The Alien was actually more articulated the the Corp figures they've made for years. Gotta tell you I didn't hate it.
But they didn't really go with my Neca stuff.
Again, I didnt hate them, but I only sampled a taste. I liked the Reaction figures and these were very similar. Actually I would say better... But such bad colors. Why make them such bad colors? I'm guessing its so they didn't mess with the other companies producing them too.
Well, its a new year and the Wal-Mart's near me managed to either sell the stock of those Alien bundles over the Christmas sales season or they took em out back and burned 'em. Either way they are gone.
And now for the fun part. As a part of toy collecting I used to really enjoy was the surprise of finding something new on the shelves I hadn't known about. Sadly most of us know about the Transformers that bring most of us here to begin with months ahead of time, (and more increasingly never see in person) to be less excited by the sighting because the mystery has been spoiled.
Sighting a giant Predator figure days ago made by Lanard I was like "Oh, cool." I figured it was going to be replacing the giant purple (yep weird ass purple) Alien queen they had released last year.
Light up laser, flexing mandibles. Pretty neat for 20 dollars.
A bit big for my taste, but damn a kid could have fun with this thing.
Walking through the toy isle at another Wal-Mart I scoped out the next evolution of the Lanard Alien figures I had no clue were on their way, 7 inch Aliens that cost 10 dollars..? Uh.. I love it!
3 to choose from. Maybe not Neca, but 10 dollars to help fill out an Alien swarm. Nice. As cool as they are I know Wal-Mart will have them for a while though, plus sometimes I like to leave stuff for future plastic jonesing.
So, I hit a different Wal-Mart on my way home, albeit looking for Transformers.. Bam! 7-inch Predator figures. They got me..
As with the Aliens there was a choice of three. Well of course I've got to get the clear(ish) one.
Nice packaging (real nice in my opinion) and again 10 dollars.
Are these going to make people sell their Neca figures? No.
They are smaller, lack the smaller accoutrements the Neca figures feature and again are 10 dollars.
But after having my Spiked Tail Pred take a nose dive off a shelf and shatter into unrepairable condition
, I'm more likely to open these and not worry about collateral damage.
While shorter than a Neca it feels far less fragile without feeling "cheap".
Jungle Hunter Predator features a milk carton clear body and comes with an electro claw weapon. He also has his shoulder mounted plasma bazooka that is fully rotatable. Ball joints where it matters, wrist swivel. This is a solid figure for the price point.
Kudos Lanard, kudos.