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Alien Quadrilogy Head Limited Edition (Japan)

written by Juice / photos by Juice

It's here! The infamous Alien Quadrilogy Head Limited Edition. An unprecedented 25th anniversary edition LE, this highly detailed set modeled in an Alien head bust caused a commotion everywhere when images of it and it's size were first released online. Limited to 9000 copies, this Japanese LE quickly sold out on almost all pre-order sites worldwide, and now goes for some incredible prices on resell sites such as eBay.

Does this set live up to the hype? Is it as incredible as some people seem to claim? Read on and let's see what we have here!

A box sat on my doorstep. A big box. A heavy box. And across the sides, printed in thick, black ink, was an image of what rested inside this box, waiting to be unleashed and find a home not in my chest, but rather, in my living room. The box not only shows what's inside, but how to get inside. Set up in a great cradle of molded foam, and fashioned to fold out for easy access, sets the head and it's dvds.

As you can see, the box folds open nicely, to show the contents packaged extremely well. My box arrived without a second box covering it, and even with the small dings there was no damage to the set itself. The head and it's covering are seperately wrapped in plastic, and have their own area in the box. The dvd's come in their own box set, and fit snugly in a slot on the lower left in the box. To the right of them, is the individually packaged Kubrick mini-alien, set in it's own clear plastic rigid pack and shrinkwrapped. On the upper right sits the "cleaning mitt", a white cloth intended for use when dusting the Alien head. The internal packing method of this box is fantastic, and it'd be difficult to damage the contents of this box during shipping.

The head itself comes in two pieces, one is the base, in which the DVDs can be placed, and the second piece is the cap of the head, which covers the DVDs and completes the package. These both come wrapped in their own plastic protective coverings, and have a thin foam strip placed between them during shipping to keep them scratch free. Again, very impressive packaging!

How should we approach this set? Should we look at the head first? Or check the DVDs and the Kubrick doll? Look into the felt slots the DVDs slide into? Let's go with the doll first and work our way to a slew of images showing the amazing detail put into this set. Let's save the best for last!

This little guy comes in his own package, which has white print (hard to see in these images) stating that it is in fact a 25th Anniversary Alien doll. On the reverse of the package is a nice holographic sticker labelling it as an official Kubrick. The doll is nicely detailed, with paint on the arms to denote the skin structure, and a clear removable head cap. Even more amazing, the "brains" of the head GLOW IN THE DARK!!! Excellent stuff!!! I attempted to photograph the glow in the dark head, but sadly I couldn't get an image that really showed how good it looked. You'll either have to go do it yourself, or shut your eyes and imagine!

The DVD box itself! Housing all 9 dvds, this box is made out of a heavy stock paper. The outer box is debossed, with a nice holographic effect to both the Alien seal and the box itself. You can see the color reflecting in the image above. If you turn it in the light, the colors change shape and form. Wonderful effect!

The DVD interior slides out to reveal a slick housing for the 9 DVDs. The interior has Alien imagery, and each DVD sits in it's own clear green plastic housing. It gives a glowing illusion, which matches the outside of the box and is very effective. It doesn't stop there!

A booklet comes with the box, which goes into detail about each movie, it's cast, and notes about this release. It informs the reader about the differences in the theatrical release and the DVD release, characater developement and script reasoning. A good extra for any fan. A fold out flier is also inside the box, but this is in Japanese and appears to simply give the ownder an idea of what the contents are of the box.

Also note the lovely wipe cloth that comes with the DVD set. I've simply placed it on the box here for effect, but you can see it comes in it's own shrink wrap. Another shot of the box here let's you see just how much the hologram/color effect can vary.

On that note, it's time to get to the head itself!!!

Wow. Did someone say detail? The head is made of a heavy, hard plastic that has an oddly soft feel to it. The paint is airbrushed on, with amazing attention paid to eye and jaw detail. The plastic itself has a rough feel to it, and if you look closely, you'll see a small sparkle of some other material built in. The plastic cap that comes off is translucent, and hides the DVDs when they are placed within. You can see the eyesockets of the alien skull through the cap, which adds to the frightening aspect of this head. The rear of the head is aslo beautifully done, and tapers off to a dull point.

Check out the base...weighted nicely to prevent it from ever tipping, is adorned with shiny black base. In raised print, matching the font used in the movies, it says "ALIEN 25th Anniversary". The Fox and DVD Video logos are on either side of this.

Placing the cap on the head, the effect is very realistic, and through the frosted glass of my DVD bookcase, it's downright scary!

And don't forget the smooth felt interior, built with small slots to place your 9 Alien DVD discs into. Place the cap on, and your DVDs are housed nicely and kept dust free.

I could go on and on about this set. It's an ultimate addition to your DVD LE collection. Highly sought after, incredibly stylized, and a true homage to the Alien quadrilogy, it should get you thinking about buying one, even at the inflated prices located on eBay. There may be classier LE's, but for pure shock value and immediate "Wow, that is amazing" comments, this LE is THE ONE to have.

- Juice's Verdict -

- Build Quality: 10 -

What is wrong with this set in terms of build quality? Nothing. Materials are top notch, detail is top notch, style and design is top notch. 10. 10. 10.

- Content and Extras: 7.5 -

Whoa whoa whoa...7.5?!? Well, look at it this way. What comes WITH this LE? The 9 dvds, a small booklet, a cloth wipe, and a Kubrick doll. That's it. Sure, the packaging is incredible, but the extras are lacking. I'm not counting the case itself as an extra, since it is the packaging itself, much like the wood box with the Korean Troy edition.

- Overall Rating: 9 -

I'd love to give this a 10. Really, I mean it. But since the extras are on the lacking side (a bigger, higher quality book would have been nice) I'm dropping this down to a 9. The unit is amazing, and no matter if you're a fan of the movie or not, when you see this set in real life, it's a stunner. Go. Buy. It. Now!