Kenner’s line of ‘Aliens’ Space Marine toys was fairly short-lived. After only 1 & 1/2 series of figures, the Marines were dumped in favour of Predators instead to do battle with the Aliens. What marines we did get, however, were quite cool and in most cases had action features to add more play value. Corporal Hicks, a fan favourite character that appeared in the Aliens film franchise, also received a figure in this toy line.
Name: Corporal Hicks
Line: Aliens
Manufacturer: Kenner
Released: 1992
Price: Then: $10-$16. Now: $10 – $26 MOSC or less if loose
Scale: 4 -5 Inches in height
Accessories: Rocket Launcher, Claw, Two Alienator Missiles
I really can’t remember why my brother and I decided to collect the Kenner Aliens toys when we were kids – being a toyline based off an MA 15+ series of movies – but they did look cool. The Alien designs were nice and there were a variety of figures.
But you can’t just have Aliens… You need Marines as well! Regardless of what collectors at the time and collectors now think of this toyline, I still like what Kenner did with about 90% of the figures they made.
Hicks was the one figure we would never see at the store, besides the Panther Alien, maybe they were short-packed? So neither I nor my brother owned him when the toyline was originally released.
It wasn’t until later in life where my brother finally picked one up. (He is the bigger fan of Corporal Hicks out of the two of us, even if I think he’s pretty cool in general, I always preferred Hudson over Hicks.)
SCULPTING
For the most part, I’d like to think Kenner did a good job of taking the source material and putting their own spin on it. Apparently, there was going to be a cartoon to tie in with the toys so that would make sense changing the characters a bit. I think Corporal Hicks looks pretty good, It’s a passing likeness and he’s not an accurate match to the Aliens movie, but ticks a lot of the boxes of what you’d expect from a Corporal Hicks figure in my opinion for the time period.
PAINT
Generally, the paint on Kenner’s products was always to a fairly high standard. The paint application on this particular Hicks is quite good, no bleed, no slop. The quality of the older toys sometimes puts a lot of newer companies to shame. Plenty of greens and blacks make up Hick’s uniform the tan looks a little out of place but the gold/silver mixture looks excellent.
ARTICULATION
Hicks has the typical amount of articulation for a toy of this time period, Swivel everything! Swivel head, swivel shoulders, swivel waist, and swivel hips. You can move his joints but you can’t really do a lot with him besides simple poses. It’s decent articulation, but nothing to write home about.
ACCESSORIES
Hicks comes with a rocket launcher, Some kind of Claw/gun arm weapon and two missiles for the rocket launcher. The firing action on the rocket launcher is quite good the claw/gun arm is a bit miss-placed it just clips on his arm and that’s it. It would have been cooler if he came with a Pulse Rifle like Vazquez did, as I think that would be a more appropriate weapon for the character.
POTENTIAL PROBLEMS
None that I can think of; Corporal Hicks is rock solid. What would you expect from an early 1990’s toy? Just make sure your one has a good paint job before you buy it.
PRICE
I was happy with the $10 + shipping costs; however, I wouldn’t pay too much for this figure, as he is not worth any large amount of money.
OVERALL
The Corporal Hicks figure lacks the fun action feature many of the other Aliens Space Marines have, but it’s made up for with a missile-firing rocket launcher, this doesn’t make the figure as great to play with as Ripley or Drake, for example. Hicks is still an important character in the Aliens universe and this is his first real toy/collectible figure made of him, it’s worth picking him up, if you are a Kenner completist of their Aliens line or if you like Corporal Hicks in general.
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