"They Threatened The World Until Some Hep Youngsters Took Over!"

The last entry in the first wave of B.F.F.F. International monster figures is this set of 3 aliens from "Invasion Of The Saucer-Men". Unlike the previous releases, from I Was A Teenage Werewolf and I Was A Teenage Frankenstein, these figures are not 12" in height. Instead, they are a more Mego-like 8" tall, to better represent the little green men of the movie. Unfortunately, although they are smaller, they really do not have the proportions of the creatures from the movie.

This has been a point of contention with some collectors and I myself am sort of on the fence about it. On the one hand, yes, I do wish that they were more accurate to the movie. But on the other, I can't help thinking that if these were vintage toys, no one would complain and would in fact hunt them down like dogs. I guess the difference is that vintage toys were made for kids to play with and therefore accuracy was less important than with these modern toys designed to be admired by the adult fan. You're mileage may vary. At the end of the day, Saucer-Men are cool and I'll take whatever I can get, I guess.

Besides the poor proportions on the bodies, I think I like most everything else about these figures. The visible portions of their bodies are well sculpted and the paint is mostly pretty good. The only place I find it to be lacking is on the head of the "red" alien, where it looks a bit amateurish. Instead of trying to add some depth of color there, I think they probably should have left well enough alone and just went with the flat color.

I think the green headed aliens look better, despite, or perhaps because of, their simpler paint jobs.

Actually, the "red" alien might be cause for some concern in general. I could be wrong, but I don't think there was ever any mention of any of the aliens being that color. Perhaps they just wanted to include one that was a bit different simply for the sake of variety, and honestly, I'm ok with that. I don't mind them taking a little artistic liberty, if in fact they did. Lord knows the world of Japanese kaiju does so since I collect those too, I'd be a bit of a hypocrite to complain about it here. But some may not like to see it.

The costumes of the characters are pretty neat. The majority of it is just a flat black one-piece suit, but the necks and wrists are layered with some golden glittery "feathers" for a pretty cool looking effect. Each suit has a zipper down the back if you need to get at the body beneath. If you do, you'll notice why the alien bodies are not exactly like in the movie. It's no surprise that it's a cost cutting measure and these bodies are from pre-existing figures. The copyright stamped into the back of the toys says "2001 7thsttoys.com Made In China"!

Although I didn't bother taking pictures of each figure holding it, each one does come with it's own weapon. You can position it in the hands to hold it, but none of them can actually grasp it with any stability and there's no way to attach it either.

These figures come in a large box with the original poster art on the front. The box measures 16"x 13" x 3" and the lid opens up just like most 12" figure boxes. Two original lobby cards are pictured on the interior of the lid.

One thing to be aware of in advance is that mine did NOT have any plastic ties around the figures. I just assumed there would be and instinctively flipped the tray over to start untying them and all 3 figures just dropped out onto the floor!

The set comes with 3 doll stands to help you display the figures in your collection. Each stand has "Invasion Of The Saucer-Men" printed across the base.

Overall, I'm happy with this set. Some might argue that it's a bit overpriced at $79.99, but considering the limited production run (only 500 pieces) from a small company and the fact that you get 3 toys in one set, I can live with it. If the poor proportions on the bodies is just too upsetting to you, then I would suggest you get the recent statue from Ultratumba Productions instead, unless you just must have a toy instead of a statue. If that's the case, then... well you're screwed.

"Body of a boy! Mind of a monster! Soul of an unearthly thing! Arms made of two colors!"

Ok, I made up that last part...

It didn't take long for A.I.P. to follow up the success of I Was A Teenage Werewolf with similarly titled I Was A Teenage Frankenstein. In fact, it was released the very same year.

As with "Teenage Werewolf", "Teenage Frankenstein" gets it's own 12" figure this year from B.F.F.F. International. Sadly, the result is nowhere near as good. When I first saw prototype pics of this one, I had decided I would pass on it. Unlike most 12" dolls on the market, this character actually wears a short sleeved shirt. This means that there is lots of visible joints in the "skin" that look very unrealistic. This wasn't the issue I had with it though. What bothered me was that the upper and lower arms didn't match in color. So, I figured it was best to wait to see the final product.

But some months later, when images of the box art surfaced, I broke down, decided to trust in humanity and assume that the problem would be fixed. I mean, how can something like that possibly get green-lighted, right? Well, the figure arrived and lo and behold, no change from the prototype at all!

I couldn't help but think back to an anecdote I heard on a Simpsons commentary about how they got their animation back from Korea one time to see that a piece of fruit was colored wrong, because it was not known in Korea. Well, this figure is made in China and while I've never been to China, I have met Chinese people and near as I can tell, their arms were always uniform in color, top to bottom. So I'm not sure how to justify this...

The rest of the figure is fine. The sculpt and paint of the head is nice and the clothes simple but effective. But no matter how I try, I just can't get my head around this...

Well, since I don't like to write an entirely negative review, I will say I do like the box a lot.

Box Front

Box Interior

Box Back

But I don't really like it enough to make up for this...

Always trust your instincts...

"This highschool boy...a TEENAGE WEREWOLF! A constant threat of claw ripping attack to everyone!"

In 1957, Michael Landon made his motion picture debut in the low budget A.I.P. cult classic I Was A Teenage Werewolf. This movie would play on a double feature with Invasion Of The Saucer-Men and would be followed by the psuedo-sequel, I Was A Teenage Frankenstein. Over 50 years later, all three films are getting the action figure treatment from B.F.F.F. International.

Of the three toy projects, I like the "Teenage Werewolf" figure the best so I've decided to review that one first. The others will follow.

The "Teenage Werewolf" figure is a standard 12" doll and comes in a large full color box reproducing the original movie poster on the front of the box. This box is larger than the standard Sideshow Collectibles doll box so it doesn't slot in with those as well as I'd hoped. It is the same size as the Dr. Phibes doll from Majestic Studios though. The lid opens up to reveal the toy sealed in plastic. This is pretty common with this time of toy, but for the first time that I've seen, the interior of the front lid actually features reproductions of two lobby cards from the movie. I'm getting more and more interested in lobby cards lately so I think this is a really great addition!

The figure is a nice reproduction of the character. The sculpt of the face is nice. The whites of the eyes actually have a small amount of red, giving it a nice feral look. There's also a nice touch of gloss over the eyes and mouth, so it looks more wet and lively in those areas. Unfortunately, the paint is not quite as nice in the hair. You can still see small spots of flesh showing through and it looks like they attempted to give the hair some depth of color by adding bits of grey. But the grey doesn't look very convincing.

The claws also look nice but are not perfect. There is painted hair on them, but if you turn the hands all the way in, you can see the original flesh color. But this is very unlikely to be a factor when you are posing it. And the color of the forearms does match the hands. So if the sleeves ride up, it'll still look appropriate.

Speaking of the sleeves, the rest of the outfit is well done. It features a plain pair of shoes, black socks, blue pants, white shirt and school jacket. The jacket can be opened and removed if you so choose, even though I neglected to take a picture of them that way.

And if you're wondering where you've seen a werewolf in a school jacket before, yes, this is the movie that inspired the 80s comedy "Teen Wolf" starring Michael J. Fox.

This toy includes a stand with the movie title imprinted on the bottom. I'm always glad when something like this is included but I wish this one was a little shorter. Maybe because I just got some doll stands off Ebay that fit 8-12" figures and this one seems a little bit more difficult to manage because the lowest it can go is right at the waist. But it's better than not getting a stand at all.

So, ultimately this is a pretty good figure with it's pros and cons. I can't say it's up to par with the quality we've come to expect from other doll makers like Sideshow, especially in terms of the paint job, but it's a nice effort. And you know I like seeing some of these more obscure characters being made into figures so I'm all about supporting that and am happy with my purchase of this one.