Sunday, August 14, 2011

Pegasus Hobbies 1/144 Scale Alien Tripod



Woohoo! Now this baby is worth waiting for. I hear she's coming soon (slated for Aug 2011 release but knowing new releases, it may be a little longer) and the potential of re-creating the destruction of city scene is damn tempting.

She will come with over 90 parts, most of them molded in ABS plastic. Erm .. what the heck is ABS plastic you ask? Well, I looked up wikipedia and here's what it says.

"ABS is derived from acrylonitrile, butadiene, and styrene and carbon. Acrylonitrile is a synthetic monomer produced from propylene and ammonia; butadiene is a petroleum hydrocarbon obtained from the C4 fraction of steam cracking; styrene monomer is made by dehydrogenation of ethyl benzene — a hydrocarbon obtained in the reaction of ethylene and benzene. The advantage of ABS is that this material combines the strength and rigidity of the acrylonitrile and styrene polymers with the toughness of the polybutadiene rubber. The most important mechanical properties of ABS are impact resistance and toughness. A variety of modifications can be made to improve impact resistance, toughness, and heat resistance."

Sounds like something from Star Trek? Anyways, she will stand at 15" when build, and will be based on the original CGI model used from the movie (that means she should be very accurate ... yet to be seen though). The model will come with one tripod with arms laser, tentacles and cages and will feature a transparent hood or smoked ABS, and clear eye lenses for lighting. She will also have a base with the movie's logo on it.



The parts shown above looks a little complicated but promising. I am hoping this kit comes with poseable parts as seen with the Alien Creature kit. Imagine three of these towering over a helpless city ... muahahahahha!

More after the jump


The initial prototype kit's build up looks amazing. But from experience, I'm just curious if those three thin legs are able to support the main body which looks heavy. Guess I'll find out when the kit is in my hands.



Here are some impressive illustrations for the Alien Tripods. You can see why the hood section will come as a transparent/smoked piece - there are lights emanating from it. The eye lenses also serve as spot lights, and the overall shape reminds me of a mutant giant crab from Hell.






Since these Alien Tripods are primarily CGI models, that makes it difficult to get good reference materials for them. I got these scouring around the web and will probably get more screen caps once I have a HD version of the movie in hand.

















And of course the best reference materials I have to date would be that of Randy Cooper's kit highlighted over at Modelermagic.com. Its cast in resin and includes a base, plaque and support rods.









I seriously doubt Pegasus Hobbies can top the level of details found on this kit. She stands at 24" when build, and the details on the surfaces are superbly amazing. Here's a build beautifully done by Sean Brannin, capturing the essence of how the Alien's Tripod should look.













Of course being a resin kit that's huge, and amazingly detailed and accurate, this kit sells at USD300. Pricey but worth every cent if you're a fan. For the rest of us who wants to recreate chaos and destruction (and not get arrested), well, there's always Pegasus Hobbies.

Let her rip, boys and girls ... that is when you have your kits.


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