First view of Pegasus Hobbies 1/144 Scale Alien Tripod

Just a follow up on the Pegasus Hobbies War of the World's 1/144 scale Alien Tripod. Thanks to GKvfx, we now can see the kit's parts and tree sprues first hand before her release.

According to GKvfx, there were about ten trees of parts and from the measurement seen, this kit is going to be quite big. Here's his description over at the Starship Modeler Forum

"Looking at the parts on the trees, I can see that this kit is a big step up for Pegasus. The engineering is more complicated than anything I've seen from them, and the level of detail is far more sophisticated.

The leg parts seem to be split up into three sections. Each section has little tabs/keys so you know that you are doing this the right way. I test fir a single leg together this morning and it was fairly intuitive. I suspect the leg parts are identical - or maybe the two front ones are. Detail is good, with the feet being looking like suction cups and the ankles having barbs.

The waist has recessed cups that accept the hip joint of the leg. These are keyed as well, but I suspect you could cut off the tab and alter the position of the leg if you were doing a diorama.

Kit includes an option to build the version with the people baskets (molded in clear) or the variant with the destructo-ray arms (that's what I'm calling them anyway....). You also get all the little feeler arms to glue on. They are molded with a bunch of curves and, looking at the built up sample he also brought, look very natural.

The head has a couple of large parts topped by the smoked hood. I'm not sure where you can fit batteries in this thing, but I suspect watch batteries in the hood might work. (You cannot run a wire down the inside of the leg as the lower leg is solid and too curved to drill out.)

The detail on the hood is great. Subtle panel lines and textures. This will really benefit from a nice pass with the Metallizer paints and an oil wash.

There is a base, with a section of ruined street, destroyed building and crushed car. The kit is 1/144th scale - a common architectural scale, but not one with a lot of buildings. 'N'-scale for trains is very close - withing about 10%, so if you want to do any buildings, you should be able to go to a train store and get what you need. Since this is a totally alien thing, I don't think anyone will be able to tell the scale difference."

More images after the jump.

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

Pegasus Hobbies Alien Creature 1/8 Scale

Until I saw the box cover in more detail, I didn't realise the alien creature seen in the 2005 movie version of War of the Worlds had four hands and one hind leg, just like the Alien Queen in Aliens. They do look menacing, not something you want for a pet. Here is Pegasus Hobbies presentation of the Alien Creature in 1/8 scale. It stands about 7" build. The parts are mainly vinyl with semi poseable plastic limbs, and even comes with two different necks so each kit can be posed according to your preference. The base is basically styrene.

Though the original prototype was given various coats of green, I do believe the the basic shape of the molds  help give it a somewhat slimy appearance, which is good cause they do look slimy on screen. The darker green stripe on the other hand, they look like they were done via an airbrush. Its going to be a challenge trying to emulate the pattern.

More after the jump.

Pegasus Hobbies War of the Worlds (2005)

Here's something that piqued my interest for Steven Spielberg's version of War of the Worlds - the aliens and their Tripod war machine seen in the movie. They're deadly, almost indestructible, have a formidable beam that literally reduces living flesh into ashes, and their looks alone intimidates. Of course they fell victim to the one thing that most humans already have immunity to but they don't - bacteria. A dire consequence of not doing their research first cause if they had, they would have discovered we humans aren't exactly a shiny example of healthy living.

The movie didn't really do too well in the cinemas, but it did give us a better version of the invaders and more importantly that mean ass looking Tripod. I was like "Oh, OK" when Pegasus Hobbies came out with their range of War of the World's kits ranging from the earlier movies to the recent one in 2005, but when I saw the parts for the Tripod ... I was sold.

Of course for those who didn't know, War of the Worlds is the Science Fiction literary work of H.G.Wells, a novel that has a narrator describing his personal experience during an alien invasion. Published in 1898, and later made into a movie in 1953. Spielberg's version in 2005 is actually an upgrade and a remake of the original movie. But we are not here to discuss about the origins of the show or its implications. Yes, we're here to discuss on those cool model kits presented by Pegasus Hobbies.

For those who don't know the original alien creature and their war machine, here's how they look like (the image of the two flying saucers attacking is a special diorama kit):

Pegasus Hobbies have the complete range from both versions, and what's cool about their 2005 movie version kits is that you can pose them - no, not play with them type of pose, but you can choose a pose for your static display of these kits. I'll highlight more on the the Alien Creature kit from the movie later, and then touched on the coming Tripod War Machine.

More highlights on the 2005 kits after this post