Vintage 1979 Kenner Giant Alien Blaster Target Set WithBox Prototype Unused
I have had it for 15 years now and have decided to pass it on to the next die-hard H. Toys 1979 Alien item on this planet. Or perhaps any Alien toy. Actually it is beyond rare. It is unique because there is no other. This is not a custom, homemade nor a foreign item.
This came from the H. Please bear with me and read all of the description and it is a necessarily long one.
What you are looking at here is the H. Toys 1979 Giant Alien Blaster Set presentation/prototype/promotional model. More a presentation/prototype item than a promo because in the majority of cases, there are a few if not many promo items made available to collectors. Here is the very first one ever produced and which was presented to the Design Board at H.
Toys for approval and then would have went into production. However, said board was pleased with what they saw except one thing.This was the safety dart gun. Back in 1979, this type of blaster was deemed too dangerous for children under three years old and could pose some serious liability claims later on. So, all box art and contents was given a go, but there had to be a change to the blaster. The change was made form a dart gun to a gun that shot ping pong type balls instead of darts. Everything essentially stayed the same related to the box and contents.
What did change was, of course, the dart gun and some variations on the front of the box. You will notice in my pictures that the little girl is the same but the little boy is different and they are standing at different angles facing the alien target (as opposed to the released version) These are the only differences there is. This box and target set are the same as the released version minus these differences. The contents are also the same with the exception of the blaster itself going from darts to safety balls. I have done extensive research for the past six months on this item including exchanging emails with the son of the man who designed this item, (which I will touch on later in this description) and I did not find another one out there nowhere. Not so much as EVEN an image of it!!! And after my research, I know why. There is no other one. When this one left the presentation room, it went home with its creator and no one outside that room in the public ever knew it even exsisted. So, try as you might (and I encourage any and all potential buyers to try) you will fair no better when you try to find this item or any image of it doing your own research. And after a tough decision, its now for sale. Now a little more about this set. As you can see in my pictures, the blaster is a dart pistol instead of ping pong balls.But you will also notice that there is a cap firing mechanism on top of the gun I thought that this would have been awesome if it would have been produced. Not only will it fire a dart, but would bust a cap at the same time This pistol was obviously used from some other toy (I never could out which one) just for presentation purposes and would later be fine tuned. What I find interesting is there is no mention of a cap firing mechanism anywhere on the box or on the instruction sheet pertaining to this feature.
All this would have come later had this particular pistol been used. No need for the extra text untill approval. There is also only one Alien logo on one side of the blaster.
The card that holds the darts and the "radar dish" that slipped on the blasters barrel looks to be also hastily made just for presentation. There is no color, text or pictures on this card. No way could this item have been released with these items on this card. They would have easily slipped out and rattled around inside the box. The instruction sheet is also very limited in its instructions and does show the blaster with the cap firing mechanism but makes no mention of it whatsoever.
Something that would definitely have been pointed out had this version of the blaster been released. The alien target itself is the exact same as the ping pong type version. I have this version also and made the comparisons. There is only one insert and it is at the very top of the box and holds the two Alien target hands and secures the top of the Alien head. Again, no need for any further inserts at the time of its presentation. As I`ve mentioned prior, the box is exactly the same and is dated 1979 and is item 981.The released ping pong version was recalled mostly due to parents complaints about the Alien upsetting young children and the fact that the box says recommended for children three years of age and up. On all of the released versions of the Giant Alien Blaster Set with the ping pong balls that I`ve seen, the "ages 3 and up" is always blacked out with a marker.
On my dart gun version, it is still very visible (because it was never released). I have really no idea how much this item could actually be worth. It could be a lot more than I`m asking or less. As you can see, there is no other to compare it too. I`m just going by other promos and proto-types of other, lesser sought after toys that got huge prices.
Being that this item is the proto-type of the Holy Grail of 1979 Alien toys, I figure I`m somewhat in the ball park. I hate to part with this item because I kinow once its gone, there are no more. Here, literally is a once in a lifetime chance to own the most awesome Alien piece on earth. Please ask any questions you may have.
The item "Vintage 1979 Kenner Giant Alien Blaster Target Set WithBox Prototype Unused" is in sale since Thursday, June 29, 2017. This item is in the category "Toys & Hobbies\Action Figures\TV, Movie & Video Games".
The seller is "jameshadden8tv5" and is located in Lowell, North Carolina. This item can be shipped to United States.