The Neptunian (Item No. 51203/1), providing a rather inauspicious start to the line of Aliens figures. This figure is actually fairly ornate and well-designed, in a Saturday-afternoon-sci-fi-serial kind of way, but its great failure is that it NEVER APPEARED IN “STAR TREK.” Even the relatively limited history of Classic “Trek” contains enough rich and diverse alien cultures from which to draw without having to create a new species right out of the gate. To be fair, a race of aquatic, scaled aliens DID appear in an episode of “Star Trek: The Animated Series,” but their resemblance to the Neptunian is practically zero.
Rumours have persisted that the character must have been an abandoned Mad Monster concept but this isn’t the case, the figure’s design doesn’t follow the “Glow in the Dark eyes” feature that the other characters had and in conversation with former Mego employees, they admitted to taking liberty with the designs due poor reference material and an overall belief that many of the TV character designs could be improved upon for a more “toy-etic” appeal.
The head sculpt is quite impressive and detailed; it is also bulbous enough to require Mego’s rarely-used deeper/taller bubble in its packaging. The body of this figure is a standard Type 2 male, but is cast entirely in Goblin-green. The figure came outfitted in a bodysuit comprised of a red torso and green sleeves and leggings (the green material used for the bodysuit is identical to the “scales” fabric used on the Green Goblin and on The Lizard’s tail). Attached under the arms of the bodysuit are a pair of wings that always seem to suffer from the same green-to-yellow fade common to Green Arrow’s bodysuit and the sleeves and undies of Removable-Mask Robin.
The ensemble is completed with a pair of green boots and green gloves that approximate the look of reptilian/amphibian feet and claws, respectively.
Above we have a Neptunian on a “10-back” card.
The Neptunian on a “14-back” card (considerably rarer than the
“10-back”).
The Neptunian was also released in the United Kingdom by Palitoy Bradgate. Carded examples are considered quite elusive and that’s why we’re using a picture of the back of the card. If you have one and would like to share with the world, drop us a line!
Mike Farrence provided us with a screencap of a Mego Commercial that shows the prototype neptunian, note the lack of scales
and the homemade gloves.
Neptunian boots are unique to the character, and have not been factory reproduced.
Neptunian gloves are unique to the character, and have not been factory reproduced.
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