“I can't lie about your chances. But you have my sympathies.”
After a barren period for NECA’s Alien series, with no new movie figures since re-issues in 2021 and no new figures full stop since 2022, the release of Alien: Romulus in 2024 provided NECA with new content to turn into action figures. The Scorched Xenomorph was released in the US in late 2024 and finally hit UK stockists in March 2025. The figure is promoted as an Ultimate release, but features a packaging design specific to Alien Romulus and with a large front-facing window rather than the closed-box Ultimate format with an opening front flap. The base of the box is a glossy black starscape splashed in blood with red used to create a border around the figure window and as a backdrop to the figure. The Alien Romulus movie logo is printed directly onto the window as is the figure’s name added in Alien in-universe text inside a green box. The window itself is definitely a weak spot, and our box arrived with half the window already detached, which is a potential issue for mint-in-box collectors.
The sides both feature imagery of the figure and the Romulus logo, while the back of the packaging includes a trio of inset photos of the Xenomorph and a short synopsis of the movie itself. Contents are confirmed at the bottom in a red call-out box and are listed as a display stand, Facehugger, Chestburster, and interchangeable Hands and Dome. As we unpack the box, the figure and accessories are set into two connected inner trays. The cardboard backdrop is also revealed as not completely deep red, but featuring splashed blood and ‘weathering’.
Before we begin on the figure itself, we should face into a well-documented issue with how NECA has chosen to pack this Xenomorph. The inner tray holds the rubberized tail, with its internal metal armature, into a 90-degree position, and the extreme bend, held for a number of weeks from packing to shipping and eventual delivery, is putting pressure on the rubberized plastic to the point that it splits. I personally ordered two of these, one for me and one for my son, and both our figures arrived with a split in the tail. You will of course be in your rights (dependent on the particular retailing rules of your country) to return the item as defective as this tail split is a defect, but this is looking to be present on many of the shipped figures meaning finding a non-defective Scorched Xeno will be tough going. We will see how the split impacts the figure as we work through the review.
The Xenomorph figure in hand is an impressively sized piece, larger than previously released Xeno’s and standing well over 10 inches tall (26cm) when fully extended. The Xenomorph is cast predominantly in a translucent brown plastic over which the darker almost metallic black/grey finish is applied leaving the ridged panels down the arms and legs, the torso ‘pipes’ and extremities on the ankles and elbows in the translucent deep brown finish. Overall detailing is as we now expect from NECA for Aliens, faithfully recreating their anatomy and external carapace structure.
vs Alien Isolation Xenomorph (Top Right) and Aliens Ripley (Bottom Right)
The head includes a translucent dome and a jaw that features painted silver teeth and more translucent ‘drool’ to either side. The head also uses brown translucent plastic as a base, leaving the side sections unpainted. The front of the dome includes the cracked damage sustained by the first ‘Scorched’ Xenomorph in Alien: Romulus. NECA has included a clever swap-out function here so you can choose to replace this with an undamaged version - useful for army builders. Beneath the removed dome is a fully sculpted Xenomorph skull which itself is reminiscent of the Alien: Resurrection Hybrid.
The head also comes with an extendable inner jaw, although this is harder to execute than previous releases. Once freed from the mouth - and this takes time and patience to get it gripped and carefully pulled forward - it extends out and downwards and features its own painted decor with a pinkish inner mouth, more steel teeth, and a lighter brown shaft. The positioning does mean this comes out pointing down rather than straight which is slightly different to how it is shown on screen and how it has been on earlier NECA Xenomorph figures.
The jaw and internal mouth are part of the overall articulation of the figure which comes in at 19 points of articulation in total. All joints are pinless and vary in their movement from quite expansive knee and elbow joints to more limitations at the hips and even less so at the ankles and toes. The tail, as we mentioned earlier, is jointed at the body but then features an internal metal armature that should allow it to be posed however you want. I have made the decision to go nowhere near the tail in terms of posing, carefully positioning it to be a point of balance and left it at that with the bend in place and the split in the tail therefore disturbed no further.
Despite this, the Alien is expressive enough to be posed from crouched positions to almost entirely upright and with arms and hands in a variety of menacing positions. The stand is needed for some of these, and works by acting as a bracket that sits just under the Xenomorph groin to create the point of balance. It's not necessary though as the tail also provides that balance point once the legs are posed to the same length as the bend in the tail.
The bulk of the other accessories for the set come in the shape of alternative hands for the Alien, with 6 different pairs of hands to choose from. I found it difficult to differentiate some from others, but there are definitive differences in some with outstretched claws, some with retracted claws, and then the rest all fall somewhere in between. They each swap out with relative ease and no obvious stress on the plastic, with no functionality included your choice will be one of personal preference as to which hand to use on your figure.
The final two accessories are a Facehugger and a Chestburster, something that has been commonplace as included in the Ultimate Aliens since the Ultimate Alien Warrior figures were released in 2018. The Chestburster is a particularly nice sculpt with considerable detail despite its size. It also features a paint job that gives it a slick, wet look, with variations in shading beneath this to pick out the various ridges and panels of the elongated body. Sadly it doesn’t stand on its own so will need some support on display. While not articulated as such, it also features a wire armature in the tail - but again I am reluctant to move this excessively with what has happened on the main figure.
The Facehugger is particularly disappointing, and I am not sure if I have received a sub-standard piece or if there is a further factory defect with the set. The Romulus Facehugger is the same basic anatomy as the other Facehuggers with eight legs around a flat head, two rear air sacks, and a long extended segmented tail. The included accessory has all of these, with a paint job that starts light brown at the legs and then moves to a darker wet-look brown down the rest of the body. Pink fleshy sections are painted where the legs meet the body, and underneath around the mouthpiece.
As I mentioned, I got two of these sets and the two Facehuggers are both different in finish with the worst missing the pink highlights on one side and the other side having deformed legs all pointing backward. The better of the two has the legs better shaped but also has poorly applied paintwork. The Facehugger also looks like it might have a metal armature tail but feels really brittle on handling, so again I’ve not gone anywhere near bending this for display. Unlike the Chestburster, the Facehugger does stand as intended although the leg positions are key as to how good this looks for display.
The Scorched Xenomorph from Alien: Romulus is a semi-successful return to the Alien line for NECA. it is a figure that looks impressive with the translucent brown base plastic giving it a more distinctive overall feel than previous Xenomorph releases. Sadly, there are issues with the tail fault being the biggest. Issues also exist with the inner jaw, and articulation is not much further on from where we were when the line was at its height. The accessories, a key part of its Ultimate status, are lacking with too many hands than you could conceivably need and a particularly poor quality Facehugger and a Chestbusrster that can’t stand. I’d have preferred NECA dial back the accessories, lose the Ultimate status and offer the figure at a lower price point - leaving fans to pick up the accessory pack if they wanted to enhance their display. The set does however do a very good job of allowing the damaged dome to be swapped, making this an army building piece if you wanted to go down that route and collect a larger swarm of the Romulus Xenos.
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About Me : As a child of the 70's and 80's I grew up in a golden age for action figures and in my youth bought and sold myself through collections of Star Wars, G.I. Joe (Action Force) and M.A.S.K. while also dabbling in He-Man, Transformers and Ghostbusters. Roll forward and I am now reliving that Youth with the action figures of today and am a collector and fan of the larger 6-8 inch figures from my favourite movie and TV licences - including the ones mentioned above, but also the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Who and the Aliens. I launched The Mephitsu Archives in 2015 with a view of creating a UK focused site or these figures where fans can pick up the latest action figure news, read reviews and get information on where to buy their figures and what is currently on store shelves. I hope I am delivering that to you guys...
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