The Probably Mostly True Story of Operation: Aliens - Oddities #22

If you look up Operation: Aliens online you will most likely find a story about how Kenner had pitched this animated Saturday morning cartoon series to Fox as a continuation of the Aliens story and some or all of a pilot episode was created complete with screen capped images of this lost pilot.
But that doesn't actually appear to be what happened...
For more on the real story:
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[@brycevo]

Man. I would have loved that show. It makes me as sad as the loss of Jurassic Park Chaos Effect

[@FCastle23]

Oh man, I was hoping for an Alien costume made out of garbage bags.

[@RocketboyX]

I was hoping for a Sigourney Weaver right before she got into the mech suit costume.

[@GenJuhru]

@@RocketboyX her outfit in the opening of Alien

[@Clay3613]

Just like the Queen prototype puppet.

[@peterdanior4538]

I would love a cartoon series about Space Marines going up against copyright friendly versions of various aliens from different movie franchises

[@KEVMAN7987]

I just had a mental image of the Colonial Space Marines rifle-butting ET in the face.

[@Gappasaurus]

@Kevin Gomolchak i would watch that 😶

[@peterdanior4538]

Kevin Gomolchak but ET’s neck would have to extend far as his head just flies backward

[@SlyBeast]

Man, I would've LOVED an Aliens animated series! Never knew about this.

[@chadbradley3434]

I always wondered where all the weird animal/Alien ideas originated from.

[@pucknorris3473]

alien 3 had a xenomorph canine it was a big thing in the DH comic too

[@roryyoung9559]

Depending on which version you saw the alien came from either a dog or an Ox. They used footage from both versions on all versions of the release which caused it to vary in size throughout.

[@JohnDoe-wq5eu]

@@roryyoung9559 I recently watched something about the troubled history and filming of alien 3. David Fincher really got screwed on that one, anyone involved with it would have been. The third movie was the downfall of the entire series it's only gotten worse and worse since then much like anything with the word predator in it from the last 25 years.

[@davidsolyom5604]

H.R.Giger

[@mr.fettesq.7705]

@@roryyoung9559 it doesnt actually vary in size thought the film. The full grown alien stays the same. Its birth animal is the only thing that differed

[@joewojtecki9991]

Oh no, not again. 🎶 hello my baby, hello my darling, hello my ragtime gal🎶

[@KEVMAN7987]

"Check please!"

[@marq0992]

"SOMEBODY GET THIS MAN SOME PEPTO BISMOL!!!"

[@JohnDoe-wq5eu]

Wait did he order the soup or the special?! Waitress: the special Two soups please.

[@markphillips4836]

BABY, MY HEARTS ON FIRE!!

[@carloscardona6587]

y’know, if possible, this Aliens cartoon seems more in concept to an early 90s adult animated series for prime time predating Adult Swim

[@Mekasoundwave]

I was thinking the same thing, an more adult oriented animated series like the final season of Samurai Jack or even anime would be perfect for Aliens today.

[@pauljoyner4338]

No anime. I want to watch too. Sorry just not my preference.

[@THEAnimeHERO]

@@pauljoyner4338 It depends on what type of anime. If Aliens was made during the 1980's as an OVA, it would've been a violently gross and disturbing adaptation which would be accurate to source material. It could've catered to the same crowd as Vampire Hunter D, Cyber City Oedo, Bubblegum Crisis, Angel Cop, Genocyber. The closest thing to a Aliens anime would be Blue Gender & Terra Formars.

[@TheRobotAssassin]

Yeah, like HBO's Spawn, I could imagine seeing it on more adult channels in the 90's like HBO, SciFi, or MTV.

[@PsychoWerekitsune]

@@TheRobotAssassin I was just about to suggest Spawn, especially since it has the same dark, brooding comic book aesthetic and would've worked well for an Aliens adaptation.

[@vivienshuen5876]

Toy Galaxy Oddities are an amazing video series. Great work Dan and producer Greg.

[@XdarzethX]

i remember comics coming with these twos. Like each one was a different story and gave you a bit of back story on some of the characters and aliens.

[@CarlosLopez-oc9nh]

Oh yeah I have a copy stashed somewehere, the little girl was a teen and committed to an institution due to her nightmares it was awesome then Alien 3 came :S

[@ranwolf7650]

I got that giant xenomorph figure for my b-day when I was 5. I opened up the gift wrapping and started freaking out. the toy stayed in my closest for over a month still half wrapped before I got the nerve to open the box and started playing with the thing

[@neopada9091]

What not to love about the toy line? It has everything gores, gun and space. The aliens figures were chunky and tough. It even went beyond the movie by bring in many xeno variants. Also the line went to overtime by including Predators in the line. The ad was awesome too.

[@phoule76]

I thought this was going to be about a special tie-in edition of the classic board game "Operation".

[@MasterShake9000]

Peter Houle same!

[@andhe]

Me too! If this doesn't exist it seems a no-brainer.

[@rickmease9531]

🤣 What would you remove other than the Xenomorph embryo though?

[@intzbk1]

My son had most of those figures and even had Micro Machine versions. He loved them. I'm sure if the cartoon came out we would have watched it alongside BAS and Gargoyles.

[@Dorelaxen]

And here I thought that time H.R Giger was on Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood was weird.

[@martl8615]

Is that available online?

[@Belgand]

I never knew how much I wanted Herr Giger's Nachbarschaft before now.

[@JohnDoe-wq5eu]

Did that actually really happen?! Wow that is random and amazing.

[@panelsandbars1529]

They did it for Starship Troopers, don’t see why an Aliens animated series couldn’t work.

[@theboxcaradventurer1874]

I would like to know more...

[@ObsoleteVodka]

Starship Troopers aired in 1999/2000 though, the "think of the children" movement was already a bad memory by then. The same era that gave us Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Unreal Tournament, Quake III, by then people accepted the fact that gore in mass media was here to stay.

[@panelsandbars1529]

Diego Zuñiga Very true. Just seems a shame. I know the storyboards weren’t actually for the series but if that style is any indication of what they might have gone with, we missed out on something cool.

[@panelsandbars1529]

The Boxcar Adventurer Starship Troopers was adapted as a children’s CGI animated series (& a later a CG film featuring some of the cast of the original movie). It was Saturday morning fare, but still something you could appreciate if you’d enjoyed the movie.

[@ObsoleteVodka]

I also remember that most scenes in the show weren't as disturbing as in the movies.

[@dtorrey867]

This toy line was the reason I saw Aliens as a kid. My whole 8th birthday was about Aliens!

[@Teifling]

Well, thus dies a legend I nearly had forgotten. I loved these action figures and have been tempted to pick up the Bull Alien (my first of the series) for posterity. I don't remember if the Predator action figure line was also produced by Kennor but I do remember picking up a couple after playing the Alien vs Predator SNES game.

[@iron-thorne]

predator was kenner and is to scale with the alien line

[@Pixel-dan]

R Rated Movie toys made for kids is a topic I've long been fascinated by. The Kenner Aliens/Predator figures are some of my favorite toys, and my parents didn't allow me to have them as a kid. Probably why I love them so much now. Great stuff, guys!!

[@SecretGalaxyTV]

We've had more than a few discussions here about that fad.

[@visionop8]

so THATS why all the toys promoted by cartoons started to suck and suddenly there were Beetlejuice and The Mask figures. I always wondered about that as a kid.

[@rickmease9531]

It's high quality videos like this that make Toy Galaxy videos a much watch for me every time. I've wondered about this subject for the past few decades. Nice work, friends! 👍 Dan, you and the entire Toy Galaxy crew keep churning out 🔥 like this!

[@mar10ssj1]

I remember seeing the Aliens Bull in the toy stores. What I don't remember is seeing an Alien Bull in any of the movies. It would be something I doubt anyone would forget.

[@ericfischer7668]

Great video man. Have to say, first half of your video I was ready rip my hair out, but you cleared it up very very nicely after 7:00 minute mark. Really great way to present the topic, and great way to settle and end it. Great info and sources too!

[@furwerkstudio2057]

Fox: Nah, an animated series would harsh the edge. Fox: We got to get this resurrection script into production! Also Fox: Yeah, we'll let Randy Pitchforks make this Aliens game, it should work out.

[@jacobturnerart]

I hoped this would be a remake of the board game 'operation' where you have to remove chestbursters...

[@wstine79]

I had a few of these figures. Plus, who could forget Ron Paulson narrating the commercial for the toy line.

[@tumest]

Loving that Jan Svankmajer callout, and bang on about the availability of stuff. Fun memories of having to track down catalogs of bootleg VHS and DVD rarities as a TOOL loving teenage twerp... Good times. Great work as always!

[@SwiftJustice718]

Awesome video with intriguingly entertaining and VALUABLE information. This video has GREAT replay value with ME, as an example, watching this video for the 4th time in about a year. Its SUCH an interesting topic and I'm DYING to know more. I re-watch with the intentions of catching little tidbits that I had probably missed on prior viewings. Thank you for your hard work and keep up the GREAT work!

[@Ma121Hunter]

"Do.. do we owe them money?... Do they owe us money!?" XD that was great

[@BeeTeeGee]

Loved this action figure series growing up. My older brother collected it as he was huge into Aliens at the time. So much so that he actually got every single figure and vehicle that was released here in the UK, including the wave 3 Marines O'Malley, Hudson and Vasquez which never saw release in America. The only item he never got was the Queen Hive playset because it never released over here but a couple of years ago a friend of mine sent me his old one. My brother still has them to this day but doesn't have them on display, just safely packed away, although he does have the EVAC Fighter out on a shelf in his room.

[@jean-paulgauvin3352]

I HAD A COUPLE OF THESE! Man, a cartoon would’ve been sweet.

[@acereporter73]

Me: "Wait, why do those storyboards look like outtakes from Exosquad?" Toy Galaxy: "Will Meugniot."

[@joebaker5581]

I had this while line as a kid. I friggin loved them. They were amazing toys. I still have a few of them, and they hold up as pretty cool toys all these years later.

[@sonicguyver7445]

I remember when those Aliens toys came out. I really never heard anything about Operation: Alien but I do remember seeing one or two of those animation screens in a comic or magazine promotion somewhere. I didn't really get into the Aliens until they went up against Predators. For some reason the idea of these two alien monsters going head-to-head, each a killer in their own right was an amazing idea to me. I had the Predator figures and played every version of Alien vs Predator I could possibly get. The arcade game is still the best I think but because of available hardware I mostly played the Gameboy game. My brother made an arcade cabinet around a computer he set aside just for Arcade roms. His description of Alien vs Predator for his arcade cabinet was, "Play as awesome predators or boring humans!"

[@Jcarroz]

Best show you’ve guys done so far!

[@RudyHarlanPhantomBoom]

Awesome video! I'm honored Toy Galaxy used my NECA Aliens commercial!

[@SecretGalaxyTV]

It was so good!

[@RudyHarlanPhantomBoom]

@@SecretGalaxyTV Thank you so much! It was a blast making it! I'm happy you and everyone else enjoyed it!

[@arceyes]

Dan and Producer Greg delivering quality as always

[@aswukman]

Man, I wrote a letter to Kenner when I was a kid saying they should have a flying Alien. They told me sorry we don't take outside ideas. A few months later. BOOM! Flying Queen Alien.

[@00ga-booga]

I was totally expecting an "Operation" game with a xenomorph on a slab.

[@vanillajack5925]

With real acid for blood :)

[@elmo1234]

I had a few of these action figures - they were really high quality for the time (and the price). I remember being so excited to see them on the shelves at Woolworths! Even though I'd never seen any of the Alien movies, I still knew they existed and these were a way for 10-year-old me to enjoy something "adult".

[@caseymckenna7111]

This just reframed a big segment of my childhood, thanks.

[@mrawesome3915]

Good video as usual

[@magaz]

That boardgame... oh man I spent hours playing with that. Not even playing the actual game, which itself was pretty fun, just using the tiny "space marine" pieces to fight the tiny xeno pieces. The aliens toyline was responsible for me seeing the movies back in the 90's I recall being out shopping with my mum for GiJoe's one day and spotted a new line on the rack in John Menzies. It was the first toy my mum seemed to actively object to me buying. So of course I bought all of them over time. And she finally gave in and let me watch the movies when I broke my foot and was house bound for a while. Good times!

[@dr.penguinstein3426]

I'd love for you to explore the lost Jurassic Park cartoons, Escape from Jurassic Park and the supposed Lost World series they recently discovered. It might pressure INGEN Ops to release the pilot...if they actually have it. Otherwise plenty of info on the former out there, complete with an outline of the tv series and various seasons and for the latter we do have concept art floating about.

[@treygreene4298]

MY BROTHER AND I HAD THESE ACTION FIGURES!!!!

[@tonymcnamee2741]

Awesome! I always wondered about the Aliens toys and how they originated.

[@AaronLitz]

Thank you, these Oddities and the Histories are my favorites of the videos you guys make. These are just great!

[@AzraelThanatos]

From what I'd heard with regard to Operation: Aliens is that they didn't complete the pilot. They made an opening and that's it before it went down.

[@sixtiviris]

This toyline made me so confused when i saw it... I thought, when i stole that betamax from my uncle's collection, that I was being a rebel... then I saw toys and I was confused.. mostly about my badassness...

[@hollywood21639]

12 yr old me in 93 would have loved an aliens cartoon

[@ryancarroll3754]

Love the episode! Thank you.

[@jakob8800]

The best Kenner Aliens figure was in the Aliens vs Predator 2-pack and it was the only way to get a standard Xenomorph which is all I wanted along with a decent likeness of Ripley to go in my Power Loader which sadly never came.

[@versebuchanan512]

I still vividly remember getting the battle damage exploding Xenomorph one christmas, along with the head-ram Bull Xeno, a Queen, AND a Predator. I need to re-aquire them...

[@Draliseth]

I remember every Christmas I'd get Batman toys (usually tied to the movies) and the vehicles would come with small Kenner brochures of other toys they have. I loved looking through them and dreaming of how cool the toys would be.

[@The_Texorcist]

I had basically all he Aliens toys as a kid, and along with the AvP toys and Terminator toys I would do AvPvT battles. Space Marines fighting waves of terminators and t-1000s and the whole group being swarmed by aliens only to be saved by the predators... aaaah such nice nostalgic memories.

[@Forcemaster2000]

I loved the Aliens toys! I'd bought several of the figures and the spaceship with "alien containment system" for my son who was six or seven years old at the time, he loved them too!

[@patricklacey4946]

Great video! I remember the toys and always wondered if they were from the movie or if there was a cartoon lol

[@justingoers]

This episode filled in so many gaps in my childhood mind. Thank you!

[@Tattoosandjorts]

8 year old me was denied this gem of a show. Had to finally settle for B. A. D in 1998.

[@markphillips4836]

I still own half of that OG collection. So many memories ❤️

[@ToyInsanity]

I was hoping for an Operation tie-in. You had to remove the facehugger and extract the chestburster with the little forceps without Bzzzzzzzzx

[@EwanMakeMovies]

Thanks for such a great video! Been fascinated by this franchise, toy line and proposed show ever since I got my 'Drake' figure on vacation when I was like 5 lol.

[@michaelthethird702]

I used to have these toys! And as I got older I always wondered what they were associated with, because they were sold so far after the release of aliens

[@coffeeelk6364]

Thank god for NECA! I love the look and style of the old line of Kenner toys. I just wish I was around at the time!

[@STEEVEWES]

Very nice video! I didn't know any of that

[@stephenjwarnecki7367]

Had most, if not all. Drake and hicks were common, Ripley was hard to find. I had the power loader, the plane, queen, Atax, I had them all. They came with a mini comic to tell a story, or part of one.

[@lamartherevenger]

Still kicking myself for not getting the Operation: Aliens collectors case a few years ago at RetroCon. Have to find the picture of it

[@mclockwork777]

Makes sense. I remember buying toys in Caldor based on the series with little comics like He-Man.

[@hilarioph]

Here is what happened in January of 1993 here in the Philippines. When they sell Aliens toyline from Kenner here in the Philippines many people say if there is an Aliens cartoon. But little they don't know it was based on the movie of the same name. If they show the plot footage of Operation Aliens. Chances are they know about this animated series since Rambo and Robocop. But this was so darker than every Saturday Morning Cartoon. I saw the steel plot episode image on Aliens Wikipedia

[@Xenomrph]

I still have all the Kenner toys, and the Operation Aliens board game and trading card set.

[@Mr.Jarbles]

Off topic but, a UV light to highlight your collection would've been cool for this episode. What's interesting about this is, you can sometimes see that different parts of toys come from different sources. Of two identical parts, one might fluoresce and the other might not. Could they be from two different factories, made from two different plastics, different paint formulas? Is one perma-colored and the other painted? It's just cool too, to see how one's collection glows.

[@DoraKage]

Me and my brother were so into these... We had... the Scorpion Alien (which we thought was the vanilla Xenomorph), the Gorilla Alien, The Flying Alien Queen, Atax (With the Alien Suit)... and pitted them against our GI Joes

[@AlmostAnimixers]

Hey, have you considered looking into Transtech for a future episode of Oddities? It was the planned third franchise in the popular Beast Wars/Beast Machines Transformers series. Concept art and prototype figures were developed and can be found online, but the line was eventually scrapped for unknown reasons in favour of just dubbing one of the Japanese series. Some of the concept art was refined for new figures in Transformers: Armada, and some of the prototypes even seem to have been retooled into Marvel superheroes as part of Toy Biz's Marvel Megamorphs line. Might make for an interesting episode.

[@SecretGalaxyTV]

There's so much weird Transformers stuff and we've covered very little of it. This is something we'll add to the list to look into. Thanks!

[@WarhammerGeek]

In terms of Kenner toys the Star Wars ones are cool and all but the Aliens line is my favorite to collect. Not only are they easier (and so much cheaper) to get your hands on but they are better designed and more creative. Kenner was notorious for getting creative with the names of SW characters that didn't have any in movie. The Alien toys were completely original. These weren't just characters from the movie renamed they were there own characters. It's a shame the show never made it off the ground because I'm curious how it would have went.

[@walterlucero5757]

The Alien toys got me curious to buy the comic Aliens: The Hive #4 back when I was 11. I read it and scared me so much I put it in the bottom of the stack of comics that I had at the time. Way at the bottom. An animated series would work today, but as an Adult Swim type of show.

[@Gappasaurus]

“generally non-consensual host”? Generally?! Lol wut? 😄

[@OptimusShr]

There are actually some people in the comics by Dark Horse that let themselves be impregnated.

[@DanielS2001]

Let's not forget the scene from the not-so-great Alien vs. Predator film, which shows that the Mayans (were they Mayans? I can't recall correctly) had willing sacrifices to become hosts to create the Xenos for the Predators to hunt. It introduced the sacrifice chamber in the temple in the Antarctic, which a whole bunch of unwilling hosts get introduced to at the worse possible time.

[@Gappasaurus]

well... wow 😳 can’t say im sorry i missed all that 😅

[@ericq9579]

Take me for example

[@egge5306]

Daniel S I mean that compared to having your entire civilization slaughtered by a race of muscular, technologically advanced hunters, it doesn’t sound as bad as sacrificing a few people and letting have a hunting trip

[@davidmurdock6098]

I would have been the exact target market for this if it had been made, and I'd love to have seen it!

[@owenhughes5781]

I remember being fascinated with these toys as a kid, they stuck in my mind for years and I was really confused when I got old enough to watch through all the aliens films and found no weird animal aliens.

[@mightyfilm]

On the subject of Toxic Crusaders, I once met Lloyd Kaufman at some Troma Film School promotion and had him sign an old pull out Toxie book poster. He seemed delighted that I even had it and even asked where I got it. I told him I grew up watching that series and always had it around. Really is a shame it didn't become the next TMNT, but it definitely didn't seem like an old shame like the other R rated cartoons seem to be.

[@rb4863]

I was a kid when I saw the Aliens display at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. I immediately fell in love and needed to learn everything I could about it. A chance encounter at Toys R Us saw me discover the toy line. I got every figure of every wave I could. All started with the bull alien. Still one of my favorite toy seta growing up.

[@HootsMcPoot]

I absolutely love the Alien and Predator figures! (And still have the Queen Alien in a box somewhere!)

[@LucatheDingo88]

when I was a young boy in the 90's I recall seeing the Toy commercials for these Alien figures, I even recall a friend who had the Genesis game based on the 3rd film. It was weird cause as a kid in the early 90's I had no knowledge that these toys were based on a series of R rated movies from before I was born. I recall seeing the 2nd film on TV when I was a teenager and thinking "is this where those 90's toys came from?" cause I remembered the toy commercials prior, but at the time not knowing about the film as I would have been to young to see it anyway. What's stranger is when discovering these Aliens toy commercials on KZbin later, I found myself thinking. These seem like abit of a departure from the source material. Almost like they were made from a children's cartoon spin-off that did not exist.

[@ryanblackwell6402]

That was one hell of an episode!

[@rjspires]

I saw those toys in store when I was kid, before seeing the any of films. Guess what, because of the toys I wanted to see the film and I managed to in '93 when TV stations re-ran the first 2 films in the run up to Alien 3 release in the cinemas.

[@benadrylthundercrotch7144]

As an alien fan, I'm weirdly proud of this.

[@Summertimeblues28]

Loved this Toyline. Kenner with another Win. Great video.

[@shanekelley9042]

I used to have a operation alien scorpion alien tee shirt...now I know where it came from. The design was awesome.

[@Daniel-os9tb]

Really surpised they didnt do a cartoon. They had a pop toy line and psycho comics. Everyone loved the comic minis that came with the bigger alien toys.

[@MarcelosToyRoom]

All I know is that the had a killer Mico machines line but the massive lab playset never got released :(

[@pbr-streetgang]

Thanks for the vid sir.👍🏼👍🏼

[@ejmarkle60]

There was also mini comics that were packaged with each of the aliens, space marines and vehicles

[@gmcmullins3251]

Good video. Thanks. Subscriber here. At this point with all the fan fiction and everything, someone should just make a pilot. Well Disney would just get involved. It would still be cool tho

[@defcon23]

Maybe your best work yet.

[@robertallen2109]

I would have loved an animated Aliens show as a kid. The Gorilla Alien was the first action figure I ever received, much to my parents dismay, and the Neca version sits on my shelf now. It started my love for Alien and everything else it touched. Strange how impactful a little toy line can be.

[@hthrun]

I loved the Robocop animated series, and the later one Robocop Alpha Commando. I didn't see the alien movies when they came out, but I saw an alien pinball machine and it scared the living daylights out of me.

[@valiantparagonvideos2383]

Wow I remember those toys I always wanted the Bull Alien but that's a wild backstory haha.

[@PsychoWerekitsune]

Oh boy, I didn't expect this to ever be a topic covered on here!

[@GreggNowhere]

I grew up in the UK and distinctly remember seeing merch for Operation Aliens. It was either backpacks or school lunchboxes or both. I don't think it means "this exists" more than I think it means Kenner made some merchandise in expectation of its production and then decided to offload it outside of the US when it didn't happen.

[@DonDiesel885]

this show would have been a blast, and considered a classic by now

[@markphillips4836]

The Predator collection was dope too

[@WhiskeyBrewer]

You've been sneaking around on the AVPGalaxy site haven't you. Edit:just seen the link. You sneaky sneaky