Much more interesting than the novelty figures is what I found in the 1983 LJN catalog below: an unproduced spaceship playset.
Not a great picture, but you can see how big it is (10 lbs!), and I’m impressed by the imagination that went into it—I always wondered what the inside of E.T.’s ship looked like. I don’t think the set would have sold, not even in 1982, because there were no action figures to go with it. Elliott shows up only once in the line, and he’s attached to a silly bicycle toy. By trying to appeal to the whole family, LJN lost the boys.
Articulated figures of Elliott and his friends with accompanying race bikes (BMX was huge at the time) and jump sets might have done some damage. For bad guys, throw in the dude with the keys and some FBI agents with shotguns. (Not walkie-talkies, Steven Spielberg—shotguns.)
2 Warps to Neptune 
yeah i was big into e.t., then…no toys? I got a knock off plastic figure that his finger lit up blue (ha!) and some of these. I would have been pretty happy with a gijoe style elliot and et, like you said maybe some bikes….that couldn’t have been so hard and I would have bought all of them! The spaceship just looks too girly and child-ish, I would not have been into it. But thanks for posting, I’ve never seen it!
You’re right. It does look kind of like a dollhouse.
Like your top photo, there was also a “B” set (the one you have pictured is the “S” set) and one with the family (Elliot, Gertie, Michael, Nasa spacesuit guy and someone else… maybe “Keys”. It is SUPER SUPER Rare and have yet to see it more then once in my life.
http://www.iLoveET.com