2 Warps to Neptune

As I’ve said before, Earl Norem’s work on HG’s Alien license, including the target from the Alien Blaster Giant Target Set and this, the 36″ tall jigsaw puzzle, is some of the finest in pop culture illustration. Artist Stephen Kick recently bought a copy of the puzzle, scanned every single piece into Photoshop, assembled the pieces, cleaned and restored them, and gave us a big, beautiful poster. The before and after images are above.

Go to Steve’s post to see more, including some GIFs of the entire process—it took him eight hours. And maybe drop him a line of thanks. The puzzle is not easy to come by, and, because of the size, it’s almost impossible to see quality images of the whole thing. Now, everyone gets to enjoy Norem’s work up close without spending a small fortune.

While you’re at it, check out Steve’s many other incredible designs, like this custom Boba Fett blaster, for instance.

One in a series of the bleakest jigsaw puzzles ever produced on planet Earth. Others in this format included the Space Jockey and the Nostromo in flight, but the real prize is the 250-piece, 36″ tall beauty featuring art by Earl Norem, who also illustrated the unforgettable Alien “target” from the Alien Blaster Giant Target Set (see it here on an episode of Toy Hunters).

The marketing of Alien was one of the strangest, most decadent moments in the history of toy licensing, and one of the greatest kid moments in the history of kid-dom. 20th Century Fox foolishly sold the license across the board expecting the film to come back with a PG rating, and ended up having to sell parents on one of the most violent movies ever made, and arguably the most terrifying.

I found a blurb in Starlog (below) detailing the scope (but not the extent) of the merchandising campaign. The only products I haven’t seen are the Don Post mask and the pajamas (!). One of the Roach t-shirt transfers is here, the Ben Cooper costume is here, and you can see the Kenner-produced “world’s ugliest doll” (a.k.a. the greatest action figure ever made) here.