"Best alien design." Topic
16 Posts
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| The H Man | 07 Oct 2025 4:57 p.m. PST |
Watched ID4. They must be the best alien design ever. The split bio casing is unique, the interesting take on a grey inside, the silver eyes, tentacles. Maybe Alien Xenomorph next, but it's just a guy in a suit. Probably face huggers are more unique. But the entire life cycle (whichever you choose) is very good. Gould are a good, but just a worm parisite really. Starship Troopers bugs are just.., bugs. The warriors are cool looking though. No 2s parisites are a fresh take. Tyranids were great. Now, a bit dull, just animal looking, sort of skeletal dinosaurs. The originals were truly alien, the warriors were just hard to look at, what are those things? Excellent. Up there with 1D4 for me. But not the new nids, very cool, but not very alien. Procardians. Time Trax. Unas. SG1. Visitors. V. The, um.., thing. The Thing. Ditto. The thing from another world. Schwing. I men, Species. Predator. Predator. Easily best costume. Slither. Looking at best creature design, uniqueness, interest, realistic in motion and texture and interaction. Looking at biological Aliens, not robots, just to keep it under control. |
Col Durnford  | 07 Oct 2025 5:51 p.m. PST |
The puppet masters. It always gives a smile when the female scientist tests for possession by showing some cleavage and if man doesn't take a peek he must be possessed. |
 etotheipi  | 07 Oct 2025 6:01 p.m. PST |
Ack ack ack. Ack ack-ack ack ack. ACK! ACKACKACKACK! Ack! Ackack ack ack!
Not to be out done by, "EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!"
… so .. basically things that sound like my mother-in-law? ;) I do like a good 50's brain monster alien. I love the classics!
But, for unique, we must not forget the web-footed space slugs
or the giant mecha-enabled goldfish of doom
Saving the best for last … G-Men!
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| Oberlindes Sol LIC | 07 Oct 2025 6:59 p.m. PST |
Brain monsters should be betting quatloos on the outcome of every die roll. |
 20thmaine | 08 Oct 2025 2:00 a.m. PST |
Best alien is the original Geiger alien design. Case closed |
 miniMo | 08 Oct 2025 8:39 a.m. PST |
Green Slime — and bonus points for coming with a killer theme song!
YouTube link |
| Panzerdillo | 08 Oct 2025 12:30 p.m. PST |
Does the ocean from Solaris count? |
| The H Man | 08 Oct 2025 5:43 p.m. PST |
Very good. Should watch that again. Just suffer the first half hour or so, it get really good. "Best alien is the original Geiger alien design." Not sure I know that one. H R Giger designed stuff for the film Alien, but that was just a guy in a suit. Face Hugger, chest burster, better. I was going to add to my op, but ran out of time: *** Not including masks. Not including people in rubber suits, or just prosphetics, like pointy or big eared chaps. Not basic puppet. So on. *** That why ID4 struck me. Not a man in a suit?? Not just a mask or stuck on bits. I guess the face Hugger was more than just a puppet, it was also the director's hands in gloves, a tray of sea food and stuff, so on. Still not entirely sure how ID4 was pulled off, without looking, a crane? Cables? It had a lot going on. Daleks have a great design, but are still just a prop, essentially. Much like mechanoids or warmachines. Brains are interesting, the ones from marinus especially, with the domes and eye stalks. Still pretty basic though. Maybe Krang in his robot body? Throwing a temper tantrum, of course, like someone else we know. Animal heads just aren't enough, although cool. Slime, water, trees of Luton, effective, but hardly inspired designs. Getting there, hopefully my clarification can push us in the right direction. Predator is the best suit I've ever seen, original of course, but it technically is just a guy in a suit. Like the alien head from alien, his cannon and mask and wrists have some cool stuff going on. So maybe they could sneek through?? ID4 is just alien though. Everything else here is obviously based on something, element, body part, human body. ID4 is unidentifiable. Only a very rough humanoid form for the wee chaps, to sujest a human vulnerability, and tentacles which are odd anyway. Remember, "best alien design", not favourite. Key word being alien, so humans with giraffe heads, while cool, aren't very alien. Reproduction, abilities, kit, so on can all play a part. But a medical kit with clamp and syringe, isn't very alien. Heck Beverly Crusher has more alien devices. Even my list sucks. I think we can do a lot better. |
| miniMo | 08 Oct 2025 7:11 p.m. PST |
No suits, prosthetics, puppets — so you only want computer generated or animation aliens? That's quite limited. |
| The H Man | 09 Oct 2025 1:52 a.m. PST |
I mean not just one. The more the better. I see the confusion though. Spock's cool, but as an Alien design, pretty boring. The alien queen had stop motion, guys in a huge suit rig, mirror effects, miniatures, so on. (Just had two huntsmen in a drum. Facehuggers aren't so alien anymore.) Really the multi effects facilitate better and more interesting design. There's only so much you can do to a person's face. Suits are limited. So on. But have a good mix and you can create more alien aliens. Generally only one effect will be more lack luster design wise. As good as they are. Miniatures and CG offer the most likely single effect designs that may work, but usually the better designs go hand in hand with bigger budgets and more effects. Obviously there are exceptions to this, Daleks are one example. I'm feeling ID4 and the Alien queen may be the top two from what I'm seeing. Tyranid older warriors and arachnoid warriors perhaps too. At least for truly alien appearances. Brains are good, but are just a bit simple and scream under designed. But what's better, that's the question. The thing is too easy, as it is just mutated bodies. Borg, guys in suits. Everything else seems to tick the boring box. We need more aliens. Actually, the kaled travel machine, is just that. So Daleks aren't really even aliens, the aliens are just blobby tentacles things, boring. Beats a clamp and syringe though, maybe. Predator has to win the suit division, but thats the dull bit. |
| forrester | 09 Oct 2025 4:43 a.m. PST |
Species 8472 from Star Trek Voyager?
Not remotely humanoid. Practical issues must inevitably come to the fore if you are looking at budget and how easily the alien can speak and interact with humans.
The Draconians in 70's Doctor Who were good, yes basicaly humans with makeup but they looked good and at least the actors could act. I think Star Trek was running out of possibilities for bumps and ridges on faces! |
| etotheipi | 09 Oct 2025 4:49 a.m. PST |
The Daleks were originally designed with the specific desire not to look like a man in a suit. And they don't. How alien is the idea of as species evolved into a "higher form" (Davros' concept, not mine) such that it cannot do anything, let alone just live, without a piece of technology? The idea is so alien, that you defaulted to the Dalek as the blobby organic bit inside, but not a true biomechanical hybrid. Likewise, the idea of an exterior brain is entirely alien to the evolutionary heritage of life on earth. Even before skeletons, nervous systems evolved on the inside of organisms. |
| miniMo | 09 Oct 2025 7:47 a.m. PST |
Star Trek TOS had some non-humanoids, for the best of them: Denuvan Neural Parasites, very creepy. Zetarians, sparkly energy clouds. Tholians, crystalline insectoids, more alien than your average bug. We finally got full-body CGI images come Enterprise.
Honourable Mention:
TOS Klingons, scrawny swarthy types with goatees (before they joined the Forehead of the Month Club) <3 |
| ZULUPAUL | 09 Oct 2025 7:49 a.m. PST |
etotheipi love your G-men I'm a big giraffe fan.
Paul |
| etotheipi | 09 Oct 2025 1:15 p.m. PST |
Thanks! Be careful … the last person to compliment the G-Men got my original set gifted to him. So, if you ever come down from Canada South to the Great Political Swamp … That said, highly recommend doing your own conversion. inlgames.com/gmen.htm This one was tons of fun to do, as well as to watch people when you field them. |
| The H Man | 09 Oct 2025 4:57 p.m. PST |
"Species 8472 from Star Trek Voyager" Good one. Had thought of it. But against ID4? "I think Star Trek was running out of possibilities for bumps and ridges on faces!" Correction, everyone thinks. Especially with other shows and films all pulling the same trick. "such that it cannot do anything, let alone just live, without a piece of technology? The idea is so alien," Go speak to a doctor or midwife. There are already animals, including humans, that have become dependent on technology to survive. If there habitat is changed enough, this could easily result in species wide dependence. Examples are hermit crabs in cans, birds collecting plastic, lyre birds mimicking chainsaws, animals using artificial water reserves, such as dripping taps. And many more. As for Brains, are they actually the Brains? Or just the thin outer coverings that we are seeing. Go watch Hannibal. On second thoughts… Even in aliens, if in regular environments, I doubt the actual brain tissue would be exposed. TOS. They were designing for the time, budget and resources available. As much as I love Trek, it really doesn't fit this. The films Borg queen? Much better. Animal head swaps are the least designed things here. Can we let them go? As cool as they are. |
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