Reviewing Fanhome’s ‘E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial’ Build-Up Subscription Stages 106-110

The final box for my E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial Build-Up Subscription* has arrived from Fanhome. I know, right? This day has been nearly two years in the making. Every month for 21 months, a package has arrived with various bits and bobs of internal structures, gears, electronics, wiring, and skin, accompanied by informational magazines, and now it all pays off.

Build Stage 106

The 106th magazine features articles on the farewell scene, the Bigfoot costume from 1987’s Harry and the Hendersons, and the early eighties wave of mainstream comics aimed specifically at adult readers, specifically Akira, Watchmen, and The Sandman.

Assembly for this stage requires attaching Zrek’s right bicep skin to his shoulder, over the upper arm armature. This side is a little trickier than the left side because it has the wiring running down it for the LED in ET’s right forefinger. There is also some playing around to find the exact angle to have the arm and lining up the veins and character marks in the skin to get it positioned correctly. 

Build Stage 107

Articles in this stage’s magazine cover 80s culture in E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, specifically music, film, television, and fashion that are included and referenced in the film. There’s also a piece on iconic monsters of cinema, including the alien organism in The Thing and the Alien Queen in Aliens. The final submission highlights superhero comics’ shift to saga storytelling in the 80s with The Killing Joke, Days of Future Past, Year One, and Venom.  

The build stage itself is very similar to the previous stage, except it’s the left forearm. Line the pieces up, start tacking, verify fit and orientation, glue the rest of the joint.

Build Stage 108

The antepenultimate magazine has articles on ET’s lasting influence on film, animatronic costumes like Howard the Duck that require both an actor in the suit and a team of operators to control the head, and suspense horror novels in the 80s.

The build is identical to the last stage, except on the right side, made only slightly more difficult by the aforementioned wiring harness for that lit finger. 

Build Stage 109

This magazine opens with an article that heavily references Stranger Things. There are a lot of points made in the piece that I can fully get behind, like the fact that both ET and Stranger Things open with a group of kids playing Dungeons and Dragons. A few of the points made are a bit more of a stretch, like Mike’s connection with Eleven mirroring Elliott’s connection with ET. Zrek and Eleven both ran into their normie friends while escaping government entities, and both were snuck into the kids’ homes and kept secret from the adults with goofy disguises, but… Okay, fine. Maybe.

This build stage requires squeezing Zrek’s left hand armature into the left hand skin like a glove. Except you have to scrunch all the fingers together to get the glove on. Then the index finger needs attaching, and the hand needs to be secured to the end of the left arm. This is a little bit trickier than it seems, since it requires lining up the internal structures blindly. 

Build Stage 110

The final magazine has a piece entitled “A Final Farewell,” which talks about how various people associated with the film have been affected by their participation, a piece on the ‘future’ of animatronics, which rightfully should be titled ‘present,’ since it is mostly centered on the practical Grogu puppet from The Mandalorian, and a piece on 80s R&B.

The final build stage requires slipping that hand glove over the fingers of the right hand and attaching the right forefinger before connecting the right hand to the arm and sealing up the skin joint. I tested the right forefinger LED with that little battery pack they sent way back in the first box to make sure it was operating correctly before sealing up the joints on this one. I can’t even imagine what it would take to open up these skin pieces to make repairs at a later date. 

And with that, this build is complete. I had a lot of fun putting this little guy together. There were a few frustrating spots, but in the end, it all worked out. I do have some notes about the actual operation of some of the animations and sounds. 

On the remote control, there are twelve buttons. Buttons 1-8 operate individual movements and sounds. Buttons A-D trigger sequences of movement, sound, and light. One of the numbered buttons does nothing. I thought I may have wired something incorrectly or missed a step somewhere, but when I checked a couple other builders’ notes on the same build, they had the same issue. 

The phrases that this model will say are “ET, ET, ET,” “I’ll be right here,” ET phone home,” and “Be good.” I know this must have something to do with licensing, but it would have been really cool to hear an “El-li-otttttt” in there.

That’s all. Zrek is finished. To celebrate, I was going to drive him all over Bakersfield for photos in front of Buck Owens’ Crystal Palace, The Bluffs, Woolgrowers… but it’s very cold in Bakersfield this morning. We didn’t get far before turning back for home, where it is warm and toasty.

*Fanhome provides this subscription to me free of charge for the purposes of review.