Wow - first off congrats to Aric on the pending new arrival! Best wishes for a happy, healthy mom and baby!

As for small cams, I followed Julie's pattern and put my aliens (black through red) away after reading some of Aric's test results. I invested in a set of mastercams covering the same size range, and so far I'm totally happy with them. I have tcu's also (I'm a bit of a gear whore, you can probably tell), and they come out if I have the need to double up in the small sizes.

I have C4s from .5 through 4 for the bigger sizes, plus a 5 tech friend that very occasionally gets used. (The .5 C4 overlaps with my biggest Mastercam, so sometimes one or the other gets left on the ground, but it seems to be a frequently used size for me, so I often carry both.) When I'm doubling up in bigger sizes (.75 through 4), I use forged friends.

All the talks about Aliens failures did not stop 26 people bidding on Ebay on a set of 5 used Aliens for $350 (as of now).

yosemite mtn shop had a half dozen of red and yellow (each) as of a month ago

The Mountaineer in Keene Valley, NY has (had) them too...or, so says their website. It says they're sold out, but I wonder why they still have them listed here.

The set of 5 Aliens on Ebay was sold for $610!!!

You forgot to add: "...to a moron."

I miss my Aliens... they were my favorite pieces....

But I've made due with C3's for the past couple years. The camstops make up for some loss of placement flexibility. But not by much. sigh.....

I'm hanging on to my full set of Aliens and hybrids though. Looks like I might be able to get a grand for 'em in a few years!

Here's an interesting XL sheet I put together on sizes and advertised break strengths. Assuming that Aliens fail at a rate lower than advertised, they still may be stronger that Camalots. How much can one bank on the quality of the testing done via internet guy vs CCH. CCH has had their machine testing by a 3rd party. Internet guy...

I have enough anxiety at the present moment to not trust either...

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4094/4762604955_12b06e1c20_b.jpg

Nice table. For a few wonderful seasons, just about all my regular partners but one had almost the same rack - Camalots from the little grey upward, Aliens from at least red downward, DMM nuts, and tricams. Now it's starting to diverge again, notably with one partner going to C3s. I just can't stand the rotation; I didn't like it with Metolius TCUs either.

I'm just about ready to redo my rack with the Metolius Master Cams. I've been carrying the blue and yellow for a couple of months now, and I think I can live with them. (I might still have to keep the grey Alien on my rack though, it's just too perfect sized to be replaceable.)

Your table, though, gives some food for thought. The Metolius 00 and 0 are rated only to 5 kN, and the blue to 8. Then they're all 10 from yellow upward.

I really like my blue Master cam, and the one below that too.