All the new Alien's will be made with the same raw material and the same machinery, guaranteeing the same ol' cams everyone is in love with.

hopefully with better quality control....

I would expect FIXE would improve the quality control. Climbing companies (along with companies in other industries) know that reputation is your most important selling point.

Have to say, when I climbed in the gunks I liked them but I destroyed them too quickly. Moving out west I migrated away from them and know I climb with black diamond C3's and C4's. I find there are routes I've done where only C3's work. When Mike Sokoloff and I went to free climbing with 100% gear of Shangri-la (5.12d) in Sedona, the only reason why you could bypass the bolts were because you could get C3's in the cracks (all other cams are too wide).

cant wait i just wish i hadnt jumped on the master cams. Aliens are so much more confidence inspiring

Fuc$K*& A! FINALLY a replacement for my old (12yr+) Aliens. Nothing, has come along that has been at least an equal replacement. If anyone thinks otherwise its b/c they have either never climbed enough/or hard enough with Aliens.

Since no one has died hanging off FIXE gear, the odds are good that Q/C will be top notch.

I've found C3's to be equal to or better than Aliens in the Gunks, but I still have blue, green, yellow, and grey Aliens on my rack, paired with but not identical to similarly-sized C3's. The green Alien in particular fills a C3 sizing gap.

The narrower C3 head width means they go where Aliens can't.

i've only used c3s in the gunks once but i find on california granite that aliens go in where c3s wont as often as c3s go in when aliens wont. c3s however tend to be a bitch to clean from certain placements (which i guess can be a good thing if its the only thing between you and bad fall) and in some placements i think they rotate more.

I've tried to love the C3s, I really have, and I carry and place them all the time, but I find they have a frustrating tendency to rotate and then one of the lobes pops. Or to avoid this I have to place them so overcammed that they're hard to clean. If reports show these new "Aliens" feel much like the old ones I'll probably buy a full set with doubles of green, yellow & gray.

Love my black aliens. I have two. I fell on one so I carry the newer one all the time. I also have C3s and I like them. I used them to replace my aliens but i missed them so much I carry them too. Now I carry all five C3s, black through yellow Aliens and 1-4 Metolius TCU.

thats _a lot_ of small cams for the gunks

Adatesman, any plans to rip a few of the new ones apart?

No plans yet, as I have yet to see confirmation that this is actually true.

Please don't shatter our illusions all over again, man. If Fixe says they're good let's all just accept it, okay? All I care about is if they still feel like Aliens.

http://www.barrabes.com/revista/noticias/2-7100/fixe_faders-comienza-fabricar-alien-llegar.html

give it a rest already

Give what a rest, exactly? Empicard asked me a question and all I did was answer him. I have no plans to do anything with them other than possibly fondling them (read: I'm more than happy to put this mess far, far behind me). Now had I responded to the Barrabes report by posting results from the 30+ Aliens and Alien Hybrids I've had sitting here collecting dust, sure, I could see that as cause for telling me to drop it. But as I've said repeatedly, I'm long done with this mess and out of respect for Dave's passing and Nadia's attempts at selling the company I won't be sharing those results.

BTW, as far as I've seen the Barrabes report is the only thing saying Fixe will be making them. And given that there's been no confirmation from Fixe and a very reliable source had told me that they'd be coming from BD, I'm not convinced by the unsubstantiated Barrabes report. And FWIW, my whole problem was lack of QC and process control at CCH, so provided the design is picked up by a company with a history of quality product I don't see a reason to worry about it.

Looks like Fixe is working on updating their site as I type this. The pic and link is there, on their front page, but the detailed listing is not up yet:

http://www.fixeclimbing.com/en/index.php

GO

Well I guess that settles it then. :-)

i was just reminiscing about the good old days on the wall earlier today. i love/trust my aliens.

you could always stop reminiscing and get back in the game

Smikes post made me realize most of my gear is at least 10+ years old now.

at R&S. Even better than the real thing but $80. Yeah, $80.

In some of the larger sizes, I think Aliens are totally replaced by Totem Cams, which are now cheaper as well.

Purple Totem approx = red Alien
Yellow Totem approx = grey Alien
Blue Totem approx = yellow Alien

(sizing by memory here; I don't have my Aliens handy for comparison.)

The Totems have greater holding power, heads as small or smaller than the Aliens, are just as flexible, and offer the possibility of placements involving just two cams in desperate situations.

The green Alien is still an important Gunks piece that doesn't seem to me to be duplicated by anyone else. Smaller than that and I think C3's are a better bet.

Wait? The new Fixe Aliens are there now??????

They were going fast. Out of green, apparently. All rg's fault.

I bought a full set of Totem Basic Alien clones. I've used them a couple times; they are great! The workmanship seems topnotch and the action feels good. Today I bought a Fixe blue, and once they produce the black I'll be set.

Next, y'all will be wanted that pro to actually work. Ha! Imagine, the very thought.
Why, back in the day, we knew none of it was any good. Ha! Damnated younguns. Buying all kinds a crap when it shoulda been spent on beer! That's how it oughta be, ya know. What's it gonna come to?

How are the heads attached to the cable on the new ones?

Silver Brazed still? I can't imagine that would ever be a process that lends itself to high volume/cheap manufacturing. Well, at least not where the heads don't pop off. Anyone got a closeup of that cable/head junction?

Its not exactly cheap though at $80 a pop. I'd expect thatt Fixe would go with a process that they could stand behind, since the their reputation is at stake.

Cheap manufacturing and cheap sales price have nothing to do with one another. Maybe they make $79 dollars profit because its a poorly built piece of shit. Maybe they make $1.

I think that he meant that the brazing process isn't cheap or easy to do at high volume. had nothing to do with the price or profit.

It took me a while to realize this but there are two companies making Aliens these days: Fixe and Totem Cams.

You can get the Fixe cams at Rock & Snow for $80. They have Blue, Green, Yellow, Gray and Red.

http://www.techrock.es/index.php?mmod=shoptr03&file=list&cID=2

Totem Basic Cams are pretty much only available online for $60 with free shipping to the US (and 10% off if you order 5 or more). They have Green, Yellow, Red plus two Hybrid sizes.

http://totemcams.com/catalogue/index.php?id=1&f=2

It's been hypothesized that Totem can sell them cheaper since there's no middleman. Of course, pricing & mfr cost don't always go hand in hand, take cell phones or the Xbox. Sometimes pricing is set to drive demand or to drive out other competitors. TI Calculators is a classic business case for driving pricing to create volume which in turn drives mfr economies of scale.

That's 60 EUR not $60. 60 EUR is more like $80 as of today.

No, it's $60 U.S. I bought a full set.

I believe you. The website says "59,95 €" though.

60 Susan anthony's will get a totem to your front door

If you click on English at the top of the page you get prices in dollars. That's what I see, at least.