You would of had to of literally been on another planet lately to miss the hype and popularity of Smok’s contender for vape device of the year, every one was after one, most vapers got one, I wanted one…
I could feel the sinister grin of the thing, goading me, enticing me, mocking me for not owning it…
but never one to follow the crowd I was almost completely over the idea, I was even offered one a few weeks ago for review but then told afterwards that stocks were depleted so they sent me something else, I then asked when they would be getting some more in?..to which they replied…
“well…they come at night mostly…mostly.”…odd thing to say i thought but fair do’s. Not one to argue I resigned to the fact that this would just simply pass me by.
But then… my good friends at Urvapin came to me with ‘We have some new stocks in, would you like see what all the fuss is about?’ …well…(sigh)…seeing as it’s Christmas.
Hello again my astronomically lovely space cadets, once more I bring to you some martian literature attempting to be more science fact than science fiction regarding a kit that has been hailed as device of the year by some, a perfect intermediate mod by others, or even a flaky painted over hyped sheep in wolves clothing by few, so today I get to find out for myself, which Alien is it to be, a Killer Xenephorph bursting through the chest cavity of this place we call Vapingdom…
…or is it merely E.T. in a dress…
Smok…Love em or hate em, you can’t not respect them for the plethora of vape devices this company has embellished us with this year alone, great innovators, amazing designers and a knack for giving outstanding performance coupled with a mass of technological features at a pocket friendly price point, and once more, they have done it again with the Alien, a 220w, duel 18650 TC powerhouse with pretty much every feature a vaper would want or need and in this kit form you get it married with the TFV8 baby beast, the younger sibling of the popular and well loved (by some) TFV8 Cloud Beast.
And it is indeed one hell of a marriage, the Baby beast can perform almost as well as it’s chunky steroid ridden brother and with 220 watts being shoved right up its poop chute it is just as happy to take that power and snarl in the face of anyone who dares call it a ‘Baby’
So let’s start by looking closely at the power behind this marriage, the Alien itself, it’s a fine looking mod, a lot smaller than I imagined and not as sinister as it’s name suggests, in fact I would go as far as to say that my first impression was a little less of the above, and a little more…
I’m not exactly sure where they came up with the name if I am completely honest, there’s nothing ‘Alien’ about it at all, it’s ultra compact, very user friendly, and I would even be so bold as to say…a little plain? sure you can get it in a range of colours to suit, but when you have the ETALIENS ET X2 with it’s Giger influenced looks then calling this the Alien is a little confusing…but…I digress…what indeed, is in a name, it certainly doesn’t take anything away from the fact that this is indeed a well made, well thought out Mod.
It has the full length fire button that Smok like so much, found on the G-Priv, H-Priv, XCube II etc although a little less obvious on the Alien I have always been a fan of it, and it feels a lot more solid on the Alien too, more a ‘part of it’ than it’s predecessors.
And once you put 2 of your finest high drains in there and press it, it soon becomes obvious what else the Alien excels at…user information, You couldn’t possibly fit any more info on it’s central OLED screen…
The feel of the Alien is solid, heavy, thick, it feels good in the hand and it will gladly fire any wire of your choosing, It works in both VW and TC, the Battery life is excellent and it’s small enough to fit right in your pocket so…ok…it does pretty much everything you would expect from a VW Mod in this day an age and does it well, but…why??..why the hype??..what is it that made other mod manufacturers cower in the corner when this came strutting out as the all singing all dancing Mod of the year…
Well…My opinion…and this is just my opinion…it’s because you don’t need anything else, they’ve taken everything that makes a good Mod and put it all together, they ‘listened’ to what people wanted, it’s highly portable, people used to smoke on the move not have a packet of cigarettes sat on a table at home because they were too heavy or bulky to take out with them, it’s very powerful, it’s very solid, it’s very easy to use, it shows you all the info you need at the press of a button instead of having to go through all the menus, It has an excellent battery life, it looks nice…it ticks EVERY box…
Except 1.
Now the only complaint I have ever really heard about the Alien I have heard more than once, and unfortunately in my 1 time experience I can absolutely confirm that it is true, The Alien is in fact, painted with whimsical hopes and dreams, ‘what on earth are you talking about?’ I hear you cry…well…
Bit rude…but still, I had the Alien for 1 day…1 fucking day…and this happened…
Didn’t drop it, didn’t slide it across a table or kick it across a floor, I merely put it in a padded zip bag with another mod…which incidentally came away without so much as a mild graze and has travelled in the same bag along with other mods for months without a scratch, Now…I’m not sure what went on inside that padded zip bag and I’m not sure I want to know… but I have now named my RX 2/3 the ‘Predator’
So yes, that paint is not very good, either that or it is so thin that it will faint and fall off if you so much as swear at it, which in my case has made me slightly dubious about taking it out with me, simply because I…like so many other vapers these days…kinda like their kit to look fresh, new and a bit…shiny, we like to show off our kits like a kid with a new toy, we personalise them, clean them, even polish them from time to time and when we see a scratch on our latest and greatest it kinda makes you
All that being said…I’m not about to lock it in a cage at home and never use it,
It’s still too good for that.
It is an absolute class mod and worthy of any collection, My problem with the paint is an annoyance, but a minor one, and it’s the only one at this point that is preventing me from giving it a perfect score, it’s just going to have to learn to get along with my other mods at home…
(sigh)…kids…
So…on with the show, what about the ‘Baby beast’ …as a tank in it’s own right, is it worthy to be the crown on the Queens head, well…yes…in a word…It’s built as you would expect…actually it is literally a shrunken version of the Cloud Beast in every way, I had them side by side and apart from the size I couldn’t see a difference…
Although… before we take a closer look I need to confess, I have a real issue with stock coils, I don’t like the cotton they use and i don’t like the taste, I’m a through and through Cotton Bacon snob and wanted to test this tank as I would normally…so I bought the Baby RBA for it…I absolutely cheated my ass off…whatevz…I’m still gonna use it, I kept in the duel claptons that came with it, 0.4 ohms on the pair, wicked it up and put it all together.
I started low around 45w, gave it a few ‘baby’ blasts, the flavour difference is immediately noticeable, the smaller chamber, chimney and drip tip all do as you would expect and concentrate the flavour production in this tank, the draw is also slightly more restricted so you do sacrifice on the plumes for this flavour but this in no way impedes it’s overall performance, I would choose to use this tank over many that are on the market these days and indeed of those that I own, It’s a 22mm 3ml flavour machine and is the perfect accompaniment to the Alien, compact, powerful, solid and practical.
A marriage made in hell.
So what’s in the box?..
Everything you would expect from Smok is the easy answer…
Alien 220 Mod
TFV8 Baby Tank
1 x V8 Baby – Q2 Core 0.4ohm dual coils (Pre-installed)
1 x V8 Baby – T8 Core 0,15 ohm octuplet coils
USB cable for charging / Upgrading
Replacement glass tank section
User’s manual
Bag of spares
Screen cover
And as for the specs of the overall kit well…it is Christmas after all, So on this occasion I shall gift them to you with a jolly smile …
Alien 220 Mod
Size: 85 x 44 x 28.4mm
Power Range: 6.0 – 220W
Voltage Output Range: 0.35 – 8.0V
Resistance Range: 0.1Ω-3Ω (VW) / 0.06Ω-2Ω (TC)
Temperature Range: 200-600°F / 100°-315°C
Minimum Kanthal Resistance: 0.1 – 3.0ohm
Minimum Temperature Resistance: 0.06 – 3.0ohm
Supports Nickel, Titanium, and Stainless Steel wire types
Intuitive OLED Display
TFV8 Baby Tank
Stainless Steel With Glass Tank
22mm in diameter x 53mm tall
E-liquid Capacity: 3.0ml
Standard 510 Threading
See…I see the words…but in my head all I hear is
All in all I would definitely recommend this to someone who was on the market for a solid kit and had a budget of around £60-£65 ($78-$85) to spend, I doubt very much that you could do much better with what is on the market right now in that price range…so there’s the answer, the answer to ‘why all the hype’ …It is simply …a very very good package, when the only fault is a slightly dubious paint finish and nothing else then…it’s damn near perfect.
If you would quite like to nab one of these excellent kits for yourself then as per usual I will save you the arduous task of using your fingers to relentlessly trawl the tinterwebz and point you here… Smok Alien 220w Baby Beast Kit 13% off and use code 12alien to get it even cheaper.
And be sure to hop on over to my house Steampugs to see how this amazing device scored against other bits of Vapeology 
I am off downstairs to play ping pong with the kids before they start ripping into each other again…
Merry Christmas to all my all lovely readers,
Thank you for sticking with my nonsense this year, your support has given me a warm feeling in my happy place that leaves me feeling kinda gooey…maybe not quite as much as this guy…
But gooey all the same.
Yours eternally vapeful
Pugs.
How did you find the rba? Because as 
