Lol. I suppose the word large is relative. On a 17mm deck they would look big.
My Griffin 25 makes my framed staples look massive. And with only 4.5 wraps.
If they used a single piece, that's probably the problem. With 3+ cores you're creating grooves for juice to wick into and more surface area while keeping the mass pretty low. That's why I like 4x 28g cores. Less mass than 3x 26 but more grooves and surface. Paired with a 34/36g wrap, it starts to pull ahead of a typical fused clapton.
IMO, you're right. Not a "true" alien. Just thick ribbon with alien wrap.
When you start to fuse your own wire, give my little picture tutorial a read. I struggled with keeping the cores lined up till I started mixing different people's methods.
Scroll down till you see my posts...there's other good advice in there too.
http://vapingunderground.com/threads/need-help-with-alien-wire.132513/
3 cores are easier to alien than to clapton. The alien can be stretched to the point it doesn't need tension to wrap. Even 36g needs a bit of tension to clapton tightly. 38 and 40 would probably work better to clapton more than 2 cores.
