And we’re back with Day Two of Trek Week! The key to crafting any great screen rivalry is to create a villain worthy of the hero. In the case of Kirk, that wasn’t an easy task. But, thanks to a performance crafted by master thespian and scenery chewer, Ricardo Montalban, Khan not only held his own against Kirk on the big screen, but has become one of the quintessential villains in modern cinema. He’s so friggin formidable they made a whole movie just about his goddamn wrath. But we’re not here to talk about the movie, we’re here to talk about toys, so let’s take a look at Art Asylum’s take on Mr. Khan Noonian Singh.

It’s the exact same packaging that we saw yesterday with Admiral Kirk. The only difference is the bottom insert in the card is personalized with Khan’s name. Again, the presentation here is fantastic. I love the Starfleet insignia shaped bubble and the card art really takes me back to the 80’s movie poster stylings.

Yep, the back of the card is the same too! Lots of figures and many are now very expensive. One of these days I will have a full crew. I vow it… I will have the full crew!

Anyway… moving on to the figure…

Khan’s portrait fares much better than Kirk’s. The head sculpt is a pretty solid representation of Montalban from the film, right down to his outrageous 80’s David Bowie hair. It must have been a challenge to sculpt hair like that, but I think the guys at AA did a solid effort. I also appreciate that the long hair doesn’t impede Khan’s neck articulation.

The rest of the figure is ok, but I think it stumbles in a few areas and mostly the paintwork is at fault. His ragged Ceti Alpha 5 outfit is reproduced with nice detail. He has all sorts of patchwork bits on his tunic and the Starfleet pendant he wore around his neck is sculpted into the chest. He has his one gloved hand, because it was the 80’s and cool people wore only one glove. I also dig his wrist communicator with the sculpted wire running up his arm. His boots have sculpted fur lining and are surprisingly detailed, considering I don’t remember ever getting a good look at them in the film.

The paintwork, on the other hand, makes use of too much gloss, particularly on his tunic and his bare chest. It’s just not right and it’s at odds with the matte dirty finish on the bare arms and the matte paint on the face. It also makes him look more toyish than the Starfleet figures in the line, which make an effort to distinguish matte from gloss.

Khan features the same articulation as Admiral Kirk. You get a ball joint in the neck. The arms are ball jointed at the shoulders, hinged at the elbows, and have swivels in the wrists and elbows. The hips feature a t-crotch, and the legs have hinges in the knees and ankles, and swivels in the thighs. Again, there’s no articulation in the torso at all.

Accessories! Khan comes with one extra opened glove hand to swap out his fist. You also get his Ceti Alpha eel, a bowl of baby eels, and a pair of forceps. The eel and bowl are about what you would expect. They’re ok for what they are. The forceps should have been sculpted into an extra left hand, because it’s really tough to get him to hold them in any convincing manner. Still, apart from bundling him with a Genesis torpedo, I can’t think of anything else they could have given him.

If it sounds like I’m picking on Khan, I don’t mean to. He’s actually a pretty cool figure. Khan has got a great head sculpt and an ok body, which makes him the opposite of the Kirk figure. And, hey, if you have any kind of customizing skills and some matte paint, you can probably fix most of the paint issues with this figure by getting rid of the inappropriate gloss. I picked up my Khan figure at a Toy Show from the same dealer I got Kirk and he was also $20. Not bad. If you aren’t willing to spend deeply on a bunch of WoK figures, but want some representations of the movie on your shelf, Khan and Kirk are a great way to go.