From the original series up through Enterprise, if you asked me what my favorite Star Trek is, the answer would probably be whatever one I happen to be watching right now. OK, maybe not Voyager, but there’s some love to be had there too. But, if you really pressed me for one definitive answer, it would probably be Deep Space Nine. It’s a series that clicked for me right from the beginning, has very few episodes that I would consider bad or skippable, and most importantly, I just love the characters so damn much. Exo-6 is giving us sixth-scale versions of the station crew with Captain Sisko already on my shelf, Odo and Kira on pre-order, and our friendly neighborhood barkeep and swindler, Quark arriving just a short while ago. There’s so many reasons to love Quark as a character. He represents a side of the Trek Universe that we rarely ever saw, and never before in a main character: The dark and smarmy underbelly. It would have been easy to write him as the crook with a heart of gold, but they didn’t go that lazy route. Yes, he’s a crook that usually does the right thing in the end, but it takes a lot of kicking and screaming to get him there. And he’s the perfect payoff for The Ferengi, a race that was introduced way back at Farpoint Station to be the main adversary of The Federation, an idea was abandoned after the first season. Not to mention Quark and Odo make up one of the best double-acts in history. And boy did I come very close to not pre-ordering this figure.

And there’s why. The solicitation photos for this figure looked absolutely awful and they even used a really bad one on the front of the box. The likeness is terrible and to me it just looks like one of the generic Ferengi from the first season of Next Generation. I held off pre-ordering until it started selling out everywhere and then I hit the panic button at a retailer that just happened to have a few pre-orders left. When I got the box in hand, I winced and regretted what I had done, but then I opened it and regret was replaced with delight…

The final release looks so damn fantastic! Quark comes out of the box all ready to pour you a drink and cheat you at the Tongo table. For a show that has a tailor as a regular character, I don’t really regard the costume designs on DS9 to be all that memorable, but Ferengi fashion is so gaudy and fine! Quark features his stained-glass style jacket with latinum clasp holding it closed over his multicolor vest, while green trousers disappear into his matching green rubber boots. The tailoring is immaculate and one of the things I love about these figures is it gives you a chance to see details you don’t always notice in the show. Like, I never realized Quark’s trousers had those narrow flaps running down the outside of the legs. On the downside, the suit has a snug fit around the Ferengi’s groin, making those wide stances a risk to popping stitches, so I wouldn’t try it. Also, the plastic boots hinder what ankle articulation is hidden down there. I suspect that will be an issue with Odo and Kira too, as they wear similar boots.

The portrait is such an unbelievable surprise, as I think it is an absolutely spot on likeness for Armin Shimerman in his makeup. You get a little part to the mouth showing off his sharpened teeth, his bulbous nose and darkened eyes, and a prominent brow that transitions into those magnificent lobes! It’s rare that you see improvement between the solicitation shots and the final product, actually its often quite the contrary, but in this case it looks like an entirely different head sculpt. I’d question what EXO-6 was thinking going with those original photos to sell the figure, but it did sell out rather quickly, so I’ll keep it to myself. Normally I’d say this portrait was a home run, but it’s more appropriate to say it’s like hitting it big at the Dabo table!

You get an interesting assortment of hands in that just about all of them are designed to work with accessories. And yes, that means no fists or generic relaxed hands. I can’t say the omission of fists really bothers me, as they aren’t really in character for Quark. You do, however, get a pair of hands designed to perform the traditional Ferengi gesture of greeting. Technically, the base of the hands should touch, but I wasn’t quite able to make that happen because of the padding in the suit. I feel like if I worked the material enough it could happen, but it would be a lot of effort to get him in a pose I don’t plan on using much. In any event, each of the hands have painted black fingernails, and I was never sure if Ferengi painted their fingernails or if that was the natural color.

Moving on to accessories, Quark comes with a lot of latinum. You get a big ingot, as well as some bars, strips, and slips. These are cast in a pleasing gold finish and have sculpted markings on one side and rough cut edges on the bars, strips, and slips. The opposite sides are left blank, and I’m not sure if that’s how they’re supposed to look in the show or if EXO just decided to detail one side. Whatever the case, they look great in his hand.

Next up, you get a Ferengi PADD. This is a nicely detailed recreation of the prop with a gold finish, raised Ferengi insignia on the back, and a sticker to depict the screen. He has a hand perfect for holding it, but as a word of warning, don’t let Quark convince you to put your thumb print on the screen without reading it first!

And finally, you get a bound copy of the Rules of Acquisition, along with a stylus. The book is a really impressive piece with a bronze sculpted cover that opens to reveal a bunch of individually printed pages inside. There are also two illustrated stickers on the inside of the front cover, I believe one of which is the Seal of the Ferengi Trade Authority. EXO went above and beyond on this one!

Quark comes with a left hand that is designed to cradle the book and it has a peg on the hand that fits into a peg hole on the back of the book. It’s not a terribly secure connection, but it does work, and a a few of the other hands are useful for holding the book in various ways. It’s hard to quibble about the accessories here, because you get a lot more than what came with the basic release of Sisko, and everything is well done. Still, I would have liked to see at least one bottle of booze thrown in. I do have an assortment of liquor bottles in this scale, but they’re all stupid hooman drinks and I’d like to get some futuristic space bottles for him.

As always, our final stop is the base and figure stand. EXO is going with the same stand for all of these figures, so you get a hexagonal transporter pad style base with a crotch cradle to support the figure. There is no name plate, but you do get some clips and a replacement base cover if you want to connect a bunch of stands together and make one big transporter base.

Wow, did this figure turn out great! Considering how EXO-6 has been nailing just about every one of these Trek figures, I probably shouldn’t have doubted them, but I’m glad I took a chance and was able to get that pre-order in before getting shut out. The retail here was $220, which is what I would consider the lower-middle end of sixth-scale figures these days, and considering the quality on display here, I’d say it was well justified. It would have been really cool if they did a Deluxe release with a lot more accessories, because there’s so much more that could have been tossed in, including the previously mentioned alien bottles, his hacking kit of isolinear rods, or one of them lovely Dabo Girls. OK, that last one is asking too much, but still! Right now I can’t wait for Odo to ship so I can have those two on the shelf together!