Oct 18 2012

Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan: “Regula-1” Kirk by Art Asylum

I realize that I’m not being terribly original when I say that Wrath of Khan is my favorite Star Trek movie, but it’s also one of my favorite go-to films when I want to watch a good sci-fi flick. I love the story, the script, and most of all, I absolutely adore the costumes and props. Ok, the communicators are shit, but apart from that, this movie is represents the High Renaissance of the Star Trek Universe for me. It was the meeting of the gritty old stylings with newer flashier special effects, and it was glorious. The transporter and phaser effects are breathtaking, but the Starfleet uniforms! God damn, I love these uniforms. But we’ll talk about those another time. Today we’re looking at “Regula-1 Kirk”, and he’s all about that bad-ass Landing Party jacket. I picked up this figure at the Show loose. He was baggied with all his parts, but no packaging, so instead of packaging, we’re going to take a look at the movie poster, which is something else I picked up from this Dealer.

The poster I got is a repro, and it’s still rolled up in a tube, but that’s it pictured above. By, God, but that was the right way to do the poster for Star Trek II. It was Paramount’s way of saying, “We know the first movie bored you to the point where you wanted to commit suicide in your theater seats. But check this shit out!” It’s got explosions and phaser fire and some dude we don’t know yet who looks like he may have just stabbed the hell out of Kirk. There’s mysterious desert people and I’ll be damned if that ain’t Paul Winfield screaming his ass off in a space suit. I saw the poster at the theater when I was about 11 years old and it almost blew my little mind, because I wanted to see what was going on so bad. This poster just captured everything that it meant to be Star Trek and awesome at a time where Starship bridges weren’t carpeted and Earl Gray Tea was served at book clubs and not on Starships. God, I love this movie!

  

Art Asylum did a lot of versions of Kirk from Wrath of Khan, and eventually I hope to look at all of them. But, as you can see, this one is called “Regula-1” Kirk as it’s based off the scenes where he beamed onto the Regula-1 Space Station only to find out that Khan had tortured and murdered the shit out of everyone. The idea of having special gear for landing party duty wasn’t often explored in the original show, but it made sense to me, and that’s where this jacket comes in. The jacket is just bad ass and Kirk being Kirk needs to wear it with the collar up to make him look a little extra bad ass. The jacket is wonderfully recreated here, with all its little patches and pockets and stitching and some very nice paint detailing. Like so many of the designs for TWOK, this thing not only looks cool, but also totally functional. Ok, except maybe for that huge pouch over the ass. How would you get anything out of that? The large Starfleet shoulder patch is present as are the rank insignia on the sleeve, the distinctive diamond pattern on the back, and the Starfleet insignia on the chest. The legs are pretty much the same as the ones used on the regular Wrath of Khan Kirk, with the red piping down the sides and high gloss black paint used for the boots.

  

And then there’s the head sculpt. Yeah… there’s definitely some Shatner in there, but it isn’t one of Art Asylum’s best pieces of work. One of the running themes of TWOK was about Kirk getting old, and that’s kind of ironic in retrospect, since it wasn’t so much a theme more than 10 years later when he was still chasing around the galaxy. I mention it here, because at certain angles, this Kirk head looks a bit older than Kirk from Star Trek II. Everything else here is pretty good and the painted flesh tone is thankfully free of any dirt or smudging. Kirk even has his trademark 24th Century (read early 80’s) pointed sideburns.

Alas, as good as the jacket looks; it really destroys a lot of the figure’s articulation. The head and arms are fine, as you get a ball jointed neck, ball jointed shoulders, swivels in the biceps and wrists, and hinged elbows. The leg articulation is all still there, and includes swivels in the thighs and hinged knees, but with the jacket extending down to his legs, you really can’t do anything useful with it. It’s kind of ironic, since this is supposed to be the action-packed, “I’m gonna beam down and kick your ass!” Kirk, but given the way the figure is built, I guess it’s understandable.

“Regula-1” Kirk comes with lots of extra hands. You get two replacement sets, and as is often the case with extra hands, I don’t find a lot of need for them. One is sculpted with the comm bracelet that he takes off of Chekov and screams the infamous“KHAAAAAAAAN!” line into. It’s a cool bonus. The other set seems to be slightly better at holding the gear, but not enough to make me want to swap them out. As for the other accessories, you get a phaser and a communicator. The phaser seems to be the same one that came with my Motion Picture Kirk and Spock, which is fine because the prop was more or less the same. The communicator actually opens and closes, and it feels like it’s sized down a bit, which turned out great because the communicators in the movie were ridiculously large and clunky.    
                                                                           

I love this figure as much as I always knew I would, but I also knew that once I bought one Wrath of Khan figure, I would be committed to getting the whole set, and considering that a lot of them were SDCC Exclusives, these figures tend to be more expensive than your average Diamond Select Trek figure. I was able to get MOC Khan and regular Kirk from the same dealer, without getting beat up too badly (I won’t get to those this week, but soon), but those were regular releases and not exclusives. I’ll probably just try to hunt down one of these a month until I’m done.  

Tomorrow, we’ll wrap up the week by looking at a couple more of Playmates’ Classic Trek figures: Harry Mudd and The Mugatu!

Oct 17 2012

Star Trek Classic Series: Nurse Chapel and Yeoman Rand by Playmates

Back when Playmates first dabbled in The Original Series by releasing the Classic Bridge Crew, I assumed it was just a really cool one-shot deal. But as their Trek line swelled in popularity, they eventually started releasing all sorts of figures from the Classic Series and movies. Today we’re going to check out two members of the Enterprise’s extended crew, who were high on my want list: Nurse Christine Chapel and Yeoman Janice Rand. These ladies were some of the very few recurring crewmembers in Classic Trek that weren’t part of the senior officers or bridge crew. Rand went on to make return cameos in several of the Trek feature films, while Majel Barrett (aka Chapel) had a little thing of her own going what with being Mrs. Gene Roddenberry, Troi’s mom, and the voice of just about every goddamn computer in the Federation. Let’s start with Nurse Chapel…

I have no idea what specific line this figure falls under. Playmates’ had so many different lines of Trek figures going, you’d have a better chance of selling contraceptives to a Tribble then working out where some of the figures belong. The card simply says Star Trek in the classic film font, but if you look on the back she’s pictured with other figures under The Original Series font. Does it matter? Only to my OCD. The front of the card has a pleasing deco, that’s pretty subdued compared to some of Playmates’ other cardbacks, and it shows off the figure very well, with her Skybox Collector Card next to her. The back panel of the card, on the other hand, has a lot of stuff going on. There’s shots of other figures, a catalog of Chapel’s gear, and a file card, which gets major points for mentioning Roger Korby and Exo III from the episode, “What Are Little Girls Made of?” I do, however, take points back for the card claiming she had command potential. Then again, if Janeway could become an Admiral for losing one of Starfleet’s most advanced Starships for 7 years, why not make Chapel a Captain?

Chapel reuses some parts from the Original Series Uhura figure, most notably the legs, skirt, and possibly the upper arms. The top of the torso is, however, new as it features a lower neckline for her uniform. The head sculpt is ok for Playmates standards. It’s not one of their better likenesses, and I doubt a lot of people would be able to identify her by the head alone. That having been said, the hair looks pretty good and the paintwork on the face is solid. Overall, it’s a simple and attractive head sculpt, so I’ve got no complaints.

Chapel comes with a bunch of bright blue accessories, which include a Tricorder, an Anabolic Protoplaser (gotta have one of those!), a Hypospray, and a Medical Scanner. She also comes with a display stand, which I take issue with because it has a Red Cross on it. I realize she’s medical staff, but she should have the same Science Department emblem on her stand as McCoy and Spock. Hey, I’m a Trekkie. I nitpick. That’s what we do. Moving on to Yeoman Rand…

Janice Rand comes on the same style card as Nurse Chapel, and I’ve spent enough time trying to noodle out the card style and series, so there’s not much new to say here. The Yeoman rating seems to have dropped off the board in Starfleet since the days of Classic Trek, but that’s not surprising since Rand’s duties seemed to center around bringing coffee to the Bridge Crew and getting leered at by the Captain. Nonetheless, Yeoman Janice Rand got a fair amount of face time and even got to beam down with the Landing Parties every once and a while. She even landed a nice gig as Comm Officer on board the Excelsior.

Rand shares some parts with the other Classic Trek gals, most notably the skirt, legs and possibly the upper arms. Playmates could have easily gotten away with reusing Uhura’s torso too, but this is a new sculpt as the insignia is slightly further away from the collar. The head sculpt is pretty solid, and I think this figure is a lot closer in likeness to actress Grace Lee Whitney than the Chapel figure was to Majel Barrett. She’s even sporting her 24th Century (read 1960’s) beehive hairdo!

Janice comes with some great accessories. Besides the same Phaser and Tricorder we’ve seen with the Classic Bridge Crew, and they actually have paint apps! She also comes with a very cool Classic Trek PADD and a Tricorder. Best of all, her gear is all cast in an appropriate black plastic, meaning that Tricorder is going to be handed around to a lot of figures in my collection. She also has a Skybox Collectors Card and a Starfleet-style stand.

Both ladies feature the same points of articulation. The head turns, the arms rotate at the shoulders; there are swivels in the biceps, hinges in the elbows and knees, and a swivel in the waist. The construction of the skirt means no upper leg movement, but all in all what’s here isn’t bad.

It still blows my mind that these figures exist. Granted, they were released as part of the 30th Anniversary of the original series, but we all know how hard it is to get female figures on the pegs these days. And yet here we have a couple of chicks… from a 30 year old TV show… in skirts… and one of them has a beehive hairdo! For that you just got to love Playmates, because this kind of thing just wouldn’t happen today. At the Toy Show, I dropped $15 a piece on these ladies, which is quite a premium for Playmates Trek figures, which you can usually pick up for about $5 a pop mint on card. Nonetheless, it was well worth it to have them in my collection.

Tomorrow, we’ll get away from Playmates for a day and take a look at some of Art Asylum’s work.

Oct 16 2012

Star Trek: The Next Generation Collectors Case (and Generations Figures) by Playmates

Most of the Star Trek stuff I got at the Toy & Collectibles show came from one dealer, but today we’re looking at something that came from somebody else who just happened to have a Next Generation Collector Case with some of Playmates figures from the Generations movie. I wanted the Collector Case so I could get rid of the trays and store my baggied Next Gen figures in it. The fact that  figures came with it was just a nice bonus… Let’s start with the case…

Collector Cases! If you are a child of the 80s or 90s, chances are you remember these vinyl and cardboard relics from the greatest decades of action figures. Almost every line of figures had them, and there were even cheesy generic ones themed for your fantasy, space, or robot figures. They were simple cases, usually with a locking clasp and a carry handle and while they didn’t usually hold all that many, they were sufficient for you to tote some of your figures over to a friend’s house so your toys could kick the shit out of their toys in epic backyard battles. This Next Generation case by Playmates was released toward the end of the Collector Case era, but it’s still a perfect example of what these things were all about.

The charm of these cases is all in the artwork. Some were amazing and some were downright terrible. I think this Next Gen one falls right about in the middle. I love the giant illustration of the Enterprise on the front along with the Next Gen logo. I’m not as keen on the little window with the photo of the crew. I think if you’re going to go with the animated look, you shouldn’t mix media like that. The reverse panel is a “clean” image of the front without the photo, and I think it looks much better. The spine of the case also has individual headshots of the crew. Hey, at least they didn’t put goddamn Guinan on it! All in all, I think this is a very attractive case that captures what Playmates’ Trek line was all about.

This case was meant to stand upright and has a locking clasp on the side and a carry handle on the top. Open it up and there are were two flimsy black plastic trays inside, each one meant to hold six figures and their accessories. You could probably get more than the suggested 12 in there with the trays, but once I deep sixed the trays, I was able to get all my Next Generation era figures into it. Now I just need a second one for all my Voyager, Deep Space Nine and Classic Trek figures, since Playmates never made Collector Cases for any of those lines. Boo!

Originally, the cases didn’t come loaded with figures, but that’s sometimes one of the benefits of picking them up second hand. Mine came with eight figures, and all except one (Major Kira, who we’ll save for another day) are from the Generations movie, which is cool because I didn’t have any of these yet. The lot included Picard, Data, LaForge, Crusher, and Troi. No Worf or Riker, but I’ll surely hunt them down later. The Klingon sisters Lursa and B’Etor were in there too. The Enterprise crew seems to have most of their gear, but the Klingons only had their stands.

Before getting into the individual figures, let’s talk uniforms! Generations was an odd movie, as I’m pretty sure it’s the first time I saw a feature film re-use sets, costumes, and even actual stock footage from a TV show. The movie was originally supposed to feature all new Starfleet uniforms. In the end, they wound up using a weird mix of the regular Next Gen uniforms and the black jumpsuits used on Deep Space Nine. It was like Starfleet issued a decree that said, “Wear whatever the hell you want, we don’t care anymore!”

Nonetheless, Playmates’ Generations figures were based on the new uniform concepts, not what was used in the film, and so we got a set of figures in uniforms that have never been seen on screen and I suppose are technically not canon! Honestly, they’re very similar to the regular Next Gen uniforms with the addition of the classical naval-inspired flap on the front and a few other little tweaks and bobs. The addition of rank stripes on the sleeves is a nice nod back to older Trek and overall, I like these uniforms a lot. The uniform snafu probably worked out better for Playmates as the alternative was to just repackage the Next Gen figures on Generations cardbacks. With all new sculpts, it gave collectors an excuse to buy the characters again.

Unfortunately, Playmates decided to nix about half their standard articulation for this line. It’s as if Playmates got the memo halfway through production that the uniforms weren’t even going to be used in the movie and in blind rage they just said, “Sculpt them, kick them out the door, and to hell with articulation!” These figures each feature the basic five points (neck, shoulders, and hips) with a swivel in the waist. Gone are the bicep swivels, and hinges in the knees and elbows.

Playmates dipped into the usual bin of outlandishly colored accessories for the figures. I’m pretty sure most of what’s here is all reused from the regular Next Gen line, which in fairness is appropriate since the equipment in the movie used most of the same TV props. As usual I’ll toss in my lament about how I wish they just sculpted all the gear in grey plastic. Each figure also comes with a personalized display stand based on the new comm badge design used for the movie and for Voyager.

I don’t have a lot to say about Picard, other than he looks great. His head sculpt seems the same as the Next Gen version I have. He comes with his prized Picard Family album, a computer terminal and a tricorder. His stuff is molded in a blue, which is totally inappropriate, but not as vomit inducing as some of the other colors Playmates has used in the past. I’m guessing he originally came with a phaser too, but he’ll have to borrow one from one of my other figures. All in all, this Picard is a very cool figure.

Next up is Data. I’m very keen on this version of Data, since he doesn’t have the giant monkey arms that the regular Next Gen figure suffered. The head sculpt looks a bit tweaked too, or at least the mold came out better than my other Data. This guy came with a Tricorder, a PADD, and a Stafleet Monitor and naturally, they’re all cast in neon purple plastic. Why not! He also comes with a silver phaser, which I will be clipping the beam off of shortly.

LaForge is also looking good. The paint on this figure’s face is better than my regular LaForge, and it’s cool that his VISOR is still removable. He comes with three bright blue engineering tools and I have no idea what they are. I know the figure originally came with some more stuff, but I’m cool with what I got.

Dr. Crusher seems to use the same head sculpt as my original Next Gen Crusher, which is cool because it’s a pretty good sculpt. One thing I’m not too keen on is the difference between the male and female uniforms. The black from Crusher’s pants extend all the way up to just under her chest, and she doesn’t have the sculpted flap for her tunic, making it look like more of a jumpsuit. I’m not sure if they did this to make the uniform look more slimming for the ladies, but I’d rather they were all the same. Crusher comes with a Tricorder, a Medical Case, and a Portable Medical Computer, all cast in bright blue plastic. She’s also got a silver phaser… Yeah, I think I’ll be snagging that for Picard.

Troi has the same issue with her uniform design as Crusher does, apart from that she’s looking good. The head sculpt is so much better than the travesty used for the first Next Gen Troi release. (I have a theory that the same person who sculpted the first Troi head used to work for Toy Biz and sculpted the fright face they used for Rogue’s head in their 90’s X-Men line.) Troi comes with a Computer Terminal, a Tricorder, a Portable Computer, and a PADD, all cast in pink plastic.

And then there’s Lursa and B’Etor. The Duras sisters originally came with a shit load of Klingon weapons, but mine only came with the stands. I think the sculpts and paint on this pair are pretty darn good, although one might argue that Playmates went overboard with the Klingon cleavage, especially for what are still essentially kids toys. On the downside, the molded plastic skirts mean that these figures have even two fewer points of articulation then the rest of the line.

This whole lovely lot set me back a mere twenty bucks, which I thought was a pretty solid deal. I’ve got a pretty sizeable collection of Playmates 4 ¾” Trek figures, so the fact that I only had one out of the eight figures in this lot made it feel like it was meant to be mine. Sure, these some of the accessories are missing, but I rarely ever display these figures with their f’ugly rainbow gear anyway.

Tomorrow, we’re going to check out two of the ladies from Classic Trek… Nurse Chapel and Yeoman Rand.

Oct 15 2012

Star Trek Generations: Engineering Playset by Playmates

Much like the Tatooine Skiff, I featured yesterday, this Engineering Playset by Playmates has been on my want list for a long, long while. I’ve scouted it on Ebay a bunch of times, but a lot of the time, it’s loose and the stickers look like they were put on by a maniac, so I’ve been holding off for the right time. That time happened to be at the Toy Show last week, when I found one that was complete in the box. Granted, The Next Generation Bridge Playset is my true grail from this line, but I thought I’d start small and work up to it. Let’s take a look…

I could have sworn this playset was first released in standard Next Gen packaging, but I haven’t been able to back up that recollection. Either way, this one comes in a Generations style box. There’s some decent artwork and lots and lots of photos and text about all the features on this little set. In truth, there aren’t really that many features, but the box does its best to call out every little thing, and you get a pretty good idea about what’s inside. I really wish I had taken some shots of the set straight out of the box, but I was so excited to get it together, I didn’t take the time. Needless to say, the set comes with some assembly required, but chances are it will take longer for most people to put the stickers on then it will to throw up the walls and get this baby together. You’ll also need a set of three AA batteries to get the full lights and sounds experience. Thankfully, the entire thing can be disassembled and returned to the box for storage, which is always a plus in my book. I should note here that there are some stray paint marks here and there on the plastic, making me question Playmates’ QC on this piece, but it’s nothing too bad.

Playmates had to tinker around with the scale a little bit, so what we’re actually getting here is an interpretation of Engineering, but what’s here is very well done. The biggest issue collectors are likely to have is the small size of the Crystal Chamber, but the way it’s tucked inside the separate room it sort of creates the illusion that it’s further away. It doesn’t look all that out of scale until you put a figure right next to it, and that isn’t much of a problem as there isn’t much room for figures in the area where the Warp Core is located.

No, the bulk of the play environment is the area outside of the Crystal Chamber. You get a couple of work stations that will be readily familiar to fans of the show. It’s the area where LaForge and Data usually discover and trigger the Deus Ex Machina that allows the episode to resolve itself in the last five minutes before the credis roll. The control panels are all stickers, which perfectly replicate the LCARS displays from the show and there’s a stool so Geordi can take a load off while working. There is one panel with some actual buttons, which we’ll get to in a moment, and another flip down panel that reveals another workstation off to the side. Two doorways lead into the area with the Crystal Chamber. Sadly, there’s no actual window above the main control station like there is on the show.

As already mentioned, the interior area is pretty small, so there’s not a lot of stuff to do in there. The hatch to the Chamber does open and you can put the included Dilithium Crystal inside, which is essentially the same accessory that has been included with a number of Next Gen figures already. The Chamber looks pretty show accurate, and I really like the translucent plastic used for the power tubes.

The lights and sounds are activated by switching the on/off button under the main work station and pressing one of the two buttons on the panel. Pressing one will activate the normal rhythmic pumping of the Warp Drive and a pulsating light in the chamber. The second button will sound alarms and force the pumping to get faster, simulating an impending Warp Core breech. By inserting the included probe accessory (or the tip of a pen or any other pointy object) into the hole on the console, it will trigger the on/off button and stop the breech. It’s both cheesy and clever at the same time. The sounds on the playset are quite good. The lights aren’t bad either, but I do wish they extended out to the power transfer tubes and not just the main chamber. Nonetheless, this thing looks and sounds really cool when it’s activated.

No doubt, this piece is a very simple playset, but I absolutely love it. Sure, it would have been cool if Playmates could have worked that big Engineering console table from the show into it, or the wall that has the giant panel with the cross-section of the ship. It would have tripled the size of this set, but seeing as how Playmates designed this one to connect to the Bridge, they could have easily released another Engineering set to connect with this one. But, now I’m getting crazy and I suppose I should be happy we got this one. The dealer at the show had it marked at $25 and since one flap of the box was open, he didn’t have any problem with me opening it up and checking that it was all there. I didn’t bother haggling and just added it to my pile. Even when I’ve come close to buying it on Ebay loose, it was about the same amount with shipping, so I was pretty happy with the price. When you look at the travesty of “playsets” that Playmates did for the 2009 movie, one can’t help but look back to something as simple as this piece and yearn for the good old days.
Tomorrow, we’ll take a look at a sweet Collector Case and some Generations figures.

Oct 14 2012

Star Wars Power of the Force 2: Tattooine Skiff by Hasbro

As promised, it’s the second part of the weekend where I cross a long coveted toy off my list and add it to my collection. Can this thing possibly live up to nearly 30 years of expectations?

Wow, this thing comes in a pretty big box! One might say an unnecessarily big box, because about half of it is just for presentation. There’s a gigantic window to show off the Skiff, which is mounted against a cinematic backdrop, with a little pop-up Sarlacc on the bottom. Alas, it’s the shitty ret-conned Sarlacc that looks like Audrey 2 from “Little Shop of Horrors” and not the cool foam-core-sand- vagina used in the original movie. The included Luke Sywalker figure is posed standing at the bow of the Skiff with lightsaber drawn. The back of the box has some stills from the movie as well as a big photo of the toy to point out the various play features. The side panels show the scene from the movie recreated with figures, which is very cool.

If you’re a mint-in-box collector you probably love this packaging, if you’re not, then get ready to have some fun getting the toy out of the package. The Skiff is held on with super, double-enforced zip-ties, which are wrapped inside some kind of impervious, clear zip-tie sleeve. I can’t recall ever encountering these things before, but they’re the kind of things the FBI would use to take Hannibal Lecter into custody. They are literally thicker and stronger than a lot of parts on the actual toy. I had to pull out the heavy duty wire cutters to get the toy free without risk to the railings. When you do finally get the Skiff out, you find that the Luke figure is secured to the railing with a cthuluesque web of twist-ties that cannot be cut because they’re so tightly woven around the frail plastic railings. I’m not going to crap all over what is a beautiful presentation on Hasbro’s part, but I would have preferred the toy come in just a regular box so I could pop it back in to store it, not to mention avoid having to deal with all the twist-ties. Still, it was damn tempting to try to save the box, but space concerns being what they are, I had little choice but to pitch it.

 

Once the Skiff was out of package, freed of all its tethers and in hand, I have to say I really am thrilled with this thing. Make no mistake, it’s a very simple toy, with no electronic lights or sounds or any of that jazz. There are a few play gimmicks, and we’ll get to those in a bit, but none of them mar the toy as a display piece. Sure, the Skiff is not exactly to scale, but it’s certainly close enough that you can load it up with all the key figures from the scene. I can comfortably fit three of my Skiff Guards as well as Luke, Han and Chewie. The sculpt and coloring on the toy are both particularly well done. There’s a lot of black, weathered paint laid over the greenish plastic as well as some silver metal rubbing. You also get a few well-placed laser blasts sculpted into the mold. For a late 90’s toy, refurbished using the mold of a mid 80’s toy, Hasbro did a very nice job on this piece. It not only holds up well, but I’d say it even surpasses some of the Star Wars toys we’ve seen in recent years.

My favorite action feature on the Skiff is the retractable landing gear. Not only does this feature allow you to stand it so it’s “hovering” off the ground, but it’s so well integrated into the toy and allows the vehicle to stand quite well. A clear stand would have been cool, but I appreciate that the legs are molded to look like actual landing gear the vehicle might have and they are actually deployed by one of the levers at the pilot’s station! I can’t think of too many Star Wars toys where the vehicle’s actual controls perform a function on the toy. The other lever deploys the gangplank, which once extended all the way drops the tip down to eject the prisoner. I could have done without the floppy end gimmick, but otherwise I really dig the gangplank.

Other action features include levers on the back that turn the two rudders in unison, two drop down side railings, and a spring-loaded deck plate that actually ejects a figure off of the Skiff. There are also some holes in the center block on the deck, which I presume are for storing the guards’ force pikes. Overall, I think my only gripe here is that I would have liked some more foot pegs on the deck. Thankfully, I have an neigh endless supply of blue tack.

As mentioned, the Skiff comes with an “Exclusive Luke Skywalker” figure, which is appropriately enough, the version of him in his black Jedi garb. The figure seems to be actually kit-bashed from parts, both old and new. I’m pretty sure this was the only version of Jedi Luke with the blaster damage to his right hand, although it’s just a black paint smudge. Besides the normal five points of articulation, Luke also has hinged knees and a swivel cut in his right wrist! The POTF2 line was not always kind to Luke in terms of likenesses, but this one really isn’t too bad. In fact, the only real problem with him is his bizarre, giraffe neck. I thought that design might have been to accommodate a plastic cloak on another release, but I’m not sure. He comes with his green lightsaber, which makes me wish I had saved the clear rubber band, because he doesn’t hang on to it very well.

 

 

It’s hard for a toy to live up to more than 25 years of nostalgia and anticipation, but the Skiff here didn’t disappoint me… not one bit. It was pretty easy to find one, once I decided to buy it and all told with shipping this little beauty set me back only $40. Not bad at all for something I’ve wanted for so long. It may be crazy to compare this simple little toy to Hasbro’s more recent Millennium Falcon, AT-AT, or even the new Slave-1, but it goes to show you that certain toys can still get me all hot and bothered over the Star Wars franchise, no matter how many times I try to swear off collecting it. Hmm… I never did own one of those B-Wing fighters… I always wanted one of those…

Oct 14 2012

Star Trek Week Begins!

“You spent how much at a Toy Show?”

Yes, oddly enough, just a little while after putting Star Trek Saturday on hiatus, I’ve opted to devote a full week to the toys of one of my favorite franchises. Originally, I was just going to bring back Star Trek Saturday to do it, but then I realized that would mess with the abundance of themed weekends I’ve been planning, so instead, I’ll try to get most of it out of my system in one week-long purge.

The reason for this sudden spike in plastic Trek goodness is because I went to a Toy & Collectibles show last week and hit the mother lode of Star Trek stuff, both Playmates and Art Asylum. One dealer had a great collection of both loose and mint-in-package figures, ships, and playsets. Sadly, the ships were priced a little too rich for my blood, but there were a lot of figures that I needed for my collection and the guy that owned the table was ready to deal, so I did a lot of buying. I won’t get to it all this week, but I’ll do what I can.

As a sidebar, let me mention that I rarely find shows like this in my area, but this one was fantastic and worth the two-hour round trip. I also picked up a bunch of other random stuff, and I’ll likely be devoting next week to the rest of the haul.

I’ll be back later today to check out Playmates’ Engineering Playset!

Oct 13 2012

This Is A Test…

I’m just messing around here and exploring the possibilities of moving, but I haven’t decided on anything yet.

For the time being, I’ll be duplicating posts here and experimenting with importing some of my archives.

For the full FigureFan experience, including over three years worth of features on action figures, toys, and other collectibles, you can still go to…

http://figurefan.livejournal.com/

Sincerely,

FigureFan

By figurefanzero
0
Oct 13 2012

Star Wars Power of the Force 2: Jabba’s Skiff Guards by Hasbro

As promised, let’s take a gander at the Skiff Guards, Klaatu, Barada and Nikto. If your sci-fi chops don’t extend beyond Star Wars, then you are missing the in joke that “Klaatu Barada Nikto” was a phrase from the 1951 classic “The Day The Earth Stood Still.” Klaatu was the alien visitor’s name and the entirety of the phrase kept Gort from going apeshit and destroying the world. In a nice little nod back to the film, the phrase was also used in “Army of Darkness” as an incantation to safely recover The Necronomicon. Of course, for our purposes here, these are the names given to three of Jabba’s pirate-like cronies, which happen to make up the figures in this Cinema Scene 3-pack.

The first time I owned two of these characters in figure form was as a kid when my parents got me the Jabba’s Dungeon playset. It was a remold of the far more fun Droid Factory playset. As the name suggests, Jabba’s Dungeon was basically a place where kids could torture their cute and innocent droid figures. It even came with a branding iron on the end of the crane! The playset itself was pretty useless, but I loved it because it came with two of the Skiff Guards, Klaatu and Nikto, and one of Jabba’s torture droids, 8D8. The playset was also available with three different figures: Barada (the other Skiff Guard), Amanaman, and EV-9D9. Alas, splitting up the guards like that meant that I never did have Barada as a kid. [Sorry for all the rambling, folks. Star Wars toys hold a shit-ton of nostalgia for me. This is another reason why I haven’t done a lot of Star Wars content! –FF]

Here are the guys in all their packaged glory. Hasbro’s Cinema Scenes were a really great marketing idea. As the name suggests, you get three figures from a scene in the movie, packaged against a backdrop to make a little in-package diorama. You also got a plastic figure stand, with a slot so you could clip out the backdrop and slide it into the stand to display your figures. Like most POTF2 figures, nowadays you can get these sets for next to nothing, and I still have a lot of them still in the package. In fact, this may be the first time I’ve ever opened one! The first thing I learned is to have clippers ready, because the figures are secured with a diabolical network of twist-ties around their feet and torsos. Sadly, by securing the figures to the display backdrop, it means there are some unsightly holes in it. Fortunately, the figures stand right in front of them, so they aren’t all that obvious.

I like Barada the least of the trio. Maybe that’s because I didn’t have him as a kid and I’m not as nostalgic toward him. But, I’d like to think it’s more about his sculpt and paintwork. The paintwork on his face, hands, bandanna, and belt are all god-awful. It looks like Hasbro tried to get clever by using some kind of wash, but if that’s the case, it was a failed experiment. And why the hell is he wearing Han Solo’s pants? He does have a nice jaunty, swashbuckler shirt and some cool gear sculpted onto him. He also comes with a kick-ass blaster. God, I loved the POTF2 weapons. They were so big and elaborate and I’ve since loaned a lot of them out to my army of 5-inch Character Options Sontarans.

Next up is Nikto, which is a pretty solid figure. The head sculpt is nice, complete with head wrap, and features some pretty good paintwork, as all his little horn thingies are painted black. He’s got quilted vest and nice silver arm bracers. I especially like the fact that his arms are sculpted to hold his vibro-axe across his chest, much like Weequay.

Of all three figures, Klaatu is the one that most resembles his original vintage counterpart. The outfit is almost exactly the same. It’s just a ruffled white jumpsuit with a cross-checked skirt and a little armor reinforcement to his right shoulder and neck. The head sculpt is especially detailed and I really like his skull cap. Klaatu can hold his vibro-axe in either hand. Of course, Klaatu was also released carded as a much snazzier figure, complete with a fuzzy loin cloth. I think that one is still my favorite.


Ah, but wait. I’m still going to want a Weequay to add to the display, so let’s dig him out of the tote and tear him open too.

I feel sorry for collectors trying to keep track of packaged POTF2 figures because there are just so many different states out there. You’ve got your orange cards, your green cards, your Freeze Frames… and when all is said and done you can still go to your average flea market and pick them out of a bin for a couple bucks each. Well, this Weequay came on a green card and has a snazzy and shimmery photo of him beside the bubble. The package identifies him as “Skiff Guard” but I could have sworn he was once “Skiff Master.” Oh, I forgot, Weequay is a race and not a dude. Yeah, as a kid, I thought Weequay was the guy’s name. The package also points out that he comes with a Force Pike and a Blaster. Oh, shit, I’ve been calling those things vibro-axes. My bad. Too much Knights of the Old Republic, I guess.

Weequay is the man! He was a favorite figure of mine back in the ROTJ heyday. Why? I have no idea, but my Star Wars addled adolescent mind raised him to the unsubstantiated coolness factor of Boba Fettic proportions. In my mind he survived the battle on Tatooine stole himself a fricken Tie Fighter and pursued Han and Luke across the galaxy looking for revenge. Yeah, try to top that nonsense! Unless you write for Marvel Comics, you can’t!

The POTF2 version of Weequay has actually changed very little from his vintage figure days. He’s a tad more pre-posed here, and there’s a little more detail in his ponytail, but his outfit hasn’t changed much at all and his arms are still molded to hold his vibro-axe force pike across his chest so he can use it to bump fools onto the gangplank. He also has some paint-spray dirt around the bottoms of his trousers. In addition to his force pike, Weequay comes with a blaster. He can hold it, but because his arms are designed specifically to hold his other weapon, he can’t really wield it very well. Still, an extra blaster! Who’s going to complain about that? Not me! I basically adore this figure, probably more than anyone should adore any POTF2 figure. It captures all the right points of the original vintage release.

Oh yeah, all of the figures today have the same six points of articulation. The heads turn, the arms rotate at the shoulders, the legs rotate at the hips, and they swivel at the waist. That’s a whole point more than the vintage figures had!

I’m perfectly happy with this entourage of figures for my Skiff display, but I’d be lying if I’m not tempted to pick up a vintage set and maybe even the current molds from Hasbro’s Vintage Collection. See? It’s spreading. The darkness is spreading. No… I will not again embrace the Star Wars collecting addiction. I’m going to go get me some methadone and I’ll be back tomorrow to check out the Skiff.

Oct 13 2012

Star Wars: A Sarlacc-ariffic Weekend!

Some of you, who have been reading FigureFan a while, may know that I liquidated the bulk of my massive Star Wars collection four or five years back. That’s why I publish so few Star Wars features here. It was a money-sucking monkey that I worked long and hard to get off my back. Sure, I kept some prominent pieces, but I tried to let as much go as possible, which amounted to hundreds of figures and dozens of vehicles and playsets. Fast forward to now and I’ve been making weekly sojourns to my remote storage and going through totes only to find that I still have a ridiculous amount of Star Wars odds and ends. Going through this stuff was a big mistake because it’s really bringing me back into the glory days of my Star Wars toys as a kid and my collection as an adult. I can’t say as I regret selling off all that stuff. At the time I needed space and money and my Star Wars collection was getting so unwieldy and sprawling that I had figures based on characters that I didn’t even know.

Anywho… one of the things I found, in particular, was my Jabba’s Skiff Guards Cinema Scene 3-pack and it got me thinking about one of my long time toy grails. Every collector has their grails. They’re the figure or toy that they always wanted, but never got. Most people’s grails are insanely hard to find and expensive. That’s why they don’t own them and that’s what makes them grails. I’ve got a few things like that on my list, but one of my grails isn’t expensive or hard to get, it’s just something I never owned and always wanted to. It’s the Tattooine Skiff from Return of the Jedi.

Why the Skiff? Well, for starters it’s my favorite scene in that movie and one of my favorites in all the Star Wars films. It was such a great Flash Gordon-y concept to make a bunch of space adventurers walk the plank of a ship hovering in the middle of a desert. It was a great action scene too, with people being tossed over the sides left and right and falling to their doom, and we even get to see the legendary captain of cool himself, Boba Fett, in action for a few short moments before he screams like a girl and falls to his death. (or what might have been his death if you have the good taste to discount the events of a certain very shitty Marvel comic). I also just love the look of the Skiffs. They’re vaguely nautical looking, vaguely steam punk, and they look like they’d be fun to skim across the desert in. Not to forget the fact that they were manned by aliens that looked like pirates and toted around vibro-axes. Fantastic!

For a lot of Star Wars collectors, I’m sure the Tattooine Skiff is a grail piece, specifically the original release, issued as part of the first Power of the Force line in 1985. That was the year that failed to keep the Star Wars license afloat and as such the original release of the Skiff has become both rare and pricey. Fortunately, all I wanted was the toy, and the Skiff has been re-released to offer more affordable options. It was first re-issued as part of the Power of the Force 2 collection (the one we’re looking at this weekend) and again sometime around 2008 as part of an Ultimate Battle Pack, complete with a plastic Sarlacc.

So, needless to say, I finally hunted one down and bought it, and we’ll look at it tomorrow in all its glory. But first, I’ll be back later today to open up and take a look at my Skiff Guards so I have some figures to display on it.

Oct 12 2012

DC Identity Crisis: Black Canary by DC Direct

So, in this case, I’ve saved my least favorite of this week’s assortment for last. As with Zatanna, Black Canary is a figure that I already have represented in my DCUC collection, but this version represents enough of a variant that I wanted to open her up and put her out. Now that I have, I’m wondering if I shouldn’t have left her on the card.

Black Canary’s package is identical to Elongated Man’s. Check out the in-package shot, and let’s move along…

Oh, where to begin? Maybe by throwing it out there that this figure gives me more of a Street Fighter Cammy vibe than Black Canary. A lot of it is definitely the head sculpt. And while I took some issues with the one DC Direct used for Zatanna, I was ultimately ok with it. Black Canary’s is a little tougher for me to get behind. Look at the eyes, they’re some kind of bizarre East meets West hybrid. It’s like they wanted to go with an anime look but held back just enough to give us this… whatever this is. The huge eyes, coupled with the very angular configuration of the face and the small head, makes this figure in no way Black Canary to me. I do, however, like the ponytail… it’s fetching.

The rest of the figure has some hit and miss issues as well. Canary’s long sleeve one-piece is executed with a high-gloss black finish, and I wholeheartedly approve. She has the same type of real thread fishnets that Mattel used on the DCUC version of the figure and it meets with the same success and failure. They look great when viewed from the front, and they look like crap when viewed from the back. I also have some issues with the proportions of the hands and feet. The feet look too big, but I’ll chalk that up to the style of the boots, but the hands look a bit oversized as well. When I compare them to Zatanna’s they don’t look much bigger, so maybe it’s just an optical illusion. Either way, between the head, hands, and feet, the proportions on this figure seem a bit skewed to me.

Black Canary’s articulation includes a ball jointed neck, arms with ball joints in the shoulders, hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the wrists. The legs rotate at the hips, and have hinges in the knees. It’s worth noting that the ball joint in her neck doesn’t have a huge range of motion and most of the time it looks like she’s looking down. Blah!

I don’t totally hate this figure, but it really doesn’t seem to fit in this line. It feels more like one of those Ane-Comi statues, only not as hyper cute. Truth be told, I’m not sure where this figure would properly fit. She’s an interesting conversation piece standing among my DC Direct figures, but I’m not putting her anywhere near my DCUC shelves. I’ve got a perfectly fine Black Canary represented there.

And that’ll do it for this week’s little excursion into Identity Crisis. Yes, I have more of these figures, and I’ll have to decide which ones I’m going to open so I can revisit the rest of them at one point or another. Until then, I’ll be back tomorrow to kick off the weekend as Star Wars content makes its return to FigureFan!