Tag Archives: deep space nine

Sep 6 2024

Star Trek (Deep Space Nine) Constable Odo Sixth-Scale Figure by Exo-6

Exo-6 has been killing it with their Sixth-Scale Star Trek figures in general, but it’s the Deep Space Nine series that has me All-In. So far we’ve seen Captain Sisko, Major Kira, and Quark, and now it’s time for the stalwart and ever vigilant Constable Odo to get the treatment. This fella shape-shifted his way into my collection quite a few weeks ago and I’m only now getting to spend some serious time with him!

If it’s an Exo-6 review, I have to start by saying the box shots rarely do the actual figure justice, and this is yet another case of that. The shot on the front of the box just looks awful. The figure looks waxy, the colors are all wrong, and in no way does it represent what you’re actually getting. Why do you do this Exo-6? The overall box design and deco is the same as we’ve been seeing in the past, but this one is extra wide, and I seriously had no idea why it was so big when it arrived. Now, I know that it was to accommodate a rather large surprise accessory, but I’ll save that for the end. Some of these figures have been getting special Deluxe releases with extra stuff, but as far as I know, there was only one standard release of Odo. He comes out of the box all ready to go, so let’s take a look.

Odo arrives in his familiar Bajoran Security uniform. It’s similar in design to what we saw with Kira, but in a beige and brown deco and correctly missing the crosshatch pattern on the shoulders and sleeves. And while on the show, Odo’s uniform is actually part of him, this one is a fully tailored cloth outfit. As usual, the tailoring is immaculate, with pristine stitching, and the fit is pretty good. The legs of the trousers seem to be secured into the boots, as I don’t have any issues with them coming untucked. And yes, just like we saw with Kira, Odo’s boots are sculpted as one piece, so ankle articulation is quite limited. There is some padding in the upper body, but the sleeves are loose enough to not restrict the arms at all. The belt is made entirely of fabric and it isn’t attached, so it does have a habit of floating up and down when posing him, which requires frequent adjustment. Maybe Exo wanted to keep the option to go sans belt, which was a subject of conversation between Odo and Kira in one episode. Appropriately, there is no rank insignia on his collar, but he does have the standard Bajoran com badge on his chest.

The head sculpt is absolutely fantastic and a far cry from what we saw on the box. The wizards at Exo-6 did a beautiful job recreating Odo’s approximation of a human face. The simplified features, the sunken strip of a mouth, and the deep set eyes are all pitch perfect. The hair appears to be sculpted as part of the head, but it still looks really good with a pretty clean hair line. The expression is classic Odo: Stern and suspicious! I would say this one ranks up there as one of their best.

As for articulation, it’s impossible for me to say exactly what’s going on under that uniform, but the body feels as highly posable as the rest of the line. The uniform does offer some restrictions, especially in the hips where you want to be careful not to pop those stitches with extra wide stances. I already mentioned the boots inhibiting the ankles, and the padding in the upper body can hinder some range in the shoulders. Still, I’m happy with what we got here and Odo can do most anything I would want him to. You get three pairs of hands: Fists, relaxed hands, an accessory holding left hand and a flat right hand. I would have much rather had a pointing finger hand than that last one I mentioned.

I’m pretty sure I mentioned last time that Exo-6 likes to get a lot of money out of their accessories and once again we have the repacked Tricorder and PADD. Just like last time, the Tricorder uses a magnet to secure the bottom opening panel. This allows it to be displayed open or closed without the need for a fragile hinge. Everything here is identical to the Tricorder we saw with both Sisko and Kira right down to the stickers. You get a magnetized holster for the Tricorder, but as far as I can tell there’s no magnet on the figure to secure it. The PADD is the same sculpt as Sisko’s and Kira’s, but at least we got a new sticker for the screen. The PADD is a decent accessory for Odo, even if I would have much rather we got one displaying his crime reports. The Tricorder, on the other hand, is a bit of a reach. No doubt he used a Tricorder in some episodes, but it wasn’t something he used often.

Thankfully, we do get his bucket, which he has to regenerate in every sixteen hours. What can I say about it? It’s a very nicely painted space bucket, and it was definitely a must-have accessory to be included. And then there’s the surprise accessory…

You get a static figure of Odo in his gelatinous form. Now, I call this a surprise accessory, but clearly it was pictured on many of the preorder sites and I just missed it. I went back to look and sure enough it was shown off in some solicitation shots, but not seeing it made it a really cool extra. I will nitpick, that it would have been a neat idea to sculpt it so that it can be coming out of the bucket, and you can still sort of do that, but the base is clearly just made to stand on a flat surface.

And finally, you get the stand which includes a hexagonal Transporter Pad base and a crotch-cradle post to support the figure. This is the same style display stand Exo-6 has been using with all their Trek lines and you get clips to connect the stands together if you want to go that route. I don’t really make use of that option, but i will admit that I’m kind of excited to assemble a full transporter pad once I get enough figures together.

Odo retailed for $215, which is what I’ve become accustomed to pay for these figures. Let’s face it, we’re not seeing a lot of licensed figures in this scale for under $200 anymore. And I say retailed in past tense because he sold out pretty fast. The value is there in terms of the quality of the actual figure, but normally the extras on these releases seem really light. In the case of Odo, the shape-shifting version of him helps to tip the scales, and either way I have no complaints. Having Odo on my shelf to keep tabs on Quark makes me super happy and it looks like the next member of DS9’s crew to arrive will be Dr. Julian Bashir. He’s scheduled to beam in before the end of the year. But the next time I revisit Exo-6’s Trek line it will be to check out a figure from Enterprise.

“I’m rich! An entire cargo hold full of contraband, and Odo doesn’t know anything about it!”

Jun 10 2024

Star Trek (Deep Space Nine) Major Kira Nerys Sixth-Scale Figure by Exo-6

Exo-6 has been making Sixth-Scale Star Trek figures for quite a while now, but oddly enough they went in hard with Voyager. Now, I’ve learned to look a lot more fondly on Voyager when I see what passes for Star Trek these days, but still not enough to pay $200+ a pop on Voyager figures, even though I think they look amazing. But when Exo-6 started tapping into Deep Space Nine, I was all like, Shut up and take my Gold-pressed Latinum! So far I’ve checked out Captain Sisko and Quark, and now it’s time for DS9’s second in command, Major Kira Nerys.

I love Kira as a character and I love Nana Visitor’s portrayal of her. I don’t want to go all political here, but Kira managed to project herself as a strong woman without having to resort to the tired girlboss tropes that are so commonplace today. She was opinionated, independent, sensitive, passionate, impulsive, and nearly all of this was conveyed beautifully in the first handful of episodes. But that’s what you get when you pair great writing with talented actors. Anyway, I was extremely excited to get this figure, so let’s get to it… The packaging is nice, albeit rather straight forward. You get a window box with a sleeve over it, much like what Hot Toys has been doing for a lot of their stuff. I often lament about how expensive figures should come with some higher quality presentation, but as I get older I care about that sort of thing a lot less. One odd quirk about Exo-6 is that their habit of using less-than-stellar pictures of the figure on the box, which seldom live up to the quality of what we actually get and that trend continues here. Everything about the packaging is collector friendly, and Kira arrives all ready for display.

Exo-6’s Captain Sisko, and the rest of the DS9 Starfleet Officers we’ve been shown, reference Season 5 onward by wearing the Starfleet uniforms that debuted in the movie, First Contact. Eventually, Kira would wear one of those uniforms, but I’m glad they didn’t go that route for her figure… at least not yet. What we got is her Bajoran Militia uniform, and I’m pleased with that. It’s changed a bit over the Seasons, I think this is about middle-of-the-series design, and it still works in context with the Starfleet figures. I’ll also note that they resisted the urge to maker her preggers, which she was in Season 5, although if you’re a talented customizer, maybe you can make that work. The uniform is mostly crafted in a very soft and stretchy red cloth, while the shoulders and arms are tailored in a heavier cloth with a printed crisscross pattern. The tailoring is immaculate and the stretchy parts of the uniform fits the figure perfectly. The thicker sleeves can come off as a bit baggy in some poses, but it’s not something that I’m too concerned over. The boots are cast in a reddish-brown soft plastic with high heels and the pants remain tucked in nicely. Both her comm badge and her collar rank are sculpted in plastic and she has a pleather-type belt with a molded holster for her phaser. It doesn’t look like the phaser holster is easily removable, which is something I would have liked to see, as she obviously didn’t wear it most of the time. On the other hand, probably would have always displayed it on her anyway.

I don’t think the portrait here is quite the slam dunk we got with Sisko and Quark, but I do think it’s a solid effort. The biggest issue I have with it is that under certain lighting the lines under her eyes look a lot more prominent than they should, which in turn makes her look older than she should. Maybe it’s because I always found Visitor to be really attractive as Kira and I just think this sculpt could have been a little more flattering to her. It’s not nearly as noticeable to me when I’m not punching in close under bright lights, but it is there, nonetheless. Otherwise, I think the eyes are painted very well and they nailed the mouth, and the nose makeup beautifully. Exo-6 has also shown quite the eye for the subtle art of creating realistic skin tones, and that’s certainly the case here. The hair is also a great sculpt, and while Kira has had a few different styles throughout the series, I think this one suited her best. Of course, her earring is recreated with some lovely detail, complete with the chain that clasps on to the top of her ear. Like I said, I think this portrait is solid work, but falls a little short of what we’ve seen with the first two figures.

As for articulation, I can’t be sure about exactly what’s going on under that uniform, but I know I like it. Kira has a lot more range of motion than Sisko or Quark and I attribute that to the lack of padding under the clothes, as well as the use of a more stretchy cloth. Now, with that having been said, I still tend to be cautious when posing her, because I don’t want to get the material snagged in her joints. Which brings me to have to point out that the thin costume material does betray the jointing going on under them, particular the knees. Because of the high boots, you will not always be able to get her feet flat on the floor in wider stances, but she does balance pretty well, despite the high heels. Hands include: Fists, relaxed hands, splayed finger hands, a right phaser hand and a left hand for holding the PADD.

As for accessories, there’s a lot of “been there, done that” with the inclusion of a Starfleet issue PADD and Tricorder, These are both nice accessories and Exo-6 certainly has them perfected by now. The Tricorder continues to use the clever magnet design so it can be displayed opened or closed, rather than bother with a fragile hinge. But, I think Exo-6 cheaped out here by not giving us a Bajoran Tricorder and a Bajoran PADD. Accessories tend to be limited with these releases, and I think the cost really warranted going the extra mile here. I’ll also add that while the Phaser hand works OK for the Tricorder, I would have liked a more dedicated hand for that piece of equipment.

Thankfully, they did include her Bajoran Phaser, which fits into the holster on her belt. I’ve always liked this design and still have the toy version that Playmates produced back in the day. Exo-6 did a wonderful job recreating it here with some nice sculpted detail and lots of paint hits. The dedicated hand works really well with it too.

And finally, you get the same Transporter Pad style stand we’ve been seeing with all of these releases, but with one difference. Kira gets a waist ring on top of the post instead of a crotch cradle. I’m not entirely sure why they did this, but I would have preferred the crotch cradle, as I worry about the waist loop damaging the uniform over time. Otherwise, I like these stand designs. There’s also a transparent character card that can be clipped onto the stand, but I don’t bother with these.

I hope it didn’t sound like I came down too hard on Kira, because truth be told I do really love this figure. I think it’s probably a testament to how amazing Exo-6’s Star Trek figures tend to be that even a really good figure garners some criticism by comparison. I had precious little to nitpick when it came to Sisko or Quark, but Kira wound up earning a few quibbles, which I think were justified. The good far outweighs the problems, but if I were to lean hard on something it would be the accessories. She really needed more Bajoran equipment. And not offering an Essentials version with a Celestial Orb feels like a colossal misstep. Oh, and for the record, if they redo Kira in the Starfleet Uniform with the super cute hairstyle, I’d be on board for it. In the meantime, Odo should be up for release any time now, my preorder for Dr. Bashir is locked in, and I do believe a certain Trill will be dropping for preorder next!

Jan 15 2024

Star Trek (Deep Space Nine) Quark Sixth-Scale Figure by Exo-6

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!

“I’m going to make a fortune selling cheap, unlicensed replicas of the station to those stupid hoomans!”

“QUARK!!!!”

Jul 12 2023

Star Trek (Deep Space Nine) Captain Benajmin Sisko (EX Version) Sixth-Scale Figure by Exo-6

With how much I adore Star Trek, it’s a shame there aren’t more toys out there to collect. And it seems like a portion of what is out there is focused on the new crop of Paramount+ Trek series, of which I am not a fan. And that’s putting it mildly. But Exo-6 has been producing a number of Sixth-Scale figures based on the various series and I’ve jumped on board some of these, starting with Admiral Kirk from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I passed on The Next Generation figures, partly because the Picard series has kind of soured me on them for a bit, but I am planning on going all in on Deep Space Nine and Enterprise. So let’s kick things off today with Exo-6’s first figure from Deep Space Nine… Captain Sisko!

Oh boy do I love this guy! Everything about him feels so genuine and making him a single dad just upped the complexity of his character. He comes in a window box with a wrap-around sleeve showing a head shot of the figure. You get some foil lettering and the box calls out that this is the EX Version, which distinguishes it from the more expensive version that included a few more accessories. This one is also known as the Essentials Version. Exo-6 opted to go with the character as he appeared later in the series, so Sisko has his head shaved and sports a goatee. Also, he didn’t get promoted to Captain until the end of Season 3. He’s also wearing the uniform which debuted in Star Trek: First Contact, which means this is Sisko from Season 5 or later.

Sisko comes out of the box ready for display and looking damn sharp! I was surprised that Exo-6 went with this later series uniform, as they were already making figures from Voyager with the uniform that debuted at the beginning of DS9. For me, DS9 was love at first sight, so I relate to the aesthetics of any season of the show. But I will confess that I think the bald/goatee look works best for Sisko and these uniforms definitely gave the series more of an epic appearance. The uniform is composed of black dress trousers and a black overcoat. The turtle-neck shirt underneath is red to denote Sisko’s department as being Command. You also get red striping around the sleeves. The shoulders are quilted in gray material with some very neat stitching. The ensemble is capped off with the sculpted communicator badge and rank pips on the collar. Exo-6 has really perfected their sixth-scale tailoring skills and this uniform fits the figure perfectly and looks great.

Exo-6 uses some padding to bring, what I assume is a standard body, in line with Sisko’s impressive physique, and I think it does a pretty good job at that. On the downside the padding takes what should be an easy to work with uniform and makes the figure unnecessarily restrictive in the upper body. The same is true for the crotch, which I didn’t want to overstress with too wide a stance for fear of popping the stitching. I was able to get some decent phaser-firing poses out of him, but for the most part, he’s going to be adopting some pretty conservative poses standing at Ops or on the bridge of the Defiant. Some may be a lot more disappointed at this than I am, but I tend to expect limited articulation out of my high end sixth-scale figures. With that having been said, if you’re prepared to put a little more work and risk into it than I am, your results may vary.

The head sculpt is absolutely amazing. I think Exo-6 does overall great work in this area, but some of their TNG likenesses were off just enough to persuade me to skip them for now. Of course, I gushed on and on about their Admiral Kirk likeness, and now I’m going to do it again here with Sisko. They went with a fairly neutral expression with just a hint of a grin. I think that works great here because Sisko’s default expression was rather stoic. Granted, Exo-6 is not quite up to Hot Toys level when it comes to realism, but I think they’re getting pretty damn close. The likeness to Avery Brooks is one hundred percent here and I think just a little more work on the skin texture and bringing that uncanny spark of life to the eye paint is all that’s needed. Whatever the case, the sculptors and painters should be lauded for what is just a fantastic looking portrait. I love it!

You get three pairs of hands with the figure. These include a set of relaxed hands, a set of fists, and a set to work with his accessories. It’s definitely less hands than we get with some other sixth-scale figure companies, but if I’m being honest, I think a lot of companies just overdo it with the hands. It’s nice to have options, but a lot of those hands just stay in the box after I pick a pose to go with. With that said, I’m glad we got fists, because Sisko is a very physical Captain, and he needs his Q-punching hands. The relaxed hands work well for normal posing, and I’ll address the accessory hands with the accessories…

So, first off we get the baseball that Sisko keeps on his desk. A simple accessory? Yes. But if this one was not included in the EX version, I might have ponied up for the more expensive one. I just love Sisko’s passion for baseball and some episodes have made some rather clever use of this desk ornament for greater purpose. His left accessory holding hand does a pretty good job with the baseball, but you might want to use a small piece of poster putty to keep it in place.

Next up is the PADD, which are the tablets Starfleet uses for all sorts of purposes from reviewing reports to reading books. It’s a simple slab with stickers to convey the panels. The screen stickers are high gloss, which made it difficult for me to get a picture without the reflection looking like scratches. The piece is painted with a sharp silver metallic finish and all in all it’s a good approximation of the props used on screen. The right accessory hand seemed like the best bet for holding it.

His remaining accessories are his tricorder and phaser. Each of these come with holsters which attach to the figure with magnets. This was a great way to go, as they attach and detach easily and hold the accessories very well.

The tricorder is beautifully detailed, and again the reflections off the gloss finish on the stickers makes it hard to get a clear picture, but the screens look really nice and the silver finish looks great. Instead of going with a delicate hinge to open and close the tricorder, there are magnets holding it closed. To open it, you take the front off and attach it in the open position. I’m happy to not have to worry about breaking a hinge, but I think including an open and closed version would have worked just as well.

And the phaser is a beautiful recreation of Starfleet’s famous defensive weapon with some really sharp paint and detail. The right accessory hand holds it perfectly with the thumb hovering over the trigger button on top.

Sisko comes with the exact same transporter pad display stand we saw with Admiral Kirk. The only difference is that there’s no 1:1 scale insignia badge to display on the front. I get that the badge was a special thing for the Kirk release, but it would have been nice to get one here as well. You also get clips to connect multiple display stands together to make a transporter. A nameplate would have been nice, but heck if people don’t know who he is they can get the hell out of my house!!

This version of Sisko ran me $180, which feels about right. It’s getting pretty rare to find a licensed sixth-scale figure of this quality for under $200. My only complaint with Kirk was the complete lack of accessories, so I’m happy that even this cheaper EX Version comes with all the goodies I could want. I think the Deluxe was about $40 more and the only thing I really miss is the phaser rifle, and to be fair, I don’t really feel right displaying my Star Trek officers with big aggressive looking weapons. Sure, Sisko was Captain during a time of war, but Starfleet is still a peacekeeping armada and I like him better with just the defensive phaser on his hip and beloved baseball in his hand. So far, Quark is the only other DS9 figure that has gone up for pre-order and I’m hoping he ships soon because I’m excited for more! But most of all… Miles O’Brien! But next up for my Exo-6 collection will be Captain Jonathan Archer, who just shipped out!

Jul 29 2022

Star Trek “Starships Collection:” Deep Space Nine by Eaglemoss

What’s this? Two consecutive weeks of Star Trek content? Well, as our beloved Doctor McCoy once jested, “It never rains, but it pours!” Today’s review has been on my mind for two reasons. Firstly, Eaglemoss has fallen on bad financial times, and the outlook for the company seems pretty dire. I guess we had plenty of clues, what with them running such deep discounts on product lately. Also, Deep Space Nine departed Netflix at the beginning of this month, and so I spent a great deal of June binging my favorite episodes, and I guess I’ll just have to hunt down a used set of the DVDs, because there’s no way in hell I’m paying for CBS/Paramount’s streaming service and have even the slightest possibility of any of their current garbage Trek shows violating the sanctity my home. Ahem… rant over. Let’s take a look at Eaglemoss’ Deep Space Nine model!

I titled this review as being part of their Starship Collection, but I don’t know if that’s accurate, since DS9 obviously isn’t a Starship, but let’s just go with that as an umbrella title covering all their Trek models. This is one of their big boys, with the model itself measuring at roughly 6-inches across. It’s too small to be in scale with Eaglemoss’ smaller ships, but if you have some Trek Micro Machines lying around, that will be a little closer. I’ve actually seen pictures of this model with a tiny Enterprise-D docked at it, but I’m not sure if that was an exclusive, or just something that didn’t make it into the final release. The station comes in a fully enclosed box and nestled between two styrofoam bricks. The only assembly required involves popping the stand together, and you get a nice color magazine-style booklet detailing some lore about the station, both behind the scenes, and in front of the camera.

And here’s DS9 all set up, and it’s amazing to me just how iconic this old Cardassian station has become to me. One look, and I can’t help but hear the melancholy, yet slightly triumphant, theme song swell up in my ears. And I can imagine a tiny Chief O’Brian running around inside trying to hold the thing together. The show creators took a lot of risks, not only setting this series on a space station rather than a starship, but on an alien station, stripping the show of almost any Federation comfort and familiarity. It sure was a gamble, and it paid off in spades. This old station saw some unprecedented growth for the Trek franchise, and showed us a new side of the Trek Universe, which TNG could only hint at. Suffice it to say, I absolutely love the design of Terok Nor, with it’s inhospitable arching tendrils, concentric circles, and jagged edges. It looks like some kind of bizarre sea creature floating in space. And boy, did Eaglemoss do a great job bringing that design to this model!

The mix of diecast metal and plastic gives the model a nice heft, while still allowing for some very sharp detail. Each of the tiny docking ports are present around the outer ring, you get the tiny hatches on the inner towers, signifying the hidden location of the torpedo launchers, and some really nice sculpting around the inner habitat ring. I think my favorite details on the whole model are the painted triangular cut-outs that show some more intricate details inside.

Eaglemoss really punched things up for the central core and Ops area. The three tiny deflector shield emitters are present, and actually a bit fragile too! I had to straighten mine a bit when it came out of the box. You can even make out the tiny windows of The Promenade, from where so many of the inhabitants have watched the Wormhole open and close.

flip down to the undercarriage, and I found this area particularly interesting, since we didn’t often get a good look at it in the series. Here the station’s main fusion reactor hangs down, suspended by the power transfer conduit. We get some nice red paint surrounding this area, along with a central nub jutting out from the middle. The stand here is very well done, and consists of the same combination of translucent plastic stand and black diecast base, which cradles the station underneath, offering sturdy support without interfering with the look of the model.

I’ve been after a new Deep Space Nine model ever since I lost my Playmates version when moving from NJ to Florida way back when. That was a very nice representation, and it included some lights and sounds, but I’m content to have this beauty take its place. I find that the size of this model is a perfect balance between being large enough to offer a good bit of detail, but small enough to fit on a shelf and not take up too much real estate. The original MSRP for the station was around $80, but I picked mine up during one of the half-off sales, and that was a deal that even a Ferengi would be envious of! I’ll be very sad to see Eaglemoss go, assuming they can’t restructure, but happily I’ve still got a whole lot of their models to check out here in the future!

Jun 24 2015

Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Dr. Julian Bashir and Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax by Diamond Select

Yes, Warp Speed Wednesday is a thing now, and it will continue to be until I run out of Star Trek stuff to look at. Actually, that would probably take forever, so I’ll just keep it going until I get burned out on the subject for a while. Let’s say another month or so. Last time I looked at the DST figures I gassed on a lot about my love for DS9 and today we’re checking out a pair of figures based on two more of the show’s great characters: Bashir and Dax. My Bashir figure has a lot less interesting stuff, so let’s do him first…

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Bashir’s character was loads of fun. He started out as a great Doctor and a green Starfleet Officer and his character developed quite a bit over the series. He went from seemingly shallow womanizer, who’s favorite pasttime was chasing Dax, to working for secret Starfleet organizations after we got that huge reveal that he was an illegal genetic augment! In the largely vanilla universe of Trek, this was some serious shit! And in terms of screen friendships, I think the Bashir and O’Brien relationship is a tough one to beat. ItLike most of DST’s DS9 figures, Bashir comes in his late series, TNG movie-era uniform. While I liked the more classic look, this one works too. It’s an easy outfit to reproduce as it doesn’t invovlve a whole lot of paint or detail. Apart from the usual creases and wrinkles, most of the sculpting comes in the shoulders, which featues the gray quilted look with the department color coded blue collar peaking out. Of course, you also get the rank pips on the collar and the insignia communicator.

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The likeness here is a pretty damn good one to Alexander Siddig. I haven’t seen him in a lot since Star Trek, but it was cool to see him in Game of Thrones this past season. The paint, on the other hand, is a little odd. It’s like they did a wash on his face to bring out the contours of the sculpt, but really all it does is make him look dirty. Paint rubbing was also a big problem with these figures and as a result mine looks like he’s observing Ash Wednesday.

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The articulation here is passable. The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders, swivel cuts in the biceps, hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the wrists. Below the waist, things take a turn for the worst. He has a simple and restrictive t-crotch and hinges in the knees and ankles. Bashir can swivel at the waist and his neck is ball jointed. Like a lot of these figures, he’s got that weird thing going on with his legs where you have to bend them a little to get him to stand right.

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With only four out of the original six accessories, my Bashir is incomplete. He does have two Starfleet PADDs, one large and one small. These are pretty standard pieces with stickers for the screens. He can hold them pretty well and while they aren’t terribly exciting, they are staples for any Starfleet Officer.

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Slightly more fun is his raktajino mug and the coon skin cap that he wears when he goes into the Holosuite with Miles to play their Alamo program. I believe the missing accessories are a phaser and hypo. Moving on to Dax…

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Dax was an interesting character because she didn’t fit the usual “I’m an outsider trying to be more/less human” Trek trope. She was indeed one of the more bizarre aliens we saw in the series, thanks to her conjoined nature, but her irreverent, fun-seeking personality made for a rather a-typical Starfleet Science Officer and I found that to be a nice departure for the series. It made for an even more interesting dynamic when she started to get involved with Worf. Once again, we get her in the late series Starfleet uniform. Dax always looked mighty fine in that uniform and the figure reflects that. Of course, apart from her curves, this is the same uniform we saw with Bashir and her articulation is identical. Dax does have a wider-cut and slightly less restrictive t-crotch and her ball jointed head is a lot looser. It’s also nice that they used the taller female buck so she looks pretty good standing next to the much shorter Kira.

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As with Bashir, the likeness here is quite good. I might have preferred a more neutral expression as she looks a little two damn happy. I suppose the smile suits the character’s outgoing personality, but it looks rather out of place when you’re posing her with her weapons. The paint apps on the face are especially good, especially evidenced by her Trill spots.

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Dax comes with six accessories, half are Starfleet and half are Klingon. On the Starfleet side she has a standard hand phaser, a phaser rifle, and a rather large PADD. Unfortunately, Dax’s hands are rather relaxed and not in any way suited to hold her weapons. I can get her to do some things with the rifle, but the hand phaser isn’t much use.

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The Klingon accessories include a bottle of blood wine, a Bat’leth, and a dagger. She can hold the dagger and the bottle OK, and I can make a few things work with the sword, but this isn’t a figure made to be put into action poses and so while the accessories themselves are good, there’s only so much you can do with them.

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When I looked at Kira and Odo, I made the comment that these figures feel dated in some respects, and that still applies here. The articulation sounds good on paper, but they still come off as stiff. Despite their limitations, however, I still dig these figure a lot. The paint and quality of sculpts are competent enough and the likenesses are certainly there. If only Diamond had endowed these figures with some lateral movement in the hips and some thigh swivels, I think they would have been heaps better. Maybe someone somewhere will pick up this license again, but for now I’m just happy to have the characters I love represented on my shelf.

Jun 10 2015

Star Trek Deep Space Nine: Constable Odo and Colonel Kira Nerys by Diamond Select

Welcome to the second Warp Speed Wednesday wherein I’ll be taking the opportunity to check out random Star Trek stuff in my collection. Today we’re headed deep out into the frontier to the Bajor System. It’s been a long road… getting from… oh, wait… wrong series. Ah, Deep Space Nine! Even as a Trekkie who cut his teeth on the original series, I still regard DS9 among the most consistent of all the Star Treks. I still adore Next Gen as a complete body of work, but it’s hard for me to revisit some of those episodes or even those first couple of seasons. With DS9, I was engaged from the very first episode, and I can spin the wheel, land on an episode and almost always watch it over again with glee. A lot of that has to do with the characters, and today, I’m checking out to of them Non-Starfleet types, one of which I got in a recent box of Trek figures from my fellow podcaster and the other I’ve had kicking around for a long time now. Odo and Kira are both fantastic characters in their own right, but their relationship was one of the more satisfying and then heartbreaking threads woven throughout the series. And since Diamond never did a Quark figure, these two seemed like a natural pair to feature together. I’ve got no packaged shots to show you, so let’s just go ahead and start with Odo.

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Dang, I love this guy! He was like the Clint Eastwood and Mike Hammer of Star Trek all rolled into one. I also think he was one of the most interesting alien characters in any of the series. Diamond’s only release of Odo depicts him as he appeared throughout most of the series, in his two-tone beige Bajoran Security uniform. It’s not a complex sculpt, but then the uniform was a pretty simple design. Note the high collar, which if I recall signifies this is a later season version. Also, no belt. I never remembered Odo wearing a belt, but it was a point of interest with Kira on one episode, which always made me chuckle, because the belt was in fact just part of him. What is it with DST’s figures and the legs? I’ve got more than a few of these where it feels like the legs have to be bent at a slightly awkward angle for them to stand properly. Weird.

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Diamond is generally pretty good with their portraits and likenesses and Odo here is certainly one of their better efforts. The simplified features of his best impression of a human face are recreated wonderfully here as well as his dour expression. The “hair” is nicely detailed and the paintwork on the eyes is good. I can practically hear him complaining about “Federation rules and regulations.”

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Odo’s articulation consists of the usual, “so close and yet so far” aspect of DST’s figures. The arms are fine, with rotating hinges in the shoulders, hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the biceps and wrists, it’s pretty standard stuff. The biggest crippling points, however, are the hips, which consist of a simple T-crotch buried under the tight plastic of his tunic. The joints are in there, but there’s almost no allowances for movement. Below that you get hinges in the knees and ankles. Lastly there’s a ball joint in the neck and a swivel in the waist. There’s definitely some poseability to work with here, but Diamond’s figures often feel unnaturally stiff to me and that’s especially the case with Odo.

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Odo originally came with four accessories, but mine only has two. Missing are his bucket and a Bajoran phaser rifle. Funny enough, the two accessories that I still have are the smallest and most easily lost, and also probably the hardest two to find with the figure, so I guess I can take pride in that. There’s a Bajoran tricorder and a Bajoran PADD. Both are simple, but nicely detailed and painted pieces. I love the fact that the PADD has a picture of Quark on it. While I’m never one to turn down an extra weapon, I don’t much mind missing the rifle. Odo never had much use for weapons so including it with him was an odd choice to begin with. Let’s move on to Colonel Kira…

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I could fill volumes about the characters and versions of characters that DST never got to in this line, but near the top of my list would be Major Kira in her Bajoran uniform. Instead, we got Colonel Kira in her Starfleet Uniform. It’s not my first choice, but hey, I’ll take what I can get. The figure uses a pretty standard uniformed female body. The late versions of Starfleet’s uniforms aren’t the most exciting of designs, but I still dig them a lot, particularly the grey quilted shoulders. The uniform sculpt includes a Starfleet comm badge, some folds and wrinkles and the “V” cut cuffs that drop below her boots. I haven’t looked at enough of these to determine whether or not it’s a generic body, but I’ll get to that in coming weeks. Kira didn’t strike me as a particularly tall woman and the figure reflects that with the way she scales against Odo. The articulation is the same as you get with Odo only with the addition of swivel cuts at the biceps. The T-crotch also grants a lot more range of motion for Kira than it does for Odo. Whereas Odo looks rather stiff, Kira’s got a little more of a relaxed stance that looks like it was geared to project a more feminine demeanor. It may be an odd choice for the character, since Kira tended to carry herself more like a soldier, but I can’t say it doesn’t look good on the figure.

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The portrait here is decent enough and the paintwork on Kira’s face is nice and clean, but it strikes me as if they were going for simple and cartoony rather than realism. In fact, at certain angles the head sculpt here reminds me of some of the early polygon builds for Lara Croft. Possibly not so flattering, but it’s not that bad. I also wish the ridges on her nose were a little more pronounced. Her hair is swept to the side to reveal her right ear and the sculpted Bajoran earring. Like I said, it’s not my favorite look for Kira, but at least DST finally gave her some loving.

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Kira comes with five accessories and this time I actually have them all! First off, she comes with the exact same Bajoran tricorder and PADD as Odo. Yup, her PADD even has Quark’s picture on it too. But we’ve already seen those, so let’s get to the good stuff…

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Holy Kai! Kira comes loaded for bear with no less than three different weapons. First off is this bitchin’ Starfleet-issue phaser rifle. I’m sure Kira handled one of these at some point during the show, but it’s not a weapon I really associate with her. In early promo pictures, this figure was often depicted holding the Bajoran rifle that came with Odo and I actually had it, I’d probably give it to her and pass this rifle along to one of the other figures. Still, she’s got the uniform so I guess she might as well have the hardware to go along with it.

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And by that logic, she also comes with a Starfleet hand phaser. It’s another great accessory to have, but not one that I will likely keep with this figure. Her gun-toting hand isn’t really sculpted to hold it very well. I can make it work, but if I so much as breathe on the figure, it’ll fall out of her grip.

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Lastly, we have the trusty Bajoran pistol. Yeeeah, now we’re talking. I’ve always loved the design of this thing and I even had the old Playmates roleplay version, which was a really cool little toy. This is the weapon I most associate with Kira and probably the one that I’ll let her keep. She holds it really well and it’s a wonderfully detailed little piece. These accessories are such welcome treats compared to the neon plastic crap that came with the Playmates figures.

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I’m thrilled to be able to have these great characters on my shelf in something better than the Playmates versions, but like a lot of this line, they’re beginning to show their age, mostly in articulation. Also, with a somewhat oddball 7-inch scale, about the only other figures I own that they can interact with would be the Farscape line, which makes for some fun crossovers. With DST focusing now on ships and roleplay toys, and those weird statue-figures, I truly hope that we can see the Trek license pass to someone who can do something fresh with it. Obviously, Funko has access to some of the license and have already begun producing Classic Trek ReAction figures (oh, don’t worry, I’m going to get to those eventually), but I’d love to see what they can do with the property in their 6-inch Legacy line.

Jan 16 2013

Star Trek: Tosk and Hunter of Tosk by Playmates

It took me a good couple of seasons to really accept The Next Generation as the great show that it is, but Deep Space Nine? Well, that was love at first sight. While TNG was still cooking in it’s first season, I’d argue that Deep Space Nine was served ready to eat. Except for maybe “Move Along Home.” That episode was pure shit. If anything my adoration for DS9 may have tarnished a bit as later seasons of the show moved from the familiar one-off episodes formula to the focus on story arcs. Nonetheless, it produced a ton of great characters and aliens, many of which never got their proper due from Playmates’ 4.5” line. WHERE’S MY MICHAEL EDDINGTON, YOU BASTARDS??? WHY DID YOU USE THAT PLASTIC TO MAKE THE TRAVELER INSTEAD???

Today’s figures are both from the excellent episode “Captive Pursuit” (Season 1, Episode 6), a story that serves as a prime directive example of why I loved DS9 right out of the gate. Besides being thoroughly entertaining, “Captive Pursuit” serves to establish a lot of Chief O’Brien’s character; it introduces us to a brand new and bizarre alien culture from beyond the wormhole, and illustrates just how blurred the line between right and wrong can be when operating on the frontier in a non-Federation system. We get to see both Sisko and O’Brien struggle with moral ambiguities and the idea of doing what’s right even if it means diplomatically wrecking a First Contact scenario. Great stuff!

As an example of just how out of control Playmate’s juggernaut of 4.5” Star Trek figures eventually became, here we’ve got two figures from the same episode, released under different series. Tosk was released as part of the Deep Space Nine line, while Hunter of Tosk came out under the generic Star Trek moniker. I pity anyone who collects these figures MOSC and has to worry about cataloguing them according to priorities and series. The packaging for my Tosk figure is long since gone, but I’m tearing open The Hunter for this feature, so at least I can give you an in-package shot of him. The Hunter comes with his own Pog… oops, I mean “Space Cap.” [Comic Book Guy] Oddly, enough the “Space Cap” reads:  “Hunter of the Tosk” and is at odds with the card itself, which more properly reads: “Hunter of Tosk.” [/Comic Book Guy] Either way, I preferred the Skybox Collector Cards to the Pogs. Let’s start off with Tosk himself.

Despite the overly stylized designs of many of Playmates’ figures, Tosk features a spot on likeness to the actor in makeup from the episode. The rest of the body is just a textured jumpsuit with black piping, and his exposed skin around his neck and his forearms is sculpted with scales. For what is essentially a very simple figure, I really love the way he turned out. In fact, I’d go so far as to say Playmates nailed Tosk far better than they did some of the major characters.


Tosk features all the necessary accessories. You get his neck collar and leash, his crossbow-style blaster, and HOLY CRAP I FINALLY HAVE A RAKTAJINO MUG!!! I’ve got a lot of DS9 figures, and I’m pretty sure this is the first time I got a Raktajino mug when the truth is almost every figure should have come with one of these! Sorry, Tosk, that’s going to Chief O’Brien or Dax… or maybe Kira or Sisko. Sure, all of Tosk’s accessories are molded in blue plastic, but somehow it doesn’t bother me all that much here. Tosk also comes with a figure stand, which is a basic disc with an illustrated wormhole sticker on it, and a Space Cap.


The Hunter, on the other hand, is a solid figure, but I’m not as impressed with his head sculpt. It’s not bad, it’s certainly on par with most of Playmates’ efforts, but when compared to the likeness on Tosk, The Hunter’s portrait just comes up a little wanting.  The uniform, on the other hand, hits all the right points. The two-tone red is great and the detail sculpted into the belt and bandolier strap is solid work.

The Hunter’s gear is appropriately sculpted in grey plastic. Amazing but true! He comes with the same crossbow-style blaster as Tosk, a clip-on wrist computer, and his removable helmet. Yeeeeah, about the helmet. The sculpt would be accurate to the prop used on the show, but it’s all oversized to fit the figure’s oversized head. I guess it looks ok, so long as you don’t actually compare the figure with a screen capture from the episode. I do like the choice of a sticker for the visor. The Hunter also comes with the same figure stand as Tosk.

Both figures feature the same points of articulation. The arms rotate at the shoulders, have swivels in the biceps, and hinges in the elbows. The legs rotate at the hips and have hinges in the knees, they can each swivel at the waist and turn their heads. All in all, not bad for 90’s Playmates.


While I would like to go back in time and enslave the Playmates factory workers into satisfying my list of wanted DS9 figures, the truth is there are just some things that I need to learn to let go. Thankfully, Tosk and The Hunter aren’t among them. I love this episode and I’m particularly thankful to get this pair of figures from it. For a while, I secretly hoped The Hunters might turn out to be Dominon Shock Troopers , but sadly we never did see them again. At least I have my figures and they turned out pretty well. In fact, I’ll likely pick up two more Hunters when I can find them loose and cheap.

Nov 6 2012

Star Trek: Starfleet Officer’s Collector Set by Playmates

As the 90’s pressed on and Playmates realized what a goldmine they had with their Star Trek license, they started cranking out some boxed sets. One of the more ambitious of those releases was this Starfleet Officer’s Collector Set. It spans three generations of Star Trek, with Classic, Next Generation, and Deep Space Nine all in one package. The set is dated ’94, so I’m thinking that we just missed out on getting some Voyager love in there too. The idea here is you get the Commanding Officer and First Officer from each of the Trek series all in one big happy box. The set includes six figures, four of which are exclusive to this set, a gaggle of accessories, and a big display base that was unique to this release.

The packaging here is quite nice. You get a big window box, with the figures all trapped under bubbles inside and hovering over the display base. The box proclaims, “Three Legendary Commanders and Their First Officers Available for the First Time Ever!” It’s not exactly true since Sisko and Kira are the exact same figures that were already released in single carded form, albeit with some different accessories. Maybe they meant to say, “For the First Time Together!” The box is totally collector friendly as you can remove all the figures, plug them into the stand and then slide the stand right back into the box. I know I’m kidding myself by trying to keep the figures displayed in the box. As much as I love it, I don’t have the room, and the figures will eventually wind up baggied and in with the rest of my Trek figures and the stand will be slid somewhere for safe keeping. Let’s check out the figures in chronological order, starting with good old Kirk and Spock.

This is the first time we’ve seen Playmates figures of Kirk and Spock in their dress uniforms. Granted, they aren’t all that different from their regular duty tunics. There’s a gold fringe running around the neck and straight down the middle and instead of their regular insignia, they have medals displayed on the left of their chests. The head sculpts seem to be the same as the regular versions of the figures that came in the Bridge Crew set. They’re pretty good, particularly Kirks as he has the little cowlick hanging down over his forehead. I also like getting a figure of Spock without one hand trapped in a Vulcan salute, although in retrospect, I think it would have been better to have the salute hand on this figure and the regular one one the regular figure. If I were any good at customizing, I’m sure I could make that happen. All in all, Playmates did a nice job with this pair.

Both Kirk and Spock come with the same two accessories: A phaser and a communicator. They’re the same accessories that came with the figures in the original Bridge Crew set.

Moving on to Picard and Riker, I’ll say that these two are my least favorites in the set, mainly because I could never stand the Next Generation dress uniforms, which looked way too much like dresses. I think they were going for something similar to the amazing uniform designs that premiered in Star Trek II but it doesn’t work. If they were shorter and had a belt, I think they’d be a lot better. It’s also worth noting that these figures share the exact same torso and legs, with just an extra rank pip added for Picard and the head sculpts are recycled from the original releases. Oh yeah, Picard has some serious monkey arms going on here. Overall, they’re ok, but they look a little dated and awkward compared to the others.

The Next Gen boys come with a computer terminal, a tricorder, a palm phaser and a regular phaser. They’re not bad as far as Playmates accessories go, but they are all straight repacks of stuff we’ve seen before. Once I get around to snipping the beams off the phasers, they’ll be good to go.

Last up are Sisko and Kira and they are the only straight repack figures in the set, which is kind of disappointing. Don’t get me wrong, I love these figures. I think they’re actually among two of Playmates’ best. On the other hand, the theme of this set has been dress uniforms, so it would have been nice to get some variants from Deep Space Nine. I’m sure Sisko has appeared in dress uniform before and for Kira they could have just given us the version of her with the longer hair from the premier episode. Hell, I would have even welcomed a Sisko figure with his regular Command tunic from the Saratoga.

 

Kira comes with a Bajoran phaser and tricorder. I’m pretty sure these are two of the same accessories that came with the original figure. Color notwithstanding I really like the phaser. Sisko comes with a computer terminal and a phaser rifle. Again, the phaser rifle is excellent, I just wish it were accurately painted.

All the figures in this set have nearly the same articulation. Kirk, Spock, Sisko and Kira are identical. The arms rotate at the shoulders, have hinged elbows, and swivel cuts at the biceps. The legs rotate at the hips and have hinged knees. The head rotates and the figures can swivel at the waist. Picard and Riker have the same minus the waist swivel, and it should also be noted that their elongated tunics hamper their hip articulation as well.

The three tiered display base is a really nice piece. Each platform is textured with a sort of metal grate pattern and each one has pegs to hold the two figures. The plates are actually big enough to comfortably fit three figures if you want to pad out your display a little more. The front has each of the series titles in raised gilded lettering. It’s a sturdy and durable piece, but it is hollow so you can even store the accessories underneath it. It’s a cool enough item that I will try to find room to display it, although most likely I will swap out the Next Gen Picard and Riker for the Generations versions and the regular Bridge versions of Kirk and Spock.

My set still has the $29.99 price tag on it from Toys R Us. At $5 a figure that seems a little steep for a set with two repacks in it. I never even saw this set back when it was first out, although by ’94 I was probably weaning myself off collecting for a while. I got mine for ten bucks from a dealer at the Toy Show and I’m pretty satisfied. The four exclusive figures are probably not essential, but definitely nice extras to have in any serious Playmates Trek collection.

Feb 26 2010

Star Trek: Warp Factor Sisko, Dax, Chief O’Brien and Jem’hadar by Playmates

I spent some time digging some random shit out of totes today, and I came up with some figures that I had almost forgotten even existed. The Star Trek Warp Factor series. I still have fond memories from the 90’s of hunting down Playmates 3 3/4″ Trek figures, mostly from The Next Generation, but I had forgotten all about these larger scale figures and so I thought I’d take a look at some of them here today. My totes are really badly sorted, so lets just go with the random four I came up with: Captain Sisco, Chief O’Brien, Jadzia Dax, and a Jem’hadar.

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These figures come on pretty nice cards, although the cardbacks on these seemed to be really vulnerable to creases and… yep, warping. Ha! I own quite a few of these figures still on the cards and I don’ think there’s a really good one in the batch. The front does a good job of showing off what you’re getting and the back panel has a bio card for the character and a few pictures of other figures. If I recall correctly, this line cast its net far and wide across the corners of the Trek universe, and no franchise was spared getting the Warp Factor treatment.

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The sculpts on these figures are not bad at all, or at least not bad for Playmates standards. Let’s face it, most of their 90’s era Trek figures went more for a stylized look rather than realism and these figures are no different. I think Sisco’s sculpt is the best, they really captured his likeness well, and after that its a close race between O’Brien and Dax. I think Dax gets a little edge here because O’Brien’s noggin seems way too big. Either way, they’re all pretty good. The uniforms look good and I like how they took the time to sculpt O’Brien’s sleeves rolled up a bit. I do think they could have made Dax’s spots a little clearer. The Jem’hadar’s likeness is ok, but then he’s just a generic alien. He does have a cool tube coming out of his neck to pump in doses of that white shit that they were addicted to. It also looks like he has flowers molded on his uniform. Weird. Either way, I really hate this figure because  he’s pre-posed, but I’ll get to more on that in a minute.

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The articulation on these four are a really mixed bag. O’Brien and Dax come out on top. Their heads rotate, their arms rotate at the shoulders, have swivel cuts in the biceps and have hinged elbows. Their legs rotate up at the groin, have swivel cuts in the thighs and are hinged at the knees. Not bad, not bad at all for figures of this vintage. Sisco is curiously missing a lot of the others aritculation, which is surprising. He’s got no arm articulation below the shoulders and no swivel cuts in the thighs. He looks really bad standing because his legs are pre-posed in a ridiculously wide stance. The reason here is so that he would look better sitting down (more on that in a minute) whereas neither Dax or O’Brien can be seated without spreading their legs really wide like they’re doing some kind of freaky yoga. Seems like you can’t have it both ways with these figures.

The Jem’hadar’s articulation is useless. He has all five points of articulation that a vintage Star Wars figure would have, plus a hinged elbow in his left arm. What the fuck? Why? If you’re going to put a hinge in one arm, why not the other? What’s worse is that his right arm is bent really tight and all I want to do is straighten it. He looks like he’s made to be holding a weapon that he didn’t even come with. Oh yeah, he can swivel at the waist, which none of the other figures can do. His legs are bent a little at the knees and one foot is bent so you can pretty much pose him in a slight action stance, but nothing else.

You would expect big figures like these to come with all sorts of cool gear, like tricorders and phasers, or disrupters, but no, Playmates decided to give each one a big accessory and stiff them on everything else. Sisco comes with his Defiant command chair, Dax comes with the Defiant’s helm station, O’Brien comes with an engineering station and the Jem’hadar comes with some weird control columns, which makes me hate him even more. Sisco’s chair is easily the best of the bunch, but it pretty much has to be since the only decent way to display him is sitting in it. But hey, at least he looks really great sitting in it. Its also made entirely of plastic and not some half plastic, half cardboard construct.

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Yeah, because Dax and O’Brien’s console stations involve you folding cardboard cutouts to make up their stands, which works ok, but still feels kind of cheap. And while O’Brien’s was easy to make, you practically have to be an Origami Wizard of the First Order to get Dax’s to come out right. Don’t get me wrong, the plastic portions of these consoles are very cool, especially with the beautifully detailed stickers applied to look like the controls. Although, I’m thinking the stickers should have come pre-applied because without them the carded figures look like they have random hunks of plastic next to them. Oh yeah, and keeping consistant with his shitty figure, the Jem’hadar’s consoles suck. They don’t even lock together or anything so they just wind up toppling all over the place. I hate this fucking Jem’hadar figure.

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I appreciate what Playmates was trying to do with these consoles, but using cardboard on part of them was just half assed. I would have rather either paid a few dollars more to get a proper console, or just got some fucking phasers and other shit instead. Remember the 3 3/4″ figures and how much shit they came with? Sure most of it was molded in some crazy color like neon orange or purple, but at least they had accessories. Dax and O’Brien would have been excellent if they had just come with some weapons and accessories. And with a little better tooling and articulation, Sisco would have been able to stand without looking like a total jackass. As a result, even the best figures of this bunch leave me disappointed. Still, I’m kind of intrigued now to check out some more of these.