Tag Archives: exo-6

Dec 9 2024

Star Trek (Enterprise) Thy’lek Shran Sixth-Scale Figure by Exo-6

I started checking out Exo-6’s Sixth-Scale Enterprise line back in March with Captain Jonathan Archer, and I have a couple more on preorder. And while it’s been a long road getting from there to here, there was one figure that shipped in between that has yet to get the spotlight here. And believe me I feel terrible for keeping the great Jeffrey Combs waiting so long, so let’s jump right in and check out Thy’lek Shran! And I will confess that as much of a huge fan I am of Enterprise, this was the first I learned that Shran’s first name is Thy’lek. Of course, the Andorian Imperial Guard Commander was a recurring character on the series and it was fun to see his relationship with Archer turn from enemies to… well, frenemies. I don’t know that they were down for watching any water polo matches together of ice fishing in the Blue Taiga Region on Andoria, but it’s probably accurate to say they learned to respect and rely on each other. I loved seeing the updated look for the Andorians, including the wriggling antenna, and all I have to say about Jeffrey Combs is that the man elevates everything he appears in, and despite playing nearly a dozen different characters on Trek, he always manages to make each one uniquely memorable.

The package is right in line with what we saw with Archer, consisting of a window box with an outer sleeve that lifts off the top or bottom. The figure is nestled in a vac-formed plastic tray with the extra bits around him. It’s nothing terribly flashy, but it gets the job done. I will note that this is one of the few occasions where the photo on the front of the box doesn’t horribly misrepresent the figure by looking terrible, but the finished product is still lots better.

Shran comes out of the box all ready to go and I have to say Exo-6 continues to kill it with this line. Sure, you could argue that the Andorian uniform design in Enterprise isn’t the most flashy thing around, but I do love how it extrapolates the simplicity of The Original Series and just adds some texture for modern high definition screens. Here you get the slightly glossy pleather of the trousers and three-quarters of the tunic, with the other part of the tunic done in a soft, furry material, mixing future style with an almost primitive, tribal feel. Finally, the reinforced belt, shoulder strap, and armband adds that military vibe. And most curious is the complete lack of insignia, reflected in the original design. There may be nothing in this costume to get terribly excited about, but it’s executed wonderfully, with immaculate stitching and a really good fit. The boots are soft plastic and they are sculpted in one solid piece, which means they look seamless, but there isn’t much range in the ankle joint that’s buried inside. You also get a permanent hard case holster on his right hip for his sidearm.

The portrait is outstanding, both in sculpt and paint. They really nailed the likeness of Combs in the makeup, and I often wonder if that’s more or less challenging to do rather than just the straight likeness. Shran sports a powerful brow, deep set eyes, tight lips, and some rather pronounced creasing. The detail in the hair sculpt is extremely sharp and the antenna are cast in a permanent arc, almost pointing at each other. Yeah, it’s a shame they couldn’t have done them in soft plastic with wires to make them poseable. The pale blue skin tone is pitch perfect and there’s some really nice texturing to the skin itself. With over half a dozen of Exo-6’s Trek figures on my shelf, I haven’t had a lot to nitpick when it comes to the portraits, and that’s not going to change today.

If there’s one place this figure disappoints a bit is how restrictive the uniform turned out, particularly in the groin and shoulders. I expect this from a lot of Sixth-Scale lines, but the uniforms in Trek tend to be a bit more forgiving than the comic heroes and whatnot. Here it’s just a matter of the pleather not giving to allow those wide action stances I would like, at least not without feeling like I’m going to pop some stitches. I can get 90-degrees out of the shoulders, but that’s it, and I’ve already talked about the ankles. At least the knees and elbows are easy to work with! Of course, you get several set of hands, including fists, relaxed hands, trigger-finger hands, and an accessory holding hand.

Exo-6 does tend to be a little stingey and redundant with the accessories in this line, but Shran here made out pretty damn good. Starting with the least interesting piece first, you get this tiny communicator. The design mimics the retro-tech of the series pretty well and what can I say, it is what it is.

Far more interesting are Shran’s two weapons, both of which I believe were first seen in The Andorian Incident. First, he comes with a standard issue Imperial phaser pistol. It’s a super clean looking design with a silver finish, electric blue paint applied to the power coil, and some nice overall nice sculpted detail.

Secondly, he has a plasma carbine. Yes, this is technically called a rifle, but I think it qualifies more as a carbine, as it’s barely bigger than the pistol. It has a very similar design aesthetic to the pistol, right down to the silver finish and blue power coil. This one has a skeletal stock. It would have been cool to get a shoulder strap with it, so he could carry it, but I can’t remember if that was a thing in the show or not.

And finally you get a set of Ushaan-tor, which are basically serrated ice mining tools that the Andorians also used as weapons and to fight duels. These are coupled with a set of gauntlets worn on the non-blade wielding hand. These have ringlets to attach a cable, as was shown in the episode, Unity, when Shran and Archer fought each other and their gauntlets were tethered to each other. I love that these are included, and I’d love to see more one-off, episode specific, accessories like these bundled in with future figures.

And our final stop on these reviews is always the stand, and this is the same type that Exo-6 has been including with pretty much all their Trek figures, regardless of the series. I probably have enough of these now to assemble together into a transporter pad, and I’ll really have to give that a go when all these figures get unpacked again. The figure is held by a standard crotch-cradle post and you get clips to connect multiple bases together.

I was probably as surprised as anyone to see Shran released as the second figure in the Enterprise line up. I was sure that would have been either T’Pol or Tucker. Not that I was unhappy to see him, as I smashed that preorder button the moment he went up. Shran retailed at $215, which isn’t too bad for a Sixth-Scale licensed figure these days and as is the case with most of these Exo-6 Trek figures, he sold out pretty fast. So far both T’Pol and Hoshi Sato have been put up for preorder, and I do believe that T’Pol is scheduled to arrive first. And yup, I’m All-In on this line! Is it too much to dream that we’ll get a Tellarite for Shran to fight with? Probably, but you never know!

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!

Mar 8 2024

Star Trek (Enterprise) Captain Jonathan Archer Sixth-Scale Figure by EXO-6

It’s been a long road… Getting from pre-order to here! Actually, EXO-6’s Captain Archer has been in my collection for a short while now, but his review got side-stepped by Quark and dozens of other things, so it’s long overdue that I remedy that. But it really was a long wait, as I pre-ordered this guy on day one and it seemed to take forever for him to finally ship. I really liked Enterprise a lot when it first aired, but in recent years I’ve come to absolutely adore it and as far as I’m concerned, it is indeed the last Star Trek series. I was pretty surprised that EXO-6 started tackling these characters before getting much of a foothold in The Next Gen crew, but then again, how weird is it that the series that has garnered most of their attention has been Voyager!

EXO-6’s presentation is pretty close to what we see out of your average Hot Toys release. We get a window box with a sleeve and the figure comes nestled in a molded plastic tray with the accessories around them. The foil lettering is nice and overall it’s a pretty smart and snappy design. But, EXO-6 has to be some of the only people in the Sixth-Scale biz who like to use substandard pictures for their solicitation and packaged shots. This photo on the front of the box is terrible and is not at all representative of what you actually get in the box. We saw a great example of this with Quark as well. Many of EXO-6’s Trek figures tend to come as Standard and slightly more expensive Essential releases, which is their way of saying Regular and Deluxe, but Archer here appears to have only the one release.

Captain Archer comes out of the box all ready for display in his blue 22nd Century Starfleet issue jumpsuit. I loved this uniform design as it had a very practical and realistic NASA feel to it that fit the show’s tech style. EXO-6 did an excellent job tailoring the costume and even recreating the myriad of zippered compartments. Boy did early Starfleet design love those zippers! Some of these actually have working pulls, while others are just the tracks for show. The stitching is immaculate and the suit fits the figure well, while leaving a bit of slack for comfort and ease of movement. He has his gold Command piping around his shoulders, sculpted plastic rank pips, and his Enterprise patch on his left bicep. The blue is nice and vibrant and while there is some padding under it, this is probably the least restrictive costume I’ve had on any of my EXO-6 Trek figures.

The portrait is excellent, not only in terms of the likeness to Scott Bakula but also the general skin tone and subtle texturing in the skin. It’s a far cry from the waxy mannequin head on the front of the box. The detail in the sculpted hair is pretty sharp. EXO-6 has some ground to cover before catching up to Hot Toys, but I think they’re work is running pretty close to some of the other heavy hitters in the field, particularly Sideshow. Each new figure gets me more excited to see what they’re going to do with the next portrait. I think Bakula could be one of those likenesses that’s difficult to hit without wandering into caricature, but I really love what we got here. There’s an optimistic wonder to his expression, which could be me misread as smug if you weren’t familiar with the character. Great stuff!

As you might expect, you get a few sets of hands to work with. These include relaxed hands, fists for punching Suliban and Xindi bastards, a right hand for holding his phaser, and a left hand for holding the Tricorder and Communicator. I found some of the hands to be a tight fit the first couple of times, but the wrists posts are pretty robust and after a couple of swaps they seemed to go easier and easier.

As for Starfleet gear, all the basic equipment is included here. The phase pistol includes a molded black plastic holster, which clips onto flaps on the right hip of the jumpsuit. The phaser itself is a gorgeous little piece of kit with black grips, some great silver and gray paintwork, and lots of sculpted detail. It’s a static piece, with no articulation, so the only thing missing is it’s top-break action.

The Communicator has a hinged lid, which in universe doubled as the device’s antenna. There’s a glossy sticker on the screen, which shows signal bars and a battery charge icon. These are extremely similar to cell phone icons, and I thought this was an inside joke, but after researching the props, I was surprised to learn that they’re actually screen accurate to the show. The sleeve zippers open, so you could probably fit this in there, but I wouldn’t recommend trying it.

And finally: The Tricorder! This accessory has two inserts for the top, one to display it closed up and one for it’s extended and active configuration. I like that EXO-6 uses swap out parts for some of their accessories, rather than go with fragile articulation. I think this piece looks great, but I feel like it might be a little undersized. Granted, I’ve never held one like I have Tricorder props from the Original Series or Next Generation, so it could very well be accurately scaled.

And the final accessory included in the box is Porthos the Beagle! Porthos comes sculpted in an attentive sitting position and he looks really great. The paint is really well done and I especially love the glossy finish to his nose and eyes. I always loved seeing Porthos make an appearance in the show and the writers even managed to work him into the stories from time to time. I’m surprised this space doggo made it into a standard release and wasn’t held back for a Deluxe, but as I mentioned earlier, Archer just had a single price point release.

And as always, our last stop on these sixth-scale figure reviews includes the stand. This is the exact same stand we saw with Captain Sisko and Quark and I dig it. The post has a crotch-cradle to support the figure, while the hexagonal base has a clear plastic cover over the surface and a printed Transporter pad under it. You can also swap that out with a segment of a larger circle and connect multiple stands together for a larger display and secure it with an included connection piece.

I purchased my Captain Archer for $210, which I believe was the MRSP at the time of pre-order and from the tailoring on the jumpsuit to the portrait, I think he turned out great and I’m thrilled to have him on my shelf. With five of EXO-6’s Sixth-Scale Trek figures in my collection, I can definitely say I think the property is in safe hands. It makes me so happy to see Enterprise getting some lovin’ on the collectibles front and I do hope they’re planning on running out the entire Bridge Crew and Phlox. Oddly enough, the second Enterprise figure released was the Andorian Commander Shran, but I’m not complaining about it. Indeed, he’ll likely be the next figure I check out in EXO-6’s Trek series.

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!