Tag Archives: playmates

Jan 17 2013

Star Trek The Next Generation: The Nausicaan by Playmates

As I mentioned yesterday, it’s going to be Star Trek for the rest of the week. I’m sorry to do this to the crazy people fine folks who don’t like Star Trek, but I’ve got a lot of work to do this week (the kind that actually pays me the monies that keeps me supplied with Jameson and toys) so I’m dipping my bucket into the Playmates Star Trek well for a trio of quick and dirty features. It also gives me a nice build up to feature one of Diamond Select’s new Star Trek ships on Saturday. So into the huge tote of carded Trek figures I go and today I came up with… The Nausicaan. Let’s dive right in and rip open a 20 year old figure, eh?

There’s that wonderful Next Gen figure packaging. The design is the same aesthetic quality as when you hit an adult website and a thousand unwanted pop ups flood your screen. Ok, the card isn’t advertising Viagra or fleshlights, and it won’t warrant a frantic call for help to The Geek Squad, but it’s still screaming a lot of stuff at you. “NEW!” “ATTENTION COLLECTORS!” “Individually numbered!” “Playmates Skybox Collector Card!” “7th Season!” “Collector Series!” “As seen in the Tapestry!” Holy crap, my brain is exploding!!!! And that’s just the front of the card. The back has headshots of some other figures available. I have boxes full of these things and there are still figures I don’t have. How is that possible? You also get an advertisement for Deep Space Nine on the Super Nintendo and Genesis, an explanation of what all those oddly colored accessories are and a blurb about the Nausicaans and the enjoyable episode, “Tapestry.”

How would I describe a Nausicaan to someone who knows nothing about them? Well, it’s basically a Predator wearing a Weird Al Yankovic wig that hangs out in space bars and hustles people at space pool. Yeah, from a design standpoint, the Nausicaans were as derivative as all hell, but they sure looked impressive on screen, especially for a show where being an alien usually meant you had pointed ears, a wrinkled forehead, or just happened to be bald and painted blue. The Nausicaans were scary dudes, with tempers to match. I mean, anyone willing to murder someone over a game of billiards is just bad ass, and they seemed to take great pleasure in picking on Starfleet cadet pussies. For more information, let’s consult Mr. Nausicaan’s collector card. Hmm… no help there. It just gives a summary of Picard’s bar encounter (Sorry, Picard, you only got stabbed in the heart, we had to sit through an episode of you talking to Wesley about it in a Shuttlecraft. Clearly we suffered more from that incident). It also lists the Nausicaan homeworld as “unknown.” Wait, what? You have a bunch of aliens hanging around a Starbase and you don’t even know where they come from? If I were to venture a guess, I’d say Nausicaa and a quick look at the entry onMemory Alpha and I see that I’m right.

It couldn’t have been easy to capture all that ugliness in a 4.5” figure, but I’ll be damned if Playmates didn’t manage to pull it off. While the face sculpt is admittedly rather soft, the likeness is certainly there and he is one hideous bastard. There’s a cool little paint wash to help bring out the sculpted bits and his hair even has the little hairbands sculpted and painted into the front. I’m usually not a fan of Playmates’ willingness to play fast and loose with proportions, but in this case the Nausicaan’s big head kind of works and his giant burly monkey arms and ham-hock fists do as well. My only big gripe here is that one of his hands is held out at a weird angle, presumably to better hold his Dom-Jot stick, but in reality it looks like he’s trying to do something obscene with it.

It’s been a while since I’ve watched “Tapestry” but the Nausicaan outfit looks like the designer just couldn’t be bothered as it’s just a brown tunic and pants with some random black lines on it, a sash running down the middle and a belt. Still, I don’t think these guys were supposed to be in the Space Service or anything, so it’s probably not a uniform. Nope, this is probably your typical Nausicaan “I’m going to go slum it at the bar tonight so I’ll just throw something on” outfit. I’m sure Playmates did their best with what they had.

The figure features the basic Next Gen articulation. The arms rotate at the shoulders; have hinged elbows, and swivels in the biceps. The legs rotate at the hips and have hinged knees. The Nausicaan can swivel at the waist and his head can turn a little, but his hair tends to get in the way.

The Nausicaan comes with a cadre of accessories, all molded in blue plastic. You get the serrated knife that he used to turn Picard’s heart into shish-kabab, you get a Dom-Jot stick, you get a tankard of booze and some kind of weird thing that looks like a tea pot. He also comes with a purple figure stand. [Unfortunately, I took the photos a couple days after opening him and my alcohol addled mind couldn’t remember where I put the accessories. All I could find was his sword and stand. Take this as a lesson, kids, don’t drink and blog.]

All in all, the Nausicaan is a pretty cool figure. The wonky proportions tend to work better for aliens like him and the sculpt is certainly solid enough. Surprisingly, The Nausicaans were given the action figure treatment again in Art Asylum’s 7-inch Enterprise line, which is sitting buried in a tote somewhere. I’ll really have to dig that sonovabitch out some day.

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.

Jan 3 2013

FigureFan’s Disappointments of 2012, Part 1

Ok, we’ve seen my favorites, and now it’s time to check out the turds floating in last year’s punchbowl. Again, this was tough, because I try to avoid buying things that look like they will be crap. So maybe the word turd is a little harsh in some cases. Almost nothing on this list is total crap, but everything here definitely disappointed me in some way.

TMNT Classics: Donatello by Playmates… The Classic Turtles are great figures, but they got upstaged on my “Favorites List” by the smaller modern guys in a major way. Nonetheless, Donatello represents here for one reason and one reason only, because of his mad eyes. Ok, I suppose that’s two reasons. The point is that by giving him wonky eyes, Playmates not only ruined the figure, but seriously marred the entire set. How can anyone appreciate their team of turtles on the shelf when Donny is standing there in the back looking like he got kicked in the head one too many times. It’s a crazy example of how one brush stroke can mar an otherwise excellent toy.

DC Universe All Stars: Superboy Prime… Besides turning out as a terrible looking figure, Superboy Prime earns Mattel a Disappointment Award for doing the bait-and-switch. The final product saw major changes from the pre-release images, and while that is bound to happen from time to time, the changes here made a great looking promo figure turn into a terrible release. Even worse, with hardly any brick-and-mortar stores actually carrying the DCU All Stars, I had to buy the figure online, so my disappointment wasn’t realized until I got the thing in hand and it was too late. It’s not often that I can say I regret buying a DCUC figure, but I certainly regret picking up Superboy Prime.

Marvel Legends: Extremis Iron Man… Because I only allowed each toyline to appear once in each list, this slot was a tight race between Extremis Iron Man and Future Foundation Spider-Man. In fairness, on its own this Iron Man is a fairly competent figure, but as soon as you put him up against some of the other figures in Hasbro’s new Marvel Legends line he comes up wanting. He’s too small, not terribly well articulated, and overall underwhelming. I kind of get the feeling that he was just here to fill a slot in a quick and dirty manner (that’s what she said?). And to keep the comparisons rolling, his paint and sculpting don’t even live up to many of the older, smaller and cheaper 3 ¾” Iron Man 2 figures. At least Hasbro released him in two versions, so that the crappy Stealth variant would make the regular one look better.

Duke Nukem by NECA… You’ve got to hand it to NECA, in an effort to be as accurate to the game as possible; they obviously wanted to capture the disappointment of Duke Nukem Forever in action figure form. And they did! NECA’s Duke features a solid enough sculpt, but the articulation is downright weird and the paintwork, particularly on the flesh tones, leaves a lot to be desired. And then there are the accessories. Sure, kudos for the cigar, which I promptly lost, but how can Duke come with just a handgun? Where’s his arsenal? And, no, the fact that he has feet doesn’t count as a “Mighty Boot” accessory. Duke should have come with a cool assortment of weapons, instead all he came with was disappointment.

Avengers: “Sword Spike” Thor… While most of Hasbro’s 3 ¾” Avengers figures were disappointments, this version of Thor earns a place on this list because he represented the ultimate in toy company hubris and laziness. Hasbro took what was essentially the exact same figure from the previous year, cut out most of its articulation, gave him a new shitty weapon and put him on an Avengers card. They even kept the same name, which in the new context made no sense because he now came with a halberd and not a sword. To add insult to injury, a lot of stores had this figure hanging just a few pegs away from the better articulated Thor-branded figure… on clearance! It’s the retail equivalent of Hasbro unzipping their pants, pulling out their Mjolnir and slapping us in the face with it.
Ok, that’s enough disappointment for one day. I’m going to take some Topamax and gin to level out my mood and I’ll be back tomorrow with the final five.

Jan 1 2013

FigureFan’s Favorites 2012, Part 1

 

Happy New Year, folks! Let’s jump right in with the first five delectable items on my Favorites list. I’ll point out that these are not in any order because that would have taken more effort and the whole point of this song and dance was to get me a week off… let’s go!

 

Masters of the Universe Classics: The Wind Raider by Mattel… As much as I give Matty Collector a hard time, I can’t deny they produce some amazing toys and figures. But as I mentioned in a recent feature, I didn’t give a lot of attention to the MOTUC line in 2012. Nonetheless, I couldn’t resist grabbing the Wind Raider, and I’m certainly glad I did. Besides being the only vehicle released in the line so far, it is one big, beautiful, and very high-quality toy. At about $60 shipped, it certainly wasn’t cheap, and yet I was still totally impressed and satisfied with it when it came out of the box. The fact that Matty has managed to make it readily available for purchase throughout the year is even better. This piece really belongs in every MOTUC collection.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Nickelodeon’s Ninja Turtles by Playmates… Yep, I’m cheating on this one, because I’m using one slot for four figures. I make no apologies, because how could I choose just one of the Heroes in a Half Shell? Some may be surprised to find the smaller, modern versions of the Turtles on this list, rather than the larger Classic-inspired figures, but when you get down to it, these little guys are just more amazing. The new designs are fantastic, the sculpts and articulation are great, and they’re also some of the best values hanging on the action figure pegs today. And this is coming from someone who doesn’t like the show they’re based on! It’s no surprise that the TMNT sections were cleaned out at most retailers in the weeks leading up to Christmas. I often lament the kids growing up today without the kind of kick-ass toys I had as a kid, but these figures actually make me jealous of those damn kids.

Marvel Legends: Steve Rogers & Thor by Hasbro… I really tried to break this tie, but in the end, I just couldn’t do it. In 2012 Hasbro brought Marvel Legends back with a vengeance, and there were lots of solid efforts. This entry originally started as a three-way tie with Arnim Zola finally getting edged out. Steve Rogers and Thor are both prime examples of what I look for in a great action figure. I’d say that of the two, Rogers is more fun to pick up and play with, but Thor’s heft and sculpt capture everything there is to say about the character. If anything, these two figures showed me that Hasbro was trying to do things right with Legends this time around.


Doctor Who: “The Chase” Collector Set by Character Options… You can call this my token Doctor Who slot if you wish, but I’m putting it here anyway. Based on an episode that aired in 1965, the bulk of this set is comprised of a Mechanoid, a robot that looks like a giant Christmas tree ornament that we saw once and never again. The bottom line is that it’s almost impossible that this set exists and yet it does, and for that I love it to pieces. Doctor Who may have grown into a huge international success, but classic and obscure items like this one are geared toward a very niche market, and I congratulate Character Options for making them. The fact that it had a couple of extra classic Daleks was just icing on the cake!

Transformers Commemorative Series:  Powermaster Optimus Prime by Hasbro… Sneaking onto the list as a technicality is this amazing Toys R Us exclusive. Hasbro released Powermaster Prime way back in 2003, but I featured him this year and he isn’t old enough to be a “Vintage Vault” entry, so here he is! Easily one of my favorite Transformers releases of all time, this set is so hefty and so beautifully packaged, that it puts most of the Transformers SDCC Exclusives to shame. This toy features a plethora of modes and all kinds of little custom tweaks to give it even more playability. There’s so much cool interchangeable stuff here that it reminds me of the glorious old Micronaut sets that I grew up with. This “Commemorative Edition” was also the first time that the superior Takara version of the toy was released stateside. I paid $50 for this beauty back in the day, which was a good enough deal that I eventually picked up a second set to leave packaged. Even during times when I have the bulk of my Transformers collection put away, Powermaster Prime is always out on display. I just love him that much.

Swing by tomorrow, and I’ll wrap up my Favorites List with the last five entries…

Dec 13 2012

Star Trek: “1701 Collector Series” Boxed Set by Playmates

Yes, there are still a ton of Playmates Trek figures sitting on my receivings pile, so I thought I’d knock out the last of the boxed sets before tackling some of the single carded figures. This time, we have a curious conglomeration of three figures in one box, related only because they were previously released in ridiculously low limitations of only 1,701 pieces each. Get it? 1701?? Yes, it’s a clever little production joke, unless you were one of the collectors hoping to buy one of these figures only to discover that they were understandably impossible to find. Well, eventually Playmates submitted to reason and we got all three figures in one convenient and easy to find boxed set.

Playmates’ Star Trek packaging tends to be hit or miss, but I think this box is an overall hit. It’s a tastefully executed window box with the old movie style logo, and that logo happens to be my favorite. The front of the package displays all three figures in a tray with their gear arranged around them. Each set is individually numbered, and look, I got set #1779. How friggin ironic is that? I could never find these figures on the pegs when I wanted them, but when I buy the reissued set, I miss the original production run by only 78 pieces!!!

The back of the package shows each figure displayed with one of their accessories. If you look closely, you can see that Lt. Yar is about to shoot herself with her own phaser. Each figure has their own little file card and pictures indicating what each of their accessories are, because quite frankly, with Playmates it’s sometimes hard to tell.

Let’s start with Captain Picard as featured in the Season Six episode “Tapestries.” The story saw Picard plunged back into his own past by “Q” so that he could relive a slice of his Starfleet Academy days. This is the figure I wanted the most out of the set, not only because “Tapestries” is an excellent episode, but because I adore the movie-style Starfleet Uniform so much. It was a really easy figure for Playmates to churn out as it’s just a kitbash of Picard’s head on the Generations Kirk body. As a result, the figure is technically not screen accurate. Besides being way too chunky to be Picard, he’s depicted with the white collar from the feature films that wasn’t worn under the tunic in “Tapestries.” Personally, I’m happy for the inaccuracy, since I thought the Starfleet tunic looked ridiculous without the collar under it.

Playmates slashed way back on the articulation for the Generations line of figures, so Picard here suffers only the five basic points. You get swivel cuts in the neck, shoulders and hips. That’s it.

Picard comes with an interesting mix of blue recreational Starfleet accessories, which include a drinking glass, a three-dimensional chess board, a dom-jot stick, and a Starfleet duffel bag. I don’t usually get all pissy about Playmates’ accessories because I just assume they’ll be crap, but I was really looking forward to having a halfway decent 3D chess board for my Trek figures. Too bad this thing is all warped (no pun intended!) and useless right out of the box. Picard also comes with a generic Starfleet insignia figure stand.

Next up is Lt. Tasha Yar from the Season Three episode,“Yesterday’s Enterprise” not to be confused with the very common Season Seven single-carded release of Lt. Yar in her Season One uniform. Confused? The Season Seven series finale “All Good Things…” involved flashbacks to events during the very first episode “Encounter at Farpoint” in which Yar was still alive and wearing her Season One uniform. As the good Doctor would say, it’s all timey-wimey kind of stuff. The two figures are practically identical, with the only real differences being this one having a remolded high collar and no tan piping on the pant cuffs. She’s essentially wearing the updated Starfleet uniform design she would have worn if she hadn’t gotten herself killed by the dreaded Tar Monster of Vagra II. It’s a cool figure to have if you want to pretend that Denise Crosby never got too big for her britches and quit the show only to come crawling back later as her own half-Romulan daughter.

Lt. Yar makes out much better than Picard in the articulation department. She has a swivel cut in her neck, her arms rotate at the shoulders, have swivel cuts in the biceps and hinges in the elbows. Her legs rotate at the hips and are hinged at the knees. She can also swivel at the waist. Unfortunately, both of the bicep swivels on my Yar figure are stuck. Sometimes you need to give them a little force, but too much will twist the arms right off at the joint, and that’s what I’m afraid will happen to Yar’s arms if I use any more force.

Yar comes with a mix of new and old Starfleet gear, all cast in a blue-green plastic. You get old movie style hand phaser and tricorder, a pair of isolinear chips, and a Next Generation era hand phaser. You also get a generic figure stand.

And that brings us to Lt. Reginald Barclay as featured in his series-hopping appearance in Star Trek Voyager. The episode was entitled “Projections” and like a lot of Voyager it was a bullshit misdirection of a story that made you long for a time when Star Trek was about exploration, diplomacy, and outer space brinkmanship, as opposed to facing fabricated dilemmas brought about by computer malfunctions. There was nothing clever or entertaining about it, other than the fact that Voyager sucked so much it needed to bring in a cameo by a third-rate character like Barclay to prop it up after less than twenty episodes. What makes it even sadder is that it wasn’t even Barclay, but rather just a fake out like everything else in the episode. Yes, this is a figure based on fake Barclay.

The Barclay figure is a mixed bag. I love Dwight Schultz as much as the next guy, but this figure’s Jiffy Pop head makes it look like it’s based on Schultz playing Hector Hammond in a Starfleet Uniform. And while on paper that sounds kind of awesome, it doesn’t work so well for the figure. But Playmates Trek figures always were stylized portraits of the characters, so I’m probably being a little too hard on Reg here. My figure does, however, have a pretty unfortunate paint gash on his right shoulder. Barclay is based on Playmates’ Voyager body, which represented the pinnacle of articulation in the Trek line. That means that he has all the same articulation as Lt. Yar, and most other Next Gen figures, only with additional swivel cuts in the thighs.

Set phasers to sarcasm, “Hurray for purple Starfleet gear!” Yes, Barclay comes with an array of accessories all cast in glaringly inappropriate purple plastic. You get a computer terminal, a PADD, a medical tricorder and a phaser. You also get a figure stand based off of the Voyager style comm badge.

There’s no doubt about this set being geared toward the real collectors out there. I wouldn’t consider any of these “must own” figures for anyone other than the real completists or Trek-obsessed nut jobs like myself. But even I would never have shelled out collector prices for any of these figures back when they were actually rare. But now, thanks to the miracle of reissues, what were once individually very expensive figures set me back a mere ten bucks for all three. It’s a fine example of the fact that a lot of times figures are prohibitively expensive just because they’re rare and not because they’re anything special. “Tapestries” Picard is certainly the most interesting figure to me. He’s a cool one-off and I wish head swaps were easier on these figures as I’d like to take Playmates’ Cadet Picard’s head and put him on this body. Yar is an interesting enough curiosity, but I was perfectly content with my Season Seven/Season One version. As for Barclay… well, he’s Barclay. I didn’t already own a figure of the character, but I’d much rather have him in his regular Next Gen Starfleet uniform as opposed to his one-off fake appearance in a shitty Voyager episode. But, at least he’s another Starfleet Officer to add to my Voyager shelf. In the end, I bought this set mostly as an inexpensive curiosity, and I’ll likely keep these figures boxed, rather than integrate them with the rest of my Playmates collection.

Nov 28 2012

Star Trek Voyager: Lt. Tom Paris & Kes by Playmates

It’s time to throw in my weekly dose of Playmates Star Trek love. I really should just bring back Star Trek Saturday, since I have so many of these damn figures to look at, but for now I’ll just keep tucking them into the week wherever there’s room. I don’t think I’ve looked at any of the Voyager figures here before, but last week I picked up a few more that I needed to fill out my collection of the crew. Ah, Voyager, while I would argue there were about a dozen episodes that were truly excellent, the show usually balanced that fine line between mediocrity and downright horridness. Today we’re checking out the ship’s navigator and Starfleet badboy wannabe, Lt. Tom Paris, and the annoying and useless Ocampa, Kes. I’m looking at these figures together, because that’s how I bought them, but I seem to recall they were an item for a while in the show, so that makes this pairing all the more relevant.

Paris’ packaging was pretty badly shredded, so let’s use Kes’ as an example for the in-package shot. The card styles have evolved a little since the days of the Next Gen and Deep Space Nine figures, but you can still see the lineage. You get the nice big series logo along with an animated looking version of the Voyager herself. The big bubble displays the figure, the Skybox collector card, and a bunch of accessories. The back of the card shows portraits of other figures in the line as well as a file card for the character and a look at the included accessories. The Voyager line really is the pinnacle of Playmates’ 4 ½” Star Trek figure efforts. They’ve cast off almost all the overly stylized and pre-posed bullshit and what’s left is just plain old action figure goodness. It makes me wish they revisited the Next Gen crew in this manner.

One crazy thing about Playmates’ Star Trek figures is they tend to develop a film on the plastic when left in the packages for too long. Paris’ legs were spotted and Kes’ legs and head were all frosted over. It’s good to have a magic eraser or an LCD wipe handy. After a little polishing the stuff doesn’t come back and the figures look new again.


Ugh, let me start with Kes. I hate Kes. She was a pointless character, and I’m sorry but Jennifer Lien was terrible in that role. I’ll refrain from generalizing about her acting skills because I’ve never seen her in anything else. Maybe she was trying to play it all alien and awkward, and if that was the case, well bravo. Playmates’ figure on the other hand is pretty damn good. The likeness is solid for the age and scale of the figure, although the sculpting of the ears makes her look as much like a Vulcan as she does an Ocampa. She’s wearing a typically boring example of 24th Century casual attire, and I’m surprised she doesn’t have a comm badge sculpted on her chest. I just noticed, she doesn’t have one on the Skybox card portrait either, so I guess it’s accurate. Sadly, there’s a major paint flub on the back of her left sleeve, but overall this figure is a solid effort on Playmates’ part.

Kes’ articulation includes a rotating head, arms that rotate at the shoulders, hinges in the knees and ankles, swivels in the biceps and thighs, and a swivel in the waist. Because of the design of her dress, there’s no hip articulation, so Kes is perpetually standing, which ironically conveys Ms. Lien’s stiff performance on the show. See what I did there? Zing!

In addition to her Skybox card, Kes comes with a computer terminal, a biological scanner, a medical tricorder, and a PADD. All her accessories are cast in an inappropriate dark blue plastic. Ah, Playmates! You and your ridiculously colored accessories… always a treat. She also comes with a personalized figure stand configured to look like the Voyager-era comm badge.


Moving over to Lt. Paris, I was excited to get him because he brings me one step closer to completing the Voyager crew. Now, I’m only missing Chakotay and the Doctor. Paris is a great looking figure, and exactly what I’m talking about when I say Playmates Trek figures hit their stride with the Voyager line. The proportions are excellent with no big ham hands or monkey arms. The Starfleet uniform buck looks great, right down to the cinching on the sides of the tunic. The head sculpt, may not be 100% Robert Duncan McNeill, but I can definitely see him in there, and that’s good enough for me.

Paris features all the articulation I could possibly expect in these figures. The head rotates, the arms rotate at the shoulders and feature swivels in the biceps and hinged elbows. The legs rotate at the hips and feature swivels in the thighs and hinges at the knees. He also has a swivel cut at the waist. Not bad. If I were to change anything it would be a straight “T” for the hips so he can sit without spreading his damn legs.

Along with his Skybox card and figure stand, Tommy boy comes with a portable computer, a PADD, hand phaser, and compression phaser rifle. Amazingly enough all of Paris’ accessories are sculpted in silver, which means they’ll be loaned out to a lot of my other figures who were unfortunate enough to get bright mauve or neon purple ones. I was really excited to get the Phaser Rifle, but it kind of sucks. The sculpting isn’t that great, and Paris can’t hold it for shit. It’s also odd that Playmates left the phaser beam on the hand phaser grey instead of the usual orange, but I’m snipping that off anyway so it really doesn’t matter.


And there we go. I have little love for the Voyager TV series, but being the shameless Star Trek whore that I am, I subscribe to the philosophy that bad Trek is better than no Trek at all. And so I need me my Voyager figures and these are two great additions to the lineup. Like most of Playmates’ Trek figures, these can be had for pretty cheap. I expected to get hit a little harder on Paris, since he’s a bit less common then the rest, but I still managed to snag this pair for $14 shipped, so I’m not complaining!

Nov 15 2012

Star Trek The Next Generation: Lt. Geordi LaForge by Playmates

Ya know, folks, Geordi was the man! Not only did we get to see him rise in the ranks from Lt. Junior Grade peon all the way up to Chief Engineer, but he was one of the better developed characters on the show. While a lot of the 24th Century populace seemed to be a little too well rounded and confident, Geordi really came across as likable  vulnerable and human, particularly in his self-conscious awkwardness around women and the way he embraced his handicap. Plus, I always found Geordi’s friendship with Data to be comfortable and believable. Hell, Geordi even got busted using the Holodeck for what we all know we’d use the Holodeck for if we had one. How uncomfortable was that, eh? Maybe it wasn’t as bad as Barclay’s endeavors, but still pretty embarrassing. Anyway, today I’m having a few belts of Jameson Aldebaran whiskey and celebrating the character with a look at some of Geordi’s various releases in the Playmates 4 ½” line. I’ve got four of them lined up here, so let’s start with his first appearance on the show…

Season One, Lt. Junior Grade Geordi LaForge. Conveniently, this is the only figure of the bunch that I have a packaged shot of, but once you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all. Christ, look at all the explosions of text and excitement in this card. It’s like you just took your firewall down and visited a questionable file sharing site. Besides the gloriously colorful and animated style, the cardback just invades your senses with an inrush of information about the figure. Accessories! Skybox Collector Card! Individually numbered!! First time in this uniform!!! SKYBOX!!! Arghhh!

 

Let’s just go ahead and look at Season One and Chief Engineer LaForge together. I love the tunic-style uniforms from the later seasons, but seeing the characters in their Season One jumpsuit-pajamas really makes me feel nostalgic. Holy hell, we’re talking 25 years ago… when did The Next Generation become a subject for nostalgia? How did I get this old? Anyway, S1 LaForge is basically a repaint and slight re-sculpt of Chief Engineer LaForge. The only real change in the sculpt is his lack of the higher collar and the addition of the piping to his collar. Since it’s the same sculpt as the bulkier later season tunic, the skin-tight style of the earlier jumpsuits isn’t really conveyed well. Still, it works fine for me. Both figures come with the same stand, but different assortments of gear.

 

Next up is Geordi in his dress uniform. Yes, this is what he wears to go down to the Transporter and welcome the weekly alien dignitary on board. I voiced my dislike for these uniforms back when I featured the Starfleet Officer’s Set and I stand by that opinion. As expected, this figure is also basically just a repaint of those other figures too. Unfortunately, once I had Riker and Picard in their dress uniforms my OCD side committed me to buying all the dress uniform figures. Yes, I am my worst enemy. Either way, this figure has a nice sculpt, but unfortunately the VISOR is permanently attached to his noggin.

Dress uniform Geordi comes with a phaser, a computer console, a tricorder, and a case of his medals. The medals case is a new piece that I haven’t seen before, but it’s just a slab of plastic with a sticker on it. He also comes with a standard comm badge style figure stand.

Last up is the most pointless and ridiculous figure of the bunch. If you thought Hasbro was bad about releasing Star Wars figures based off characters that only appeared for a few seconds, well check this shit out. This figure is based off of one episode (“Identity Crisis”) where Geordi mutated into a Tarchanen alien and was seen in the last five minutes or so before being turned back by the miracle of 24th Century bullshit medicine. It truly is one of those releases that make you shake your head and wonder what sick, obsessed moron of a Trek fan would spend money on something like this? Oh wait, I did. In my defense I’m sure I got him as part of a lot of figures. At least that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.

The crazy thing about Tarchanen III Geordi is that he comes with one of the coolest figure stands of any Playmates Trek figure. It’s the United Federation of Planets emblem in blue and gold. Damn, I wish Playmates sold packs of these stands, I would have bought a ton of them.

And that’s my little Geordi tribute. I love Star Trek, I love Next Gen, and I love this character. I’m happy to have him well represented on my shelf, particularly if we toss in the Generations Geordi too. There are still a couple more versions of him floating around out there, but the biggest crime is that Playmates didn’t release a 4 ½” version of him as Dr. Watson. For that, you need to look to the larger scale. Considering all the Holodeck figures Playmates produced, it’s a shame that one didn’t make the cut.

Nov 12 2012

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Foot Soldier (Nickelodeon) by Playmates

Ok, one more Turtles feature and then I’m moving on to randomness for the rest of the week. I had originally planned to do a double feature on April and the Foot Soldier, because I didn’t think I had a whole hell of a lot to say about either of these figures. But then I kind of got all ranty on April, so that’s why we’re getting to look at Foot Soldier all by his lonesome. It’s not that this is a bad figure. Not at all. But he’s a faceless minion for the Turtles to beat up, so he obviously doesn’t have a lot of the same personality and excitement as some of the others. Either way, it’s Monday and I’m in the doldrums, so let’s press on and see what he’s all about.


The packaging! Blah, blah, I love the packaging! Blah, blah. I want to meet it at a bar and buy it a couple of drinks and take it home and tell it how great it is. If you want to see some more in depth thoughts about these packages check out my past Turtles features. To sum it up quick and dirty: Playmates, you done good here.

Does anyone remember the early proto shots of this figure? Remember those goddamn crazy swirly eyes? If you don’t, you can look really closely on any of the Wave 1 packages where they show the other figures, including this one, and you’ll see what I mean. Well thankfully, those didn’t make it into the final figure. In the end Playmates went with a simple red paint job over a sculpt that makes the eyes look rather insectoid. It’s an odd choice, either way, but it looks appropriately creepy.

Apart from the averted eye disaster, the Foot Soldier is a pretty solid looking figure. I like the cheesy foot emblem on his headband, and the overly stylized forearms and lower legs don’t bother me as much as I thought they would. There’s a hint of sculpted detail to his outfit, but it’s kind of soft. As a minion, this guy certainly gets by.

Articulation is very simple. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders and hips, and his arms can swivel just below the elbows. He can also swivel at the waist. The common idea among mass market action figure design these days seems is to cut articulation. Playmates was able to retain it for the Turtles, but everyone else, including the Foot Soldier here, conforms to the prevailing strategy. I was still able to have some fun futzing about with him, but the lack of hinges in the elbows and knees is sorely missed.

While the package proclaims the inclusion of a “Ninja Arsenal,” the reality is somewhat different. You don’t get a cool sprue tree loaded with weapons, like we did with the Turtles and with April. Instead you get a couple of swords and a couple of throwing stars. Footsy here has a set of functional scabbards that peg into his back and hold his two swords very nicely. The swords are simple molded black pieces that he can hold in either hand. He also comes with a set of throwing stars, which he can also hold surprisingly well. So, not a lot of gear, but what’s here is good. But let’s face it, he could have come with a bazooka and he wouldn’t have stood a chance against the Turtles.

Overall, I like this figure well enough. There’s just something about this line that is so much fun and endearing to me. He’s nothing crazy special, but for the going price of these figures, he’s a decent enough goon for the Turtles to beat on. Then again, with the lack of articulation and paint apps, it seems like he should have been offered up in an army builder two-pack for just a couple of dollars more. I will likely pick up one more of these just so I can have them flanking my Shredder on the shelf, but on my next pass through the toy aisle, I’m going to start grabbing the Wave 2 figures.

 

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.

Oct 28 2012

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder (Nickelodeon) by Playmates

Ok, folks, I’ve had a long week and it was a busy day of debauchery yesterday, so I’m going to try to salvage what’s left of my weekend to actually rest. Nonetheless, I promised TMNT goodness, and TMNT goodness you shall have. Let’s look at Shredder.

 

Yuppers, it’s the same packaging we just saw with Splinter. I love it to pieces, while not feeling guilty about ripping it open to get at the action figure center.

Much like Splinter, Shredder’s new design threw me for a bit of a loop. It’s obviously Shredder, but I was pretty iffy on his boxy arm and leg armor. Now that I have the figure in hand, I’m still not entirely sold on it. They kind of make him look like he’s cosplaying a Transformer.  Still, there is a lot about the figure that I do like. The head sculpt is fantastic. The iconic helmet is there, and Shredder’s got some seriously mean looking pupil-less eyes gazing out from behind his face mask. I really dig his shoulder armor, and the way they float on hinges so as not to impede his arm movement. Even the scaled pattern on his chest is plenty cool.

On a side note, it looks like the leg and arm armor can be pried off of the figure pretty easily, but I don’t want to damage my only Shredder. Considering the cost of these guys, I may pony up the extra eight bucks for another and see how much better he looks without it.

Another thing Shredder has in common with Splinter is limited articulation. He has ball joints in his shoulders and hips, his head turns, he can swivel at the waist, and he has hinges in the elbows. I’m really missing the lack of hinges in the knees on this guy. I can understand Playmates investing more articulation into the Turtles, but I seriously wish they had extended that to Shredder too. He’s certainly fun to play around with, but every time I pose him I just keep thinking, “hey, dude, where are your goddamn knees?”

Shredder makes out a little better than Splinter in the weapons department, but not by much. He comes with a katana sword and two throwing stars. The stars are cool, and I’m actually surprised at how well he can hold them. The sword, on the other hand, needed to be a bit more substantial. It looks puny and the hilt rattles around in his grip when he’s holding it. Also, the lack of a simple loop on his back to store it seems like a missed opportunity.

I’m obviously at a point with this TMNT line where I am so smitten with the figures that I’m willing to forgive a lot. Shredder’s design has some issues, and his articulation and accessories are lacking. And yet I still love playing around with him and I think he looks just fine on my growing Nickelodeon Turtles display shelf. Maybe it’s the reasonable price point or just the fact that these figures are making my nostalgia senses tingle, but each figure just makes me want to get more.  In fact, if I weren’t so hungover, I’d probably head down to the store and get some of the new wave right now.