Tag Archives: sixth-scale

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!

Nov 1 2024

Sariah (Goddess of War) Sixth-Scale Figure by Phicen/TBLeague

Halloween may be behind us, but since October was a dicey month, I plan on peppering November with more spooky stuff. I’m not sure if today’s review totally fits that category, but we will be plunging into the Depths of Hell, and that’s pretty scary! It’s crazy to think that I only reviewed one TBLeague figure so far this year, and only one the previous year. I have a bunch of these waiting their turn in the spotlight and some have been waiting for a long while. Currently, I’m starting to pack some things up in anticipation of moving to another State early next year and that means I’d like to give more of these ladies some love before they get sealed away in boxes for three or four months. And today is Sariah’s turn! A lot of TBLeague’s recent figures have been original designs, but Sariah hails from ARH Comics, Undying Queen series. This is not my first figure from this comic, as Arkhalla, Queen of the Vampires was an early Phicen purchase for me back in the day. Cruel and merciless, Sariah is not only The Goddess of War, but also the commander of Hell’s armies in The Lands Below. Let’s check her out!

TBLeague hasn’t changed their packaging much over the years, and that’s a good thing because they do a nice job with it. The heavy-duty box has a tri-fold cover that secures to the sides with magnets and has some gorgeous shots of the figure on the front and side panels. Inside, the figure is nestled in a foam tray with the head detached and the accessories spread out around her. These figures also give off a strong fragrance of tea when you first open them, which I always thought was pretty cool. Like many TBLeague figures, Sariah does require some of her armor to be attached, which can sometimes be a chore, but in this case it wasn’t too bad.

Here she is all set up, and I have to say this is the type of outfit design that really compliments the Phicen seamless body the best, as it shows a fair bit of skin. Her skimpy armor consists of a plastic breast plate, painted red with a gold border, upswept breast cups and a rather jagged cut window to show off her belly button. Below that is a red furry diaper-thong and a black belt with bronze ornamental medallions. She has tall, high-heeled boots, again red with gold accents, which end in skulls for knee guards. Her arms are adorned with red and gold bracers on her forearms, bronze bicep bands, and skulls for shoulder armor. The ensemble is finished off with a red and gold gorget to protect her throat, and a red and gold cape. The cape is crafted from some pretty nice material and has an elaborate decorative pattern. It’s narrow and not at all cumbersome, but I do wish they had given the edges some wires to allow it to be posed. Wired capes are fairly common in more recent TBLeague releases, but it’s not really something they were doing back in the day.

Both the design and execution of the armor is fantastic. The crimson and gold deco pops nicely and while it is mostly plastic, the use of fur and cloth adds that bit of needed variety. The boots are split with the usual ball joints in the ankles to help with those action stances, and the bracers help conceal the wrist joints, so other than the seam around the neck, all the rest of the steel skeleton’s articulation points are locked inside that silicone body. I know some people remain skeptical about the durability of these bodies, but I’ve had Sariah here on display for years. There haven’t been any problems, and she’s one that I love to take off the shelf and play around with now and then. I will, however, point out that this costume is prone to a wardrobe malfunction in the form of frequent nip slips, but since they aren’t painted, it’s not always obvious when it happens!

The portrait includes a really cool headpiece, which is not so much a helmet as it is a sort of a tiara with horns and cheek guards. This piece is made of a slightly flexible plastic, which simply fits onto the head and hugs the sides to remain in place. The red and gold deco matches the rest of the armor and the giant demonic horns make quite an intimidating statement.

Of course, the headpiece is removable, but I’m likely to always display it on the figure, as I’m not a big fan of the way they handled her hairline, with part of it painted onto the head and leading into the rooted hair. It’s not a great look and also not a technique that they’ve used for a while. Otherwise, the portrait is beautiful with very pretty features and a rosy complexion in the cheeks. There’s a spark of life in those eyes and the lips are perfectly painted with a red glossy finish. The hair is swept back where it cascades down her back and includes a partial ponytail as well and the style compliments the headpiece very well.

In terms of accessories, Sariah isn’t over burdened with extras, but she does have the essentials: Mainly her sword and shield and a couple of pairs of hands. The sword is a rather unique design with the hilt keeping the red and gold deco going and featuring a demon skull in the center of the short down-turned crossguard. The blade is painted bright silver and has a double edged and has a cut-out channel in the middle. Sometimes you get diecast blades with these figures, but in this case it’s plastic. The shield is circular with a larger version of the demon skull from the sword as its central boss. There’s a segmented almost spiral pattern with two circlets of studs. I love this design and the super sharp sculpt. The reverse side has a grab bar and an elastic strap for her arm, which is super easy to work with.

While accessories may be light, Sariah makes up for it with her throne and base. Sometimes, TBLeague likes to get freaky by bundling in these big diorama style display bases, and I sure do love it when they do! As is often the case, it’s packaged in a styrofoam brick in the shipping box, rather than in the actual figure box itself. The vaguely throne-shaped pile of skulls is absolutely gorgeous in a grizzly sort of way with a thin sculpted cushion for Sariah’s shapely, rotund caboose to sit on. I really dig the back of the throne, which has three skulls still wearing some rather unusual helmets. Very cool!

The throne is also removable from the base and you can use it as a dais to display the figure standing, but there is no support rod to keep her upright. Still, she can stand really well and I have had her displayed on it for long stretches without her toppling.

Even if you aren’t a fan or familiar with the comic, Sariah fits in perfectly with TBLeague’s original design releases as just a beautiful fantasy warrior woman in a set of bitchin demon armor. The seamless body is as impressive as ever and the sculpt and paint on her costume seals the deal perfectly. The only nitpick I have is that I wish she came with a scabbard so she could wear her sword on her belt. But even if the accessory assortment seems light, the elaborate base and throne more than make up for it by adding a ton of value to the package. Indeed, at $169 when I bought her, this still seems like an amazing deal when a lot of bare bones Sixth-Scale figures were selling for more.

Oct 28 2024

Marvel Comics: Wolverine Sixth-Scale Figure by Hono Studio

If you follow Sixth-Scale figure news, than you probably already know that Hot Toys has launched a new brand of budget priced Sixth-Scale collectible figures based on the Marvel Comics license. When I say “budget” it’s important to note we’re still talking around $160 price range, but compared to regular Hot Toys releases these days that could be anywhere from $100 less to as much as half. The first offering was Wolverine, which seems like a no-brainer and between my curiosity and my desire to get a buddy for my Sixth-Scale Sideshow Deadpool from a while back, I went ahead and dropped a pre-order with the notion that I might cancel before it ships. But as more and more production pictures surfaced, I was impressed by what I was seeing, and so I let it ride. Was it a good idea? Let’s find out!

For starters the packaging and presentation here is off the charts. This is honestly better than what I get with most of my regular Hot Toys releases. The front of the box splits to open upwards and downwards, revealing an inner lid to remove. The reverse of the that lid has a line drawing of the figure with details on the articulation and features, along with some handling warnings. On the downside, some of the package elements are very fragile and mine arrived with a few small tears before even being handled. The figure is nested in a plastic vac-formed tray and everything about the package is collector friendly.

Here’s Logan out of the box and looking very iconic in all his 90’s glory. The figure is dressed in a yellow cloth bodysuit, which has a nice feel to it and fits perfectly. It’s snug, soft and flexible enough to work with the figure’s jointing, but it doesn’t feel delicate. It also has two smooth black tiger stripes sewn onto the shoulders. I would say the only thing to watch out for with this fabric is making sure it doesn’t get pinched or snagged in the joints. There is a pretty obvious seam running up the back, which isn’t ideal, but I guess it has to go somewhere. The undies, shoulder guards, boots, and gauntlets are plastic with a beautiful metallic blue finish and some added matte black striping and edging to the boots. The boots and gauntlets also have a leather-like texture to them, while the shoulders are left smooth.

The arms are bare and offer seamless elbow joints and sculpted hair and muscle that recreates the comic look very nicely. The material feels more like rubber, rather than the squishy silicone used on Phicen’s seamless figures. They still allow for some tight bending in the elbows and I don’t feel like tearing or creasing will be a problem. Seamless jointing on a figure in this price range is really impressive, especially when you look at what companies like Mondo are charging for figures with exposed joints. And as long as we’re talking about articulation, I’ll refer you to the packaging image for a look at the rundown on Logan’s posability. I’m very happy with the range in the elbows and knees, and the ab crunch is really well done. I’m also impressed at how the jointing under the fabric doesn’t look awkward or mechanical. The shoulder armor pieces peg into the shoulders to allow them to hinge and pop off rather than break if stressed too far. The wrists are on standard double pegged hinges, and if you want to go for the no claws look, you only have the one pair of graspy hands to work with. No clawless fists or relaxed hands at all.

Hono Wovie comes with just one head, but three swap out lower face plates. They did a really nice job with the mask, making it look as iconic as ever. The yellow part is sculpted to match the texture of the suit while the black areas have more of a leather-like texture. Of course, the eyes have no pupils and while the exposed area of the face is sculpted a little soft, I think the skin tone looks great. There’s no digging at the edges required to change the face plates. Just pop the head off and use a pen or similar instrument to pop the plate out through the exposed peg. The expressions range from upset to pure rage, with the middle one being a slight smile, but it’s not so much a friendly smile, but more like a “I’m going to enjoy shishkabobbing you” smile.

As I mentioned earlier, you only get one set of pre-Snikt hands and these can be swapped out for the fists with claws extended. The claws are plastic, but the paint makes them look like metal. The plastic used here really toes the line between feeling not ridiculously fragile, but also something you want to be careful with when swapping. There’s a little bend to them, but I can almost guarantee they would not survive a shelf dive. I was extra careful when posing the figure for pictures so he wouldn’t topple over onto the claws and snap them. I’d just say treat them with caution and you should be alright.

The only other accessories are two sets of effect parts for the claws. These are cast in translucent plastic and include two larger ones for the middle claws and four smaller for the outer claws. I give points for effort on these, they look really good when installed, but slotting them the blades into them is rather precarious and the larger ones feel like they are just a tad too heavy for the claw and I’m afraid it is stressing the thin connection point at the base. If I were to display these on the figure, I would just go with three of the smaller ones on one set of claws. They look just as good and I’m not worried about them stressing the claws as much.

Finallyl, we have the stand and it is very impressive for this price point. The base has matte black surface with yellow paint around the edges and Wolverine’s name near the front corner. For support, there’s a simple clear post and a weird curved crotch cradle. I’m not sure why they didn’t just go for the standard wire type, but it works just fine. If you want to personalize the display, there’s a plastic backdrop that’s designed to fit a comic book or the included cardboard art that needs to be cut out. It works like a frame where you remove the clear cover, slip in your comic, and close it up, then insert the whole thing into the slot at the back of the base. This is a fantastic idea and right now I’m using it to display my issue of X-Men Adventures #1 behind Logan.

In the end, I’m genuinely impressed that a company could put out a licensed figure this good at this price point. Granted, there’s no likeness rights to pay for, and I guess it’s possible that Hot Toys is releasing this figure under an existing Marvel license. The quality of the figure is excellent, and about the only complaining I could do is that I would have liked at least one more pair of hands, even if it meant sacrificing the effect parts. On the other hand, the stand is better than what I got with my last bunch of nearly $300 Sideshow figures, so that’s something! Whatever the case, I think the Hono formula is already a success as both versions of Wolverine sold out quickly. The next release should be Magneto with Iron Man and a Black Suit Spidey following. Of course, the prices are also starting to creep up to between $175 and 215, so it’ll be interesting to see how long the bulk of this line stays under the $200 mark. I’d like to be selective about what I pick up here, as I really am trying to limit my Sixth-Scale purchases to Star Trek and Clint Eastwood these days, but I’m sure I have a few more of these in my future.

Oct 11 2024

Horror of Dracula: Count Dracula Sixth-Scale Figure (Deluxe) and Coffin by Kaustic Plastik

As promised, I’m trying to slip at least one spooky review into each week leading up to Halloween and for this week, I’m delving into World of Hammer Horror! It’s hard to believe that in nearly 15 years of toy blogging, this is the first time I’ve been able to check out a licensed figure from a Hammer film. And that’s a shame, because I freaking love these movies! If the toys and merch were more common, I’d be buying them. Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing have been scaring me since I was a young lad sneaking Hammer and Amicus films on Saturday afternoons as they were shown on the broadcast networks. That is until my parents would find out and object to the blood or partially exposed bosoms or both. And as I grew up and learned more about the company and it’s influences, the more I watched and enjoyed them. I’ve come close to picking up some truly higher end Hammer inspired pieces, but in the end my resolve held out. Until now, when Kaustic Plastik revealed they were doing both Lee as Dracula and Cushing as Van Helsing from the superb 1958 film, The Horror of Dracula. They were pricey, but my resolve crumbled like a vampire faced with a side order of garlic bread. In addition to the Deluxe version of the figure, I’ll also be having a look at the coffin accessory, which was sold separately.

The figure comes in a shoebox style package made with some nice heavy duty cardboard. None of that flimsy crap Hot Toys has been using lately. Also no plastic vac-formed trays. The figure and accessories are carefully nestled in foam. I’m not sure what the relationship between Infinite Statue and Kaustic Plastik is, but it reminds me of the whole confusing Executive Replicas/TB League thing. The box art on the front lets the figure do the talking, but I don’t think the picture they went with does a great job of selling the amazing figure that’s inside the box. This Deluxe version includes a second head, which is good because despite the enormous box, there aren’t a whole heck of a lot of accessories and extras included. I’m not sure the price difference between Standard and Deluxe, as the retailer I purchased this figure from only offered the Deluxe.

The Count comes out of the box all ready to go and looking damn menacing. Hopefully you are impressed by beautifully tailored sixth-scale outfits, because this is a figure that is dressed from head to toe with the bulk of the visible sculpting being in the shoes, hands, and head. The body is clothed in a an entirely black suit with just a hint of white collar exposed at the neck. The coat comes buttoned at the top, although you’re free to fasten the rest. Everything about this outfit is expertly crafted, from the immaculate stitching to the excellent fit. He’s got a coat, vest, and shirt layered onto him and nothing looks bulky or puffed out. Granted, a lot of my sixth-scale figures are wearing super-hero suits or sci-fi fantasy costumes, but still, this is the best rendition of a traditional suit I’ve ever seen in this scale. The cape is also fantastic, draping over the shoulders and falling about the figure naturally. It’s both substantial and yet light enough to behave properly in this scale. It can be folded back over the shoulders to show off more of the underlying suit, or enclosed around the figure entirely. It’s secured around the neck with a tied cord and is easily removable, but I doubt I’d ever take it off.

The stock head is superb with an excellent likeness to Lee in the makeup. I’ll say that it falls a bit short of the realism we get with Hot Toys, especially in the hair, but there’s no shame in that, as I’m still convinced there’s some kind of witchcraft involved in Hot Toys’ sculpts. Here we get a very lifelike skin tone, subtleties in the sculpt like the barely visible creases in the forehead, a hint of hair between the eyebrows, and even a bit of a whisker shadow across the upper lip. The teeth are a work of art all to themselves, making me wonder how long the sculptor referenced production stills to get them so right. Finally, the eyes are both intense and lifelike with a bloodshot tint to the whites. This is amazing work!

The alternate head is full-on post-feeding vamp mode, and if this wasn’t enough incentive to buy the Deluxe over the Standard, I don’t know what is. The mouth is agape with fangs a poppin and little blood trickles down the sides of his chin. The stock portrait itself was pretty intense, but this one is downright terrifying. I have absolutely no idea which head I’m going to go with for everyday display, but this might be one of those rare times where I’m actually doing a head swap every couple of weeks.

The bulk of the extras in the box are hands. There are four pairs of hands and these are mostly slight variations on some menacing, “I’m gonna get you” sculpts with grasping, bent fingers. They look great, especially with the large pinky ring on the left hands. You also get one gnarled pointy finger right hand in the mix. These swap out similar to most sixth-scale figures with a hinged peg connecting them to the arm, but the hand extends a little further than the wrist. This allows the sleeve to conceal the joint better, but makes the articulation point slightly more awkward, so it’s a bit of a compromise.

There’s only one actual accessory included in the box, and that’s the candlestick. The sculpt is really nice, with the holder painted to look like old tarnished bronze. The candle itself is white and you get a little sculpted flame at the top. One of the included hands is sculpted to hold it.

The base is a raised circular pedestal with the film’s title on the front. I like the design of it, especially the sculpted logo for the movie, which adds a lot more than a flat nameplate would have. Still, the base is very light and I’d go so far as to say it’s rather cheap feeling for a figure of this cost and quality. They should have maybe added some weights to the inside. The surface is magnetized to secure the figure’s feet to the stand and it works pretty well, but you still have to have the figure in a stance that will support him, as the leg joints aren’t the strongest I’ve seen. A support post would have worked better, and in this case you’d barely be able to see it under the cape.

You also get an art card with the figure, which looks nice displayed beside him. The back of the card expresses thanks to the purchaser, lists the people who worked on the figure, and states that the limitation is only 800 pieces. I would have loved to have an individual number assigned to each figure, but that’s not the case here. OK, let’s move on to the coffin.

I believe the coffin was available as in a very limited super deluxe two-pack with Dracula and Van Helsing. I pre-ordered the two figures separately, and it wasn’t until they arrived that I realized I needed to own the coffin too. KP offered it as a stand-alone, but it was sold out everywhere. Luckily, I was able to get one off Ebay for only about ten dollars more than the original asking price, so not too bad. It comes in it’s own branded box, encased in foam and all ready to go. Oddly enough, the box isn’t specifically branded to tie into the film. Instead it just states The Vampire Coffin, which is really weird since the coffin itself has Dracula’s name on it. Maybe some weird licensing issue.

It doesn’t reflect the same craftsmanship as the figure, as it’s basically just a resin box, but it still looks the part. You get some sculpted fixtures on the sides and on the cover, along with the Count Dracula Plaque, all painted to look like antiqued bronze. The inside has a plastic liner, sculpted to look like billowy cloth. There’s a pillow with a sculpted recess to cradle Dracula’s head, and a plastic lace border running along the inside top edges. It would have been cool if KP also offered one with sculpted dirt in the interior, but this one will do nicely!

The figure fits inside perfectly. It’s easiest to take the cape off, and probably advised if you’re going to keep him in there a while, so that it doesn’t get all wrinkled. Still, if you just fold it tight to the body he can go in with the cape on just fine. Like the figure, the coffin wasn’t cheap, especially for what it is. But I really felt that a figure this nice deserved it, so I popped down the $90.

It’s always terrifying when you put down a preorder on a pricey figure from a small company that you have no experience with. In this case it was my adoration for the film that made me do it, and I’m damn glad I did, because I am absolutely thrilled with how this figure turned out. I’m also mighty glad I preordered when I did because Dracula sold out pretty quickly after the figure released. At $299, he ain’t cheap, and while you could certainly argue that there isn’t much in the box in the way of extras, it’s still easy to see where the money went. The tailoring is impeccable, the portraits are excellent, and there’s very little to nitpick here. Add to that the crazy limitation and this will be a figure that I will display and treasure in my collection forever! And that brings us to Dracula’s nemesis, Dr. Van Helsing, and I promise to be back to check him out sometime before Halloween!

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 22 2024

Star Wars “Return of the Jedi” 40th Anniversary C-3PO Sixth-Scale Figure by Hot Toys

I do have more than a few Hot Toys figures waiting to get their time in the spotlight here, but with Mr. Goldenrod arriving at my door last week, I just had to bump him up to the head of the line. I’ve had the Sideshow 3PO as the default version on display in my collection for around three years now, and while I came close to sticking with him, in the end I buckled and pre-ordered this new Hot Toys release of the prissy protocol droid. At the end, I’ll do some comparisons, but for now I’ll just say that this Hot Toys figure is excellent, and an improvement over Sideshow’s on many fronts, but it falls short of being a clean sweep.

The box features a vintage-style window box with a sleeve over it. It’s a cool fake out, because the sleeve makes it look like the usual boring style that Hot Toys uses for its Star Wars figures, but the heavy duty box under it just looks fantastic and very similar to the 40th Anniversary Boba Fett they did from The Empire Strikes Back. What’s not so fantastic is that they plastered a huge warning sticker on top of the outer sleeve. I’m guessing this directive came from the legal department, but it seems so destructive for a company like Sideshow that sells high end collectibles to discriminating collectors. And before we free 3PO from his packaging, here’s a word of warning! This is a heavy figure with lots of diecast. The upper torso connects to the lower body with a simple ball-and-socket joint. The lower half of the figure has most of the diecast (legs and pelvis, while the upper half has diecast in the back and upper arms), so if you lift the figure out by the top half, there’s a good chance the bottom will drop out and that could be disastrous. This almost happened to me, and again later when I was holding it from the waist, the top half almost fell off. The situation was remedied by pushing the connection in tighter and it’s been fine ever since. I’m all for building a figure with joints that detach rather than break, but boy did this give me a couple of scares. Maybe they should have plastered that warning label on the sleeve!

3PO comes out of the box all ready to go, and once again so delightfully heavy! Considering how pleased I have been with Sideshow’s I was curious what my reaction to this fella would be, and boy was I immediately smitten. The proportions are excellent and based on some comparisons I’ve been doing the sculpt seems to be extremely accurate to the costume used in RotJ. I’m particularly impressed with the gold finish, which is very rich and sumptuous and has just the right amount of shine. And of course, you get the lower right leg done in silver. I think the biggest controversy over this figure was the weathering, which is achieved with a spray. I think it looks perfectly fine when viewed by the naked eye, but as you punch in close it can look a bit heavy handed. I tend to associate weathered 3PO mostly from A New Hope and looking rather clean in comparison in Jedi. But, considering he gets completely buried in the sands of Tatooine and later traipses through a filthy jungle moon, I guess it makes sense that he got dirty. Granted, I am not someone who sifts through every minute detail for accuracy, but everything about this one looks great to me.

One thing I’m not as much a fan of here is the way the wires in his midriff all run straight, rather than overlap. Granted, it’s not a flaw in the figure design, but rather how the suit looked in RotJ, as opposed to the earlier films. I like the messier look for the wires, but that having been said, Hot Toys did a nice job with each individual sculpted wire and cable here. Like the Sideshow version, each of 3PO’s arms have the working pistons on the inside and outside of the elbows, and they allow for smooth movement in the joint.

The head sculpt looks fantastic, although I think they slimmed down the neck a bit to help with articulation. The light up feature requires three button batteries, which are inserted by removing the front face plate. This is also how you access the On/Off switch. The face plate secures with a pair of pegs and it is fairly easy to get on and off. But, placing the switch inside the head is a HUGE stepdown from the elegant Sideshow engineering where all you needed to do was lightly tap the back of the head to turn the eye lights on and off. It may seem like a little thing, but 3PO is one of those figures that you want to display with the lit eyes whenever you’re admiring him on the shelf and it’s a pain to take the face off every time you want to do it. I’ve included a few pictures with the eyes off to show the difference.

As for articulation, 3PO sort of feels like one of those Power Pose figures Hot Toys used to do, in that he’s rather limited from the waist down. There’s virtually no articulation in the hips, I can only get each hip joint to bump forward or back the tiniest amount. His knees will kick back a bit, but with no hip articulation, what’s the point? All I was able to get out of his ankles was a slight angle to his feet so they aren’t both pointing straight ahead. The torso has the aforementioned ball joint, which allows for a bit of swivel and a bit of forward and back movement. Thankfully the arms give me everything I expect, as they rotate at the shoulders and bend a bit at the elbows. The lack of leg articulation isn’t a huge problem with getting him to stand without a base, especially since I plan on having him rest one hand on R2’s dome.

The hands are secured on hinged pegs and you get three sets of hands to choose from. And thankfully, no more pinky thumbs like the Sideshow figure had. Yes, having articulated fingers on that figure was cool, but I think I’m happier with these sculpted hands. You get the regular flat hands, pointy finger hands, and the odd inclusion of accessory holding hands for the non-existent accessories he has to hold.

3PO does come with three more extras: Salacious B. Crumb, a pillow for him to sit on, and an alternate faceplate with his right eye pecked out. I suppose you could call Crumb a figure, as he does have articulation at his hips, shoulders, and neck. It’s a nice sculpt with some excellent paintwork. I think people who were excited to have him as a pack-in will be happy with the way he turned out, but getting him wasn’t a huge big deal to me.

The face plate with the damaged eye attaches just like the regular one, and since the light source for the eyes is in the head, it lights up the one good eye on this face as well. And because Crumb has some articulation, you can get him to sit on 3PO’s shoulder like he just plucked the eye out. I can’t deny that this is a cool bonus, but like the damaged arm on the Sideshow 3PO, I can’t see myself ever really displaying the figure like this. At best, I may just display Crumb on his pillow holding the face plate.

And of course, we can’t wrap things up without looking at the base and boy do I have mixed feelings about this one. You get a raised platform with a cover that looks like the grating in Jabba’s Palace, or perhaps the deck plating for his Sail Barge. There’s a post with a crotch cradle, and you really have to squeeze the wires in tight to get it between the droid’s legs because there’s no give in the hips at all. The base definitely gives the figure display some gravitas and it’s cool that Hot Toys put some extra effort into it, but it feels weird having 3PO raised up above all the other Hot Toys on my shelf. Also, it makes it impossible to display him beside R2 with his hand on his head, and that’s always how I’m going to want to display my droids. So, yeah… this base is going back in the box.

And, as promised, here are a few shots of 3PO with his Sideshow predecessor. Hot Toys wins out on the overall proportions and accuracy of sculpt. Plus, the diecast gives the figure such a satisfying heft and everything about him feels more premium. But it’s not the total slam dunk I thought it would be. Sideshow’s droid is still a lot more fun to pose and play around with and I still think he looks damn good. We’ll just let R2 decide!

At $320, 3PO comes in with a steep price tag. I doubt Luke and Uncle Owen paid the Jawas that much for him. But, It’s also worth noting that this is the same figure as the recent Attack of the Clones release, just with the traditional gold finish. Hot Toys definitely did a beautiful job on this droid and let’s face it, all that diecast doesn’t come cheap. He’s a very impressive figure, but I think I was surprised at the fact that it didn’t totally blow away my Sideshow release. Granted, they are very different figures based on two variants of the character. If I could take two things away from the Sideshow figure and give it to this guy it would be the touch-activated eye lights and swivels in the hips. With all that having been said, Hot Toys 3PO will replace my Sideshow in my R2 and 3PO display, but I have no intentions to unload the Sideshow figure any time soon. As this review posts, he’s still available at Sideshow.

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!!!!”

Jan 10 2024

Elf Archer (White Version) Sixth-Scale Figure by Phicen/TBLeague

Regular visitors will probably get tired of hearing this, but 2024 is going to be a year for unfinished business on FFZ. I’m looking to catch up on my backlog, especially areas that were neglected last year. And boy do I have a backlog of figures from TBLeague! I only reviewed one TBLeague figure last year and that was way back in February when I checked out their Ramses The Great. I’ve been really obsessed with their Egyptian themed figures, but today I’m going to venture back into their fantasy based offerings with the Elf Archer!

As always, these figures come in a shoebox style package with a trifold cover that is secured to the sides by magnets. The art is very minimalist, showing just her crown on the front and arrows on the side panels. It’s very pleasing to the eye and mysterious, not to mention a bold move to not picture the figure on the front. The figure and accessories inside are nestled in black foam and when you open the box you are immediately enveloped in a soothing aroma of tea. No, seriously! This figure was available in two versions, white and black, which only refers to the coloring of the outfit. Many times TBLeague will use these variants to change up the accessories, head sculpt, or hair color, but that isn’t the case here. The Elf Archer requires quite a bit of set up to get her kitted out, including attaching her plastic armor pieces, so let’s get her ready and have a look!

This is definitely one of the most complex outfits I’ve seen from TBLeague in a while. It’s also the one of the more modest outfits, as TBLeague often likes to show off lots of synthetic skin on these seamless bodies. In this case, she’s nearly covered from head to toe, so you have to settle for a flash of thigh under all those layers. The costume is extremely regal and consists of a white, long sleeve top with a combination bodice on top and tailcoat below the waist. I may not know what to call it, but it looks great! The outer garment has some beautiful gold leaf patterns and a wire running through the edges to allow for some dynamic posing. There’s a bit of green cloth trim around her waist, and under that she has a short green skirt with a pointy-leaf motif. The plastic armor pieces include high-heeled armored boots, with lacy leggings peeking out the tops, armored bracers on her forearms, elbow pieces, and shoulder pieces. There’s a green leather-like shoulder strap and a soft green cloth mantle surrounding her neck. The tailoring here is immaculate and everything fits the figure beautifully. It certainly gives her a majestic look, and despite all the layers nothing really gets in the way. I do, however, have two minor issues with it. The gem under her chest tends to get askew pretty easy, as you’ll see in some of the pictures where I neglected to straighten it. Second, there is some color transfer from the green shoulder strap to the white fabric under her arm. Granted, I’ve had this figure on display for about a year now and that sort of thing is inevitable. It might be a reason to consider favoring the black version of the costume, but I like the coloring on this one a lot better, so I’m happy to live with it.

The portrait is quite nice, with a some absolutely wonderful paint. Her eyes are shiny and reflective, and her lips are painted with a high gloss to give them a moist sheen. You also get some excellent rosy pigmentation in her cheeks. Her pointed ears are directed more outwards than upwards, which is rather evocative to an anime-style elf. The blonde hair is quite voluminous and can be a bit of a chore to tame. It’s rooted to allow it to part on each side of her face and in front of her ears while the rest cascades down her back and includes two sets of braids. Like the outfit, there is some seriously cool complexity in this coif. I’m sure a little styling gel would help, but I’m not going to start styling dolly hair. Gotta draw that line somewhere! Her outfit includes a soft plastic crown that fits around her head. It has a nature motif that’s evocative of antlers and tree branches. She also has a rather large pendant that hangs around her neck.

As always, the Phicen seamless body is built on a steel skeleton with some very realistic articulation hidden inside. There is virtually no restriction from the costume itself, making her lots of fun to play with and that’s certainly not always the case with some other companies’ sixth-scale offerings. She’s also an incredibly well balanced figure and I was impressed at how easily it was to get her to stand on those high-heeled boots without any assisted support. She comes with three sets of hands, which include relaxed, gesturing, and accessory gripping and these are all easy to swap out thanks to the steel ball joints in the skeleton’s wrists.

Elf Archer also includes an optional hood, which snaps onto the green mantle, includes adorable little slits for her ears to pass through, and two long flaps that hang down her back. As much as i dig the crown, this hood is going to be my preferred look for her on the shelf, as I think it suits her role as an archer and gives her a bit of a Robin Hood vibe. It’s kind of a shame to cover up those braids, but at the same time, the hood helps keep the rest of that hair in check.

Her accessories include a bow, a quiver, and five arrows. The quiver is plastic and hooks onto the shoulder strap behind her back and can hold the arrows by simply sliding them in there. The recurve bow has a sculpted wrapped grip in the center and an actual string. She can hold it with either her left or right hand, depending on which shoulder you have the quiver slung over.

The arrows are all identical with some pretty vicious looking heads and sculpted plastic fletching on the backs. The tips have some nice gradient paint going from silver to black and the fletching is painted green with a little wash to bring out the detail. Her gesturing hands can do a pretty good job of knocking the arrow by placing the shaft between her fingers, and even her grippy hand has a gap between the fingers to keep the arrow in place. Between the hand design and the articulation, the only thing that keeps her from doing a full draw is the tension on the string, which I don’t want to pull too far as it may snap.

I picked up the Elf Archer for $189 and I’m certainly satisfied with that, especially considering how hard it is to find any Sixth-Scale figures under two hundred these days. The only real downside with this figure is the lack of stand. TBLeague is wildly inconsistent on this point, including lavish diorama bases with some figures while completely ignoring others. Still, as the price of these continue to creep up to that $200 mark, I think it’s about time they start throwing in a generic figure stand as the absolute minimum. I also would have liked to get some kind of blade with her, either a dagger or a short sword. My guess is that a lot of the cost for extras went into the complexity of her outfit and all those extra armor bits, and that’s cool. As she stands, she’s quite an exquisite figure and one that I’m happy to have in my collection. She’s a huge step up from the last fantasy-themed TBLeague figure I looked at. This white version seemed to perform better at retail, as she is sold out at all the regular places I could think to look, but the black version is still available at many of those.