Tag Archives: star trek

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 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 19 2012

Star Trek: Mugatu and Harry Mudd by Playmates

On Wednesday, we looked at a couple of the ladies of Starfleet and today we’re going to check out some of the baddies from The Original Series: The Mugato and Harry Mudd.

 

Both figures come on the same style card with “Star Trek” in the old movie-style logo. Obviously, Playmates is trying to aggravate my OCD by using the movie logo for Classic Trek figures and using the Classic Trek logo for movie style figures. Even more confusing is the fact that The Mugatu gets his own Skybox Collector Card, but Harry doesn’t!  What the hell, Playmates? What the hell? Either way, I’m so glad I open these things, so I can toss the packaging and forget all about it. Let’s start with The Mugatu.

The Mugatu was featured in the excellent episode, “A Private Little War” in which the Klingons were screwing around with the development of life on a primitive planet. I am in no way ashamed to admit that when I first saw the Mugatu it totally scared the piss out of me. Sure, it’s just a guy in a white ape suit with a horn on his head, but even when I was a little older and they used to show Classic Trek re-runs at midnight, that thing creeped me the hell out. I’m happy to say that Playmates managed to translate all that creepiness into this little sculpt. The face really is spot-on, the hair is sculpted all over his body, and he even has ugly ape hands and ape feet. What’s more, Mugatu is the first Playmates Trek figure I’ve ever had to assemble. He comes with his spine and tail as a separate piece, which plugs into a slot on his back.

The Mugatu actually comes with accessories, all cast in a muddy brown plastic. You get a clutch of Mako Root, which looks like a pile of turds. You also get a drum and a hand phaser, both of which look like they were sculpted out of a pile of turds. The Flintlock isn’t too bad, and he comes with a unique figure stand.

The Mugatu features only five points of articulation. You get standard head, shoulders and hips. It’s not great, but it’s just enough to put him into some pretty good mauling poses.

Harry Mudd was one of many colorful no-good-niks that crossed paths with The Enterprise crew, but he was special in that he had actually got to come back for a repeat performance. Part loveable rake, part murderous bastard, he was a great character that I would love to see revisited in the 2009 reboot films. Personally, I think JJ Abrams missed a huge opportunity not going with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Mudd. That stuff practically writes itself.

Mudd’s sculpt is pretty solid. In the series, Mudd was played by Roger Carmel, a prolific performer who also leant his voice to some other iconic toy characters, like Cyclonus of G1 Transformers fame. In truth, the figure looks more like Carmel if he played the role as a baby but kept his mustache and comb-over. Still, there’s no guessing as to who he’s supposed to be, thanks to his iconic costume and mustache. Yes, he’s got his billowy blue swashbuckling shirt, complete with medals and epaulets, and the sculpting and paintwork on his comb-over is hilarious. I’d say Playmates did a solid job capturing what the character is all about.

Mudd shares all the same points of articulation as the rest of the Trek crew. You get a head that turns, arms and legs that rotate at the shoulders and hips, swivel cuts in the biceps, and hinges in the knees and elbows.

Mudd’s accessories are all molded in red plastic. You get a case of the Venus Drug, a ridiculous red Starfleet Communicator, and a couple of Lithium Crystals, which look like absolutely nothing. You also get a goblet, which is kind of ok. Oddly enough, Mudd comes with a Starfleet-style figure stand.

I’ve had this pair on my Want List for quite a while and it’s good to finally have them in my collection. The old adage says always leave fans wanting more, and while Playmates produced more Classic Trek figures than I could have ever dreamed possible, this pair really makes me wish they had produced more of the one-off baddies that appeared in the various episodes.

And that wraps up this Star Trek Week. Unfortunately, I only got to cover about half of the Trek stuff that I picked up at the Toy Show, so we’ll have to come back to it either in another Trek Week or just here and there. This weekend I’m going to circle back to some of the Transformers Prime figures I still have waiting around, specifically Dreadwing and Bulkhead, and then next week we’ll dip into some of the other, Non-Trek, stuff I picked up at the Show.

Oct 18 2012

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

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

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

  

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

  

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

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

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

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

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

Oct 17 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oct 16 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oct 15 2012

Star Trek Generations: Engineering Playset by Playmates

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oct 14 2012

Star Trek Week Begins!

“You spent how much at a Toy Show?”

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

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

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

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