The awesome thing about these Next Gen figures is that they’re usually dirt cheap so despite the fact that they’re old, I can still buy them carded and not feel bad about tearing them open. I’ve always liked the Next Gen cards. The animated style goes well with the stylized sculpts of the figures and Playmates loved to post advertisments all over the damn cards. Whether it was for Space POGs or video games on the Genesis or SNES, or what have you, these cards always looked like Las Vegas billboards to me. Nonetheless, the bubble displays the figure nicely and makes use of the collectible trading card to personalize the package to the character. The back panel shows some other figures in the line and has a little bio blurb about Yar’s past, which conveniently neglects to use the phrase “rape squads” probably because this is a toy aimed at kids.

Yar’s sculpt betrays the odd proportions that Playmates loved to inflict on these characters. The big stylized head isn’t unlike the big heads once found on the old GI Joe figures, so there’s some nostalgic factor here. Still, this Yar figure was a fairly late release, and the proportions and sculpt on the figures were getting closer to being more realistic and less stylized. By the time you got to the Voyager figures, they were looking fairly normal. The figure actually looks fine until you compare her with some of the other ladies in the line. Compared to Troi or Crusher, she’s a tad too big.  Yar was definitely one tough chic, but she was definitely not a big woman. I wouldn’t go so far as to say Playmates got the Denise Crosby likeness down, but it’s still better then some. I think the thing I like best about this figure as that she isn’t pre-posed like some of the earlier figures were. The uniform is pretty Season One accurate as seen in the gold piping around the collar and the pants cuffs. Nice touch!

Yar’s articulation is standard for the Next Gen line. Her head rotates three-sixty, her arms rotate at the shoulders, have swivels in the biceps and hinged elbows. Her legs rotate at the hips and have hinged knees, and she can swivel at the waist.

It wouldn’t be a Playmates Star Trek figure without a scary and inappropriate collection of off-colored accessories. Actually, Yar’s accessories are downright normal compared to some. She comes with a phaser with that terrible beam attached (but not for long… where are my scissors?), a PADD, a tricorder and a flashlight, which is completely at odds with the palm beacons I remember them using in the series. Either way, Playmates played it cool with Yar’s accessories, by keeping them down to a minimum and giving her useful stuff, although most of it is still molded in dark red plastic. Um, yeah. She also comes with the standard comm-badge style figure stand and the aforementioned collector card.

Yar’s figure was released fairly late in the line, as Denise Crosby was already off the show by the time Playmates got The Next Generation license away from Galoob. Based on the biography on the back of the card, it was after she reprised her role as Yar in the episode, “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” but before she returned to play her own half-Romulan daughter, Sela. Lest we forget that Ms. Crosby thought her acting chops were better than Star Trek deserved and then quickly found out that they really weren’t. She then became a born-again Star Trek actress alumni and started producing documentaries like Trekkies and Trekkies 2, while simultaneously haunting Star Trek conventions. I guess she learned her lesson, eh? All bashing aside, I picked this figure up for under five dollars, which was certainly not a lot of money to fill a vacant spot in my collection.

The cards on these figures have changed very little throughout the course of this series. I still dig the animated style that seems to go so well with the highly stylized figure sculpts. As I’ve commented before, these cardbacks are just littered with text, and I’m not just talking about the figure’s bio and what they come with. There are ads and exclamations for everything from Star Trek videogames to some kind of design an alien contest that possibly netted some kid a spot on Deep Space Nine. Each card also has a silver foil sticker in the upper fight corner designating it a “7th Season Figure.”

For a long time, Playmates issued collectible Skybox trading cards with the figures, but these “7th Season” figures came with “Space Caps” which were basically cards that had punch out circular button type things. I think this was to cash in on the whole pogs craze that might have been going on back then, or I could just be talking out my ass. Either way, I’ve never punched any of mine out, I just keep them as cards.

These figures of Data and Picard disguised as Romulans are taken from the 5th Season two-parter, “Unification.” This episode was famous for featuring Leonard Nimoy reprising his role as Spock and boy was it a big deal back when it aired. The story itself wasn’t so great and Spock was only in the second part, which made it seem like they really squandered his return. Either way, the story featured Picard and Data traveling to Romulus and putting on some prosthetics to make them pass as Romulan citizens while they hunt for the suspected defector, Ambassador Spock. I guess you can also use these figures as generic Romulans too.

Right out of the gate, these figures suffer from having molded plastic robes, which means their articulation is seriously limited, and there isn’t a whole lot of detail in sculpt and paint. Now, on the flipside, their head sculpts are really well done. They definitely look like Spiner and Stewart in Romulan makeup, complete with the subtle creases in the forehead that separated Vulcans from Romulans in the series. But from the neck down, there just isn’t a lot going on with these guys. Data’s robes have more detail and texture than Picard’s which are just plain. One thing in particular that does bug me is just how out of proportion their arms and hands are. Playmates’ Star Trek figures were often stylized, and its no secret that some of the figures had gorilla arms, but I think they went really overboard with the chunky arms on these two.

As noted, articulation on these figures is limited to a rotating head, arms that rotate at the shoulders, swivel cuts in the biceps and hinged elbows. That’s it. Granted, Playmates’ Trek figures were never really known as being super articulated, but like I said, the molded plastic cloaks really limite the potential articulation on these guys.

One thing you can always count on when you pick up Playmates Next Generation figures is that you’re going to get a shitload of useless and inappropriately colored accessories. Well, Romulan Data and Picard here are no exception to that rule. As noted, both figures come with their Space Cap, and each figure also comes with a Romulan insignia stand. This stand is the same one that came with the generic Romulan figure, only with their name labels stuck on.

Data’s accessories are all bright orange, except for his phaser, which is silver, but with an orange phaser beam permanently attached to it. I say permanently, just because I haven’t gotten around to snipping it off with a pair of scissors yet. He also comes with a Romulan disruptor rifle, a PADD, and a computer terminal with Klingon graphics on the display. I assume the Klingon computer is because he and Captain Picard were taken to Romulus on a Klingon Bird of Prey.

Picard’s accessories are all purple, except for his black Romulan disruptor (the same one packaged with the generic Romulan figure, and again with orange beam coming out of it). He comes with a disguise kit, a PADD and a bowl of soup. Yes, folks, a friggin bowl of soup, so that you can recreate the gripping soup eating scene when Picard and Data were staking out the Pro Consul’s office. Only Data doesn’t come with his own bowl of soup, so you can’t really faithfully recreate scene, after all. To my knowlege, this is the first action figure I have ever owned that came with a bowl of soup, and a purple one at that… kudos Playmates.

I put off adding this pair to my collection for a long while, mainly because they are so scene specific. Truth is, they’re pretty good figures. Beefy arms aside, they do look pretty close to the make up and costumes worn by the actors, and again, the head sculpts are some of the best we’ve seen in this line.

Jolan Tru, Everybody! Jolan Tru.

The Goddard was the first toy in the Next Generation line that Playmates released to interact with the figures. Eventually there would be a bridge and an engine room and a transporter, but the first time I saw this shuttle sitting on the shelf in the store, I thought it was the coolest thing ever and I had to have it. Sure, you have to be willing to accept that it isn’t really to scale with the figures, but it still works pretty well.

Throughout the course of the Next Gen series, the shuttlecraft went through a bunch of redesigns and there were also different classes of shuttles, from the one person Shuttlepods (which this toy is closest in scale with) to the full fledged shuttles. I believe the design for the Goddard was first shown in Season Two or Three and was a lot more angular in design than the shuttles initially used.

The box is pretty cool. Its bright and colorful and it shows off the toy, both illustrated and with actual photographs. The back panel shows the various features and the front has an open window to allow you to use the electronics’ “Try Me” function. Like the figures, the shuttle is also numbered on the front of the box to make it appeal to collectors. The shuttle comes pretty much assembled in the box. The only thing you need to attach is the rear loading door. It comes with a cargo pallet to load into the back, a schematic sheet, an instruction sheet, and two sticker sheets.

Scale aside, this toy is pretty faithful to the design used on the show. There’s a lot of stickers to put on it, and they’re all pretty important because the toy is pretty spartan looking without them. You have to apply all the registry markings and there are a lot of stickers that take the place of paint apps. So, needless to say, there’s a lot of pressure to get them all placed just right. While it was pretty cool to be stickering one of these babies again, I was really letting the explatives fly as I was trying to get some of them on. I still haven’t been able to place all the stickers for the control panel because its so hard to get my man hands into the compartment and get them placed correctly. I’ll either have to get some tweezers to sneak the last ones on or take the whole friggin thing apart.

The only really unorthodox thing on the toy is the fact that it has wheels. Granted, they’re concealed beneath the ship, so they don’t get in the way of the sculpt. I imagine they were added as a play feature.

The front windshield opens up like a hatch, which of course the real shuttle didn’t do. This is just another play feature to provide easy access to the pilot seat, just like the hatch on the cockpit of the Millenium Falcon toys. Because of the scale down, there’s only one seat, although most figures will fit in there, so long as their sculpts don’t preclude them from sitting. There’s also a three-point safety harness to secure the figure in place.

The back cabin of the shuttlecraft is equipped with two fold down seats, each with safety belts and a cargo pallet that can be slid in and out on tracks. I’m really not sure what the pallet is supposed to be, but it looks like sensor equipment or some other kind of device. Again, because of the scale down, the back cabin is pretty limited and its tough to even get a couple of figures to sit on the seats because its so crampt back there. Its not even big enough for a figure to stand up inside.

The Goddard has two electronic features, which are activated from the top two buttons. One sounds the engines and lights up the nacelles and the other sounds the phaser fire and also lights up the nacelles. I’m pretty sure that on the show it wasn’t standard for these shuttles to be equipped with phaser banks, but I do recall them adding them on occasion, so we’ll let that slide. Besides which, the firing phasers sound really cool. The nacelle lights are neat, but the effect could be better. Most of the light comes out at the front of the nacelle, rather than illuminating the entire blue strip.

The Goddard isn’t difficult to find, although if you are going to buy one, I really recommend that you spend a little extra to get an unopened one. If the stickers aren’t applied well, or if they’re worn, it really effects the look of the toy. Furthermore, the battery compartments in these Playmates toys were really prone to leakage. I can’t tell you the number of the tricorders and phasers I’ve gone through because of corrosion and whatnot. If the scale really bothers you, or you don’t collect the figures, this toy is still a really nice stand alone display piece for your shelf.

Scotty was one of three original crew members to appear in The Next Generation TV series, both Spock and McCoy showed up in different episodes, but McCoy just had a cameo and Spock’s two-parter was ok, but a little contrived and tiresome for me. Scotty’s episode “Relics”, on the other hand is one of my favorites. The crew finds a derilect ship with Scotty stuck in the Transporter’s pattern buffer. They save him, but he soon finds out that in the future he’s a bumbling fossil (and apparently an alcoholic) until his out-dated ideas save the day. We all learn a lesson about not treating our elders like worthless retards and Picard makes a rather audacious gift of one of the Enterprise’s shuttlecraft to Scotty. Wow, is he really allowed to do that? This episode also had the balls to show the classic Enterprise bridge exactly like it was in the old series… made of gray cardboard! Simply awesome.

I really liked the packaging on these figures. The background is so colorful and follows through with an overall animated look. And holy shit did Playmates advertise a lot of crap on these cards, all screaming at you in yellow bursts of text. Your Figure is Individually Numbered! Collector Card included!! Deep Space Nine figures coming soon!!! PLAY THE GAMES ON THE SNES AND GENESIS!!!! The front of this card is like a Las Vegas billboard.

Yeah, that numbering thing was an interesting tactic Playmates used to sell these figures as both collectibles and toys, but billing these figures as collector pieces was a joke. Hey, my Scotty is only 134,264 of I don’t know how many made. And that’s probably a low number. The fact that almost 20 years later you can buy these things mint and carded for under five bucks (Scotty cost me $4.99) just pours salt in the wound. But I don’t care. I love that these figures are dirt cheap and that I can pick them up making impulse buys on Ebay.

The Playmates 4″ figures are notorious for being highly stylized and almost caricatures of their subjects. In many cases, the figures almost look like animated versions of their live action couterparts. Its a design element that really turns some people off, but for the most part, I think it works pretty well. As the series went on, the figures slowly began to shed this curious appearance until by the time you got to Deep Space Nine and Voyager, the figures were a lot more like direct likenesses.

Scotty is a pretty good balance of the Playmates signature look. Its a really good sculpt with a nice likeness of the aged James Doohan. I particularly like the gray two-tone paint apps in his hair. He can also easily double as a classic film version of Scotty since he’s wearing the same basic outfit that he wore in Star Trek V and VI. The only real difference is this version is wearing one of the Next Gen style comm badges instead of his old insignia. His vest is really nicely done and sculpted complete with his little tool pocket and zipper.

The articulation here is pretty good. His head rotates at the neck, his arms rotate at the shoulders, he’s got swivel joints in the biceps and hinged elbows. His legs are jointed at the hips and have hinged knees. Scotty doesn’t suffer from being overly pre-posed like some of these figures.

Scotty comes with a bunch of accessories, but if you are familiar with this line then you already know they are mostly shit. Sorry, that may sound harsh. The sculpts on the accessories are actually ok, but they’re always molded in some obnoxious color plastic, in this case orange. I’m not going to go through the various engineering tools he has, but most of them are repacks of the tools that came with figures like Geordie and Data. Truth is I usually dump these figures into a bag and I have no interest in digging through it to get to Scotty’s, but you can see them in the packaged image. Scotty also comes with a Dilithium Crystal, a Starfleet style figure stand and a collector card. I loved the collector cards! These reminded me of the old Star Wars cards I used to get in Wonderbread. Christ, I’m old.

I don’t know why its taken this long to add this figure to my collection. He’s awesome, cheap, easy to find, and from one of my favorite episodes. And even though I display these figures loose, its a cool luxury to be able to buy them carded and be the first to open them up.