Thursday, November 18, 2010

Galoob Spotlight- Mr. Spock
("Star Trek V: The Final Frontier")

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Figure Name: Mr. Spock
Manufacturer: Galoob Toys

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Galoob released Mr. Spock as part of their boxed assortment of "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" turds....oh, I mean "action figures".

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The Rundown: Well, I couldn't put them off forever... It's time to take a look at another of the Galoob "Star Trek V" figures! Today we look at Mr. Spock. Can you feel the excitement? It's palpable.

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Just like the previously spotlighted Kirk, Spock is featured in his "infiltration" attire from "Star Trek V". I'm actually a pretty big fan of these uniforms and I'd love to get actual figures of the crew in them some day. Notice how I am totally overlooking the figure that I am now reviewing? That's because these are horrible. Let's start at the top...

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Check out the awesome head sculpt! Galoob did a fine job of capturing Zachary Quinto's looks here, with a fine attention to.... Wait... This is supposed to be Leonard Nimoy circa 1989!? Oh. Nevermind.

Actually, I may be giving this one a bit of a hard time. As far as this line goes, Spock's likeness isn't half bad. It's just not that good either.

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The sculpting on Spock's body isn't horrendous... if this were an actual action figure that is. Since there isn't any articulation in these though, there's no excuse for this being as bad as it is. If you market a line as "limited edition collectible figures" instead of as just action figures, then they better look good. As you can tell by the pictures, these look about as good as 2 hortas kissing. Yeah, with tongues even.

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The quality control is almost non-existent on these as well, from the poorly-applied cheap paint applications...

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...to the ugly seams...

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...and right down to the excess glue residue left on the figures' base. Horrible. The stand itself isn't that bad though. In fact, it's probably the highlight of these figures-

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The front of the stand showcases the "Star Trek V" logo. Instead of just a cheap sticker or something (like you'd expect at this point), the logo is actually etched into the base. The rear of the base features a beveled line to allow you to plug in the included backdrop piece:

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See how much that helps improve it? Okay, so it wasn't much... but at least you can stare at the backdrop instead of Spock now.

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Accessories: Spock includes the aforementioned backdrop... and that's it. The backdrops (as I've said before) are the highlights of these figures. They'd probably look great stuck behind better figures.

Here's his bio from the box:

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Lots of info on Spock there, including a bunch of stuff that has no relation to "Star Trek V". Did we really need the reminder that Spock has a "high pulse rate" and "nictating membranes that protect Vulcan eyes"?

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Yeah, don't buy this. Don't buy any of the Galoob "Star Trek V" figures. Had they made these like their quirky cool TNG 3.75" figures, this line would have rocked. But they didn't... they made these vinyl pieces of crap that nobody wanted then, and nobody in their right mind would want now. Avoid like the plague.

5 comments:

  1. Wow, harsh review dude! I do agree that the paint jobs, excess glue, lack of articulation and general sloppiness and lack of attention to detail make these figures a poor example of a Star Trel collectible. However, back in the pre playmates time frame these came out in, Star Trek fans were starved for merchandise and i was excited to just get some TOS action; i mean figures of any kind so i jumped in with both feet for these figures. I own them all, and while they are not the best, i do hold fond memories of getting these and i do have some of them displayed even now. Of course i do like the Spock figure particularly.

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  2. Yeah... I agree on being starved for Trek merchandise at the time. Even at the time though, I was very disappointed in these... mostly because I knew Galoob was capable of doing WAY better product than this. The Galoob TNG figures were actually kind of cool. Since I wasn't a huge TNG fan, I didn't buy those, but I longed for them to do the TOS crew in that same style. Instead of just making a Trek V line that was compatible with that, they created these things. What a waste.

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  3. I have this whole set and have them set aside to sell at our next estate auction. They are just too big and cheesy to justify keeping really.

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  4. It does look like Zach Quinto though.

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  5. otaku5003, for figures that sucked they're sure going for a crap load of money. WAIST OF TIME.
    but at least he's holding a tricorder.sigh

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