AA/ DST Special Feature: Assembling The Ultimate Crew!

So I am not sure if you guys have heard or not, but Diamond Select Toys recently unveiled plans for a new Star Trek figure line called "Star Trek Select". The new line will consist of individual 7" figures featuring packed-in dioramas and interchangeable parts. While I am all for new Trek toys, it seems these figures will lean more towards pre-posed stances as over the high articulation of the older DST efforts. You can check out pictures of the first release in this line, Spock, right here: Star Trek Select Spock.

I believe I will hold out my final judgment until I get ol' pointy ears in my hot little hands... but this new line got me thinking about my AA/ DST crew. While previous Trek toy manufacturers like Playmates and Mego really offered one definitive version of the main crew, AA/ DST released so many different variations on the mainstays that it could be pretty daunting for a new collector to go back and pick out the cream of the crop. Which leads me to this post...

With this new announcement pretty much putting the nail in the coffin of the old line, I figured it would be a good time to give you my version of a definitive AA/ DST crew. Some of these are pretty easy picks... others not so much. Some are gonna take a little elbow grease and extra dough to make happen. But you want the best, ya gotta work for it... And of course, this is all my opinion here. You may not agree with my picks, and that is totally cool. These just happen to be my personal picks after years of Trek collecting. So without further ado... My ultimate AA/ DST Classic Star Trek Crew!

Spock And McCoy:



These are pretty simple, and require very little effort to make "perfect". Both McCoy and Spock were best represented in their DST reissues due mostly to the gold used on their rank braids and uniform insignias. The original releases from Art Asylum (while great) featured a cheaper gold paint that I've noticed turns a greenish color over time.



Both Spock and McCoy came as single card reissues or in 2-packs. Since we are assembling the "ultimate" crew, go with those 2 packs. Spock (originally spotlighted HERE) comes with Scotty, while McCoy (spotlighted HERE) includes Sulu. The offerings in both sets (as we will see) are just about perfect... with the exception of one minor detail:



Just like usual, DST only saw fit to include a "Live Long & Prosper" hand on Spocky-poo... So you'll need to crib one off a different figure to really make him shine.

Scotty & Uhura:

For the 2 immortal red shirts, I'd recommend hitting those reissues yet again (and you'll already have Scott thanks to the Spock 2-pack). Not only ifs the gold better, but unlike the original Art Asylum versions, the red actually matches between the two! Who'da thunk it.



Mr. Scott (originally spotlighted HERE) is pretty much ready to go right out of the box... except for one essential accessory- Liquor! Thankfully, you'll be buying a DST Casual Kirk soon enough, so you'll have a bottle of brandy ready for Scotty's eager mitts.



Uhura (who was originally spotlighted HERE) is also ready for display right out of the box with the exception of one accessory... A phaser! Again though, you'll be picking up that extra Kirk that will supply the lovely Uhura with the firepower she was sorely lacking.

Sulu:



I know I am starting to sound like a broken record here, but once again the DST reissue 2-packs offer the best version of the character in this style. The gold is great once again, but more importantly, the yellowish gold shirt is much better match to most of the "standard" DST Kirk figures. The original Art Asylum versions (much like Scotty and Uhura) didn't match up between characters, so this Sulu offers a great starting point for a matching crew. The only bummer is that he was only released in the 2-pack with MCoy, so you're gonna be stuck buying 2 to complete the custom Chekov and Kirk needed for our ultimate crew.

Yep. You read that right... Time to get into the tough stuff.

Kirk:



I am gonna make a bold statement here- AA/DST never released a truly definitive gold-shirt Kirk. There. I said it. Don't agree? Well, show me one that has a great head sculpt, a shirt that matches Sulu & Chekov, and a tunic that doesn't look like it was fitted for a 7-year-old girl that only eats crackers for every meal. Can't do it, can ya? That is because there isn't one of those. The first AA release (featured WAY back HERE) was pretty good, but it featured a shirt that ended up not matching Sulu or Chekov. Then DST took a few turns, and each one ended up using McCoy's shirt mold for some reason, leaving you with a weird ill-fitting look like the Kirk featured HERE. Oh, and almost all of them used the original AA head sculpt, arguably the weakest of the entire crew. Poop. So what do we do about Kirk? Glad ya asked!



Time to stretch those customizing muscles! We start off with that Kirk you just got from the Uhura 2-pack. His arms are the right color to match Sulu, but his head and shirt are absolute turds. So here is what you're gonna do...

1.) Get some water to a boiling point and then remove it from the heat source.
2.) Dip that Kirk's torso in the water for about 60 seconds or so to get the plastic soft.
3.) Pop his head off.
4.) This part is a little tough. You're gonna need to slowly work that rubbery shirt portion up and off of his body. This probably the hardest task of the entire job and will take great care to get it off without tearing the material (which you will need to do since we will be using this shirt later on). Hopefully, practice will make perfect... as you're gonna need to do this a few more times.
5.) Repeat steps 1-4 with that extra 2-pack reissue Sulu I mentioned you would need earlier.
6.) Work the Sulu shirt onto the shirtless Kirk body.

See, that wasn't so hard was it? And you were worried. You should now have a gold-shirted Kirk that will match your reissue Sulu, sans his head. For the head, I highly recommend you pick up DST Season 1 Casual Attire Kirk (spotlighted HERE). Not only will you get the definitive AA/DST head sculpt, but you also get those extra accessories we snagged for Scotty & Uhura earlier on! The head switch works just the same as when you removed Kirk's head just a bit ago- Boil up some water, dip it for 60-90 seconds, pop it off and then stick it onto the custom Kirk while the plastic is still soft. There ya go! Perfect practice for...

Chekov:

Chekov presents the biggest challenge of the bunch, since he never got a DST reissue... Meaning we don't have a really good base to start with. Let's look around at what we have left though... Looks like we have a reissue Sulu body with no shirt, and the shirt we took off of the reissue Kirk. Well that looks like a good start. We do have a problem though- Sulu has rank braids on his arms, while Chekov's rank as ensign means he had no rank braids. Poop again. While we could try and dremel or sand them off, that may leave us with uglier arms than what we are hoping for. Oh... We also don't have a Chekov head. Poop to the third power. Whatever shall we do?



The missing head is actually the solution to both our problems... but also means forking over some cash for another figure. Head on over to eBay or your favorite secondary-market dealer and snag one of the old Entertainment Earth Exclusive Mirror Chekov figures (spotlighted HERE). Using the same methods we discussed before, pop the head off Pavel. We now have the head we need for ultimate Chekov! Now we just need those arms. This part is a little tricky; You're going to need to pop him apart at his mid-torso ball joint (the point of articulation hidden under his shirt that allows him to hula hoop). You can do this the same way you took off his head- Stick him in boiling water and just yank the upper joint off of the lower one. Once you have his head and his upper torso taken off, remove that rubbery Mirror Universe shirt. Now take your shirtless Sulu from before, dip him in that hot water, and remove his upper torso just like you did Chekov's. Pop the upper Chekov torso and arms onto the lower torso and legs of Sulu and slip that Kirk shirt you had sitting around onto the body. Since that Mirror Chekov was made in a very similar color to these DST reissues, you now have ensign arms that match the gold shirts of the 2-pack releases. Finish up by heating Chekov's head up just a bit and attaching it to his new body. Voila... You now have a reissue-style Chekov, and all it really cost you was the price of the Mirror version (since we already had the Sulu body and Kirk shirt from our ultimate Kirk custom).



There ya go... The ultimate AA/ DST Classic Star Trek crew! As I said before, these are all my personal picks, so you may not agree with choices here. I do hope that you at least enjoyed looking this over and that maybe you'll take a stab at pulling off these customs. If you have any questions or need any help, just shoot me an e-mail over at apieceoftheaction@live.com

Live long and all that good stuff...

-James

Hallmark Ornament Spotlight- 2011 "Mirror, Mirror"

Item Name: "Mirror, Mirror" Keepsake Ornament
Manufacturer: Hallmark



Hallmark released this ornament as part of their 2011 keepsake assortment. For your reading enjoyment, here's the back of the box-



The Rundown: So... how was your weekend? Mine was good. Did some work around the house, spent $80 on ornaments, had some family fun time... ya know, the usual stuff. Wait- $80 spent on ornaments!?! In the middle of July!?! That's right folks! In case you forgot, Hallmark premiered their new ornaments this past weekend. So if you buy their new releases each year at the earliest possible moment like I do, then you have three brand spankin' new ornaments to rush out and drop 80 smackeroos on! This year's Star Trek ornaments all focus on TOS, with a Romulan Bird-of-Prey in the ships series, a standard Spock figure continuing the "Legends" series, and a "Mirror, Mirror" ornament figuring into their "Magic" releases. Today, we'll be taking a look at the "Mirror, Mirror" release.



Recreating a pivotal scene from the classic episode "Mirror, Mirror", the ornament features Spock and McCoy moments before the Vulcan initiates a mind-meld with the good doctor. It's a great scene from a great episode; Definitely worthy of the ornament treatment.



The ornament stands at just under 5" tall, with each figure coming in at under 4". Hallmark has done some great work at even smaller scales than that, so I expected the work on these guys to be pretty sharp. Unfortunately, the sculpts just aren't as strong as they should be. McCoy is definitely my favorite of the two, but he isn't without problems. While the sculptor did a decent job of capturing McCoy's likeness, the face just doesn't convey the bewildered look that Bones had during the scene. He almost seems happy, like he's kinda looking forward to the meld... which is weird.



"Evil" Spock fares even worse in my eyes. The head sculpt doesn't bare much resemblance to Nimoy, and the body has almost cartoonish proportions (particularly the arms). Not only that, but details like the chest adornments on both figures are simply painted on instead of being sculpted. Bummer. Now it may sound like I'm being a tad harsh on this release, especially given the fact that this is a fairly small ornament... but after having recently spotlighted the much smaller "Wrath Of Khan" ornament, I expected cleaner work from this one.



I was pleasantly surprised when I turned the ornament around though! The back wall of the ornament features the "Terran Empire" logo... of which I am a big fan. ;) Nice touch Hallmark!



Of course, since the "Mirror, Mirror" ornament is part of the "Magic" series, there is an electronic feature built into this release. Press the button at the base and you get treated to a line of dialogue from the episode! Check it out:



Pretty cool, eh? Sadly, there is only one sound effect though. Sure, that's all you need for the scene, but I still feel like they could have put another line or two in to really spruce this one up. I do continue to be impressed by Hallmark's sound chip work though. They always seem to hit the perfect balance between volume and clarity. Oh, and just like the releases of the past few years, "Mirror, Mirror" runs on batteries, allowing you to use it as a display piece during non-seasonal months.

While it does have some sculpting issues, the "Mirror, Mirror" ornament still makes a cool display piece from one of Trek's all-time great episodes. What hurts this one though is the price- At $29.95, slight drawbacks like a weak sculpt and a solitary voice clip make dropping the money down on this release a bit painful. I hate to say it, but you may be better off waiting for the inevitable year-end clearance on this baby. Unless of course you have no patience like me... Then you're screwed.

Next up-



Did he fare batter than "Mirror, Mirror"?.... Come by tomorrow to find out!

Star Trek 'Potpourri' Spotlight- Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy (Custom 12" Figure By "Nanjin")

Figure Name: Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy
Manufacturer: "Nanjin"





The Rundown: And so we come to the conclusion of our Nanjin custom 12" spotlights. Good ol' Bones closes out the trinity... and just might be the best of the bunch. Let's take a look at the good doctor...



While I think Nanjin's work on the heads for both Kirk and Spock was quite good, McCoy is really the best of the bunch. It may have something to do with the fact that De Kelley has much more "character" in his face, making it a bit easier to capture his likeness. But it's not just the sculpt that pushes this one to the top in my eyes; The paint job on Bones is great, particularly those "baby blues" of his. Outstanding work!



Just like the previous two figures, Bones features a beautifully rendered costume. From his expertly tailored shirt...



...and down to his screen accurate pants and boots. This thing could put many cosplayer's outfits to shame! And of course, just like Kirk and Spock, McCoy's pants feature the same great built in magnets, allowing him to holster his weapons along his waist.



It's tough to pick a favorite amongst the three Nanjin TOS customs, but I think McCoy gets the top spot (though it's by a VERY small margin). There's just something about the way this one looks that screams classic McCoy to me. Oh, and his additional accessories help a bit too...



Accessories: McCoy includes the same phaser, communicator, and tricorder included with Kirk and Spock, so no reason to go back over those again... but Bones also includes one other very special accessory: His Medkit!



Just as the shirts on these figures draw their inspiration from the third season attire, so too does McCoy's medical kit. The kit attaches to the waist of McCoy's pants via clips located at the end of 2 straps at the top of the pouch. And just like the show, the kit is held closed by a bit of velcro and unfolds to reveal a wealth of medical goodies-



At the bottom of the pouch are 4 "vacutainers" of varying colors. Each vial slides into a separate housing in an elastic band that crosses the lower flap of the pouch. The green paint has cracked a bit on one of mine, but otherwise I'm truly impressed with the paintwork on these, especially in light of how TINY they are.



The top portion of the pouch houses McCoy's scanner and hypo, each held in by separate elastic bands. You may be fooled by the picture, but these pieces are in scale with the figure, meaning that they are incredibly small. The detailing here is quite impressive!



So there they are! I've been holding off on my final thoughts on these for this spotlight, but I'm sure you can pretty much guess how I feel about them. I've bought a lot of Trek figures over the years... some really bad, some really good. I'll go on record here as saying that these three figures are the nicest representations of the "holy trinity" that I've ever owned. I can tell you that they weren't exactly cheap, but no high quality 1/6th scale figure is cheap nowadays. With these being a VERY limited custom run, I expected to pay a hefty sum for the three of them, but surprisingly the price was pretty much in line with what Hot Toys charges for similar licensed product in the 1/6th scale market. All that being said, I have had ZERO buyer's remorse since purchasing them. They are simply fantastic figures that I treasure owning. Good 12" Trek figures have always been one of my toy "Holy Grails". Well, thanks to Nanjin, I can now check that one off the list.

I don't think there's any left of these to go around (though I can check with Nanjin if you're interested), but there are a few more Trek items on the docket from him that are sure to rock. For TOS, there's an incredible 1/6th scale Captain's chair and an expansion set of uniforms, accessories, and new heads coming next year. But before that is the first release in Nanjin's "Wrath Of Khan" line: Spock! I seriously cannot wait...

AA/ DST Spotlight- Star Trek Minimates Series 1 (3")

Manufacturer: Art Asylum
Item Name: Star Trek Minimates Series 1 (3")



Art Asylum released this series of Star Trek Minimates way back in 2002. They were available in these nifty hard plastic tubes (I seem to have misplaced my Mugatu)...



... or on standard cardbacks. The "Trouble With Tribbles" Kirk was only available in the carded packaging. And it looks like I've managed to lose my carded McCoy as well.



The Rundown: Man, it's hard to believe Minimates are almost a decade old now! I guess time really does fly. Today we are taking a look at the granddaddy wave of Star Trek Minimates: The original series 1 3" figures from 2002! I really don't have a lot to say on these guys individually, so I figured I'd group all the 3" guys into one post to make this worthwhile. But first- a little more info on these "less-mini" minimates...



The original Minimates from Art Asylum were based on a slightly larger scale, with figures clocking in at 3" instead of the now standard 2". While the larger size made sense for individual figure releases, the block figure concept doesn't really work when the figures are this big. The simplified detailing just looks better on the slightly smaller 2" scale.



Take a look at the difference in the McCoy likenesses here. Part of the reason the smaller McCoy looks so much better in his 2" version is due to improvements in Art Asylum's work over the years, but I feel part of it is due to the scale as well. Those simple features look a little ridiculous blown up like that, but might be just fine shrunk down to 2" scale.



It's not just the faces on these that look a little primitive either. As evidenced by the "casual" Kirk comparison above, the costume detailing is almost non-existent on these early minimates. It's weird to see how much is crammed into the little guys, while these larger guys look almost unfinished. And it's like that pretty much across the entire wave. Let's take a look at each of 'em!



Kirk is featured in his standard "gold" shirt, which is a no-brainer for the first release of the good captain. Kirk's likeness is just about on par with his 2" counterpart, but that's mostly because the smaller version is one of the least accurate of that scale. The fact that his delta shield isn't even painted gold (it just uses the yellow of his shirt with a stenciled outline) is a big no-no though. Kirk comes equipped with his trusty hand phaser... Oh, and before I forget, each of the 3" minimates came with an odd Art Asylum puzzle piece thing. It wasn't really a base, since there weren't any peg holes or anything; They were just weird, useless plastic puzzle pieces... So I threw them in a box somewhere and forgot about them (thus why it isn't pictured).



Next we have Dr. McCoy. The blue of the shirt used with both Dr. McCoy and Spock is a little on the dark side for my tastes. Other than that, Bones isn't too bad, though his likeness is a bit easier to capture due to the "character" in De Kelley's face. McCoy comes equipped with a tricorder.



Spock rounds out the 3 crew releases. The likeness here is pretty weak when compared to the others, with an over-reliance on Spock's distinctive eyebrows to help sell this as Spock. Mister Spock does feature something unique amongst these releases though: an interchangeable hand! It seems like every AA Spock, no matter the scale, has to come with a "Live Long and Prosper" hand. It must be in Spock's contract or something. He also comes equipped with the tricorder, just like McCoy. Let's take a minute to look at those accessories a little closer:



Again, we see how the detailing improved when the decision was made to shrink down the minimates. These original 3" scale accessories lack even the most basic detailing when compared to their smaller brethren.



To combat our three intrepid heroes, Art Asylum included a trio of dastardly villains in this initial wave. Khan here has no accessories and comes in a very odd outfit choice (as opposed to the solid red later released in the 2" line). I will say this about the larger Khan though; I actually think the face looks much more like Ricardo than it does on the smaller one. He is probably the only one of the bunch that I can say that about.



The Gorn is another obvious choice for an initial villain in any Trek line. I was pretty pleased with him when he first came out, but comparison with the 2" version brings out his shortcomings more than any of the others. The square blocks on the tunic, the painted-on attire, the weird yellow squares on the knees... It's like comparing the graphics on an Atari 2600 with those on a Sega Genesis. Hey, sweet analogy James! Oh... and the Gorn comes with a spike and a translator, but I dropped the translator before I took the picture. So use your imagination.



Finishing out the wave is the Mugatu! This one has the distinction of being the only 3" Trek minimate to not get a 2" counterpart... which is a really shame because he's probably the coolest release of the batch! What he lacks in accessories (he has none), he makes up for in cool sculpted parts. Check out those sweet back spikes!

So that's all of them... oh wait! There's this one too-



While not part of the initial wave, I'm grouping the "Trouble with Tribbles" Kirk in with this post too. TWT Kirk was a separate exclusive release through Figures.com. He's built on the 3" body, just like the initial wave, and comes equipped with the same silver hand phaser. He also includes a bunch of fuzzy "tribbles" (basically just little colored puff balls on a string). While there's nothing very memorable about this release, I do think his cocky grin is pretty well done.



And that's it for the 3" minimates. A second wave was planned that included the rest of the core crew, plus a "mirror" Kirk and a klingon... but it got the axe when the larger format was retired. With only this small grouping of figures released, there really isn't a need for most folks to pick these up. If you are interested in getting into the Trek minimate line, you're better off going with the 2" guys. The line is much more expansive, and the product is just plain better.

Playmates Spotlight- Dr. McCoy's Medical Kit

Item Name: Dr. McCoy's Medical Kit
Manufacturer: Playmates Toys



Playmates released this boxed accessory way back in 1996, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the original series.



The Rundown: Looking back, Playmates really did a decent job of putting out a variety of "role play" accessories in the Trek line. Although the scale was sometimes off, the price and relative accuracy in style made their stuff a nice affordable alternative to expensive prop replicas. Take for example the piece we are looking at today- Dr. McCoy's Medical Kit!

The kit consists of 2 separate toys: The Anabolic Protoplaser and the Medical Scanner. Let's start with the Protoplaser-



While the Protoplaser prop began life in the original series as an engineering tool, it quickly became one of the most prevalent tools in McCoy's medical arsenal. Here we see it being used to revive the recently awakened Khan...





While it's a shade smaller than the prop, Playmates version is still a pretty decent replica. The styling and color are as about as accurate as you can get for a kid's toy, and it even has a light-up feature! You can't beat light-up features.

Next, we have the medical scanner...



A much more "go-to" piece used in the show, the size on this one seems darn close to the prop. Take a look at McCoy using his-



And here's me holding the Playmates version-



Not too shabby for a kids toy, eh? In fact, I'd go so far as to say this one might even be superior to the recent DST version I spotlighted here. While both lack the motorized spinning feature, the Playmates version has something going for it that the DST doesn't; You actually have to hold the button down continuously to hear the "warble" sound on DST's scanner, while the Playmates version only takes one press of the button for the sound effect. Here's a quick look at this set's electronic features-



Also included with the tool is a neat "Starfleet Medical School Diploma". Fill in your own name and start practicing medicine on the Enterprise! Who knew it was this easy?



And in case you like reading box bios...



Overall, a pretty cool set, especially for the price. This one retailed in the $15-20 range, which is a great price for an acceptable prop replica like this. It's funny.. I just realized I haven't even addressed this for it's value as a toy! My son has one and LOVES playing with it. The Protoplaser is basically a swiss-army knife in my house, fulfilling any task that Trek play time requires. A great role play set at a great price!

-James