Ertl Figure Spotlight- Captain Kirk

Item Name: Captain Kirk
Manufacturer: Ertl Toys



Captain Kirk was released carded as part of Ertl's Star Trek III The Search For Spock line. I've said it before, but it's still true- the card art rules.



The Rundown: And so we come to the final entry in Ertl's Star Trek III line, the good captain himself- James T. Kirk. In case you don't remember the other Ertl spotlights, you can check them out here. Kirk doesn't break any new ground compared to the last three reviews, so don't get your hopes up...



The head sculpts in Ertl's line are a bit of a step backwards from the fine job that Mego did with their TMP line. They did capture Kirk's hair "poof" pretty nicely, but the face itself doesn't really capture Shatner all that well. Kinda looks like Will Ferrel to me. Shatner's always been a tough likeness to nail though so I'll cut Ertl some slack on this one.



The biggest selling point for this line is it's o-ring construction. The figures do have a wider range of movement than their Mego TMP predecessors, and they "fit" into other early 80's lines a little better. Unfortunately, the quality of materials used isn't as nice and the figures break a bit easier.



What I wouldn't give to have a bicep swivel on these! Without that articulation point, it's almost impossible to pose them with their accessories in a way that looks normal. You're always stuck with them kinda staring at their accessory in disbelief.



I don't know if I mentioned this before, but I do like the paint detailing Ertl put into the TWOK-style uniform. The gold is clean, and the white highlights are pretty straight and even. I still don't know why they chose to use these uniforms for the figures, since they barely wear these in TSFS, but who cares... the TWOK uniforms rule.



Accessories: Kirk includes a communicator. That's it. Why Kirk comes with a communicator instead of a phaser really puzzles me, especially since they included one with Spock. Oh, and it's huge too. Way too big.



So there ya go... Ertl's Star Trek III line. Sure, they made some odd choices (like using the TWOK uniforms and including Scotty instead of McCoy), but overall the line is pretty cool and a nice little supplement to the Mego 3.75" stuff. Plus, with a little head-switching and some paint, you can make the "Trek trinity" in this scale and style relatively easily! Have 'em beat up your G.I.Joes!

Ertl Spotlight- Scotty

Figure Name: Scotty
Manufacturer: Ertl Toys



Scotty was released carded as part of Ertl's "Star Trek III: The Search For Spock" line.



The Rundown: Completing the big three, it's Dr. Mc....wait, what? Ertl only produced 3 Trek movie crew figures and it wasn't Kirk, Spock, and McCoy?!? Nope, Ertl chose to produce Scotty instead of the good doctor, leaving the original trinity incomplete.



These Ertl figures are pretty much par for the course of their time in scale and construction. They are built with the 'O-Ring' construction made famous by the G.I.Joe: A Real American Hero line, so what you get is a line in scale with Mego's TMP 3&3/4" line, but with more articulation.



The body is the same on all 3 crew members if I'm not mistaken. The construction makes the figure pretty "playable", but the sculpt suffers a bit because of it. The body comes out a bit barrel-chested, and the legs want to stay close together. Oh, and there's no good way of having him hold his accessory since there's no arm swivel (a joint added to Joes early in the line for this very reason). Still, that stuff doesn't matter to a kid, and these guys would have interacted well with the lines of the time.



The head sculpt is kinda rough. It's a step back from Mego's TMP sculpt, and doesn't look particularly like Doohan. It could pass for just about any guy with a 'stach.



Accessories: Scotty includes the same phaser also included with Spock. It's way too big and doesn't fit well in his hand.



Star Trek III Scotty is a figure you can easily get better versions of (Playmates Generations Scotty, DST's TWOK Scotty), but may be fun to grab for nostalgia's sake. Plus the line is a good supplement for fans of Mego's TMP line...

-James

Ertl Figure Spotlight- Klingon Leader

Figure Name: Klingon Leader (Kruge)
Manufacturer: Ertl Toys



The *ahem* Klingon Leader was released carded as part of Ertl's Star Trek III The Search For Spock line. Man, he's really crammed in that package! Oh, and take a closer look at that card art because it's really cool:



Yeah, that's nice....



The Rundown: Why in the world this figure is called "Klingon Leader" instead of Kruge is beyond me. Maybe Ertl thought Klingon Leader sounded more appealing? Maybe they thought nobody would know what a Kruge was? Who knows! It's pretty much gotta be Kruge though. Kruge was the Klingon Leader in the movie and Kruge is on the cardback. Sadly, the figure only bears a passing resemblance to Kruge though...



Yeah, I know...it's an old line...likenesses weren't that great back then, but that's not really a good excuse since Mego did a perfectly good job nailing likenesses in this scale 5 years before these figures came out. I don't see much of Christopher Lloyd in this figure. It looks more like the fan dressed as a Klingon in the movie Trekkies. You know, the one that got in the bidding war for the Colicos makeup piece? Yeah, this is a figure of him. Or at least it should be.



So that's the bad out of the way. The good is that it's a fun little Klingon figure. Sure, the sculpt on the MEGO TMP version is a little better, but at least this one can pull off some pretty sweet moves thanks to his o-ring construction! Made to play!

And of course the coolest feature of all:



The ACCESSORY. The Klingon beast! Now that is a cool accessory! It's a pretty cool little quirky sculpt, and the thing is massive in comparison to the figure. See?



Awww...look at that! A Klingon and his best pal! But it wasn't always like this...

My buddy Matt and I were looking through some of the reference toy catalogs at our work, digging up any that had Trek stuff in it for future spotlights. There are some fantastic pics in some of those catalogs! For those not familiar with them, toy companies have for years made catalogs showcasing their upcoming lines to distribute to retailers at toy and trade shows to entice them to buy into their lines. Allot of times these catalogs will feature early, rough prototypes and sometimes (if you're lucky) pictures of totally unproduced items!

Well, we found the Ertl 1983 catalog, and it had this pic of the early rough protos of the Star Trek III line-



So the three heroes look pretty rough, but the Klingon Leader is a REALLY rough early concept...and check out his accessory!



Yep. That's a collie.

-James

Ertl Figure Spotlight- Mr. Spock (Star Trek III The Search For Spock)

Figure Name: Mr. Spock
Manufacturer: Ertl Toys



Mr. Spock was released carded as part of Ertl's Star Trek III The Search For Spock line.



The Rundown: Man, Ertl made some weird choices for it's Star Trek III line. Sure, Kruge was a no-brainer. But Scotty instead of McCoy? And Kirk in his starfleet uniform that he barely wears in the movie? Or even worse...Spock in his uniform which he only wears in a flashback scene from Star Trek II! Still, it's cool to have them in these uniforms in this scale, so I'll take 'em any way I can get 'em.



The head is not bad. Easily recognizable as Spock. Really not bad for the scale and the time period. Mego may have done it a bit better on the 'Motion Picture' figures though....



The body sculpt is okay. Ertl chose to go with the O-Ring style articulation (like G.I.Joe and Dukes Of Hazard figures) which somewhat limits what you can do with the sculpt. This made them awesome for me when I was a kid though... They can do lots of cool poses and moves and were able to easily interact with my G.I.Joe figures ;)



Accessories: Spock comes with a phaser. It's a good sculpt, but it's WAY too big and he can't hold it well due to his hand sculpt. You're better off leaving it at his feet...

-James