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

Playmates Spotlight- Lieutenant Uhura (9" Figure)

Figure Name: Lieutenant Uhura
Manufacturer: Playmates Toys



Playmates released this Uhura as part of the 9" Collector Series.



The Rundown: At only 12 spotlights so far, I've barely scratched the surface in showing you what the Playmates 9" line has to offer. Sure, the bodies aren't super-articulated and the releases often relied on the "Kirk-in-a-different-outfit" syndrome... but the sheer number of figures produced is impressive enough to warrant giving this line a look if you haven't already. Today we are taking a look at one of the "must-haves" for those of you who may be dipping your toes into the 9" water- Lt. Uhura!



Uhura follows the same format as all the other releases in the 9" line. Playmates designed a male and female buck body, and then individualized each figure by adorning them with different head sculpts and outfits. If a character was released in more than one outfit, they usually incorporated the same head sculpt across the board (like Uhura did with her 9" Mirror Universe counterpart).



The heads used on the bodies can sometimes be pretty hit or miss. The larger size would seem to offer a more detailed sculpt, but the roto-cast process used to produce these heads could sometimes lead to a slightly warped or distorted shape. Uhura falls right in the middle for me. While I don't think her head is bad, I don't think it is particularly good either. The nose is captured well, but there's something about the shape of head that throws this one off just a bit.



Playmates' 9" female buck body is decently articulated, but still has its limits. A swivel joint at the boot or wrist would have really improved the figure's poseability. But hey... these are mass-market toys from over 15 years ago. You can't go into this expecting a Hot Toys level of articulation. Ya gets what ya pay for!



One thing I will say for the body though- She can hold her accessories! Unlike a lot of the 4.5" figures, Uhura here has no problem gripping her phaser and communicator. Which is important since you want to be able to send her out on a landing party every once in a blue moon. Poor Uhura... Always stuck at the communications station.



While there wasn't much of an outfit to reproduce here, Playmates did do a nice job considering the cost and time at which this was made. The delta shield is a bit large, but other than that I don't have any major gripes with this one. Looking good Nyota!



Accessories: Uhura includes a phaser, communicator, and tricorder. While the communicator and phaser are a bit large, the tricorder is actually pretty nice and well detailed... for a Playmates accessory that is.

And here's her box bio:



Overall, Uhura is a pretty average release for the 9" line, which may make her a good place to start. If you're building a full crew, you'll need Uhura... and her "averageness" may give you a good idea of what to expect with other figures. She routinely sells in the $6-$10 range, so you won't be breaking the bank if you decide to go after one. Besides... you're going to need somebody to open the hailing frequencies for all your other 9" figures.

And just in case you were curious...



...she is sporting some matching undergarments. That one was for you Frederick. ;)

Playmates Spotlight- Lieutenant (Commander?) Uhura ("Star Trek: The Motion Picture")

Figure Name: Lieutenant Uhura
Manufacturer: Playmates Toys



Uhura was released carded as part of Playmates' Classic Star Trek Movie Series.



The Rundown: Now here's a figure that really surprised me when it was released. Uhura in her TMP uniform!? I never would have thought that Playmates would have done this uniform before releasing a TWOK-style Uhura. But they did, and I of course bought it. Should you? Read on...



The figure is constructed in the same basic manner as all the Playmates releases. Uhura features a good range of articulation, allowing you to pose her in a ton of action poses like "welcoming the Admiral aboard!" or "opening haling frequencies!". One small gripe-



Uhura has some ITTY BITTY hands! Since she doesn't come with a lot of large accessories, this isn't too big of an issue... but there's now way she's holding that tricorder anytime soon.



Since the crew was a smidgen older by the time the cameras rolled on TMP, Playmates had to do a few new head sculpts for these releases. I think they did a fairly nice job of capturing Nichelle's likeness here... especially her new hairdo! I'm actually surprised that this head was only used once...



...since all it takes is a parts swap and some paint to make a perfectly fine TWOK Uhura! Sigh. I wish Playmates had just had one more year of releases. I have no doubt we would have seen all the classic crew in these uniforms given time. But I digress.



Uhura's uniform is very nicely detailed, with an impressive display of the lines and accoutrements unique to the "Motion Picture" costumes. There is one glaring error though. Can you spot it? Here's a hint-



See anything different there? Sure ya do-



Uhura carried the rank of Lieutenant Commander in TMP, and thus has one solid and one broken rank braid on her sleeve. The figure only features one rank braid, making her a Lieutenant. Even stranger, the package lists the figure as a Lieutenant! So in some ways, the whole thing is correct unto itself... but inaccurate when it comes to representing Uhura's look and rank from the film. Playmates made the same sort of error on their TMP Sulu, giving him Commander rank braids instead of the correct Lieutenant Commander braids. These errors got me thinking...



Perhaps the Sulu and Uhura TMP figures actually started out as bodies for Decker and Ilia? How cool would that have been!?! I guess we'll never know for sure, but it does at least make customizing a bit easier.



Accessories: Uhura includes a tricorder, wrist communicator, PADD and a piece of V'Ger! Collect all 5 TMP style figures and build your own miniature V'Ger! Here's a shot of it completed:



Pretty nifty... but incredibly small.

And here's her box bio if you'd like to read more. It is a bit on the inaccurate side though, since Uhura was already part of the crew under Decker's command BEFORE Kirk returned to the Enterprise.





Rank issues aside, Uhura is still a really cool figure. If you're a sucker for the crews' look from the first film like me, Uhura (and the rest of the figures from the set) may be right up your alley. Just like most of the other Playmates 4.5" figures, you can get this one fairly cheap nowadays, so I really can't think of a reason not to buy it. What else are you going to spend your money on? Candy? Candy rots your teeth. 4 out of 5 dentists agree that Uhura does not rot your teeth. So go buy her. Your teeth will thank you.

Star Trek 'Potpourri' Spotlight- Custom Playmates Mirror Universe LT. Uhura (From "Mirror, Mirror")

Figure Name: Mirror Universe Lt. Uhura
Made by customizer Matthew Hackley



The Rundown: I got a long-awaited treat this past Tuesday: A box full of new customs from my friend Matthew Hackley! This batch of goodies yielded 3 new TOS customs, including this addition to the Mirror Universe crew, Lt. Uhura!



In case you are new to the site, a little back story- About a year or so ago, I met Matt through a custom figure purchase I made on eBay. Matt had listed a couple of really neat custom Trek figures done in Playmates style that I was lucky enough to snag. We talked a bit about or mutual love of the Playmates Trek line and our disappointment that it hadn't continued. Inspiration struck, and we came up with a laundry list of figures we deemed essential to "completing" the line. Matt then began the task of customizing the "What if Playmates had kept the Star Trek license?" figure line! One of the "must-haves" was a complete Mirror crew... which brings us to Uhura!



Trying to capture the look of the classic series females would seem a tough task to me, what with the limited amount of base bodies to choose from, but Matt makes it look easy! Utilizing what I would assume is a standard Uhura as a base, the custom captures Uhura just as if Playmates had done it.



Since it's a minimalistic costume when it comes to color, it's the little details that make this one pop, like the Terran empire symbol on her chest...



...the gold band encircling her upper arm...



...and of course the standard gold sash and high-cut boots!

While we don't know if Playmates would have captured the detailing as well as Matt, they were definitely kicking up the accuracy on some of their later figures. There's a chance it would have looked quite a bit like this, but alas we shall never know.



Accessories: Although she could have included an agonizer and a phaser, the only accessory that MUST come with a Mirror Uhura is her dagger of course. What else is she going to threaten that cad Sulu with?



Ah, one figure closer to a Playmaters "Mirror" crew! Oh how I wish Playmates had done these... but I take great joy in the custom efforts by Mr. Hackley! Thanks Matt!

-James

AA/ DST Spotlight- Commander Uhura (Star Trek II The Wrath Of Khan)

Figure Name: Commander Uhura
Manufacturer: Diamond Select Toys



Uhura was released carded as a Previews Exclusive to coincide with the third wave of DST's "Star Trek II The Wrath Of Khan" figures.



The Rundown: I really need to improve my organization skills when it comes to these spotlights- I'm having trouble remembering which figures I have covered and which ones I haven't! I had to take my ipod touch with me down to the basement last night and search my blog as I looked at my TWOK shelf to determine which ones I hadn't done yet! Turns out I'd left out Uhura... so here she is! Let's take a look!



Uhura uses the same body we saw on the Lt. Saavik figure. I said it back during her spotlight, and I'll say it again here- It's pretty obvious this body was sculpted more with an eye towards producing Saavik, and Uhura just happened to be a bonus. The body proportions are a bit off for Uhura. It's not so bad that it's unforgivable, but it would have been nice to at least get a unique torso sculpt here.



The body itself is nicely articulated and can pull off a variety of poses. The hips are hindered a bit by the lower edge of the tunic, but thankfully it's made of a rubbery material so there is at least some movement. Just like Saavik, however, Uhura seems to have one foot that sits lower than the other, causing her to always lean or fall over. I actually have to put a bit of sticky-tack on her feet to keep her upright. Watch out when sitting her on a high shelf because she will probably take a dive over time!



I am on the fence with this head. In some angles, I see Uhura... at other angles I see Louise from "The Jeffersons". I think it's the nose. They didn't quite capture her nose right. At least they got the hair pretty dead-on though...



Gotta love that late 70's/ early 80's big hair...



Accessories: Uhura includes an extra hand, a communicator, and a phaser. Pretty standard stuff...



Do you really need me to sell you on this one? If you're building a TWOK display, you need Uhura. Duh. Every TOS crew display needs the big 7! While I wish the figure was a bit better, this is the ONLY TWOK style Uhura ever made... so you're stuck with it if you go TWOK. She ain't that bad though, and can still be had on the cheap if you look around a bit.

-James