Mego Figure Spotlight- The Romulan

Figure Name: The Romulan
Manufacturer: Mego Toys Corp.

The Romulan was released carded as part of the third series of Mego 8" Star Trek figures (yeah, no carded pic on this one).



The Rundown: Here he is...the holy grail of the Mego 8" Star Trek line: The Romulan! The 3rd series of Trek Megos are all tough, but the Romulan (due to his superior quality) is the most sought after of the bunch. Is he worth the hype? Oh yes. Yes, he is.



Though most folks only display him with the helmet on, there's still one fine headsculpt under there. The sculpt has has a resemblance to Mark Lenard, which is fnatastic if you do choose to display him sans helmet. But really, if you have the helmet... you're gonna display him with it on. That helmet is awesome.



Mego missed the mark with ALLOT of the 8" Trek stuff...but I feel like they really got it right with the Romulan. The outfit is pretty close to the screen version, much closer than most of the other alien figures.



Accessories: So, yeah, you get the same old belt, phaser, and communicator....but I can ignore the reuse because of his other accessory: the beautiful gold Romulan helmet! Is incredibly well-sculpted, and fits the head just about as perfect as you could hope for.



So there he is... Even if you have to plug in the Diamond Select Reissue, no 8" Mego figure collection should be without this figure. He truly stands out as one of the shining pieces in the set.

-James

Playmates Figure Spotlight- Kirk & Balok ("The Corbomite Maneuver" Alien Series Multi-Pack)

Figure Names: Captain James T.Kirk, Balok, & Balok's Puppet
Maufacturer: Playmates Toys



Playmates released these figures as part of it's Star Trek "Alien Series" Mutli-Packs.



The Rundown: Following Kenner's success with their Star Wars Cinema Scene Multi-Packs in 1997, Playmates followed suit with it's own multi-packs in 1998 called "Alien Series" (yeah, the name kinda stinks). Ordinarily, I'd break a multi-pack down into multiple reviews, one for each figure. This pack, however, doesn't offer a whole lot to work with, so I'll cover all three figures in one.



First we have Kirk. Pretty much the same figure as the one released in the Classic Collector Set. Standard articulation, good Kirk likeness... The only difference on this figure?-



One little gold paint app to mimic the away team belt worn in the episode. Not really a big deal, and not enoguh of a difference to make him worth buying the pack just for this figure. Oh, and he doesn't come with a phaser or communicator, which were kinda the point of the away team belt...to carry your equipment on.



Next up is little Balok. Balok is a pvc figureine with no articulation. He's made much the same as the other small characters in the Playmates Trek lines, like Nog and Worf's son Alexander (both of those figures were just pack-ins with regular figures however). The sculpt is decent, but he's very light on paint apps. Could have used a bit more detail.



And lastly we have the puppet. It's a really nice sculpt, but just like the episode it's just a torso and not a full figure. Pretty cool to have him regardless though...

So you're basically getting a very slight repaint, and 2 unarticulated figurines in this pack. When compared with the other Aliens Series Multi-Packs, that's pretty much a bummer. Other sets like the "Fistful Of Datas" set give you 2 regular figures AND a PVC...and then there's the pack with the insanely awesome Species 8472 figure AND a tweaked Harry Kim. It's hard to think this Corbomite pack has the same value for the retail cost in it than those do. Still, it's Balok, and Balok rules in my opinion. Plus, the set comes with a cool backdrop. Oh, and you can snag them pretty cheap nowadays, so I'd say it's worth it's current price, but probably not for what they were charging when it was first released.

Want to read the mission log from the box? Sure you do!



-James

AA/ DST Figure Spotlight- Irradiated Spock (Death Of Spock Gift Set- Star Trek II The Wrath Of Khan)

Figure Name: Irradiated Spock
Manufacturer: Diamond Select Toys



Diamond Select released the awesome Irradiated Spock as part of a special carded "Death Of Spock" Gift Set in their Star Trek II The Wrath Of Khan line.



The Rundown: And here's the better half of the 2 pack- Irradiated Spock! Let's be honest...this is the bread and butter of the pack! Oh, and I forgot to mention in Kirk's review that I really love the packaging on this set. It does a pretty decent job of mimicing the 'Spock stuck behind a barrier' look.



Poor Spock...he's all speckled with death. DST did a pretty excellent job on capturing the look of irradiated Spock here. The paintjob is really sharp!



The body is the same as the standard TWOK Spock...but now he's got some excellent enineering gloved hands to switch out with! DST could have cheaped out and skipped the gloves...but they didn't and it adds so much to the figure. You can switch the gloved hands out for the irradited hands really easily and the sculpt on the gloves is excellent.



Accessories: Spock only comes with extra hands...but that's just fine since he includes the excellent engineering gloved hands. The figure comes with one gloved hand and one Vulcan salute hand attached, and 2 extra irradiated hands and the other gloved hand seperate.



So there they are... Kirk is just kinda okay and nothing really all that new....but Spock is excellent and well worth the price of the pack!

-James

AA/ DST Figure Spotlight- Admiral Kirk (Death Of Spock Gift Set- Star Trek II The Wrath Of Khan)

Figure Name- Admiral Kirk
Manufacturer- Diamond Select Toys



Diamond Select released this Kirk as part of a special carded "Death Of Spock" Gift Set in their Star Trek II The Wrath Of Khan line.



The Rundown: To get a little more mileage out of a couple of their figures, DST threw Kirk and Spock together, changed the figures up a bit, added some gloves...and voila, the "Death Of Spock" 2 pack was born! Today, we'll focus on the Kirk figure.



The sculpt on the figure is the same as the single carded "Doube Cross" Kirk. He's got the regular TWOK Kirk head...which I'm not that big of a fan of. I know Shatner's likeness is tough to nail, but the head on this figure looks a little rough even by those standards. It looks more like a Shatner lookalike from a convention or something. The sculpt seems kinda 'pinched' in. I think Diamond did a far better job on the likeness in the 'Star Trek The Motion Picture' 2 pack.



The body is the same, except no more blood splatter on the white part of the tunic. Looks pretty sweet, but allot of folks (myself included) had already repainted a "Double Cross" Kirk, so this figure wasn't that much of a treat... If you hadn't though, at least it was enough of a change to make it kinda feel like a new figure.



The articulation is the same here as on the other TWOK figures....meaning you get a decent amount without trashing the sculpt.



Accessories: A hand. That's it. I know that Kirk didn't really use anything in this scene, but it would have been nice to at least have a phaser or something thrown in... oh well.

Tomorrow....SPOCK!

-James

Playmates Figure Spotlight: Lt. Marlena Moreau (9" Mirror Universe Figure)

Figure Name: Lt. Marlena Moreau
Manufacturer: Playmates Toys

Lt. Moreau was released by Playmates as a KB exclusive in a Warp Factor Style box. (sorry, no boxed pic available)



The Rundown: Another 9" Mirror figure coming at ya! Here is Playmates only try at the character Lt. Marlena Moreau from "Mirror, Mirror". How'd she turn out?



The head sculpt is actually pretty darned good for a 9 incher. The face is pretty close to Moreau, though the skintone is a bit off. The hair is kinda wonky too. It's a sepearate piece from the head and doesn't looks quite right.



The body sculpt is your standard Playmates 9" female body. Not too shabby, but not fantastic. It hink her outfit is pretty well done though, except that pesky insignia again. It's painted on here, just like the other Mirror figures, and is kinda sloppy and cheap looking.



And here we go with the plasticy leggings again. I think they look better on the female figures than the males at least. And there really wasn't any alternative to doing it this way at the price.



Accessories: Moreau came with a display stand (not pictured), a phaser, a dagger (which she can't really hold well), and an agonizer (also can't hold this well).

So it's our only Moreau from Playmates...and while it's okay, it's a shame we never got her in the 4 inch line. The 9" line is really an acquired taste and it would have been nice to have her in the more popular 4" scale. At least we got one from Art Asylum eventually...

Oh...and her box bio-



-James

Playmates Figure Spotlight- Lt. Uhura (Transporter Series)

Figure Name: Lt. Uhura
Manufacturer: Playmates Toys



Playmates released Lt. Uhura as part of it's boxed assortment of Transporter Series figures.



The Rundown: Playmates Transporter Series figures are a pretty neat little idea. Each figure comes with a transporter base with electronic lights and sounds mimicing the transporter effect from the show.



The figure itself is almost entirely molded out of clear plastic with bits of glitter mixed in. Attach the figure to the base, press the button, and the light from it's base makes goes through the figures body, 'beaming' them out. Pretty cool! The light effect works best in a dimly lit room, but the sound is awesome anywhere!



If you take the figure by itself, it's kinda pointless though. Once it's off the base, it's just a half clear figure with some glitter thrown in. It's the same body mold as the classic collector's set Uhura, but the changes really make this one a 'one-trick-pony'.



The head sculpt is still great though. I think Playmates did a fine job here, especially on the nose which I think is really close to Nichelle's.

So if you like kitschy, gimmicky stuff, these figures are great. If you're looking for just standard figures though, you can easily skip the whole series.



Accessories: All the transporter figures included the base with background section and that's it. The base has their name printed on it and is super cool.

And here's the box bio!-



-James

Star Trek 'Potpourri' Spotlight- Scotty Unproduced Sci-Fi Metropolis 12" Figure

Figure Name: Chief Enginner Montgomery Scott (Scotty)
Manufacturer: Sci-Fi Metropolis (Unproduced)



The Rundown: Another of the initial 8 figures prototyped by Sci-Fi Metropolis: Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott! Scotty here would have been an early figure in the line... that will sadly probably never see the light of day. This figure would have rocked!



The headsculpt is really one of my favorites of the original batch of 8. I think it really captures the Season 1 & 2 look of the character quite well (Scotty had a more close-cropped haircut in the 3rd season). My only gripe is that the hair is too brown. I always thing of Scott's hair as black. The brown they used on this proto just looks way too light to me. Not sure how that would have turned out in the prodcution piece though.



The body is the same as the other unproduced Sci-Fi Metropolis figures we've looked at before. It's well articulated, and has a really keen height-changing feature to allow you to make taller characters look a bit bigger without having to make a new body mold.



And again, we have the fuzzy shirt. I find it much less noticeable on the red than with the yellow and blue. We have no idea, of course, how these would have looked on the prodcution figures...but at least SFM was trying to capture the material from the early uniforms. It's efforts like that which are sorely lacking from allot of the current product out there.



Accessories: Scotty would have probably come with your usual starfleet gear (phaser, communicator, tricorder) but none of those made it to this stage, so as of now this one just has his extra hands.

-James