Game Spotlight- UNO Star Trek Collector's Edition

Item Name: UNO Card Game Star Trek Collector's Edition
Maunfacturer: Fundex



The Rundown: Man, there's a TON of Star Trek themed games hitting the market right now! I'm trying my best to keep up on all of them...but finding time to play them all before doing a rundown on them is what is really tough. Thankfully, I've got an always-willing-to-play partner in my 6 year old Blaze! We busted this one open this past weekend to give it a try.



Once you get that outer box off, you see a really nicely done tin that contains the cards. The tin graphics are in keeping with the universal branding that is showing up on most of the current TOS-inspired product.



The tin has an inner black plastic tray to hold the decks of cards. I'm not sure if it's just mine, but the trays aren't quite deep enough to keep all the cards in place once they're taken out of their cellophane wrappers. Not a huge deal, but you'll have a few cards flying around when you reopen the tin.



The cards themselves are REALLY nice. You get an indiviual picture for each numbered card, and individual pictures for the 'other' cards. Our fav was the wild card with the very appropriate picture of Mirror Spock (somebody at Fundek actually put some thought into the picture choices it seems).



There's one new kind of card introduced in the set...the "Beam Up" card. This card allows you to escape the dreaded Draw 2/ Draw 4 cards and also acts as a Wild Card. Blaze used this one in one of the games we played and it helps make this set a little different than a regular UNO game (he actually won that game thanks to this card). Oh, and instead of saying "UNO!" when you have 1 card left, you are supposed to say "UNO, I'm a doctor!" (which doesn't make much sense, but Blaze liked saying it).

With a slew of Star Trek games coming out, it's tough to decide which ones to pick up. There will be some I'll review that you can definitely skip (like the upcoming Star Trek playing cards). This is one I'll definitely recommend! It's fairly cheap, the tin and cards are well done, and UNO is an easy to understand, fun game to play. So yeah, you should get this one.

AA/ DST Figure Spotlight- Executive Officer Chekov (Star Trek II The Wrath Of Khan)

Figure Name: Executive Officer Chekov
Manufacturer: Diamond Select Toys



Chekov was released carded as part of Diamond Select's Comic-con Exclusive Star Trek II The Wrath Of Khan assortment.



The Rundown: Diamond released a large portion of the main cast from Star Trek II as comic-con exclusives. While they aren't as easy to come by as some of their other releases, the figures are definitely worth seeking out! Chekov here is a good example of what you can expect from them...



The sculpting on the uniform is REALLY nice and pretty screen accurate! The bodies were sculpted with an eye towards reuse for other TWOK characters....but I'm totally cool with that since they changed little details to make each one unique. Plus, do you really need totally different bodies on these? No, not really...



I really, really like this head sculpt! Looks dead on Chekov to me! Plus, Diamond could totally reuse this for a TMP version of the character since the sculpt could pass for that too.



As usual, no compaints on DST's articulation. What's there works well but doesn't check you out on the sculpt.

DST's TWOK line is one that's definitely worth getting into if you haven't already! You get the main cast plus a few extras...something that can't be said about some of the other Treks that AA/ DST have handled (grumble grumble).



Accessories: Chekov comes with a good selection of stuff! 2 extra hands, a communicator, a wrist communicator, a phaser....and a Ceti Eel! Put some creatures in his ear!

-James

Hallmark Ornament Spotlight- 1991 USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Ornament Name: USS Enterprise NCC-1701
Manufactured: 1991 (Hallmark)



The Rundown: Hallmark began is long history with Trek back in 1991 with the release of it's first Star Trek Ornament: The USS Enterprise from Star Trek The Original Series. The ornament quickly sold out and remains the most soft after of all the Star Trek Ornaments. This ornament routinely sells in the $150-$200 range!



The sculpt is pretty decent, especially for the time and the fact that it was their first stab at a Trek ornament. Compared to some of the recent releases, it's maybe not quite as detail-oriented as it could have been, but it's by no means bad.



The paint details are somewhat sparse, but what is there is clean and nice. I'm not a fan of overly weathered versions of the Enterprise anyway so this is fine by me. And for the most part they did a pretty accurate job on the little details too.



There is, however, one little detail I kinda wish would have been left out though:



The '1991' date stamp on the side. I understand why it was done, but I could have done without it and it looks a bit obtrusive.



Since this is one of their "Magic" ornaments, you get some electronic functions when you plug it in. This release is limited to only lights, but some future ornaments had sound as well.



The ornament looks pretty sharp lit up, with a top and bottom dome light and blinking lights along the outside of the dome. The lights are quite bright and look great in a darkened room.

So if you've got the scratch laying around to pick one up, that's what you can expect to get when you open it up....and you should open it up! Get this puppy on a tree!

-James

Star Trek 'Potpourri' Spotlight- Custom Playmates Captain Kirk As A Romulan (From "The Enterprise Incident")

Figure Name: Captain James T. Kirk (Disguised as a Romulan)
Made by customizer Matthew Hackley



The Rundown: Another entry in the "What if Playmates had kept the Trek license in the 90's?" fantasy line....it's Kirk disguised as a Romulan from the episode "The Enterprise Incident"! This is the first Kirk/ Spock variation custom I'm spotlighting here, but there will be plenty more episode specific customs coming from Matt!



Matt did a fine job of altering the Playmates head here; giving him the pointy ears, slightly off skin tone, darker hair, and crazy wide pointy sideburns that the Shat had in the show. Looks just like "he's due in surgery to get his ears bobbed".



Again, Matt really shines at picking great base bodies to work from to get a custom looking screen accurate. Here he's taken a Koloth base which is a great start. He did heavy tweaking on the arms and upper torso to pull off the Romulan costume.



A Romulan shoulder sash completes the outfit. Matt used a splattery effect to the paint spots to give it the thick wooly look of the screen costume. Nice work Matt!

-James

Playmates Figure Spotlight- Lieutenant Sulu (Classic Star Trek Collector Set)

Figure Name: Lieutenant Sulu
Manufacturer: Playmates Toys



Sulu was released by Playmates as part of it's boxed Classic Star Trek Crew Collector's Set.



The Rundown: If you've been reading this blog you already know of my affection for the Playmates Classic Crew Collector's Set. The pack looks fantastic and the figures are all great (if you dig Playmates style...which I do). Sulu here is another fine figure from the set.



I think the head sculpt is pretty darned good and looks allot like Takei. The skin tone and hair are especially nice.



I don't believe I've mentioned this before, but I really like that the rank piping on the wrist is sculpted on and not just painted. It helps the rank 'pop' more and looks much better than a simple paint app.



You're looking at standard Playmates articulation here. Pretty solid, but of course the figures have the dreaded 'V-crotch' style articulation. Not a huge deal, and it's part of Playmates style, but of course I would have preferred different hip joints. Still, I love Playmates-style Trek figures and I think Sulu is a fine example of their stuff.



Accessories: As with all figures in the set, Sulu comes with a display stand (not pictured), a phaser, and a communicator.

And his box bio-



-James

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

Figure Name: Captain James T. Kirk
Manufacturer: Sci Fi Metropolis (Unproduced)



The Rundown: Another entry in the initial assortment of 8 unproduced Sci Fi Metropolis 12" figures! Obviously, Kirk was a no-brainer for an entry in the line; you can't have a classic Trek line without a Kirk. Sci Fi Metropolis looks like it would have had a winner on it's hands with this one.



Ah, the difficult-to-nail Shatner likeness. The bane of so many companies...Well, I think Sci Fi had it. I really think the head sculpt captures the Season 1 Kirk pretty darn well. Much better than Diamond's Ultimate Quarter Scale turd (one of the main factors in these figures never getting produced). The paint on the head is really sharp too...but again, this is a hand painted prototype so we don't really know how the final product would have looked unfortunately. Judging by Sci Fi Metropolis' other offerings though, I'd say it would have been really nice.



Okay, again we have the shirt. I've made my feelings on the material used clear in my previous review of McCoy (found here), so I'm not going to retread on that here. Suffice it to say that the material does look better in person, and we still can't be sure of what the final product would have looked like since this is a hand made prototype. Either way, I think the outfit is well-tailored and definitely shows that SFM was trying their best to find an accurate representation of the uniform.



The SFM body is really nice. It can hold a ton of poses and still look natural doing them. Plus, they have a size changing feature that allows you to alter the body for taller characters! Really cool...



As far as accessories go, Kirk doesn't have alot with him as of now, just a couple of extra hands. If the figure had made it into production, he would have comes with a communicator and phaser at least, with the possibility of a ticorder and a phaser rifle!

Again, it's really a shame these never made it out. Just looking at the protos for the initial 8 has me wondering just how far this line could have gone.

-James

DST/ EMCE Spotlight- Khan (Mego Style Figure)

Figure Name: Khan
Manufacturer: Diamond Select & EMCE Toys



Khan was released through a partnership of Diamond Select and EMCE Toys as a Hastings/ Planet X exclusive. (sorry, no packaged pic)



The Rundown: Wha!? Who!? A NEW Mego figure! That was my reaction when I first saw pics of this guy. EMCE/ DST had just recently started reissuing the original Star Trek Mego figures when Khan was announced.... the first new 'Mego'! How does he fit in the line? GREAT, that's how!



The head sculpt is good, but not so accurate that it loses the "Mego charm". He looks just as if he had been produced when the original line was on shelves. Oh, and the skin tone is perfect too. Very nice!



The body is your standard Mego style; well-articulated with really nice body proportions. The outfit too has that Mego charm and feels allot like the material used on the original figures.

Accessories: Um, nope. None included. It would have been nice to get a phaser for him to crush at least. Oh well...

So yeah...Khan here is great and makes me really hope they do more unproduced characters in this style. I can just imagine how good a Trelane or a Harry Mudd would be!

-James