Playmates Spotlight- Original Spock (Star Trek 2009 6" Figure)

Figure Name: Original Spock
Manufacturer: Playmates Toys



This Spock was released carded as part of the Playmates Star Trek 2009 6" figure line.



The Rundown: Well, I've held off on doing this for almost 2 years now, but I really feel that my time has come. I just gotta face the music... take it like a man... rip that band-aid off with one quick pull. That's right folks- It's time to start spotlighting the Playmates 2009 Star Trek line.



Why have I waited so long to do this you ask? For starters, I've always wanted this blog to really stick to items related to the original series and the first seven feature films. The 2009 film is a little tricky. While part of me wants to separate it into its own segment of Trekdom, the other part of me wants to acknowledge it as a part of the classic canon... especially with the inclusion of Nimoy's Spock. I needed to let this inner argument gestate for a bit before I really opened the door to the '09-inspired merch. The second reason is a bit easier to explain... For me, the Playmates 2009 toys just didn't seem all that great. With a different scale and style than the previous Playmates Trek offerings, I wanted to give myself some time to get to know these guys before committing my opinions on them to the blog.

But like I said... That time has come! And what better place to start than with the guy that ties it all together- The Original Spock! Let's take a gander at him!



Playmates released 3 differently scaled lines of figures for the Star Trek 2009 movie: A 3.75" line called the "Galaxy Collection", a 6" line dubbed the "Warp Collection, and the 12" "Command Collection". I compromised with myself and went with the 6" version of Spock for this first foray into spotlighting the line.



We'll start at the top of the figure and work our way down. The head sculpts of the 2009 Playmates product are WILDLY hit-or-miss, with some featuring decent likenesses and others... not so much. Spock here is one of the better efforts, with a head that bares a pretty solid likeness to the elder incarnation of everyone's favorite Vulcan.



As we move down, it becomes obvious that these aren't your daddy's Playmates Star Trek figures. While the old line sometimes had issues with properly scaling the heads to the bodies, the '09 line does a nice job of balancing proportions. The upper body articulation is nice as well, with a large range of movement in the arms and a hidden torso joint supplying a large range of posing options.



Here's where things start to fall apart unfortunately. In order to hide the torso joint, many of the 6" figures feature rubbery coverings over a buck upper body. The material used here seems more durable than the stuff used on the Art Asylum figures, but it also feels REALLY gummy on this Spock due to its thickness. The body sculpt itself is pretty "soft" overall as well, giving the figure a somewhat cheap appearance when compared with other contemporary figures made in the 6" scale.



My biggest gripe on the figure though has to be the hip joints. While the arms feature a wide range of movement, the hip articulation is relegated to a simple T-joint... meaning he can sit down and that's about it. I could almost forgive this if the legs were at least posed a bit further apart, but they aren't. Spock is perpetually stuck with his legs fairly close to each other, severely limiting his poseability. Even the V-joint hips of the 90's figures worked better than this... and I hated those V-joints.



Accessories: Spock includes an interchangeable hand and a black figure stand. While I understand that Spock didn't really use any weapons in the film, I still feel Playmates cheaped out here. Why not stick a vial of "red matter" in with him? That would have been pretty cool.



While the '09 Playmates line as a whole isn't all that great, this Spock at least has a few good things going for him. The head sculpt is strong, the articulation is at least half-decent... and it's Leonard Nimoy's Spock! If you are thinking of trying this line out (especially at the current closeout prices nationwide), Original Spock might be a good place to start. Using him, you can decide if you have need for the many, or need for the few... or just the one. See what I did there? Yeah, that was a TWOK reference. Kudos to me!

Hallmark Ornament Spotlight- 2010 U.S.S. Enterprise (From The 2009 "Star Trek" Film)

Item Name: U.S.S. Enterprise Keepsake Ornament
Manufacturer: Hallmark



Hallmark released this piece as part of their 2010 keepsake assortment.



The Rundown: Oops! I said that I'd be spotlighting this "tomorrow" in the last blog entry... and here it is a month later. Sorry guys! I guess we could always take a jump through the Guardian and fix that little mix up, but then we'd end up falling in love with somebody that had to die or something and we'd be worse off then when we started. Anyways...



Love it or hate it, the "Abrams-prise" is here to stay. For the foreseeable future, this will be the Enterprise we see in any new Trek film projects. In my eyes, it doesn't hold a candle to the original lady, but I have gotten used to it over time and I don't mind buying a few replicas of it here and there. Which brings us to the ornament...



Before we get too far into the ornament itself, I have to reiterate how much I dislike the fact that this year's range of ornaments don't come in the little clear plastic trays. With the Enterprise in particular, the excessive wrapping may actually do more harm than good as it can put pressure in weak spots (which we'll get into later). I vote they go back to the trays!



The ornament itself is incredibly well-sculpted, with tons of little detailing all over it. Looking it over, I kept thinking how far Hallmark has come in the sculpting department. Comparing this Enterprise to their first effort is like night-and-day in terms of sculpted detailing. Fantastic work!



Hallmark really nailed the paint work here as well, capturing even the smallest of details. It may not be quite as nice as last year's Klingon Battle Cruiser, but the paint on this one is still nothing to sneeze at.

And of course, since this is a "Magic" ornament, we have some electronic features built in-



Again, not quite the masterpiece that was the Battle Cruiser. The light is only solid, no firing sequences or anything like that. Plus, the light stays on for only a very short time, which is a drawback in my eyes.



And here comes my big complaint- Notice anything wonky on those nacelles up there? Here's another shot for a better view:



The entire nacelle assembly is entirely askew on this ship! Now I'm not sure if I just got one that was poorly assembled, or if perhaps the wrapping caused the warping, but either way it's there and it's pretty bad. I've never once had a quality issue worth noting on a Hallmark piece, so this is very surprising to me. I may actually end up heading back to Hallmark to see about an exchange, so I'll update this post if it seems like a recurring problem.

For those who like reading boxes-



So there ya go! At $32.95, this one won't be for everybody, especially coupled with the fact that it's the new version of the ship (which many folks haven't warmed up too). I have a feeling that this one may end up making it through the holidays, and if so it should move into the clearance range (although I wouldn't wait too long once it starts into that territory). The ship itself is pretty nice, but the nacelle issue was a real bummer for me. With the high sticker price, there really shouldn't be any QC issues with these. I'd be interested to hear if any of you guys had a similar problem...

-James

Playmates Spotlight- Star Trek 2009 Unproduced Wave 2 Warp Collection 6" Figures

Item Name: Star Trek 2009 Unproduced Wave 2 Warp Collection 6" Figures
Manufacturer: Playmates Toys



The Rundown: Yeah. I know. These are from the 2009 Star Trek movie and NOT the original series. What am I doing? Well, I think they are pretty sweet and I liked the new movie, so they get to be on the blog. So there.



When I first heard the announcement that Playmates was going to handle the figures based on the new movie, I was pretty excited. As a big fan of their original Trek toy run, I hoped that we might see releases compatible with the old stuff. Then came the announcement that they would be doing 3 scales... none of which fit with the old standard figures. Bummer. Still, I knew hoping for something in scale was a bit of a pipe dream anyway, and I was at least happy to be buying Trek figures in stores again. Do I wish the quality had been a bit better? Sure, but the pictures of the second wave figures gave me high hopes that quality would be improved as the line went on.



Of course, as we all know by now, the second waves for all the different scales got the axe when the first waves underperformed. Thankfully, with a little easy head-switching, you can fill out most of the crew in the 6" and 3.75" lines fairly easily (sans a regular Uhura in the 6" line). That leaves only the characters with unique sculpts as the major gaps in our collections. The second wave of the 3.75" line would have featured a BUNCH of new unique sculpts (like Keenser, Sarek, and Ayel), but the 6" Warp collection would have had only 2 new unique body sculpts for the regular "human" characters- an Instructor Spock and a orbital skydiving body for Kirk/ Sulu. I snagged some of the prototypes for these unproduced figures, so let's take a peek at them and see what we all missed out on...



First up is Instructor Spock. Spock here features the same style of body seen on the "cadet" figures from the Warp Collection, with a rubbery shirt over a standard articulated body. Playmates wasn't breaking any new ground here, and he's probably the least exciting of the batch. Here's what he would have looked like had he been produced-



Kinda neat, and he would have made a great addition to the academy subset, but not entirely essential. I will say though that Spock sold great in my neck of the woods, and I have little doubt that this release would have been a good seller just based on the fact that it's Spock. And Spock rules.



I did want to mention how much nicer these head sculpts look when they aren't painted. It's tough to capture it in pictures, but you can really see how a mediocre paint job can really affect a decent sculpt.



Next we have Kirk and Sulu in their orbital skydiving uniforms. Making these was a no-brainer for Playmates as the orbital skydive scene was one of the most exciting bits of the new movie. And since the uniform is identical except for color, they only needed to do one sculpt for 2 different figures.



again, take a quick look at the detail in the unpainted head sculpt on Kirk. Looks much better without the gloppy paint slapped on it...



Sulu was listed in the early rundowns for wave 2, but doesn't appear on Playmates site listings for the Warp Collection. I have no doubt that he would have been made had the figures actually been released though, since all he required was a simple head switch, and there are so many test shots of this figure floating around out there.



That's what Kirk would have looked like had these made it out. The body is really well done in comparison to the first wave releases. The mid torso articulation works much better without the rubber shirt covering it, and the hips are mounted on a ball-and-socket joint giving them a little bit of a wider range of movement. My protos don't have them, but the picture shows that both figures would have included removable helmets as well.



The skydiving suits have a couple of other cool features that really set them apart from the first wave as well. The left arm has a flip open communicator embedded into the wrist! Flip the panel open, and a small decal depicts the inner workings of a uniform-mounted communicator!



The other neat thing is the holster attached to the figure's hip. I'm a sucker for good, working holsters on action figures and this one puts the clunky belt from the first releases to shame. The phaser fits in snugly, and there is a little strap that closes over it. Nice! Oh, and notice the small peg hole in the figure's back? The skydiving figures would have featured removable parachute packs to plug into there. That's pretty sweet.



Sadly, these guys (like all the other wave 2 releases) are pretty much dead in the water. Sure, the Spock was "more-of-the-same", but the loss of the skydiving figures is a big disappointment. The quality and craftsmanship on those was a real upgrade from the first wave and gave a hint as to the potential that this line really had...

-James

Star Trek 'Potpourri' Spotlight- Airwalk Star Trek Shoes!

Item Name: STPL X Airwalk Terrain Hi Skate – Star Trek Starfleet Edition
Manufacturer: Airwalk (Designed by Jeff Staple)

The Rundown: Okay- Yes, these are technically shoes produced for the new film, and so far I've tried to stick pretty much to TOS-centric merchandise... But these shoes are too freaking cool not to show off! They are shoes... with Star Trek symbols on them! How cool is that!?!



Designed by Jeff Staple of Staple Design, the shoes were created for Airwalk to commemorate the release of the new Star Trek film. The first design Staple came up with was a solid black shoe adorned with Starfleet insignias. Those shoes saw a very limited release at Staple's retail shop The Reed Space and quickly sold out.

For the release of the film on DVD, Airwalk and Staple came up with 3 more designs to release as a limited run through Reed Space and Payless Shoes- blue, red, and yellow (which was listed as an online exclusive but I haven't seen them on their site as of yet). I went with the blue style as I'm a sucker for Spock.



The shoe design is really quite nice! Staple did a great job of not taking the Trek element so far that the shoes become a parody. There's just enough Trek influence on them to make it cool for a fan, but not so much that they look like "kid's shoes".



So what are we looking at Trek-wise on the shoes? Glad you asked. Well, there's a small symbol and the tongue which is accompanied by a set of numbers which translate into the film's release date. Also note how unexpectedly similar the Airwalk symbol is to the Enterprise delta shield... Pretty neat!



The laces have a shiny black delta shield clipped on at the bottom. It looks really sweet, but I may end up taking mine off in the fear that they may break off or get scratched up easily.



Inside the shoes are the words "Star" and "Trek", which can really help those who haven't quite learned their left from their right. Why do my shoes say "Trek Star"? Oh wait... silly me!



Lastly, the back of the shoes features one more set of delta shields. That's probably my favorite thing on the shoes.



The shoes are also really comfy and feel like they can probably stand up to some major play. And the best part is the price- $49.99! Apparently, Staple Design keeps all their shoe release under $50, which is pretty reasonable for a designer shoe brand.

These are supposed to be available through Payless, but none of my local stores had any idea what I was talking about. Their site only has the red version left in stock in sizes 7, 10, and 10.5, but they are on sale for $39.99! Plus you can use coupon code 30437 at checkout for an additional 20% off up until the end of January! If you want the blue variety like mine, your best bet is contacting The Reed Space at 212-253-0588. The shipping is a little pricey but it is fast, and the staff there is incredibly friendly and knowledgeable.

-James (with pics from my wife Bobbi on this one!)