Comic Reviews by Walt

I’ve been a Star Trek fan since around the time Star Trek: Generations came out.

I’ve been aware of Star Trek and its characters even longer…I’m not even sure exactly when I did become aware of them. However, up to this point, I’ve never had any of the toys (These were something I didn’t feel like passing up).

Now, somehow along the way as far as the “original crew” goes, Spock has been my favorite character. Even before coming across these at the store, I’d decided that IF I was going to get any, Spock would be one that I’d get…and “Old Spock” at that–Leonard Nimoy’s Spock. At the same time…can’t have Star Trek without Kirk, so snagged him along with Original Spock (leaving Scotty and Cadet McCoy on the shelf for now).

As far as these Star Trek toys go, I’m not all that impressed with the packaging. For one thing, visually, the package is like a big, darkish capsule. The actual figure contained within is buried too deeply inside, and there’s no real distinguishing visual between figures’ packages. (Whereas with other lines, there might be pictures of the individual character contained in the package such that you could look at the package and not even see the figure to know which character it is).

I was also really disappointed at how HARD it was to get these out of their packaging. It took me nearly a half hour just to get the two figures out of their packages. Each was imprisoned with multiple extremely-tightly-wound twistie-ties that actually hurt in trying to get undone. Each also came with accessories bound into the packaging with the same type of ties. Once I had them out, though, these don’t look all that bad, for what they are. I’m not terribly impressed with the sculpts–Original Spock RESEMBLES Nimoy, but I have to wonder if that resemblance is in part my KNOWING it’s supposed to, as opposed to it being such that one who didn’t know the actor would catch it.

I’m not actually sure who the actor is offhand playing Kirk, but I assume a similar bit on the visual here. There’s more leeway to me, though as I’m not nearly as familiar with “young Kirk” as I am the older Shatner version from the movies (as opposed to the 1960s tv show). Each figure comes with “unique acessories.” Kirk comes with a phaser, a utility belt (with an attached comm device?) and holster for the phaser. He also comes with a chair and a piece of the Bridge. Original Spock comes with interchangeable hands–the Vulcan salute and a regular hand; he also comes with a piece of the Bridge. Both come with small bases–quite a blessing, as many of the 3.75″ figures I’ve dealt with lately seem to have a hard time standing up on their own. Spock’s base makes sense; the one that came with Kirk does not: it’s a clip, and while there’s a peg to attach the foot, it will not hold him upright as a freestanding entity. I don’t know about you all, but I don’t have random shelves with slots to clip figure-bases into.

For what I saw of these, it looks like there are about a dozen figures in the line so far. (Others I noticed included Scotty, Cadet McCoy, Spock (new), and Pike. The back of the figure packaging shows Sulu, Uhura, Cadet Chekov, and Nero as well.

Looks like there’s also an Enterpirse that lights up and has some audio (lines from the film). There’s a Bridge playset that comes with a playmat/floorplan of the full bridge. The playset only comes with a couple of the major elements otherwise. (You’re expected to collect all the other individual figures to get the pieces to fill out the FULL Bridge playset). There’s also a playset for the Transporter Room…same deal, with the set coming with the basics, but you’re expected to collect figures to snag the pieces to fill it out. However, the Bridge and Transporter Room playsets do come with a figure included (I believe Kirk with the Bridge and Scotty with the Transporter Room), which offsets the cost just a bit (if you factor in the cost of the figure by itself).

All in all, not a bad set of figures/accessories–but it’s gonna take a lot more to REALLY impress me. By that, I mean expansion of available figures…perhaps some sub-sets/lines, like for the other movies, or simply for the Next Generation grouping of characters. I might win up picking up a few of the other figures at some point down the road.

…But with a bit of interest in a GI Joe set, trying to find a Hellboy figure, a slight bit of interest in the Terminator: Salvation figures, and trying to find a number of favorite DC characters…this Star Trek line has some definite competition for attention.

Filed under: The Toy Chronicles | Tagged: 3 3/4", 3.75", action figures, Captain Kirk, Galaxy, Galaxy Collection, Kirk, Leonard Nimoy, Old Spock, Original Spock, Spock, Star Trek, Star Trek Galaxy Collection, Star Trek Toys, toys | 2 Comments »