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Review: Chakotay in Maquis attire


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#1 Redshirt#7

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Posted 11 January 2015 - 08:04 AM

I've been away for awhile, and for that, I apologise. I had two reviews lined up, but suffice to say, anything and everything went wrong, I had to scrap the first review due to faulty batteries, then the second because of time. Also, I didn't want to flood the Playmates section with reviews, if that makes any sense, and it gave me time to get some new figures for review. Enough excuses however, to the review!
 
In 1996, a year after the first wave of Voyager figures, a small second wave was released, consisting of some interesting figures, some Delta Quadrant species in the form of everybody's favourite organ harvesting species, a Vidiian, along with a Kazon, some crew in the form of Seska before her reveal of traitor turned traitor, and everybody's favourite reoccurring lucky redshirt, Joseph Carey (so lucky in fact he was demoted in favour of a Maquis terrorist, seems to disappear for 6 years, then pops up again from nowhere only to die a senseless death a week or so before they all get home). Along with those four where two more,  two character variants, a full Klingon Torres (a figure I'll review at a later point), and the this guy I'm reviewing, Chakotay in his Maquis gear, a figure I've pursued for two years.
 
Is he worth the wait? To the pictures!
 
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A front view of him before being deboxed. I don't believe I've reviewed a Voyager figure before, so a few words on the box. Similar in style to the TNG, DS9 and TOS movie individual waves, the main ship in each series, Voyager in this case, is doing a flyby at the top with one of those multicoloured nebula's in the background, with a nicely done planet of to the right along with info on ol Commander Chuckles, with open space to the left. Simple, yet eye catching and very appealing in my opinion. So if anybody is still awake after my small detour, to the back.
 
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A back view. Nothing too dissimilar with other Trek lines, the "important note to collectors" is something new that I believe is universal for 96 and a few waves afterwards. Fun fact, something interestingly wrong, though it's not visible with this resolution, is the fact Kes is called "Hes", the Kazon, "Hazon", the Klingon, "the Hinglon" etc on the card back. I thought it must be the way K's are printed in this font, but Kathryn is spelled correctly. 
 
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A view of his bio (excuse the blurriness). Nothing too strange, except that it insinuates Chakotay comes from Dorvan V, something that I don't think was established in Voyager. I could be wrong, however.
 
Enough of box graphics, the figure!
 
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Or the accessories, at least. Standard dayglo tricorder, a medicine bundle (consisting of the wings of a blackbird, CHAH moonz ee stone, and an akoonah according to Memory Alpha) and, for the first and only time I believe, a phaser without the beam, necessary for Chakotay in a few minutes. It does indeed appear Chuckles Maquis-looted phaser is a standard TNG phaser without the beam and silvering colour (as far as I can see).
 
And...
 
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His base, featuring the embalm of the Maquis, only coming with him and the Ensign Seska figure. A very nice base that's extremely accurate, bonus points for including something that could've easily been another combadge base (not that's bad or anything, but the extra effort is always appreciated)

 
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A front view of Chakotay. He's extremely accurate to the original costume, as you can see. (I've really got a hang of this hyperlinking haven't I?). Some of the lines on his shirt don't match, but I'm not that crazy to complain. All the necessary details are there, the tunic, the boots, the rolled up sleeves, even his phaser holster (more on that later).
 
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A close up. I have to say, this has to be one of the best Playmates likenesses, to me at least it's a perfect likeness to Robert Beltran. No paint-apps-gone-wild as well on the face, which is excellent.
 
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The same, however, cannot be said of his left arm. There's some sort of smear, I'm not fussed about it, as far as I'm concerned, it's a phaser burn. It's not noticeable unless you focus on it, and a lot of other Playmates figures have the same sort of thing, however, I thought it was worth mentioning. The mock stitching on his tunic his carried on around the back, as you would expect, and like the rest of the figure, the detail is very nice, and accurate.
 
Something else I noticed....
 
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His boots, they have grips! Pretty nice detail, not needed, but still present. Again, another extra mile I didn't even notice till I was photographing him.

 

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And as hinted (and seen) earlier, he had a holster for his phaser, complete with some circular detailing on the front. Again, a little extra that makes it all the more better. However...

 

(continued after this short break)



#2 Redshirt#7

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Posted 11 January 2015 - 08:05 AM

 
.....that's not to say it can't be improved:

 

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With the addition of a modified and slightly painted TNG phaser.

 

And, of course, I like many of my readers like figures who can use the accessories given to them:

 

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Such as Chakotay. Pretty fantastic, isn't he?

 

Quick, to the conclusion!

 

Would I recommend him?

Without a doubt, particularly if your a Voyager fan. I mean, what's not to like? Playmates went, in my opinion, above and beyond with this figure. Superb detail, great sculpt, appropriate accessories, accurate, some slight production issues, but nothing I can't over look.

 

Price?

Perhaps the one Achilles heal. Voyager figures always command a high price, but like many figures, if you wait long enough, you can get a good deal. My copy cost £9.99 sealed, a price I'm very happy with.

 

Playability?

He's filled with it. Have Picard or Sisko V Chakotay's Maquis cell! Have a casual Friday on the bridge! Recruit Kevin Costner's Robin Hood and his merry men into the Maquis! What's not to love, beyond price?

 

I hope you enjoyed the review, as always I welcome recommendations and/or requests.



#3 Loggy

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Posted 12 January 2015 - 04:57 AM

Superb review of a really awesome figure, Redshirt! I really do love this figure, and I've had my eye on a loose edition for some time on Ebay, but for some reason always neglect to add him to the cart when I do a raid of my favourite vendor. Really, what drew me to this figure is that holster, and the fact he has a beamless phaser, something unprecedented for playmates. I guess if they wanted to sculpt a holster for the newer phaser included with figures such as DS9 Worf and Mutant Tom Paris, it would've looked like a joke.

 

Are there any clues as to whether the holster sculpt is original or borrowed from another line? It seems out of character for Playmates to include a phaser holster for their figures, but it makes sense for the figure, I suppose.



#4 Daysleeper

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Posted 12 January 2015 - 11:27 AM

I wouldn't say out of character. Some figures had features like that. Dathon has a sheath for his dagger, and there were holsters for the tricorders on the first wave TNG figures.

I think Chakotay in Maquis outfit is a wonderful figure. Great review, by the way.

#5 Loggy

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Posted 16 January 2015 - 08:16 AM

I was just looking through my figures, however, and noticed that Gowron has a holster for his disruptor pistol, but that was the only other example I could find or think of. Alas, an example of a weapon holster, but again, not a phaser holster. So yes, Daysleeper, there have certainly been holsters for tricorders, knives and disruptors, however I was referring explicitly to phasers. I don't know of any other figure in the Star Trek line that has had a phaser holster. hence the statement. In that case, it really is out of character, I suppose. but also a logical step of evolution and variation. It would've been nice to see phaser holsters on other figures throughout the lines, especially for the more 'action-oriented' characters (Gropey-hand Riker the original man of acton and Worf et al) instead of a tricorder pouch. They gave the beam on Chuckle's phaser the snip, so the matter of a choking hazard obviously never was an issue, or had become a non-issue, so a beam getting in the way wouldn't really be a problem.



#6 RizzoPSU

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Posted 16 January 2015 - 01:59 PM

When I was a kid, I snipped the bright orange "phaser beam" off (80% were bent) because they annoyed me. After doing so, I used the tricorder holsters as a phaser holster. Good reviews, brings back memories and has gotten me to buy extras for customs. Thanks Redshirt!

#7 Redshirt#7

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Posted 16 January 2015 - 04:45 PM

Loggy

Great to see you around! Thanks as always on the review. Indeed, for me that holster was a huge draw, those later phasers, I found them incredibly hilarious. They're more in scale with twelve inch figures! As for weather it's "borrowed", I don't think it is. It seems, though I haven't removed it yet, it's the same connection point as Dax's Klingon dagger and the Tricorders, and it seems it was more accurately painted on the prototype, then given the two colour paint app for mass release, like all Playmates figures regarding proto to final design, lending further credence to it being original.

 

Daysleeper

Thanks Daysleeper! Why it's out of character for me is because, on average, all the other figures with holsters or sheaths moulded in or intentionally stuck on, Dathon, the first two waves of TNG figures plus a few reuses years later, and Gowron as Loggy mentions below your post, were all figures in the first couple of years of the line. From memory, only this Chakotay had a dedicated Phaser holster from any line, and Klingon Dax later had a knife sheath much later in 96-97 from memory.

 

Loggy

Very well said, good spot on Gowron by the way, I'd forgotten about him! 100% agree with your points. Like RizzoPSU, I ended up using the Tricorder holsters as Phaser holsters due to the lack of official ones:

 

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Hahah, man of action, all right if I use that line on a Riker parody account I have?

 

RizzoPSU

Thanks on the review, I'm glad you enjoy them! I never understood how the phasers ended up so mangled all the time, they were better of as Lone Starr or Dark Helmet's schwartz lightsabers than phasers...



#8 Loggy

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Posted 17 January 2015 - 01:18 AM

I was another serial snipper, but I was often reluctant to put the phasers in the tricorder holsters. Many of them just weren't glued in properly, and were kinda flimsy anyway. When I jammed a phaser in there I was in constant fear of either snapping the peg that attached the holster to the figure or just straight-out breaking the plastic of the holster itself.

 

I think I might've split Mordock's holster at one point- what a loss- but it was a case of once burned, twice shy for some of the other characters that weren't warming the pegs in rural South Australia back in the day.



#9 Redshirt#7

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Posted 17 January 2015 - 11:33 AM

It's strange, the first figures I bought back in 2012 have holsters that are perfectly adjustable, like Riker's in the picture, but some of the ones I've got recently are flimsy like you say. The one pattern I've noticed is that it seems, for me at least, figures made after wave 1 (the spandex uniformed crew, including some later additions like season 2 Geordi) have the inherent flimsiness. 



#10 Morgan

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Posted 22 January 2015 - 06:59 PM

I feel the Voyager lineup was stuck for a while, because they could either do crewmembers or the weird aliens of the week. It would have been nice to have Tuvok, Chakotay and Torres in Maquis outfits, but I get how they could not have splurged and done all three.

 

The Chakotay likeness is very good like most VOY figures (most, not all) though it's weird how they decided to make him and Kim and no one else stocky and barrel-chested.

 

Also, I love how the Voyager card backs had at least 10 spelling errors each.






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