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Review: Orbital Skydiving Kirk


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#1 Redshirt#7

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Posted 13 September 2014 - 04:45 AM

My next review is perhaps a strange one, Orbital Skydiving Kirk.

 

It seems this guy is marmalade in the Trek community. Some people like him, some people hate him, so I'm going in with "an open mind" as it were. This particular Kirk uses the same head as the TVH/TFF/TUC Kirk and the later TMP Kirk (damn that's alot of acronyms!), so this one comes in the middle of the two. This guy was part of the Generations line, all from the Generations movie. Or more importantly, they should've. As your no doubt aware (and if not, where have you been for the last 20 years?!?), all figures in the line suffered from "late costume/plot change disease", and Kirk here is from a deleted scene. In fact, this deleted scene:

 

 

 

Where after smashing the bottle of champagne on the Enterprise B hull, he orbitally skydives down to Chekov and Scotty. And a small note, while I believe all the Generations figures are meant to be one wave, Skydiving Kirk, Scotty, and Chekov came later, though I could be wrong on that.

 

To the pictures!

 

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The box. I love the art of in the background, very nice in my opinion. One thing that I hadn't noticed till now, is how the base is packaged with the figure, due to the lack of card and the poster on the back.

 

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Close up of the "blister pack", I believe it's called.

 

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A back view. Nice to see the differences in the prototype of the engineering playset and the finished one.

 

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Kirk's bio. Some more strange stuff here, but no Knife wielding Jake Sisko or psychopathic candle snuffing Vedek's.

 

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The figure. Very, very nice detailing, arguably helped or hindered by the five points of articulation.

 

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Close up of the head. I love this sculpt, it says everything when I have non Trek fans around and I can show them this figure, and say "Who's this?", and they reply "It's Kirk in a tin foil suit!" (and no, I didn't show them the base).

 

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A back view. Not the most flattering angle of Kirk, but the detail is all around, and as shown looks fantastic with light reflecting of it.

 

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His accessories. The Champagne bottle, what looks like an elongated flux coupler, a laser drill, a torch, his helmet, and his poster (not pictured). A pic of the laser in TNG: http://tng.trekcore....tpartone147.jpg

The drill and the coupler have come with anyone and everyone, (Scotty, Barclay, Geordi, S1 Geordi...), the torch came with Lore, the bottle with 40's Data, and the helmet is unique.

 

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The poster

 

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A demonstration of Kirk's articulation. Or, Shatnerian Acting.

 

Continued in a few minutes...



#2 Redshirt#7

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Posted 13 September 2014 - 04:58 AM

(Continued)

 

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Kirk with the helmet on.

 

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This is more what I had in mind when hearing about the scene: "Attack of the Kirk: The chair's all mine!"

 

Would I recommend him?

Yes, and while some may argue that the inaccuracy is enough to not buy it, in my opinion it only makes him better. As discussed in the DS9 Tom Riker review, theirs something appealing about having a figure that never appeared.

 

Price?

I got mine for £3, including postage, where can you go wrong? 

 

Playability?

Party Kirk? Bar fight Kirk? Perhaps, with the champagne bottle. I wouldn't recommend throwing a figure out the window, but perhaps swooshing him around the room? Other than that, he look's good with the other Kirk's Playmates made.

 

As always, any picture requests, recommendations, anything you like is welcome! 



#3 Loggy

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Posted 13 September 2014 - 07:54 AM

Your demonstration of Kirk's articulation had me in fits of chuckles, Redshit. Big night out in the 'space bar'... space bar? Didn't The Electric Six do a song called Space Bar? Anyway... an excellent review! And you're right, there is appeal in this, as indeed there is with all the Generations figures, because of the rampant inaccuracies from all those thrown-out production materials. They're also cheap fodder for customs, if you need a certain TNG character's head or whatever, they're almost always cheaper, which is great. Though I love this line for Malcolm McDowell's figure, my mate and I always pull him out and quote Easy A to Beverly Crusher, "This is public school. If I can keep the girls off the pole and the boys off the pipe, I get a bonus." Just magic.

 

On the note of customizing, given that the orbital suit that Kirk wears is the same as the one that Torres wears on Voyager in one episode, one could to stick a B'Elanna head on the suit and get a B'Elanna from Extreme Risk... and who doesn't want one of those?  :unsure: 



#4 Redshirt#7

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Posted 19 September 2014 - 04:16 AM

Glad I could give you a laugh (by the way, a small typo in my name :lol:). I'm glad someone agrees with me! I love the TNG Generation's figures, and as you say, great custom fodder. In addition to what you said, the TNG bodies make excellent Section 31 bodies with the pips/combadge removed, and overall the limbs are much easier to pop, not to mention Soran, the figure with the nondescript crazy head and blank body, useful for a multitude of people. For me it's pulling Garak out and quoting Dirty Harry.

 

I think Kirk's size maybe a little too big for BLT, I'll have to take a comparison picture. Either way, it would probably be the most horrifying use of a B'elanna head and a hilarious custom either way.

 

Anybody want any specific figure reviewed tonight? Double sized special with some TNG Generation's folk?



#5 Daysleeper

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Posted 19 September 2014 - 04:27 AM

That typo gave me a laugh, too. Looking forward to your next review.

#6 Loggy

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Posted 20 September 2014 - 09:27 AM

And that is probably how you shall be forever known as, uh... Redshirt. That is really quite fantastic! As always, we'll just say I was thinking 9 moves ahead and that was intentional... yep, just try to get a raise outta ya... yep... :D 

 

Have you done any of the S31 customs with the Generations figures, I'd like to see them if you have links/pics. I just find that interesting because I had my collection out this afternoon, and as my mate started quoting McDowell in Easy A with the Soran figure, and we started putting pipes all over a Borg figure, I looked to one of my figures and thought "darn, that would make a good Section 31 outfit... whose head would I use for Luther Sloan?"



#7 Redshirt#7

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Posted 22 September 2014 - 01:14 PM

Great, guess I'm left with that really cool nickname now... :D

 

Sure! Here was my first take on Sloan:

 

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(shameless self plug)

 

Now, here's the thing. I accidentally cut half the face off ( :o  indeed, I got a new sharp knife and it went horribly wrong), but, while I managed to kind of fix it, I'm going to make a new one. Improvements will include: A very glossy black paint to simulate the leather uniform, a modified Admiral Kirk head (thicker neck, less ageing involved hence less risk) instead of Paris. and a Geordi not Data body. I'll post him when he's done.

 

And a couple of reference pictures of him, basically why I chose the Generations bodies:

http://img4.wikia.no.../a/a2/Sloan.jpg

http://img3.wikia.no...nInQuarters.jpg

http://nocadlee.sfbl...8/s31-sloan.jpg



#8 Loggy

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Posted 23 September 2014 - 05:34 AM

That is really sweet, Redshirt. I can see the sunken, 'mystery man' cheekbones of William Sadler in that custom, too! I still can't remember which figure I thought would be a good base for the S31 uniforms, it might've been the TNG dress uniform Geordi or Worf in the textured black rescue gear, I'm not really sure, but it was one of them. I was watching the first season TNG episode Home Soil on Sunday afternoon an also noted that the double breasted coats that are worn by the terraformers are similar to the Generations prototypes... y'know, if they were a creamy-gray colour and the flap was buttoned.

 

640px-Scientists_learn_of_microbrain.jpg

 

Am I wrong in thinking that Bjorn Bensen (left) would be best portrayed by a repainted Dr Soong?  :lol:

 

Still, you'd have to be a pretty die hard fan of Home Soil to consider making those customs, but there might be someone who is particularly determined out there.



#9 Morgan

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Posted 22 January 2015 - 07:26 PM

Great figure, even if not completely articulated, but tons of bonus points for having a helmet, a detailed sculpt (which is more than I can say for the rest of the Generations lineup) and for being too cool to appear in the film in the first place.

 

I couldn't find this one on the shelves back in the day -- it fell into that four-figure grouping of Kirk, Chekov, and Scotty that were cleaned out and were subsequently going for $40 each.






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