Trek Toy Reviews Playmates ST XI Spock

Figure: Spock

Wave: Galaxy Series Wave 1
Body style: new styled Starfleet uniformed male body

Personally I love the 3 ¾” scale. This scale has immortalized countless action figures throughout time. Among the most famous lines that utilized this scale are G.I. Joe and Star Wars. Recently, other companies have tried to jump in on the action such as Hasbro’s Marvel Universe line and Mattel’s DC Infinite Heroes line. Star Trek though is by far not a “Johnny come lately” with regards to using this scale. Mego did a short lived line when the Motion Picture was released even going as far as releasing a replica bridge playset. When Galoob first started the TNG license they too went to the trusty 3 ¾” scale producing two waves and a few shuttlecraft playsets. Many of the Trek items in both of these lines fetch a pretty hefty price today on the secondary market. Its no wonder then that Playmates (who have never done the 1/18^th scale in their previous Trek lines) also chose to produce figures in this scale for the upcoming Trek movie.

The Galaxy Series, as Playmates has dubbed it, contains 10 figures from the upcoming movie that each contain a bridge piece that can be added to the separate bridge “playset.” From the back of the cardboard, it seems as if 18 figures will be needed to complete the bridge. In addition to that, 3 more pieces will be needed to complete the transporter “playset” which brings up to a grand total of 21 build-a-playset pieces. Hopefully this means that we’ll be seeing plenty more figures from the Galaxy series in the future.

The first figure I’m going to review is Spock. Being a Heroes fan and collector of the Mezco line, I have already seen Quinto made into plastic form. His figure from the Heroes line was decent but didn’t really capture the essence of Quinto as much as I would have liked. Playmates on the other hand has seemed to succeed where Mezco did not. Even at this small scale I can see Quinto’s likeness clearly. After looking through most of the figures on the rack at Toys R Us, I would say Spock’s likeness is the best by far.

The new packaging style is very unique in its design. It has a wide bottom to accommodate the bridge pieces but tapers off to a much narrower size towards the top. A huge Trek delta can be easily seen at the bottom right hand corner with the characters name, accessories, and bridge piece being labeled on the left hand side. I for one would have liked the packaging to be a bit more colorful being that most kids are attracted to such things (I too was lured by any figure from the early 90s that utilized neon colors….strangely they are still some of my favorite toys). It would have been cool if the delta pattern that is contained on the loop of the blister that is currently black would have instead been colored to match the characters division coloration. It might have added some much needed color but still would have retained the blackness of space feel by keeping the backboard the same. There really isn’t much in the way of customization for the packaging outside of a small slip of cardboard in the front with the character’s name on it and a sticker that designates the bridge piece on the front of the blister. There are two types of backboards, one that displays the bridge playset and one that displays the transporter playset. Outside of that he back of the backboard is identical on every figure. One of my biggest complaints about the way the figure is packaged is the use of twist ties over rubber bands. On a 3 ¾” scale figure, twist ties becomes too obvious and cumbersome. Most companies today either use a tighter inside blister or rubber bands to secure their figures. Not only are the twist ties unsightly on these figures but they are huge as well. Way too much knotting can be seen behind the figure and really detracts from the overall presentation. My final thought on the packaging is that the accessories are prominently displayed through the “window” so that the best parts are highlighted. Even though I think the packaging could be better, I overall like the design and feel.

Being that this is the first wave Playmates is doing, an all new sculpt for Spock was created. I haven’t bought and opened all the figures from this wave but it seems as if there is a standard male Starfleet body sculpt that is used. From the initial pictures that I saw online, I thought that the figures torso was too boxy for my tastes. Holding the figure in my hand, the overall look is not nearly as bad as I had previously thought, but is actually pretty good. Since obviously I haven’t seen the movie as of yet I can only assume that the uniforms are longer fitted t-shirts. Trying to portray in plastic form something that drapes straight down has always been a challenge. I though AA/DST did a great job with their initial TOS releases but for its purposes Playmates has done a decent job as well. The rest of the sculpt is pretty good. The arms match the shirt in that both are pretty smooth but convey some detail. The legs are really the most detailed part of the figure because they have the most detail. The boots are really sculpted nice and are really well done. Areas surrounding the points of articulation are a bit bulky. I’m not sure that’s how they are in the movie but it’s a possibility. On the other hand those areas could have been bulked up to accommodate the type of articulation used. For the most part I think Playmates has done a pretty good job on capturing the uniform. Like I said before, I was skeptical at first but I think in the end it turned out pretty nice.

The head/face for Spock is probably the best part of the figure. Strangely the head is connected to the neck on these figures much like DST’s current connection type. I find this strange because mostly every other action figure line uses a ball and socket joint between the head and the neck and has the neck connected to the torso of the figure. I guess its just the way Trek has been done in the past and is kept for this era of figures. The likeness itself is really good with very small details such as the ears and the lines in the hair. The most important part is that it captures Quinto really well.

The Spock figure has 14 points of articulation. Only three of those POAs (neck, and legs) only have one way motion. I was really worried that Playmates was going to go the cheapo route and do all the POAs with one way motion much like DC’s Infinite Heroes has done for the most part. I’m really glad they are utilizing the ball joint much like the Star Wars line does for the majority of its figures. I think it just gives the figure more range of motion that’s really needed in today’s action figures. It also disguises the cuts of the POA better than the traditional styles and it really works well at this scale. I do think the knee joint is cut just a smidge too low but I think it was done to retain the striping detail in the pants. My only other complaint is that I think the crotch is a bit too wide and a different cut should have been used. I think the reason why Playmates chose this style was to maximize the figure’s ability to sit in the chair that came with him. If this is indeed the case, then I can live with the decision.

The paint applications to this figure are not perfect, but is pretty good for the 3 ¾” scale. There are few parts that have a bit of overrun such as the hair but everything else seems to be pretty tight. The eyes are correct, the delta is near perfect and even the bootstraps have a bit of gold on them. I should also note that all of the figures I picked up today (4 in total) all looked good. To be completely honest, I didn’t see any of the figures out of the 3 cases that I looked at that I would pass up. The first 4 that I picked up for the ones that I did buy were all the ones that I would end up eventually buying. There are no paint washes that are applied to any part of the figure. My bottom line is this: Is this figure painted as nicely as say the DST 7” figures? Probably not. Is this figure painted just as well as other 3 ¾” lines? Yes if not better.

One can get easily spoiled with the level of detail present in the DST Trek line. The accessories with Spock are OK for this scale size but could have been slightly better. However they are a far cry from the old purple plastic phasers with plastic beam attached that Playmates was known for in some of its previous lines. The new phaser has a lot of detail but the paint job is a little sloppy and detracts from the overall look of the gun. The utility belt is a cool accessory that adds to the diversity of the figure. It sculpted communicator is painted a little better. It would have been cool if the communicator was removable from the belt (I’m sure it would have been easily lost though). Spock also comes with an extra hand that is giving the Vulcan salute. The attachment is almost identical to the AA TOS wave one hands. The figure also comes with a delta stand that has a clip on the back. The clip if left on can be worn on the shirt or on a pocket. The clip’s ability to be removed is ingenious because now you have one piece that can have dual functions to satisfy both the collectors and the kids. The final two pieces are the bridge pieces. Spock comes with some sort of station (science?) with a chair. The chair is really well done and has a lot of detail in it. The station is a little less impressive and has a sticker for all of the displays. I was very worried that the display would be made out of a cardboard slip so I’m extremely happy that Playmates went with the sticker option.

It’s unfair to judge these figures against larger scaled figures. I think that the detail, accessories, and paint applications might be able to stand up next to larger figures but they still aren’t going to be able to beat what can be done with say a 7” figure. Judging this figure next to other 1/18^th scaled figures, and I think the Spock figure really holds its own. Next to say Star Wars figures it’s a little under scaled but the detail, paint, and points of articulation are all on the same level. The sculptors only have so much to work with being that the costumes used for the movie consist of a t-shirt, pants and boots. Other lines like Star Wars have much more diversity of look and the sculptors can add so much more to the figure. Honestly looking at this Spock figure I ask myself what else would I have done to make this a better figure? My conclusion is that there isn’t a whole lot that I would add. Maybe a different cut for articulation here, maybe a little bit better representation of the form fitting uniform top, but outside of that there isn’t much. Overall I very much like this Spock figure and I really like the overall scale. Personally I think it matches up with the best of the 3 ¾” market right now.