To Baldly Go...
Written: Apr 12 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Good sculpting
Fairly good articulation
Cons: Iffy paint applications
Few accessories
The Bottom Line: Probably the best Picard action figure out there.
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| poeghostal's Full Review: Art Asylum Star Trek Nemesis Figure Without Base: ... |
It has become an axiom among Trekkies that the even-numbered films are good, and the odd-numbered ones, well... they suck. This theory was destroyed by "Star Trek: Nemesis," which was only slightly better than the previous film, "Insurrection." While "Nemesis" unquestionably sucked (you know it has to be a bad film when -- spoilers here -- the announcement of the death of a character is greeted with laughs...from an opening-night audience of Trek devotees, no less). But while the film itself was disappointing, "Nemesis" did afford toy company Art Asylum to create a few decent action figures based on the Next Generation crew.
I became a Star Trek fan at the tender age of 10, watching the Next Generation in its rather terrible first season. My father had been a big fan of the original series, so the generational analogy was fitting. It's difficult to estimate the effect ST:TNG had on my adolescent development. I read literally dozens of TNG novels, and Peter David swiftly became one of my favorite authors (as all males tend to latch on to a pulp author in their youth. Captain Jean-Luc Picard was one of my childhood mentors - for better or for worse. Between his sanctimonious lecturing and that of Optimus Prime and He-Man, it's no wonder I didn't have my first real drink until four or five days before I turned 21. Picard was a paragon of virtue, a man who always did the right thing and exuded repressed, European reserve. Captain Kirk ran around laying miles of galactic pipe and shooting whoever tried to stop him.
But I'm still quite fond of old Jean-Luc, so it was with pleasure that I read Art Asylum, makers of such fine action figures as the original Space Ghost: Coast to Coast figure and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Digger & Co., who have already released figures based on the current Enterprise series and have plans to release Kirk, Spock and friends from the original show, have given Picard, Data, and two villains (Shinzon and Viceroy) the royal treatment they so richly deserve.
Star Trek had a long and lucrative career at Playmates Toys throughout the '90s, but it was always a collector's line, and the production costs of so many figures soon outweighed the profits. Playmates dropped the line, and AA picked it up. Digger has since taken a more reasonable approach: releasing small numbers of figures and characters directly to the collector's market, rather than trying to tempt children in any way. I'm actually somewhat disappointed that we only get Picard and Data in the Nemesis line; if the Enterprise and original series lines are a success, perhaps we may get more TNG figures.
I have my doubts that the Enterprise line will ever be that popular - the show would have to be first. But if the original series figures are anything like these figures, Trekkers are in for a treat.
The Nemesis figures are easily the most detailed and accurate Star Trek figures to date. This is McFarlane-level sculpting, from the folds in the jacket to the seams in the shoulders and the maximum setting on the phaser. But what's most amazing is the head sculpt. In the past, I've been a critic of Gentle Giant Studios' RealScan technology, which laser-scans an actor's head, then produces a mold based on it. Many of the scans used on JAKKS' wrestling figures are terrible, and in my review of Gimli I made much of how Phil Martinez's head sculpt was superior to any of the RealScanned LotR figures. But the problem may be one of scale. At 6", the details captured by RealScan made simply be too fine to come out. That's why Martinez's sculpts look so good - he exaggerates the features, much like an actor on a stage must make large facial expressions so as to be visible to the people in the nosebleed seats.
But it appears that the magic number is 7". Picard has, quite simply, the best head sculpt I have ever seen. It's amazingly accurate, right down to Patrick Stewart's lips, which are beginning to curve inward at the hoary old age of 62 (and by the way, it turns out Jean-Luc is still a young'un' compared to Kirk; Shatner, believe it or not, is nine years older than Stewart). Of course, it must have helped that Stewart was apparently the best scan Gentle Giant has ever taken.
If anything, the head's a little too thin, but I think that's more an effect of the camera and perspective of the picture on the left, and my own inadequate photography on the right. Trust me, it's a great head sculpt. My only complaints are that the eyebrows are a bit dark, and my particular Picard had a spot of paint chipped away on his head (but it's okay - I'll just think of it as a liver spot).
The rest of the sculpt, as mentioned above, is accurate, but it also suffers from the same kind of quality control issues that many McFarlane figures do. It doesn't quite look as slick as it should; it has that touch of "garage kit" that McFarlane has never been able to shake. Also, Picard himself seems a bit thin, but perhaps Stewart's just getting older (okay, so how many old man references does that make...?). The jacket, by the way, is made from a more pliable, rubbery material than the rest of the figure.
The articulation is pretty good. The ball-jointed neck is key, allowing Picard to look down sternly at all my figures when their morals aren't quite up to snuff. Ball-jointed shoulders are always a plus. I wish he'd had ball-jointed hips, but sometimes you've got to make the trade-off for sculpt over articulation. Finally, I'm not much of a fan of the 7" scale (I prefer 6"), but given the quality of the head sculpt, I'll forgive them. I'm looking forward to having my Picard stand next to Captain Kirk sometime in the near future.
Of course, Jean-Luc's only accessory is the phaser, which is a bit of a disappointment. He can't quite hold it correctly, either; his thumb should be over the button, but he has a rather generic pistol-grip instead.
But while I seem to have spent a lot of time on faults, I really do like the figure. It's an excellent sculpt of Stewart and has enough articulation to warrant being called an "action figure."
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): $8
Type of Toy: Action Figure
Age Range of Child: 6 to 8 Years
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Epinions.com ID:
poeghostal
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Location: The Land of Wind and Ghosts
Reviews written: 25
Trusted by: 4 members
About Me:
Toy reviews, writing, science fiction and fantasy, action figures.
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