Ok, I got mine today! And since I had a little time, I thought I’d go ahead and write out a review for you guys still waiting. Enjoy!
Trekking Into the Darkness: The Brash Captain, The Vulcan First Officer Review
Packaging: 3.5/4
The boxes are an identical basic black with the MasterWorks logo on front. They’re held closed by a magnet – very nice touch there – which actually gives it a leg up on Hot Toys’ boxes, since it’s completely, 100% collector friendly. Inside, you’ll see a nice foil-stamped Certificate of Authenticity and one of Wake’s wonderful prototype photos lying on the first foam layer. Take this off, and you’ll see the figure surrounded by high-quality foam. The accessories are housed in two slits in the foam on either side.
All in all, these are very nice – though it would’ve been nice if there was a slipcover with some of Wake’s photos on it. That’s really the only thing holding this back from a full score.
Sculpt: The Brash Captain, 2/4, The Vulcan First Officer 4/4
If you look at the Captain from the right angle, he bears a resemblance to Chris Pine, but turn him to a profile view, not so much. Now, this hasn’t changed from the prototype, but I still wish we would’ve seen a more extensive resculpt on this one like we saw on the First Officer. The Vulcan looks great from every angle, and you can really see Zach Quinto here. Great Job on that one!
Clothing: 3/4
The clothing is essentially identical on these, as well, so the score applies to both.
The overall theme here has to be that the quality of the materials and the execution of the sewing is completely top-notch, but there are some design choices that leave you scratching your head.
First of all, the outer shirt is of a jersey-like material that closely resembles – at a distance, anyway – the shirt materials from the movie. Yes, we knew there was no way to 100% replicate the custom fabric, and these do a great job. The insignia is a sticker – mine fell off at one point, and I had to put it back on, so keep that in mind. If they’re not located properly, well, you can move them! The rank bands look good, but on the Captain, they’re not accurate – the middle braid should be thinner to reflect the Captain’s rank. The big issue on the outer shirt, though, is the collar and subsequent areas that go under the arms; they’re way out of scale, and kindof bring down the whole outer shirt.
The inner shirt is a pretty standard black long-sleeve turtleneck. It’s well done, and looks pretty much identical to its movie counterparts. Sadly, though, it’s missing the charcoal insignia here. An easy fix, sure, but it would’ve been nice to be included.
When you put the outer shirt with the inner shirt though, because of the two different designs in the shoulder area, you see some weird bunching in the shoulders. Not sure how this could’ve been remedied, but it is noticeable.
Word to the wise – if you don’t plan on displaying these guys in the turtleneck, DON’T TAKE THE OUTER SHIRT OFF. It was a PAIN to get back on due to the tight tailoring.
The pants are good, if a little light, but lifting up the shirt reveals pockets and belt loops? Not accurate. Although they’ll be hidden from view, why add them if they’re not on the real thing? Seems like the added cost of these would’ve been better spent on the inner shirt insignia.
The boots are nice and fairly accurate, at least to the second movie. They are a hard plastic, which of course limits the articulation.
Articulation: 3.5/4
Lifting off the shirt reveals a pretty standard TrueType knockoff as you’d expect. The joints are tight, no problems here. The hands are obvious recasts, with the exception of Spock’s additional hand (more on that in accessories). The slightly lower score is mainly due to the hard plastic of the hands and hand plugs, which make them more of a pain than normal to change.
Accessories: The Brash Captain, 2/4, The Vulcan First Officer, 2.5/4
For both, accessories include the phaser (with holster), communicator (with holster), tricorder (with holster), utility belt, and stand. The Vulcan First Officer also comes with an additional greeting hand, which bumps his score.
The accessories are nicely sculpted, don’t get me wrong here, but it’s what’s NOT here that’s the problem. The tricorder and communicator are sculpted closed, which make them essentially useless besides sitting in the utility belt. You won’t see the Captain talking into a closed communicator, or the Vulcan scanning with a closed tricorder. Maybe it would’ve been hard at this scale to make them moveable, but in that case, give us a second open version. These are disappointing as a result.
The phaser’s stun-to-kill nozzle doesn’t move, and it’s sent to kill. That bugs me a little (these guys probably wouldn’t have their phasers set that way MOST of the time). In addition, the insides of the nozzles aren’t cut out. Not a deal-breaker, but not a “Wow” either.
The additional hand is nicely sculpted, but cast out of a really hard plastic that gave me bruises trying to attach to the wrist peg.
The stand is a blank Hot Toys style stand, just what I like, so no complaints there!
There was so much potential here, which I think makes it more disappointing. Honestly, if cost was an issue, I woud’ve rather had open tricorders and communicators and not the closed ones at all, and would’ve been much happier.
Paint: 3.5/4
Here’s where these guys really shine – the head paintups. Boy, these are really amazing. Right up there with Hot Toys’ finest. The hair on the Captain is especially a standout.
The only downside is that the hands don’t match the heads, or each other, in some cases, and that’s really a killer. The Vulcan’s hands are actually THREE different colors, none of which match the head – the greeting hand, the fist/grab hands, and the relaxed hands are all unique. Maybe it’s a nitpick, but at least the greeting hand should have matched.
Oh, and regarding the accessories – they’re painted to match the Playmates roleplaying toys, not the actual onscreen versions. So the communicator has the Earth in its circle instead of just blue, and the holster is silver, not black as onscreen. Something that could’ve easily been remedied, but not that big of a deal.
Final Scores: 3/4 on both
Despite all the issues, I really like these, and keeping in mind that they’re customs definitely boosts them up a notch. I like the costumes overall, the paint is excellent and the headsculpt on the Vulcan especially is excellent. But it’s the little mistakes that no Trekkie would make that bring them down. The messed up rank on the Captain. The pockets and beltloops. No undershirt insignia. Useless communicators and tricorders (especially that last one). that keeps me from giving it a higher score.
I am happy to have them and look forward to future releases (Please make an Uhura)!
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