Deanna Troi

Oh man, the Playmates 1:6 scale Star Trek figures. I wish I had been into 1:6 scale when they originally made these. Depending on when in the production line you got them, they could be pretty good or ridiculously crap. (I remember rumors of a 1:6 scale Mugato which was just a giant plush figure with no internal plastic to let it hold a pose.)

What's even better, is that the 1:6 series were based on themes rather than series. So Troi here is from the "Women of Star Trek" wave. The back of the box doesn't talk about Troi at all, just about the history of the Star Trek franchise. So weird.

The figure itself is pretty impressive for something I assume cost $20 when it originally was released. The uniform is pretty amazing for a cheap 1:6 scale figure, certainly much better than the one on the Dragon figure of Data I looked at earlier this week.

The articulation is pretty basic, but serviceable. Ball shoulders, hips and waist; Knee and elbow joints; Cut wrist and neck. The neck joint is made moot by the hair though.

Sculpting is good, with a decent likeness and sculpted hair (which, as I said, prevents the neck joint from doing anything). Her boots are sculpted onto her legs, but I don't care. It's not like I'm going to dress this up in anything other than this uniform. For a basic 1:6 scale figure this is great. I really want more like this. But for that I'd either have to scour e-bay or have a time machine to take me to 10 years ago.

Oh, and here's a look at the difference between Dragon's Star Trek accessories and Playmate's, keep in mind these were both made for 1:6 scale Star Trek figures.

AMP Episode 84: Mario Doesn't Know Anything About Calculus

Episode 84 of the Articulated Monster Podcast is up. The other James hosted, we talked about toys, and Mario proved he doesn't know jack about calculus.

Data

So Dragon made some Star Trek The Next Generation figures a while back. For $35, they look pretty good, although these days you'd be lucky to find them for that much. And for $60 the likenesses look horrible.

Except for Data, so I picked him up for about $30. Data's pretty simple to get down, a blank expression, and if you make him less detailed, it works for a character that isn't supposed to look quite human. Unfortunately as a 1:6 scale figure this thing kinda sucks.

Let's start with the accessories. The holsters for the tricorder and phaser, as well as the comm badge, all are meant to be placed on the uniform using adhesive backing. Basically these are stickers. At this scale I don't mind if you sew them on, but nope, you better hope the adhesive is strong enough and won't wear away. And holy crap is it difficult to get the sticker back off the tiny comm badge. I dropped it and thought I lost it a couple dozen times.

Also, what's with the horrific 1:6 scale version of Data's pet cat Spot?

Onwards! The uniform is ill fitting, and if you raise his arms it causes the mid-drift to be exposed because this  isn't a poorly fitting 1:6 scale jumpsuit, but a poorly fitting shirt and pants.

The articulation is pretty good, with plenty of joints, but the figure seems predisposed to this weird slumped over pose. And the plastic feels pretty flimsy. I'm afraid its going to snap on me.

Overall, not a bad 1:6 scale Data figure for cheap, but you better be willing to live with the downsides.

Skylanders Saturday: Grilla Drilla

Why did I buy that toy/skylander?

He's a Gorilla with a drill body. In the game he burrows underground and punches people. What more do you want?

Articulated Monster Episode 83: Why would we buy toys?

Are you subscribed to the Articulated Monster Podcast on iTunes? No? I don't blame you! But here's episode 83!



We talk about how we didn't buy toys on Black Friday! Timely!

Family Guy K'Nex and Mickey hulk

Saw these at Toys R Us recently. Can we just agree that these look grotesque?

Okay, the Meg/Brian figures look decent, but the rest look horrifying.

Meanwhile, this is a thing of beauty.

They couldn't just produce a green Mickey Mouse, they had to use a regular plush doll with new hands/feet and give it a green body stocking. 

Ace

I figure December is a good month to start looking at toys I never got around to opening this year. Like Ace, which was a comiccon exclusive, so I've had this toy since... July?

That sounds about right.

I gotta say, the updates in articulation on their 5 inch figures makes me hate that they went to a 3.75" scale for the regular figure line. But here in the classics we get ball jointed shoulders, Bicep swivel, cut wrists and interchangeable arms so you can do jacketed figure or not. (Sadly the extra arms have no wrist articulation) The legs even get ball and socket thighs with a large range of movement and a swivel mid-thigh joint. But frustratingly, this line never fives figures an ankle joint so the figure is difficult to balance some times.
The accessories are pretty right on for the episodes the figure is referencing, complete with every weapon she uses in the episodes: Nitro-9 explosives,rocket  launcher and baseball bat infused with ancient Time Lord powers so she can kill a Dalek with it. She even gets her over sized rucksack. The only other thing
I can think of her having is either a giant boombox or racist 60's sign for her to look at with disgust.
As for the jacket, they do an amazing paint job.