Lights, Camera, ACTION FIGURES!

Y'know what... thank god Playmates came along to drain my wallet now Eaglemoss has disappeared. I mean, what other Star Trek stuff would I have ended up buying? I dread to think.

The first wave of figures includes Saru and Burnham as seen in season one of Discovery as well as Picard, Riker and Data as seen from season three of TNG. Rounding out the eight arrivals we have a trio from The Wrath of Khan. There's Khan himself and, as we'll dive into here, Admiral Kirk and Captain Spock.

Now, while the TNG characters come in suitably retro '90's packaging, Kirk and Spock arrive in new styled boxes bearing the visage of each as well as the Star Trek Universe logo.

The boxes are nice to look at and well presented with each bearing a side tab to indicate who is in the box plus the usual blurb on the back insisting you purchase the other options available.

But these are never going to stay in the packaging in my house so don't expect this to be a hands off review in any respect. Let's take a look at Admiral James T Kirk for starters.

As with the TOS phaser, this is not going to give you Diamond Select levels of accuracy. For one the scale is significantly smaller but this in no way detracts from what is actually a decent reproduction of Kirk in his monster maroon uniform. 

Packaged up with a phaser, 23rd Century PADD and tricorder, Kirk is certainly ready for an away mission. The accessories themselves are just grey, unpainted moulded plastic although they do have a good level of detail so that is a positive.

The figure itself is really what we're here for. With 14 points of articulation there's not a lot you can't get him to pose for - that is if you can manage to keep the accessories from falling out of his hands.

The uniform is very well presented, including the rank pins on shoulder and sleeve as well as the service length pips and bars. There's the gold admiral trim along the front flap, the gold Com badge and belt buckle too for good measure. On the back we have the flap catch attached but missing the black centre of the xxxx. Again there's some minor painting issues around the black of the belt where it's been marked in over the base maroon colour. UPDATE: Thanks to the keen eyes of Marcelo Carvahlo though I am pointed towards one inconsistency - the flap should not extend around from above the delta - only from the centre line of the collar. WHOOPS Playmates!!!

Ok, some of the painting on these small details isn't exhibition level but let's just bear in mind that these are toys at their heart and are designed more of rough and tumble play than standing on display in a vacuum sealed case.

Everything is very posable - feet, hands, elbows and even the head can be moved fairly flexibly. Kirk's eyes do give me the creeps though as he's permanently giving a side stare. What I have noticed as well is that the physical features here are a lot less shiny and also much more in proportion to the bodies. One of the lasting memories I have of the original Playmates line is the oversized hands (bear with me on that one when we come to Spock) and larger than necessary heads. 

Likelihood was that they were larger to add in the needed refinements to distinguish Neelix from Chekov (extreme example) facially. Technology has certainly moved on with the figures now scaled more to their respective sizes so Picard for instance isn't as tall as Riker.

But back to Kirk before I digress once again. He also comes with a display stand which is a huge let down. The older stands had at least some detail and looked the part. This one is, in keeping with the accessories, just a moulded piece of grey plastic. However, if you're not using Kirk to battle Khan you'll want him attached to it or he'll be constantly falling over.

Then there's Spock. This is, unbelievably, the first Spock I've ever had as a figure and he infuriates me.

That's not logical I'm sure you'll be saying but for what reason did he have to be giving the Vulcan salute permanently?

Now I think this is a great reproduction and in the scale it's a marvellous recreation of Leonard Nimoy's features but that hand bugs me. The bodies (thanks again to Marcelo for pulling me up on this one) are also slightly different. Spock noticeably thinner while Kirk is more season three TOS than early season one!

Again there's some colour bleed where the base red is still visible on the rank and Starfleet emblem but I really do think they're as near as dammit when it comes to making this recognisably Spock. The eyebrows, the haircut and even the lines of the face are spot on. Thank goodness too that Playmates chose to go with a more focused gaze on the Vulcan than his superior.

Given that one hand is fixed into the Vulcan salute (which looks damn awkward when positioned), this means that only his left is available for accessory duty. With Spock there's a handheld scanning device and a clunky The Motion Picture/The Wrath of Khan tricorder but that's not the big draw.

In keeping with the theme of the figure Spock forgoes a phaser and receives the radiation suit gloves as seen towards the end of the second Star Trek movie as he valiantly tries to repair the Enterprise. 

Partially split towards the cuffs, the gloves do slide particularly well onto the figures hands and does, thankfully, cover that salute. One problem. However I look at it I'm thinking they're just a little too big, making Spock look like he's wearing two novelty foam hands. Worse, as one of my friends noted, he looks like he borrowed them from Sonic the Hedgehog.

It does force you to end up placing one of his hands behind his back if you're not a fan but it does also exude a certain Spock-ishness once you do. For note, the arm joints do seem to be a lot stiffer than the leg ones. When I was posing both of these the legs tended to try and head off in their own directions from hip, knee and ankle while it felt like trying to prize a Ferengi off latinum to move the elbows.

Ok, so it covers the hand and is a nice nod to the movie. It's also different because these are a lot softer plastic and  (shocker) in white with sliver highlights so they're fairly accurate to the movie. All you need now is a piece of plastic and you can recreate one of Trek's greatest scenes in miniature.

Reflecting on the more chunky 90's editions, these new Playmates figures are fair better proportioned and much more malleable than ever before. I'm not totally convinced if it's been 100% successful given the smaller heads but overall it looks to be an improvement and I'm keen to see how the line progresses. Surely the DS9 figures will be in the later uniforms? Will we get numerous Kirk variants? What about Enterprise? So many things to come as long as these first releases are a success... how could they not be? 

More Playmates reviews to come soon!

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Unphased with Playmates

They are now officially back with figures, starships and yes, roleplay accessories!

Playmates return to the Star Trek franchise has landed well and you never knew how much you missed them until new items dropped onto the market.

Alongside an initial eight figures and the classic TOS USS Enterprise is their Type 2 phaser also from the Kirk and Spock era.

Let’s make one thing straight. If you’re expecting Diamond Select level detail and features you will be disappointed. First and foremost this is essentially a toy. There’s no detachable Type 1 phaser on the top, the barrel doesn’t rotate for different beam intensity nor do the dials and grill on the Type 1 work. Fact: this is a robust item designed for kids, bought by adults. 

The packaging is absolutely on point and in keeping with the 90s version with the addition of the current Star Trek Universe logo. There’s a little hole to give a demo click of the trigger and the usual nice, glossy photos of the phaser too. Wisely there’s actually very little to the box with only a plastic insert tray for the product and an instructions pamphlet contained within.

Size-wise it’s near enough spot on with the classic grey/black colour combo that fans will be more than familiar with. In the show there were several different colour variants glimpsed but this remains probably the most recognisable. It’s lighter than the Diamond Select version too plus that always felt more of a display item than a useable toy if you will. That’s something Playmates have more than taken into consideration.

In terms of surface detail, each important element is physically reproduced where it should be if not functionally. Atop the clip-in Type 1 there are the setting and intensity dials as well as the silver grid. To the front of the phaser is the grey nozzle emitter which does light up dependent on the firing effect you choose. Playmates have also managed to distinguish grille features and line detail around the phaser with wonderful precision if albeit simplified for the toy market. Note for example the grilles to the rear are recessed versus the DS version’s which were raised. Again, there were several variants of the gun through the show at a time when consistency and accuracy in the franchise were not a high priority. 

Playmates have added in the gold ejection button for the Type 1 just behind the smaller unit and to the rear of the Type 2 we have the adjustable setting dial. Now this - apart from the trigger - is the only piece of functionality on the product. On the opposite side is the power switch and in this edition it offers Demo, Off and On.

Offering up three setting of Stun, Full and Overload, each is accompanied by its own light (dial and nozzle) and sound effect. Certainly my daughter got some good use out of the batteries running around stunning the cats but for fans of absolute 100% authentic detail it will be a let down.

I quite like it. The phaser is a solid item and perfect for cosplay with a cost that won’t make you sweat if it does get damaged. My only grumble is the horrible ‘other’ side that is riddled with reset screw holes and ruins the whole effect. Could these have been hidden? Probably and one would expect there to be some innovative fans out there who will cover them up to preserve full effect of the phaser. 

It's a good reproduction and although I can't compare it to the 1990's edition, I'm still pretty happy with the result given the cost. What I am now hoping is that the TNG Type 2 will not be as chunky a beast as previous and be more aligned to its TV version - but yes, I'll be getting it anyway.

More Playmates reviews on the way!

Lower Decks: The Badgey Directive

Eastside Games have now offered up the Lower Decks mobile game and I've been hacking away at it for a couple of weeks.

Star Trek mobile games are nothing new but in the big landscape of the franchise many have fallen by the wayside leaving just two that dominate the handheld realm; Timelines and Fleet Command. 

The second of those has had some serious heavyweight marketing too with the likes of Sonequa Martin-Green, Rainn Wilson, Brent Spiner, LeVar Burton and Jonathan Frakes all appearing in its adverts. Both this and Timelines have run for a number of years unchallenged. While I've stepped away from mobile gaming as a whole in the last 18 months after what seemed like a religious conviction to play Timelines, I thought I might give this one a go. It couldn't hurt...!

The basic premise is that there are a series of holodeck simulations running and you just need to collect resources be it latinum,  dilithium and credits. Each of these simulations can then be upgraded, more crew can be assigned and key characters from the Lower Decks series can be used to automate the simulation. These in turn produce more items at a faster rate without you having to sit there and collect resources every 30 seconds (or longer).

Simulations in the game include the Shuttle Bay, Main Engineering, the Klingon Rite of Ascension, Kaminar, Chateau Picard and two of the environments from the Genesis Planet. Just from those there is a broad cross-section of the material used in the game and it looks great. The interface is simple with a slide up-or-down to view each of the simulation locations and clear buttons to press to collect items or upgrade. What more could you want when you've got some time to kill?

But there's also a whole ton of wrong in there too. For one thing this is one of the most repetitive Star Trek games out there. Ok, after a fair few years I finally departed from Timelines because it had just become too samey. The character options were becoming tenuous and my interest waned and died. It had the occasional facelift but there wasn't much new and no real reason to invest in the game to level up. The same is true here but after a lot shorter play time.

With Fleet Command the upgrades take an eternity but there is a lot to do and build plus there's the online aspect out battling on your ships. The Badgey Directive has absolutely none of this. Yes, you can upgrade the simulations but graphically there's not a lot that changes - a shuttle changes to a better model or the Klingons change from TNG to TOS versions - but that's it. At the core you still have to collect the resources to complete level goals and step up to the next chapter. 

And repeat.

At the moment for example I've got to a point where I'm working at getting 800 crew working at Chateau Picard. It requires a lot of funds - a vast amount of funds and an even longer amount of time to collect the required amount. I've automated everything so all I do is drop on to collect the Timed Crate reward and that's about it. If I get enough resources I might upgrade a character or simulation but that's only if and when I need to in line with the game goals.

Goals (which appear at the top of the game screen), might be to open up a new simulation, reach a certain number of crew overall or in one of the settings, it could just be to collect an amount of dilithium. In turn these provide access to chests and valuable items but also count toward the number of objectives needed to complete that specific chapter.

One of the side points to this mobile game is the regular events which tend to have some sort of Star Trek episodic theme to them but again, it's a variation on a very familiar theme. Indeed, that initial one or two simulation set up to get automated can be a right pain in the arse  as everything in the events is reset from the start. You can spend ten minutes just punching the collect button on the Shuttle Bay to be able to open up a second deck and then even longer to get characters to run them.

The frustrating thing is the time factor. There's a lot of doing nothing unless you pay for some upgrades, there's a lot of time spent watching adverts to get fund bonuses or dilithium bonuses and there's not much time actually playing the game. It seems to be one of those all or nothing play types where you have to invest a stupid amount of your life to get going and then the payoff is less than, ironically, rewarding.

The Badgey Directive looks nice and opening up the new locations on the holodecks is nifty. As I've just levelled up to Chapter 12 there's still a Risa, Q's Courtroom and Vulcan to unlock plus many of the 40 plus characters who can each help power those situations. Of the crew, there's the main four characters of Mariner, Boimler, Tendi and Rutherford plus the senior staff of the USS Cerritos and various faces that have appeared through the first two seasons. Some you'll remember and others may take a while to recognise.

The game does include cut scenes with some form of story that links into the overall chapter title. Problem is that these are very quickly skippable and have absolutely zero bearing on anything that happens on the screen because each round/chapter is a rehack of the previous. Some of the levels are swapped in and out so in Chapter 12 there's no Cardassian Interrogation Room or Tropical Genesis Planet but apart from that there's no alteration to the basics of the gameplay because each simulation operates on the same principles - collect, automate, increase crew and upgrade.

The expansion opportunities too seem somewhat limited with only new environments and new characters being the big draw here. I'd struggle to suggest how else Eastside Games can stretch the concept. Already they're managed to link in Fair Haven and The Best of Both Worlds with the mini-events which has seen players collect everything from Borg Babies to Shamrocks.

Would I recommend this? Probably not unless you have a lot of time to waste and are prepared to wait a lifetime for any form of decent reward. It looks nice on the box with all of its little animations and things going on in the background but I just can't see this being a game with a great deal of shelf life on the mobile games stores - it doesn't keep your interest for long enough. 

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Picard: Third Try at the Greatest Adventure?

The third season of Picard might only be due in February but already the second trailer has the pulse racing.

Featuring, unsurprisingly, the whole of the TNG crew, the last season of Jean-Luc's story is set to be the biggest the show has produced and maybe even the biggest risk in the franchise's history.

I say that with just as much trepidation because the trailer throws all in perhaps with the exception of that kitchen sink cliche. 

TNG has been owed, some would say, a decent send off since the disappointment of Nemesis and the subsequent "final" movie that never happened. There was franchise lethargy back in the early 2000's and we wont retread those board here but this could be the closure that fans of the now 35 year old series may actually deserve.

Posing not one but three nemeses in its last run, Picard apparently has the crew reassembled to go hunting for Beverly Crusher and her ship but ending up in all sorts of trouble at the hands of incoming main baddie Vadic played by Amanda Plummer.

Perhaps more well known for her appearance in Pulp Fiction, Plummer is also linked to the franchise through her legend of a father Christopher who raised hell in 1991's The Undiscovered Country as renegade Klingon General Chang.

Alongside her there will be a return for Daniel Davis' Moriarty previously seen in Elementary, Dear Data and Ship in a Bottle. His character has seen further life in the expansive universe of the Star Trek novels but this marks his first onscreen appearance since 1993. As yet, his involvement in the season is unknown.

Many fans were also wondering how Brent Spiner would be able to return to the show and be alongside his fellow TNG crewmates for, as we have been teased, at least one scene. Featuring in both seasons as Data and also two family members of the Soong dynasty, that question has now been answered - Lore.

Looking significantly different to his last appearance in Descent, Part 2 from 1993, the new question is how did he come to be reassembled given the verbal reference in that episode and also in Picard's first season?

Alongside her father, Geordi we have a new La Forge in Starfleet with his daughter at the helm of possibly the Titan-A or... could it be the other ship we spot in the trailer?

Fans of Star Trek Online will have no doubt rejoiced at the confirmation that the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-F is an Odyssey Class with its first ever appearance in live action coming this season. STO has made a mark in the show already with the provision of ships from the game in the season two Starfleet armada including the Gagarin and Venture Classes yet this is the step that fans have been screaming for. We already had (via the Picard prequel graphic novel) known that the Odyssey Class existed with the USS Verity so it was only a matter of time.

News has it too that viewers will learn the fate of the Enterprise-E. If you think about it, that starship had a maximum life of 25 years which is pretty good for any craft with the name when you review its history!

The trailer itself looks near-cinematic with its battle sequences, enormous enemy vessels and a true feel of one last mission. Raffi and Seven are also back, being the only members of the original Picard ensemble to have made it through the previous two seasons fairly unscathed. Note that Seven finally has a Starfleet rank of commander, something that was teased heavily towards the back end of season two.

Yet even with the news, the trailer and the overall excitement for what will concretely be the final final season of Picard and the last time the TNG crew assembles, the show still has a mountain to climb.

For entertainment value it's been great and nostalgic if nothing more. Season one provided much promise with the return of Data and the closure of his narrative in a more suitable way. Indeed, that final scene with Picard was truly one of the show's greatest events. Season two likewise seemed to have gone big with the inclusion of both Guinan and Q, the latter receiving one heck of a final scene that eclipsed the Data version from the year before.

When watched on a binge viewing, the 20 episodes are a good run but there are so many timing issues, plot holes, pointless directions and a narrative in both seasons that doesn't hang together. There's either too much going on that not everyone gets to play a suitable part or there's filler that doesn't add a thing to the story. Season three has to iron these points out and provide a stable, cohesive story that will satisfy fans and ensure that this send-off is remembered for all the right reasons.

I openly admit I enjoyed both batches of Picard. Initially it was fortunate to be up against Discovery and quite easily trounced it for quality but both Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds have upped the expectation of fans in this Kurtzman era. Yes, it started well with seasons one and two of Discovery but I for one feel that the show has lost its way and the trailer for the fifth season doesn't look like it's trying anything new. Ok, season four was affected by Covid and they did what they could but the move to the 32nd Century hasn't been quite the success I would have hoped nor does it have the heart of those 90's iterations.

Picard's final journey looks to have ticked a lot of fan requirements but to do that and manage a coherent narrative will prove its worth. Can all of these elements - the TNG cast, a new villain, Lore and Moriarty (plus whatever else we don't yet know) work in a ten episode arc? Viewers won't just want to see those aforementioned boxes ticked but will want Star Trek to deliver a worthy story for one of its most beloved characters after a very uneven two series.

We can but remain hopeful and the signs do seem to point in a more positive direction yet we'll only really know how it works when the show returns on February 16th.

What are your hopes for season three? What DON'T you want to see?

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