Tuesday, December 30, 2008

For Comparison Purposes:

First of all, a tip of the hat and farewell, to KB Toys, which is going out of business. There hasn't been one of their stores in my area for several years, but I did get a lot of figures from there in its day. But, before they're done, I did get this from their website:
I don't do a lot of photos of carded toys, sorry.
An Art Asylum/Diamond Select Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Captain Benjamin Sisko figure. Five bucks, with postage, although I'm not sure if KB Toys still has him in stock during their clearance. Now, over at OAFE.net Artemis had a pretty good write-up on Sisko, so check that out: here, we're going to compare him, a 2006 figure (well, that explains the five dollar pricetag...) to the state of the art...in 1998.Well, at least you know what you're getting at this barber...

Playmates made tons of Star Trek figures during their run with the license in the 90's, but this was closer to the end. Best guess by this point, they had made at least three Sisko's, but this one from their "Warp Factor 2" line was an incremental step up in scale, sculpting, and accessory. However, there was a trade-off in articulation: PM Sisko looks good on his chair, and that's about it. The neck is a cut joint, but there aren't joints for even the wrists.
People are taller now than they were 500 years ago, so in the 24th century is Sisko like eight feet tall?

"For comparison purposes" might become a semi-regular feature around here: there's some characters, like Batman or Spider-Man, who've had figure after figure through the years; but there are others who may only get one every decade or so, if they're lucky. And if a toy line is successful enough to get well down the line of ancillary characters. Or, if the popularity of a license wanes and then waxes again. By comparing the same character's figures from different times (and ofttimes, different companies), you can see how action figures have changed over the years. Some other time, we'll take a look at some Iron Fist figures that should help this point...

It's the Defiant: we don't need replicators, or in-scale chairs!

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