Review: Galaxy Collection 3 3/4 Star Trek McCoy/Nero/Scotty

As the 2009 Star Trek toys continue to molder on clearance shelves, we continue to pick up a couple here and there.  These ones were VERY cheap, and Erin bought them mostly to have more little chairs.  Which is good, because the figures themselves are worth... very very little.

Like the rest of the 2009 Trek line, these are from Playmates.  We've heard that this line sold so badly, that stores have canceled their orders for the second wave, and so there are characters we'll never see.  That at least explains why the selection of who is in what costume seems so random (elaborated on here.)

Previously reviewed:
3 3/4” Spock/Original Spock
6” Uhura
12” McCoy
3 3/4" Bridge Playset
12” Uhura (Not Playmates Line)

I would feel bad that Playmates isn't getting to release their second wave, and feel for the people who were collecting pieces of the playsets (Like the Bridge reviewed here), and now will probably never have them all.  I would feel bad, except that these toys are terrible.

Today I'm touching on three, Cadet McCoy (seen at left), Scotty, and Nero (villain of the movie, in case you missed it.)  What am I saying?  If you missed last year's Star Trek flick, go see it.  Come back later, when you don't have something so important to do.

Appearance and Construction:

Cadet McCoy: 5/10
Nero: 4/10
Scotty: 4/10

I don't expect too much from a 3 3/4 line, I really don't.  But the production errors here are so staggering, I'm going to hit them here, and AGAIN in Play and Display.  

McCoy fares the best.  His head looks, at a glance, like Karl Urban pretending to be younger than he is.  Which is just about right.  His costume lines are clean, and the Cadet Uniform gives some interest to the figure.  There's a little paint slop around the shoes and the hairline, but nothing egregious. 

He's really getting slammed for his ugly elbows, and some molding errors.  The elbows look ridiculous.  The joints are too big for his spindly arms, and the plastic is all warped around the edges.  Also his head is slightly cockeyed.  

Nero has the costume with the most interest, and except for a weird (melted?) mark on his right shoulder, the costume molding is well done.  His “tattoos” are clean and identifiable.  I really thought I was going to be giving Nero the highest score. 

Then I looked again: It's hard to see in this picture, but his right foot/ankle is completely warped.  Also the tattoos distracted from the fact that his ears are hardly Romulan at all, and the chubbiness in the head sculpt, and slenderness in the waist, makes him look like a child.

Scotty is just sad.  Barely looks anything like Simon Pegg, the simplicity of the costume doesn't work in his favor, and, look again, one of his legs is SHORTER than the other!  Like McCoy, his head is crooked, too.

They also each lose a point for feeling flimsy.  Their arms and legs are practically bendy.

Packaging and Accessories:

Cadet McCoy: +2
Nero: +1
Scotty: +1

The packaging is fine.  Nothing special, except you can see just how cheap these had to get before we picked them up.

But I have to give them props for the sheer number of accessories each came with.  Here's a closer look at the lists:

The stands work, although I could do without the optional shirt-clip mode for the Starfleet emblems.  Even if you used it, you still have the post sticking out of it. 

The phasers fit fine in the guys' hands, and into their belts.

I am amused that McCoy's phaser is set to stun, Scotty's to kill.  McCoy gets the extra point for his two additional accessories, a datapad (with slightly askew sticker), and hypospray.  Each fits firmly into his hands.

The little communicator in each belt is sculpted in, not a separate piece.  The belts themselves are a bit fiddly, each made of a single piece of slightly stretchy plastic, they go on easily enough, but don't stay in one place for long.

Nero comes with a less silly stand, and two weapons, which look fine, although they're made out of very flexible plastic.  I guess that means they're hard to break, but the bendy trident-thing looks a little silly. 

In general, the paint and molding of all these small pieces is adequate, but not great.

On the other hand, in addition to all that, the Starfleet guys each came with a console and console chair, while Nero came with a transporter piece.  The idea with these is to collect enough to put together the larger playset, but they all work fine as individual diorama pieces.  

I really wish the chairs spun.  That would have been worth an extra point.

Play and Display:

Cadet McCoy: -2
Nero: -1
Scotty: -3

These three nominally have almost the same articulation: cut neck, wrists and waist, ball shoulders, hinge/pin elbows and knees, T-hips.  Nero and Scotty also have hinge-pin ankles which McCoy lacks.  I'm deducting a point for every joint that simply doesn't work.  Also none of them have particularly decent balance.

With McCoy it's those darn elbows; they don't just look silly, they almost don't function at all.  The joints feel melted.

Nero, impressively, is mostly intact.  His worst joints are his ankles, but they do work a little, so just half a point eduction for each.  Not to mention that his twisted foot means he can barely stand alone, and often doesn't look good standing on his stand.

Scotty... Oh dear.  One elbow, one wrist, one ankle: no movement.  His knees are both bad too, but loosened up with some work, but it still nearly cost him another point.  I think these joints being installed badly is part of why his feet are off, too.

The saddest part here is that this level of articulation was ambitious for this scale, the hinge/pin knees and elbows give you almost the range of a ball joint when they work.  I just think the materials they used couldn't sustain the design.

Price Tag and Final Analysis:

Cadet McCoy: 5/10
Nero: 4/10
Scotty: 2/10

Now at the price point Erin picked these up for, 1.99 at a comic store, we were basically purchasing them for the accessories.  And I like having more tiny chairs and consoles.  Also bear in mind that it's possible that these three are particularly bad in the joints because this shipment was left sitting somewhere too hot, or something like that.  That doesn't excuse them, but I thought it should be mentioned.

In the end, though, their aesthetic at this scale is just not adequate, and it shows in their sales. 

These are currently on clearance at basically every Toys'R'Us for 5 dollars or less.  This is still more expensive than we bought them for... so far. 

But given time, they could get even cheaper, and then maybe you too will find a use for tiny chairs. 

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