Review: Warp Collection Uhura (6")
Posted by Lindsay
So I haven't seen this toy anywhere for months, and suddenly she turns up at Toys'R'Us. I don't currently collect much in the 6” range, but all the Trek stuff is getting cheap, and at times I have a weakness for sci-fi gals.
This Uhura, of course is from the 2009 Trek Movie, and is produced by Playmates. Playmates also released figures in 3 3/4 and 12 inch scales. The “Cadet” part of the product description indicates the red padded uniform the characters wore at the Academy before upgrading to fancy ship-sweaters. Why some characters are released only in “Cadet” outfits and some are not is beyond me. (For the curious, McCoy is a Cadet in 3 3/4” and at 6”, but has his blue ship costume at 12”, Uhura is in ship's clothing at 3 3/4”, but not here, Chekov is always a Cadet.) |
Appearance and Construction: 5/10
At first glance, she doesn't look too bad. Then you take her out of the package. I expected that her skirt would be flexible, it looked like that material used for the JLU capes. I didn't expect it to be...sticky. It's stretchy and rubbery and vaguely tacky.
And it's not just the skirt! The tunic is made of the same stuff, I can only imagine to camouflage the teeny tiny joint she has on her chest, giving her a few millimeters of extra articulation. I had only had her open for a day when I took these pictures, and you can see the amount of dust she's started to attract. I have a hard time thinking this is going to stand up to play. Other than that, she's... still not that great. The sculpt on the face is fine, but the paint job is lackluster, and her blush color is odd. She has a molding defect on the side of her neck, and molding problems on her fingertips. They've gone with a black nail polish that makes her hands look even more bizarre. Her legs are not the same color as her face/hands. Since the tunic is a separate piece from the body underneath, if you raise her arms there's an ugly gap. On the upside, the sculpt on the costume is mostly very nice, and her boots look great. Unfortuneately for her score, that's just not enough. |
Package and Accessories: ---
Similar to all the other Playmates Star Trek packaging, although she does come with an amusing warning on the inside. Woe to those who don't remove all plastic attachments.
As far as accessories go, she comes with a stand, a communicator, a datapad and a phaser. She can hold all the props, which is nice. The phaser and communicator look fairly decent and are cleanly sculpted and painted. Her phaser is permanently on stun, incidentally. The data pad is less nice. It's an odd color choice, and the display is a slightly silly looking sticker. A figure in this scale really should come with all this, and unlike the guys in this same line, she gets no holster for her gun, so no bonus here. |
The stand actually holds her up quite well if angled properly. The only complaint I have is that the model number printed on the underside shows through the thin gold plastic as a dark blotch in a certain light.
|
Play and Display: +1
She has an decent amount of articulation for a 6-inch figure, without getting excessive. The two oddest joints are the cut on the neck, which has a small amount of additional movement, and a crunch joint at the top of the abs with very little motion. Other than that she has combined pin/hinges that act like ball joints at shoulder and elbow, hinges at hip and knee, and cuts at the wrist and the top of the boots.
Especially combined with the stand, this gives her a lot of options, and she actually looks pretty good in all of them. I figure that's worth a point. |
Price Tag and Final Analysis: 6/10
Overall I was a little disappointed, mostly because I'm worried that the suit won't stand the test of time, and there are plenty of little things to dislike about the appearance.
Even though I'm sad she wasn't nicer, I got a decent deal, paid just under 7 dollars for a figure that started at 12.99. Now, I think 12.99 is too much, and 10 is pushing it, but 7 I can live with. Besides, I always need more bad-ass sci-fi ladies. |
For more of my wit and analysis, stop by The Blue Fairy's Bookshelf.
For more of Erin's, try The Middle Room.
For more of Erin's, try The Middle Room.