Before I was a fan of anything else, I was a Star Trek fan, and it all started with Star Trek: The Next Generation. It used to come on the TV after I came back from school, and I was a dedicated viewer (along with the other Trek shows eventually, too.) Next Gen getting a big theatrical film via Star Trek: Generations was even the big cinematic event of my childhood. While I don’t really keep up with the franchise these days (there are Too Many New Shows, and I didn’t really vibe with the ones I did watch), the people that make collector-bait stuff like this know exactly how to hook old farts like me.
It involves this man.
Data was always one of my favorite Next Gen characters. Later in life, I’d realize that I probably found him intensely relatable because I was a socially-awkward kid who knew way too much information about Outer Space and the TV shows I watched, but had no idea how to properly interact with my peers. On this particular show, Data was an android who possessed extreme intelligence and strength, but lacked proper emotions or social skills, and wanted to become more human. He did so with a sort of endearing innocence, becoming the show’s emotional core, and a mirror to the oddities of human behavior. So it’s kind of funny that I didn’t have a figure of him as a kid, though I had a few others from the show.
The first Playmates figure, c. Some eBay Auction.
Playmates made the 90’s Next Generation toyline when I was young, and at the time, its action figures were a step above what the rest of the market offered, being way more big, poseable, detailed, and accessory-laden than the other stuff you could find on shelves. They were also targeted to collectors as well as kids, another rarity at the time. These new Star Trek Universe figures mark Playmates’ return to the franchise (the first wave includes Next Generation, Wrath of Khan, and Discovery characters), and they’re very much trading on that nostalgia. In fact, according to some reviews that I’ve watched and read, some of these figures actually come in packaging that replicates the old 90’s line’s look, like that Retro Animated Spider-Man I previously talked about. However, the figures I found at my local Gamestop just had a kind of generic packaging, so maybe that was a limited-run thing, or something that isn’t happening in Canada. I wasn’t going to keep this guy on the card, anyway, so no big deal.
How I found it on the pegs, complete with the very relevant price tag.
The other important thing to note here: The Star Trek Universe line’s surprisingly cheap. For reference, in Canada, at Gamestop, a basic, non-fancy, 6-inch Marvel Legends, or Star Wars Black Series figure runs you $35.99. This guy’s at a slightly smaller scale (specifically, about 5 inches), but retails for only $22.99, which, by the way, is also the exact same price as a smaller Star Wars Vintage Collection 3-and-a-quarter inch figure, and only four dollars more than the $18.99 Marvel and Star Wars Retro 5-joint guys in that same 3-and-a-quarter scale. So, the price was right, they had my favorite character there, and I decided to take the plunge.
The Sculpt
Even this is more posed than he usually looked on the show.
The other thing that made me decide to pick him up was his face. You see, when the initial promo pictures of the Universe line popped up, Data’s headsculpt looked kind of bad, and not at all like the character. In person, this isn’t the case, and they actually did a good job of capturing his likeness. It’s so different from the promos, in fact, that I think they just re-did it.
Clearly, the promo images depicted his stunt double.
The actual headsculpt.
It’s not, like, photo-realistic, but that’s definitely him, and they gave him a very in-character expression that I’d describe as neutrally blank, yet somehow soft, and a little bit curious.
The next step in evolution? Well, not in the action figure realm. Just look at his neck.
It’s a shame, then, that the rest of the sculpt isn’t quite as well-executed as his head. The biggest thing is just that he has really tiny hands, for some reason. One’s sculpted pointing, and the other is open, but they’re both noticeably small.
Pointing only makes those tiny hands more obvious.
You can hide the hands with his accessories (more on them later,) but it’s a big, obvious bit of visual strangeness. On top of that, his arms look kind of thin compared to his body, and, while the copyright info definitely had to go somewhere, molding it directly into the middle of his back’s a bad look. Also a bad look: the oddly visible split in the side of his neck from where the torso was glued together.
I wonder how that one courtroom drama episode about the question of his personhood would have gone if they’d looked at his back.
While the whole sculpt’s definitely grown on me since I got him late last year, I think the problem might be that his head is scaled for a 6-incher, while the rest of him is shorter than that, though it’s only something I clocked directly comparing him to my Marvel Legends Spider-Guys.
Peter grew like a weed.
The rest of him’s a bit more serviceable, he’s in his standard post-season-one Next Generation series uniform (he’s one of the few characters whose uniform and appearance never substantially changed over the show’s run), and they took care to sculpt in slightly rumpled fabric, and a split in said fabric around his shoes. They also molded in his badge, the rank pips at his neck, his belt, and even the split in the colors on his uniform, all things that could have just been done with paint, or not included at all.
He’s been on trial for his life before. This time’s less threatening.
Because this is Next Generation, he found a peaceful resolution.
The Colors
He’s interested because this computer programs machines with emotions.
Again, the lion’s share of the effort seems to have gone into his face, and it looks surprisingly good. They seem to have done the same kind of face-printing deal they use over at Hasbro, and it’s given him well-colored eyes, lips, brown hair and eyebrows. His odd, kinda-pale, kinda-gold skin has been rendered more on the pale side, which works in person, and they made his yellowy eyes look weird, but not terrifying.
Adequate, but a bit messy.
To be fair, the rest of him didn’t really need a ton of deco, since Next Generation Starfleet uniforms are pretty basic two-tone deals. He’s mostly cast in black, with some mustard-ish yellow for his division colors. Beyond that, he’s got a bit of gold and silver detailing on his badge and collar, and that’s about it. The paint quality itself outside of the head’s a little bit dodgy, though. His head turned out great, and his rank and badge are on there good, but his hands, and the yellow on his uniform have tiny smears and chips visible in places. It’s nothing too bad for someone like me that fixates on it, and it’s possible I got a poor copy (mine was the last on the shelf), but it does feel a bit sloppier than it ought to.
Build Quality
“Allow me to secure my footing.”
I’m happy to say that this is one area they don’t seem to have cheaped out on. Data’s built out of solid-feeling plastic, his joints are tight, and nothing on him feels fragile or flimsy. I don’t know if I’d quite put him on par with the really solid modern Marvel Legends in terms of what he’s made of and how he’s built, but he doesn’t feel noticeably cheaper, especially when you take into account that he’s smaller, and therefore lighter.
Not a fighter, but built tough.
Data can stand decently on his feet, but more importantly, you don’t need to worry, because he actually comes with a figure stand! The vintage Playmates action figures all had them, and so he gets one too, though it’s a generic Star Trek arrowhead-style logo, instead of the Next Gen-specific badge the old ones came with. It’s got a little peg on it, and it fits securely into the holes on either of his feet, making him super-stable. And, to run a quick check on my other figures, you can also give it to Marvel Legends (both big and small), and Super 7 ReAction figures (sadly, the peg’s too large for my wobbly vintage Power of the Force 2 Star Wars figures).
It makes kicking so much easier.
Hot Rod needs all the help they can get in terms of features.
Articulation
Now this would be an interesting pair.
Data’s articulation is extremely odd, in that he’s got extra in some places, but is missing obvious things in other places. Up top, his head’s on a nice balljoint-esque connection, as are his shoulders and elbows, giving them really good range. And his hands may be tiny, but he’s got swiveling wrists. On the other hand, he’s missing a waist joint of any sort, and despite the sculpt suggesting it, has nothing at his ankles, having only hip and knee articulation below, albeit of the same pseudo-ball-joint type as his arms, so they at least have range.
Pretending he’s on par with a Figma.
Granted, Data was never exactly a man of action, so I guess the joints he has work well enough for him, but it’s a very odd set of choices, and feels strangely limited. I can’t even claim it’s a homage to the original Playmates figures, because those guys had waists on them.
Accessories
Deliberately dull.
Here’s where the vintage Playmates homage kicks into gear. On top of the previously-mentioned figure stand, Data has the exact same three accessories his classic 90’s figure came with, done in more or less the same style.
Sometimes, he can be a little too curious.
It’s only set to stun, he was always a pacifist.
All three accessories are cast in solid gray plastic, and mostly unpainted, a choice that, on its surface, evokes the way those old figures made all of their accessories a singular color (though different vintage Datas had them all red, or all purple, instead of gray, check the image of a classic one near the top of this article). In practice, I wonder how much of this is a homage, and how much is cost-cutting.
“I detect something anomalous about that vehicle.”
First, he’s got a Tricorder, the all-purpose scanner favored by the cast when they were out and about, and a Phaser, their intentionally-not-shaped-like-a-gun weapon of choice, which is sculpted with its own effect part, a reddish-orange energy beam shooting out of it, another good classic figure shout-out, and the only use of paint on these.
Honestly, he almost never used one of these.
Finally, he’s got a weird two-handed accessory that doesn’t seem to be based on anything specific (I think), two pieces of technology connected by a flexible plastic cord, one looking like a drill, and another like a price scanner.
“Readings indicate…I cost twenty-two Canadian dollars.”
The packaging doesn’t identify it, but the retro version calls it a “Diagnostic testing unit with monitor,” whatever that means (where’s the monitor?). They were always pulling out weird technology to solve the Problem of the Week, and weren’t above grabbing random stuff like actual price scanners to build their props out of, so it works as a thing Data would have.
Perhaps Energon would make a better Starship fuel than Antimatter. It’s probably more stable.
The oddest aspect of all three accessories is how they’re held by him. In a feature again shared by the vintage toys, they each have a rounded “bracket” on their undersides (two, for the two-part tool) that can be rotated on a tab, and you’re meant to hook these brackets onto his hands, to get him to hold his equipment. I’ll admit, it took me awhile to figure out how these worked, there’s no pictures on the box, and it’s not immediately intuitive.
If you can’t figure it out, he’s stuck shooting the ceiling.
Like this. It works like this.
Still, once I got them to work, the unusual setup does kind of make sense. The real-life Tricorder and Phaser props were meant to be cradled in the user’s hands, instead of held like a weapon, and the brackets let you imitate that setup, even if the phaser still looks a little bit odd due to his fingers not reaching the buttons.
Nothing’s going to interrupt his scan.
One benefit of that third accessory not being anything specific, though, is you can just have him hold it in whatever way looks decent, or sling it over his shoulders.
On his way to solve this week’s problem with some jargon, and a kitbashed prop.
Overall
The theme is “shows I watched in the 90’s that had action figures at an unusual scale.”
There’s a lot of criticism up above, but I wouldn’t call this guy bad, so much as I’d call him strange. On one hand, him being significantly cheaper than a Hasbro 6-incher is immediately appealing. On the other hand, you can pretty directly see that Playmates was working with less budget, and the compromises are obvious. It also feels like they couldn’t decide if the Star Trek Universe line was meant to be a Black Series-style collector’s line (the admittedly excellent head sculpt feels like it’s aiming for that), or a retro throwback line (the accessories are directly that), with the retro aspects feeling like a pretense to disguise the cut corners. Still, I know I’d rather have retro figures that cost less, rather than having those retro stylings used as a reason to jack the price up, like with the ludicrously overpriced Super 7 and Marvel offerings, and compared to those, this is unquestionably better value, even with the tiny hands.
He’s only a couple dollars more than one of these smaller guys. The same price, in some stores.
So, if you’re looking for a Data (and we should all be), or the line has another character you’re fond of, I’d call it worth picking up, just manage your expectations. Heck, they did Riker and Picard, too, I might pick those guys up as well, warts and all. Which does bring me to another oddity: This first wave of Star Trek Universe figures were announced near the beginning of 2022, and have only just made it to stores, and yet there’s zero information, or even whispers of more than this one wave, and I only saw these guys a single time (they’re still on the Gamestop website, though.) Despite my mixed response to this guy, I would like to see the line continue. Star Trek’s a pretty large franchise, and there’s plenty of characters I’d love to see get this same treatment.
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