Sometimes, eBay convinces you to make a purchase based on opportunity: if you don’t buy it now, right now, you might not get another chance. And sometimes I blog about said purchase because if I don’t, who will? Today we’ve got the Collection 2 Kre-O Star Trek blind-bagged Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock!
Kre-O, of course, was Hasbro’s answer to Lego; and I’m legitimately curious how that’s been working out for them. Anecdotally, I think the Transformers and maybe the G.I. Joe blind-bags did well, but I can see a fair amount of the bigger, build sets on clearance at Toys R Us. Did Star Trek (or Dungeons & Dragons, for that matter) sell at all before eventually being marked down? Recently, I found the Collection 1 Trek bags at various dollar stores; but I can’t say if that’s because they were unpopular, or if they were produced in such number there were enough leftovers. Yeah, probably the former, since said Toys R Us and my local comic shop still have Collection 1 bags, marked down from (about) three dollars to two.
Since Series 1 may not have done as well as hoped, retailers may have been reluctant to order Series 2. But Series 1 was intended to tie into the then-new reboot, and didn’t feature a lot of heavy hitters: bad guy Nero, Scotty’s little alien friend Keenser, the redesigned Gorn from the video game, somewhat generic alien crewmen Grasia and Lt. Sprog, and a Klingon. The latter worked as an army builder, but may have been the only one that did.
Series 2 opened up the toy box, as it were, drawing from multiple incarnations of Star Trek: Quark and Gul Dukat from DS9. Locutus, Worf, and a Borg Drone from TNG. General Chang and Khan were from the movies, the Mugato and the Salt Vampire from the Original Series (and not updated or redesigned like the Gorn!) and even an Andorian Soldier from Enterprise! And of course, classic versions of Kirk and Spock, who alone probably would’ve sold more than the entire previous series.
Both feature the old-school uniforms, without any of that distracting texturing the movie versions offered. The Starfleet logo is nicely done, with the respective command or sciences symbol. Kirk has a pleasantly friendly smile, while Spock has a raised eyebrow, probably in disbelief. Because Kre-O heads have a chin, they can’t have alternate faces on the other side, like some Lego heads do. Spock’s ears are molded to his hair, a slightly softer rubber piece; but both his and Kirk’s hair fits fine. (I had a problem with the movie Kirk’s hair, from the Enterprise set.) I do like these newer faces better--they seem larger but better centered, perhaps?
Best of all, both come with new, classic phasers; and from the “Amok Time” episode, a lirpa!
These are blind-bagged, but do have numbers on the top right corner on the back: Captain Kirk is #11, Spock #12. But I bought them from eBay, still sealed, since I'm not sure when or if they'll be released in the US! They were the last two available from that seller, so I sprung for that. Glad I did!
2 comments:
Gosh, that Gorn is adorable.
Cute figures man.
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