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This figure
was one of two 4.5" Star Trek figures
produced by Playmates Toys as
exclusives for Spencer Gifts, or as the
back of the package says "Speneer
Gifts." Oops. Playmates really needs to
hire a new proof-reader. Not only are
there simple spelling errors all over
their packaging, but there are
"factual" Star Trek errors in the bio
cards, etc. which really annoy the hard
core geeks. Not that I know anyone like
that. The other exclusive figure in
this pair is a lame "Neelix in Security
Officer Uniform" (read "Neelix head on
one of the generic Voyager male
bodies"). These two figures were
produced in 1997 and were released to
Spencer Gifts across the U.S. in late
1997 and in 1998. Each featured a
whopping $17.00 dollar price tag as an
initial price (soon cut to half of that
amount) and both were limited to a
production run of 15,000, a
substantially smaller quantity than the
general release figures of the same
time period. It took quite a while for
some areas of the country to receive
these figures and some never have.
Playmates has continued this trend
towards exclusives and in 1999 will
only be releasing 4.5" scale figures as
exclusives. Most of these will be
Target exclusives, but a few will be
mail-aways from Toyfare magazine. My
figure was purchased at Westdale Mall
in Cedar Rapids in the August of 1998
while on a break from helping Craig and
Jeri move to their current
residence.
The Dax in
Dress Uniform figure included no
trading card or other pack-in item as
and added incentive to spend double the
usual amount of money on this figure.
Unopened, this figure will now fetch an
average of $20.00 on the secondary
market. Opened and intact, the figure
will average $10.00. Jadzia Dax in
Starfleet Dress Uniform features
articulation at the neck, shoulders,
biceps, elbows, hips (to a very limited
degree because of the uniform) and
knees. The head of this figure is the
standard Dax head and is a decent
likeness, but not great. The torso is a
completely new sculpt (gasp!) but the
arms and legs are very likely scavenged
from some other female uniformed
figures.
This figure
is notable for several reasons. It is
the only female character in dress
uniform produced to date (i.e. it has
not yet been scavenged to produced
hoards of different-headed clones).
Also, unlike most of the exclusives
produced so far, it required new
sculpting for large portions of its
anatomy. Other exclusives have tended
to be simple repaints, figures with
only minor sculpting or paint changes
or figures pieced together from parts
of older ones. This is also the first
Dax figure to be released following the
character's death on the series and the
first to be released with the
character's rank listed as Lt.
Commander instead of
Lieutenant.
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