|
In honor of
the final episodes of Deep Space Nine,
currently airing, the featured figure
this time is Gul Dukat. This figure was
one of the nine characters produced for
the first series of Deep Space Nine
figures and was the only villain
included in the series. Dukat's
likeness is taken from early in the
series when he was still a lowly
Cardassian commander and not a
mercenary, temporary Head Of State or a
Pah-Wraith crazed nut-job. Eww...
<shiver> Dukat and Nurse Ratched,
I mean Kai Winn, together. Creeps me
out. Didn't need that image. This
series of figures each came with a
Skybox trading card as a pack-in
premium and were all original sculpts,
no Next Generation re-treads. That
wouldn't happen until the second series
of DS9 figures. The inclusion of Dukat
in this series isn't all that
surprising, given that his character
has probably had more character
development than many of the television
show's "regulars." My figure was
purchased at the now-defunct Starlog
store in the Mall of America. The
accessories listed are given in quotes
because I didn't keep the packaging
from this figure and I'm not certain
that these are the "real" names of the
items.
The first
Deep Space Nine series didn't do
poorly, although it probably didn't
sell as well as Playmates had hoped.
There were a large number of Star Trek
figures out on the racks when these
were produced and, let's face it, DS9
wasn't competing with The Next
Generation too well at the beginning of
the series. Collectors with a limited
supply of money had to pick and choose
and, consequently, a fair number of
this series lived much of their lives
on the pegs and eventually made their
way to the bargain bins. These figures
have done fairly well in the
post-retail market, however. Unopened,
this figure will now fetch an average
of $19.00 on the secondary market.
Opened and intact, the figure will
average $7.00. Dukat features standard
articulation at the neck, shoulders,
biceps, elbows, waist, hips and knees.
The figure fails to capture much of a
facial resemblence to the actor and
instead comes off as a pretty
generic-looking Cardassian (not an
entirely bad thing, I
suppose).
As mentioned
previously, all of the figures in this
series were original sculpts. This
figure has not yet been reused to make
a hoard of cookie-cutter Cardassians,
although I suppose that's coming, and
is one of only two Cardassian figures
Playmates has produced (the other being
Garak).
|
