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The featured
figure this time is KHAN!!! This figure
is from the same series of figures that
included Christopher Plummer's,
Christopher Llyod's, Iman's and Kirsti
Alley's characters from the Star Trek
feature films as well as five members
of the original series cast in their
Star Trek: The Motion(less) Picture
uniforms. The figure is an excellent
likeness of the character, although not
as good as it could have been (see
below). One of the high points for me
about this figure is the inclusion of a
bowl of Ceti Eels and a pair of tongs -
Look out, Chekov! ("It vas Khan! He put
theengs in my ears!") Good screamer,
that Chekov. Shatner may have been
known as the male Fay Wray, but Walter
Koenig could give him a run for his
money. Check out his work in the agony
booth in "Mirror, Mirror," getting his
hand burned in ST:TMP, getting a
"theeng" put in his ear in STII:TWOK
and falling off an aircraft carrier in
STIV:TVH. My figure was purchased at
the Wal-Mart in Waverly,
Iowa.
As noted in a
previous feature, this series hasn't
increased in value greatly and went to
the bargain bins quickly. Unopened,
this figure will now fetch an average
of $7.00 on the secondary market.
Opened and intact, the figure will
average $3.00. Khan features standard
articulation at the neck (his hair
prevents turning his head, however),
shoulders, biceps, elbows, waist (also
limited), hips and knees. While the
articulation is sufficent on this
figure and the figure is a completely
new sculpt, Khan suffers from Playmates
third favorite way to save money;
removing paint operations.
The number of
paint operations determines some of the
detail on an action figure. A highly
detailed piece of an action figure, the
head on a human figure for example, may
have six or seven (or more) paint
operations. These could include one
color for the hair & eyebrows, one
or two colors for highlighting/shading
the hair, white for eyes, a color for
the iris of the eyes, black for pupils,
a red color for the lips, a light wash
for skin coloration, etc. Pieces that
are a solid color may (obviously)
require no paint at all. Of course,
each paint operation is an additional
expense and they are one of the
processes that is routinely cut to save
some production costs.
When
examining a picture of the painted
prototype for the Khan figure verses
the actual figure, a difference in
paint detailing is very apparent.
Somewhere along the production process
cuts were made and the detailing was
reduced. Other parts of the figure
clearly show this as well. The
shattered Starfleet emblem Khan wears
around his neck, for example, is
painted completely black (the same
color as his belt) on the actual figure
and no attempt has been made to bring
out any of the details on it. Even with
the reduction in paint operations, the
Khan figure still turned out pretty
well. I'd have thought a genetically
superior man would have done a little
better, however.
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