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"He's dead,
Jim." You know you either wanted to say
it or did say it upon hearing the news
of DeForest Kelley's death. A sad
passing, to be sure, since it sounded
like he was one of the most amiable of
the Original Series cast members. De
was old though, you know... Like
DeForest Kelley, Playmates Star Trek
line has also "gone to join the choir
eternal." Earlier this month, Playmates
officially stated that there are no new
Star Trek products scheduled for next
year and that the future of the line is
in question beyond that (i.e. "We're
bailing, maybe some other sucker will
buy the license from us."). They're
closing up shop, letting employees go
and are out of it once the last of this
year's stuff ships out. Not entirely
unexpected, as you might have guessed
if you're a regular visitor to this
page, but disappointing nonetheless.
The current figure, Dr. McCoy in Dress
Uniform, dates back to 1997 and is
proof positive that Playmates never
learns.
After the
debacle that was the "1701" Limited
Edition figures, many collectors balked
at trying to continue collecting the
Star Trek series due to the difficulty
in completing a set. After all, 1701 is
a pretty small number of figures to
spread across the US and several other
nations; most people never even saw
these figures. To assuage these scorned
collectors, Playmates produced a
three-pack of the hard to find figures.
This mainly pissed off the people who
already owned the figures by dropping
the figures' value drastically. The set
might have helped to win back some
collectors, however... Playmates then
started producing new Limited Edition
(10,000 each) figures and covertly
inserting them into the batches of
regular figures. The rarity of the
figures was not well publicized and
many collectors became even more
frustrated by the difficulty in
locating certain figures. Scalpers and
Horders descended upon the racks and
then resold the LE figures for well
above cost. Dr. McCoy in his Dress
Uniform from the episode "Journey to
Babel" was the second of these "chase"
figures. My figure was purchased at the
Walmart in Superior, WI.
Despite all
my carping, I like this figure quite a
bit. It looks good and works well with
the Kirk and Spock in Dress Uniform
figures. I'm going to miss the Original
Series figures more than the rest, I
think. <Sniff> No shirtless Kirk
or "Parmen & Alexander" two-pack.
<Sniff> Unopened, this figure
will now fetch an average of $35.00 on
the secondary market. Opened and
intact, the figure will average $10.00.
Dr. McCoy in Dress Uniform features
standard articulation at the neck,
shoulders, biceps, elbows, waist, hips,
and knees.
Dr. McCoy is,
of course, mostly pieced together from
parts of previous figures. The head
comes from the 1993 Classic Crew Set
Dr. McCoy, the legs come from the 1994
Command Officer Set Kirk in Dress
Uniform, the hip piece (crotch?) comes
from the Spock in Dress Uniform figure
of the same set as Kirk, and the arms
were previously used for both the Kirk
and Spock in Dress Uniform figures. The
torso is also from the Spock in Dress
Uniform figure, but it has undergone
minor retooling to give it the
appropriate trim and
decoration.
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