Toy Review: Star Trek: Enterprise Deluxe Sets (Art Asylum)

11/26/09

Star Trek: Enterprise Deluxe Sets

As evidenced by my DVD, movie, and toys reviews, I am a Trekkie. I’ve heard hard-core Trekkies say that it’s a “Trekker”, but that just sounds stupid. I’m a Trekkie. I love it. I watched the shows religously when they were on local TV (this was before DVD became prevalent) and hated missing out on the last episodes whenever a new incarnation was prematurely cancelled. I never got past season 5 or 6 of The Next Generation, and Deep Space 9 was taken off the air here right when it was getting good. Forget Voyager. I only got to watch that by buying VHS tapes (yes, I’m that old) from ex-pats whose relatives had taped episodes for them while they were stationed here in the Philippines.

When Enterprise rolled around, I was overjoyed. “Thank, God!” I said. “The franchise isn’t dead”. This of course was before Scott Bakula and the crew of the Enterprise pretty much nailed the coffin shut. Ratings for the show went down consistently over the 4 season run. Coupled with the low performance of the Next Generation movies, the Federation was pretty much dead.

Luckily, before that happened, Art Asylum got the license to produce these beauties.

I’d heard of Art Asylum before, but had never seen any of their toys until I ran into these at my local Toy Kingdom. 2Rats, our friendly neighborhood distributor of NECA, Mezco and other high end action figures got their hands on some bargain bin stock and imported the Deluxe Boxsets with both Captain John Archer and Armory Officer Malcolm Reed. The big surprise was that they were only php500.00 (about $10.00). SCORE!

I loved the Enterprise series. It was slow to start, and focused a lot on the whole time travel business, but it got pretty exciting toward the end. I saw these and started drooling. Unfortunately, I passed on it the first time, thinking that no one would be buying them (Science Fiction isn’t big in the Philippines) and that I could come back later. Eventually, the inevitable (at least here in our country) happened and they were further discounted to php300.00. Archers flew off the shelves so fast I didn’t even have a chance to get on the jeep to Megamall and pick up a pair. By the time the dust settled, only Reed was left.

Since It felt wrong to have one without the other, I put it off. Luckily I found a pair for php300.00 at the recent Toy Kingdom Warehouse Sale. Woohoo! This time I didn’t hesitate and threw them in the cart.

The reason most people were picking these up wasn’t because they watched the show or liked the figures. It was really the bases that came with it that were the target. Though they were made for 7″ figures, 6″ Marvel Legends weren’t too far from the scale so looked pretty good in the Captain’s Chair or behind the weapons console. For php300.00 you had a great little stage for your Iron Man or SHEILD agents.

The scuplt of both the chair and the console is great, with fun knobs and dials and little gigglywhatsits and thingamagibbets. They look sufficiently high tech to look like part of any sci fi back drop. Personally, I like to use them for my Deep Space Isaacs.

The Malcolm Reed one is the best if you want to use it for another line. The weapons console is pretty detailed, with all the aforementioned gadgetry all done up nice with color and various on screen displays. There’s even a speaker and some slider dials. The thing is perfectly scaled for the 7″ figures, so there’s no problem getting them to line up. The chair is able to slide out on a rail in the floor in case you’re not particularly coordinated.

There is some assembly required, something I miss from those wacky 80’s. it comes with the railings and the chair separated from the floor and console. Don’t worry. It’s very simple to figure out how it goes and you don’t need the included instructions.

The figure is pretty amazing. One of the things that made me pause the first time I saw this was the fact that they look like they’ve got no articulation below the waist. The fact is, that Art Asylum really went all out and took an innovative approach to figure design. From the Waist down, the figure is covered with a sheet of soft rubber. the hip and thigh joints are hidden beneath that covering. This makes for an excellent and realistic sculpt that really looks like cloth.

It’s not without it’s drawbacks of course. The spring of the rubber means that the figures can be hard to pose in extreme positions since the joints are forced back to their resting position. Also, if my old toys from childhood are any indication, rubber doesn’t really withstand the test of time very well. There is going to be a point when this stuff melts or gets brittle in the future, and you’re going to be stuck with a couple of Starfleet Officers without their skivvies.

Captain Archer comes with his command chair of course. It’s a fit for him, though a little less than perfect. Because of the limited articulation. He can really only slouch in the chair. It’s not too bad, but I kind of wish I could have him leaning forward as if about to order someone to launch a torpedo or something.

The chair itself is nice. Some of the parts are actually soft, as if a real cushion was there. There are also some nice little details on the arm rests as well. The whole thing turns around as well, so if you have another console, he can face either the weapons station or the science one, or looking forward to where Mayweather and the viewscreen should be.

I say SHOULD be since there’s no way you can get a Mayweather and the helm station. Apparently, ratings were so bad, that production of these toys stopped. You can still find the single card action figures listed on the back of the box, but the Deluxe Box Set T’Pol was only produced in limited quantities and the Deluxe Travis Mayweather set never saw the light of day. I figure I can just get another weapons station to act as the science station (they’re interchangeable) and see if I can have a set of the single cards with T’Pol shipped to my cousins in the US or something. It’ll probably be the same as if tried to have one of the box sets shipped here.

I really recommend these toy sets if you can find them. If 2Rats was able to bring them into the country, then I’d assume they are in the bargain bins elsewhere too. They really are perfect for the bigger scale figures, especially any that have to do with future histories.

Just don’t get them if all you collect are 1/18th scale figures. They just don’t go.