Star Trek Command Series (12") Kirk

Package Description
"Space. The Final Frontier. These are the continuing voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Her ongoing mission: to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life forms and new civilizations. To boldly go where no one has gone before."

Appearance 9/10
Playmates really came through on the 12” figures compared to the smaller figures. The face sculpt is essentially the same as the 6” figure but larger. There is a lot of detail in the hair and facial features, and even a paint wash in the hair. Unfortunately the plastic look is very noticeable on the face because of the large smooth areas, but the shirt is colorful enough to draw most of the attention away from the face. Where most of the visual attention is drawn is the shirt, which is sewn with hundreds of tiny Starfleet symbols which are easily identifiable. It’s impressive the design came out as good as it did, and even the black undershirt was added for movie accuracy.

Kirk came with a phaser and communicator, both of which have a lot of detail. The communicator, however, does not open, which would have been a nice touch on the 12” figures. Overall the figure has a very realistic appearance which looks great on display. He looks good on display by himself, but he could use a Spock or McCoy to stand with. He’s a little taller than Marvel Legends Icons or my Sideshow Snake Eyes, but he still looks great on the shelf next to them.

Articulation 9/10
This figure has a lot of articulation, most of which is ball joints. The head can rotate in all directions, but it was a little less than what I was expecting. The ab joint can rotate easily, but moves up and down or side to side to side hardly at all, which was the biggest surprise. He gets a full range of motion out of the shoulders, and the elbows can bend ninety degrees. The legs bend a little less than ninety degrees at the hips, and the knees bend ninety degrees. There is no ankle articulation.

Poseability 8/10
Kirk can do some good action poses, but he’s hurt most by the lack of ankle articulation. His balance is what suffers for what would otherwise be an acceptable range of poses. The cloth costume looks great on display though, and there’s not a visible joint anywhere. Overall he can’t do all the fighting poses I’d like a Kirk figure to do, but he’s got enough poses to look great.

Final Judgment: 26/30
The $30 price tag is a bit steep considering you can buy generic soldier figures of this size and body type for a few bucks at places like big lots. But this is a really great Kirk figure, and if they were $20 bucks I’d buy the Spock and McCoy to go with him. Overall whether or not you buy this figure is going to depend on how much you liked the movie. If you’re a Trek fan, then one or two of these figures is a really good buy to have a great looking set of Starfleet officers on display.