Those uniforms are an unimaginative cross between The TNG uniforms and uniforms we saw in "All Good Things". Blackman was a mediocre costume designer at best. The original DS9 uniforms were the best thing he designed.
He was a bit stuck with the design brief he was given, and had to stick quite closely to the Theiss designs from the first season. But yeah, a lot of his alien of the week costumes were fairly humdrum too.
Yes, I don't think it had anything to do with Levar Burton being unhappy - it simply would have been too much effort for Playmates to make a new head for Geordi without his VISOR. They knew the line was coming to an end and it wasn't worth the manpower and expense. Thanks for sharing this video - a very interesting watch! I'm also relieved that we didn't end up with these uniforms for VOY... Yes, I feel your pain Tomalak. You can get carded figures for peanuts from America, but the shipping to the UK ends up being 4 times the price of them! Other than the first series and some of the second series of TNG figures, which were manufactured in their hundreds of thousands, it's very hard to track down either carded or loose figures from the line. DS9 and VOY are pretty impossible to find! Yes! I've started customising recently and am reasonably happy with the results. A shameless plug, but you can see my season 1 Riker in my latest Insta post here: https://www.instagram.com/p/B7HDrGuhLm4/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Going back to the issue of figures one playmates Line i really want to start collecting is the TOS classic movie line but these tend to be more expensive and i don't have a lot of disposable money at present.
Where are you located JLB Tucker? In Australia, the Classic Movie Series were all peg warmers. Pretty sure a few of them can still be found quite cheaply here.
Nah good old USA online prices tend to be higher than TNG or the other playmates lines there. Also vintage ships around my parts are few and far between.
Generations Chekov and Scotty are my current targets! I got really lucky with DS9 - I got the whole of the first wave (minus Bashir) in a job lot a couple of years ago. Still can't find an affordable Bashir! I'm not too into Voyager but did have Janeway and Seven from back in the day. I'd probably like Torres and the Doctor at some point.
^ Nitpicking here big time: shouldn't it be Cadet Picard? He wasn't really a captain in Tapestry. Re: The figures with Generations uniforms, the inaccuracy is irritating, however they make passable stand-ins for the TNG era dress uniforms. The style is very close.
I grew up with those action figures. I still have them in my parent's attic and I purchased the Transporter Room MIB a few years ago. I threw away my Bridge playset because it was broken due to use (I'd like to purchase another one MIB). Those figures were so charming and I would love, love, LOVE to see a Picard line. I never understood why they didn't make a Phaser Rifle. Still bitter about that.
I guess it's Captain Picard because we see Picard's real face, and not that of the young actual cadet Picard. But he's also wearing the wrong uniform anyway. They didn't have the turtleneck in Tapestry, but Playmates just re-used a movie body.
TBH I like the turtleneck better than the version of those uniforms with out it. The neck just looks so care with a low collar.
I think you hit the nail on the head ICW - "charming" perfectly describes them. There's a caricauture-ish fun in these figures that has never been replicated in any other Trek line (DST and Eaglemoss included). Just FYI guys I've posted some incredible new images from Bandai Playmates catalogues that were kindly shared with me: http://upcloseandplastic.blogspot.com/ Ive also added some great links to some other Trek Playmates Related site you guys might like too :-)
Also, he was an Ensign in Tapestry, having just graduated the Academy. At a glance, it looks like he's wearing the proper Ensign insignia.
Yeah they retooled the Kirk body with the right rank and service bars. Picard was the best of the 1701 figures - YE Yar was just a headswap onto the standard TNG uniform and Barclay had that strange black hair.
Is that this one (pic below, the one I own) or did they make another one? I got this one as a gift from someone who gave me a cardboard box with an entire bunch of "old Picard action figures I don't need anymore". I had no idea it's part of a limited edition...?
It was also re-released in a three-pack with Yar and Barclay, but only the original carded figure is considered rare. The re-released figures didn't have numbers on their feet.