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Star Trek Minimates Wave 2 - "The Cage" Spock and Uhura


Diamond Select Toys return to the Star Trek well for more Minimates, now shrunk to 2" and packed 2 figures to a set instead of their original 3" wave. Wave 1 was a big hit and now wave 2 looks to fill out the bridge crew. This set features another Spock, this time from his appearance in "The Cage", and the Enterprise's communications officer, Lt Uhura.

Packaging



Very similar to the Wave 1 blister pack, but the card background is now blue. Both figures are clearly visible. The card back again mirrors wave one with photos of the entire wave of figures breaking out of their hexagonal frames. The usual logos and legal indicia are present.





The Figures

"The Cage" Spock

The first figure in this set is Spock, as featured in the original Star Trek pilot episode "The Cage".

I was unimpressed with wave one's Spock, I'm even more unimpressed with this one. DST have contrived to give Spock his knowing one eyebrow arched look. It looks awful. Really truly awful. Even putting wave one Spock’s head on this ‘mate would be preferable. As it stands he looks like he’s got a lazy eye. Nasty.

The body is very basic, a prototype Starfleet uniform with the round collar instead of the crew neck, and gold bands around the wrist. The 'mate itself is well constructed. The only interesting fact to note is that this time around the Trek-Mates are cast in coloured plastic rather than white and painted like wave one.

Cage Spock is accessorised with a tricorder, phaser, and the same flawed extra hand included with wave one Spock. The phaser is also a mistake as it should be the same as the phase pistol included with wave one's Captain Pike, as the stye of weaponry was different in the pilot.

In conclusion, a bit of a stinker. I just cannot find anything positive to say about it. Spock deserves better.

MMC Score - 3 out of 10

More pictures







Lieutenant Uhura

The second figure in the set is a key part of James Kirk's bridge crew, the cool and capable Lieutenant Uhura who was in charge of ship communications.

This is more like it, the features are good, the hair is great, the earrings are inspired. Uhura was cute, this Minimate also is cute. I like that they paid attention to the colour of Uhura's lipstick rather than just giving her a generic female mouth with red lips.

Not really much to say about the body, that's the trouble with the Star Trek 'mates. The uniform is very simple and ... uniform. So apart from changes in gender or physiology there's not a lot of variation. I did initially think that a mistake had been made with the placement of the Starfleet insignia. Surely it should be lower down and further over to the left? But no, it's actually 100% accurate. For some reason Uhura's uniform shirt does look like that. It's a shame that the skirt is a different shade of red to the shirt and also that the paint apps to the tops of Uhura's boots are a bit scruffy in places. Other than that I really like this 'mate. It's a lot easier on the eye than its packaging partner. For those who insist on knowing, yes... she's a party girl. [I knew it! - Ed.]

Uhura's accessorised with a phaser, tricorder, and Padd. How nice that they gave the girl character something to take dictation on. They must have decided against the coffee set! One notable omission is Uhura’s ear piece. That could have been moulded into an alternate hand, similar to what’s been done with the Battlestar Galactica ‘mates and would have worked really well. A shame it’s been overlooked but the figure doesn’t suffer from the lack.

In conclusion, a great representation of the character.

MMC Score - 8 out of 10

More pictures





Review and pictures by Rad Kerrigan


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