REVIEW: McFarlane’s Captain Picard action-figure misses the mark

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McFarlane Toys is kicking off a new series of 7-inch Star Trek action-figures starting with Captain Kirk and Captain Picard. These figures just hit stores and my figures arrived today. I collected all of Diamond Select’s Star Trek figures previously (and loved them) so I was naturally curious about what McFarlane’s versions would be like.

I’m going to cut to the chase: their Captain Kirk figure is amazing. So I’m not really going to talk about that figure much. But they really missed the ball on their Captain Picard figure. Details matter on figures I collect and they got a bunch of the details wrong which really disappointed me.

Close-up of McFarlane’s Picard figure.

You can see that they didn’t do a good job getting Picard’s eyes quite right. The rest of his face seems quite a match. It’s his eyes that bug me. But my biggest problem is with the uniform they used for their Picard figure. During the third season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, they transitioned away from using the form-fitting one-piece uniforms seen in Season 1 and 2 and went with a two piece uniform which consisted of pants and shirt that unzipped in the back for all the male cast members (and other male supporting characters like Lt. Barclay). But during that transition, Picard’s uniform was a bit off during the first few episodes of the third season. You had these two seams that ran down the middle of his uniform shirt.

Captain Picard as seen in the first episode of Season 3. Notice the two seams?

This weird uniform style for Picard was seen until the 6th episode of the third season called “Booby Trap”. In that episode – Picard has the uniform shirt that he will have for the remainder of the series.

Captain Picard as seen from the 6th episode of the third season called “Booby Trap”. Notice no seams?

So why did McFarlane Toys choose to model their Picard figure in a uniform style that was used in only 5 episodes of the third season rather than the more familiar uniform style he’s most recognizable in for the series?

Back of the Picard figure.

The other issue is the back of the Picard figure is also not right. It includes no zipper seam going down the middle and the lines are not right.

The quality of these figures is great but its the detail that is lacking and as a collector, details really matter to me. The next two figures in the new McFarlane Toys Star Trek 7-inch action-figures series is Michael Burnham from Star Trek: Discovery and Spock from the Original Series. I’ll definitely be picking them up but I really do hope they pay special attention to getting the details right.

The “Way of the Warrior” Star Trek Mission Crate

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UPDATED on 8/20 to include tweet from Loot Crate on their new Shipping Status page. 

Subscription boxes have become popular with different fandoms over the last few years led by Loot Crate and others like Funko. These subscription boxes usually come every 1 to 2 months with a bunch of nerdy exclusives and other goodies based on a theme. I had been a subscriber for Loot Crate’s main subscription boxes – or “crates” – but canceled my subscription because I was finding the contents and themes for the crates hit or miss. Then late last year, Loot Crate announced they would be doing Star Trek subscription boxes. As you can imagine, I jumped on board immediately and bought a subscription for their Star Trek Mission Crates. How could I turn down getting a subscription box filled with Star Trek exclusives in partnership with Quantum Mechanix every 2 months?

Their first Star Trek Mission Crate subscription box was “Wolf 359” themed. It shipped in January in a box that looked like a shuttlecraft from the Original Series. Inside, it came with an exclusive “Locutus” limited edition statue from QMx and some other goodies. I didn’t blog about it here but this post here does a really good review of the box. 

Today I received the second Star Trek Mission Crate subscription box which is “Way of the Warrior” themed. “Way of the Warrior” was the title of the 2 part episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine that saw Michael Dorn join the cast as Worf after war breaks out with the Klingon Empire. (Despite taking the theme from DS9, I had a little giggle when I noticed the box was labeled as “The Next Generation”.)

Opening the box revealed all the goodies!
Klingon socks, badge, and sticker with Mirror Universe tribble and Worf!
Worf looks pretty badass!

The box included:

  • A Worf “Master Series” Limited Edition Statue from QMx.
  • A Mirror Universe Tribble from QMx. 
  • A pair of Klingon socks.
  • A Klingon emblem badge from QMx.
  • A Klingon sticker. 
  • A Star Trek: Discovery Lapel Pin. 

Everything is this subscription box was awesome. I believe the Discovery lapel pin was handed out at the 2018 Office Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas earlier this month and since I couldn’t attend – I was glad to score one through this way! I have no complaints about the box. This Star Trek fan is impressed.

However, I do have a general complaint about my overall experience with the Star Trek Mission Crate subscription. I feel like Loot Crate is struggling a bit to fulfill the promise of shipping these boxes every 2-months. The second Star Trek Mission Crate subscription box was supposed to arrive in March. And it was supposed to be “Dark Frontier” themed after the 2-part Star Trek: Voyager episode “Dark Frontier” and feature Seven of Nine in some fashion. In May, I received an email saying this box was delayed and was expected to ship mid-July. That’s the last thing I heard about that box. Then in early July, I received an email saying that the “Way of the Warrior” box was delayed until late July. No word on what happened with the “Dark Frontier” box. Then on July 31st, I got another email saying the “War of the Warrior” box was delayed again to mid-August. The box finally arrived but still no word on the “Dark Frontier” box. It has been almost 7 months between boxes. I really want to see Loot Crate be more transparent about what’s going on with these boxes, which boxes are supposed to ship when etc. 

Overall though, I’ve been very impressed with the 2 Star Trek Mission Crates I’ve received so far and really excited for more!

UPDATED: Loot Crate responded to my tweet about this blog post alerting me to their new Shipping Status page. It just launched.