Star Trek Minimates Wave 5 - Gul Dukat and Captain Sisko
After testing the non-TOS waters in wave 4, DST again gave us more variety in wave 5, but the fate of the line had been sealed and these figures were the last wave. This review features the first Deep Space Nine-era Minimates, and two rivals who were a major focus of the show.
Packaging
This wave's packaging is identical to wave 4, with the dark blue background. The back shows off all the Minimates in the wave. It would have been nice to get the mini-bios that have been prevalent in the Marvel and Ghostbusters sets.
The Figures
Gul Dukat
Gul Dukat was the overseer of the Cardassian space station Terok Nor before it was handed over to the Bajorans as part of a treaty and became known as Deep Space Nine. A wily opportunist, he is a constant thorn in Sisko's side.
This figure is Gul Dukat but the face you see when inside the package does not look like him. This is because, with Sisko also being the variant of this wave, this Minimate is an army builder, with two different faces on the head block. As the Cardassian military all had identical, bulky outfits, this is a great way to get two different people in the mix. Although not named on the package, it has been confirmed by DST that the second face is that of Dukat's second in command, Damar (another key Cardassian character seen in the show), and that his face should not have been the one shown off inside the package.
With that in mind, I'll start with the Gul Dukat head. This is a really good likeness of Dukat. His eyes are beady yet shine with intelligence, his lips are thin but show an amused disdain. The hairpiece tries to incorporate the neck ridges that are a trait of the Cardassians, but ends up falling a bit short. Nice try though. I particularly like the way the hair is severely cut back at the top to minic the Cardassian hair style.
Take the hair off and you can see the hidden face. Spin the head round, reattach the hair and voila, you have Damar. His features are more defined, his lips heavier, but still with a slight smirk.
The Cardassian military uniform was always going to be a big ask to get right, being armoured. DST have done a great job in terms of detail, with the snakelike scales sculpted on and the golden "leaf" picked out. However, the whole thing restricts arm movement so much, all you get is the elbow moving up and down, which is a real drawback for Minimates as we are used to so much more. However it is a design decision that probably works, as the Cardassians really only need to stand around and look menacing.
The chest armour has a side holster on it, which Dukat's Cardassian phaser fits into nicely. It's done in gold with a red handle, and for this scale works well enough.
In conclusion: With two different characters in one, and a design about as close to the show as you can get for Minimates, this figure has a lot to recommend it. It's just a shame this will be the only Deep Space Nine villain we will have a chance to see.
MMC Score - 8 out of 10
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Captain Sisko
A Commander when he first steps onboard the space station Deep Space Nine, Ben Sisko handles everything that comes his way since the wormhole was discovered, earning his promotion to Captain in the third season of the show.
This is bald, goatee'd Avery Brooks as opposed to the variant, which shows Commander Sisko with hair. The detail on the face does make this a good likeness of Sisko, although there is perhaps something just a bit off with the lips.
Captain Sisko is wearing the updated Deep Space Nine crew uniform, which is mainly black with the collar and neck showing the discipline. Here Sisko is in red as he is in the Command discipline. He gets a band to go around the neck which does restrict the head moving around. I'm not sure this was necessary, it would have worked if DST had simply coloured the neck post. The rest of the detail here is good, the lines on the grey part of the uniform are clean and the communicator/insignia is picked out well.
However the paint job has some very poor spots, especially around the top of Sisko's right arm, where it's just a big blob of black. This does spoil the look somewhat but I'm sure that's just on my figure and not a problem elsewhere.
Sisko has a holster on his uniform, and comes with a phaser which fits in the holster sideways. Both the holster piece and the phaser are reused from the Captain Picard figure in the last wave.
In conclusion, this is a lovely figure of the main character in Deep Space Nine, however it is a real shame he will never get any kind of station crew to go with him. At least he's been packaged with his primary antagonist, and I don't mean my cat (see pic below)!
MMC Score - 8 out of 10
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Review and pictures by Danny Mills
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