Star Trek Minimates Wave 5 - "The Trouble With Tribbles" Kirk and Yeoman Rand
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 only TOS-era figures in wave 5, "The Trouble With Tribbles" Kirk and Yeoman Rand.
Packaging
This waves 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
"The Trouble With Tribbles" Kirk
The short-lived 3" Star Trek Minimates line had "The Trouble With Tribbles" Kirk as an exclusive. Now in wave 5, after a deluge of other Kirks in the intervening waves, we finally get a 2" version.
"The Trouble With Tribbles" Kirk has the same hairpiece as all the other 2" Kirk Minimates, this isn't a much of a surprise, and it always looked good anyway. Like the 3" original, Kirk has an infectious smirk on his face that's just delightful, with a raised eyebrow sealing the effectiveness of the expression.
As with the 3", Kirk has a green tunic that is different from his usual yellow command shirt and the green dress uniform. It has slightly more detail than the original, in keeping with the style established for the smaller Star Trek Minimates line, with Kirk's manly pecs outlined.
The lower part of the uniform is well represented too, with the green tunic edge showing on the T-piece, and the ubiquitous flared accessories for the end of the trousers. And yes Rad, he does have very shiny shoes!
"The Trouble With Tribbles" Kirk comes with all three of the accessories the Captain Kirk in wave 1 did (er, minus the Orion Slave Girl, obviously!). I was really pleased to see the communicator, as I had lamented its loss in the original review. Kirk also gets a phaser pistol and a phaser rifle. Strangely, however, he gets no actual Tribbles; an accessory the 3" figure managed to pull off with great aplomb. You can use the ones from the 3" figure but they end up being slightly too big. A real shame, as Tribbles are all this figure is missing to make it one of the best ever Star Trek Minimates.
In conclusion: The absence of Tribbles aside, this is a fantastic, fun figure. I may be slightly fulsome in my praise as I haven't owned any of the many other 2" Kirks, and been beaten into submission by them like Rad has been, but "The Trouble With Tribbles" Kirk has a special place in my heart because of the original, and it has that Minimate beaten on all counts bar one.
MMC Score - 9 out of 10
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Yeoman Rand
Yeoman Janice Rand served on the USS Enterprise during its first 5-year mission of exploration, and was later seen in a couple of the movies as part of the crew. In a line mainly populated by men, it's nice to get another female bridge crew member.
This figure sports an intricate beehive hairdo, making her tower over her counterparts. It's very nicely sculpted at this scale and accurate to the source image shown on Wikipedia. Rand also has a very pleasant and understated face even in Minimate form. You could see why there was a frisson of romantic interest between her and the captain - she's a real 1960s hottie, something this Minimate captures.
Yeoman Rand has the same torso detailing and skirt as the Uhura in wave 2. As Star Trek was going for uniforms for the crew, it's an acceptable and understandable reuse. The detail again is very understated, but it fits. The differences between this figure and Uhura are the flesh colour above the neck of the uniform, and the Starfleet insigna has moved slightly out.
Rand gets the same tricorder that Uhura and Spock had. It works with those Minimates because they have short hair but it fits really awkwardly on Rand as her hair gets in the way and there's not enough room between the hairpiece and the shoulder to really accommodate the tricorder strap. The Padd is also reused from Uhura but seeing as the main job of the Yeoman seemed to be to go up to the Captain as he's sitting in his chair on the bridge and get him to sign it, it's a very apt accessory for Rand.
In conclusion, this is a very nice representation of an underused character. Yeoman Rand (and Nurse Chapel in wave 4) were the sort of character selection the Star Trek line needed in wave 3. Rand is definitely worth picking up to finish off your TOS bridge crew.
MMC Score - 8 out of 10
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Review and pictures by Danny Mills
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