Star Trek Minimates Wave 4 - Captain Picard and Borg Drone
Like a battle damaged USS Enterprise, Star Trek Minimates limped on, refusing to surrender to the inevitable. Wave 4 actually took the bold step of including non-TOS characters and variants. With this pack DST shambles out of the TOS ghetto, rubs its eyes at the bright glare of daylight and finally, finally, finally, they give us characters from another era of Trek.
Packaging
It's the standard blister carded pack, the same as in previous waves of the 2" scaled Trek-Mates. This wave has the backing card in dark blue. Both figures are easily viewable within.
The rear of the packaging features a large photo of all the figures in the wave.
The Figures
Captain Picard
Star Trek: The Next Generation saw Jean-Luc Picard as a French-born yet English-accented captain of the USS Enterprise NCC1701-D. A vessel with an illustrious name, and a captain worthy of the vessel.
This is not a bad likeness at all considering that once again we're dealing with a real persons face, though it is subject to the usual limitations and this Picard does look too full in the face. That can't be helped and shouldn't be viewed as a negative comment. Minimates are stylised human figures. Sometimes they work brilliantly, other times they do the best they can. The expression on Picard is very good. Serious, thoughtful, maybe even conflicted. I particularly like the work on the area around the brow. It gives the impression that there's a lot going on in the mind of that half-inch plastic noggin.
I also like the detailing to the back of the head. A lot of work's gone into Jean-Luc's small amount of hair. It's surprising just how much work, as the hair isn't at all apparent from the front of the head.
There's an addition between the head and the chest block. A small circle of black plastic represents the collar of the (then current) Starfleet uniform and also allows for somewhere to put the gold rank pips, of which Picard, as Captain, gets four.
The chest block is simply decorated. A black block with a rich red tampo and a further smaller gold tampo which is both Starfleet insignia and communicator. The arms are also red apart from small black patches at the shoulder which continue the black section across the top of the block.
In essence this is a very basic Minimate with minimal decoration and only two small additions; he aforementioned collar piece and a small holster that sits on the left hip. This holster carries a phaser pistol which itself is very well realised. Regular black legs and nice and shiny feet complete the 'mate but for once the feet aren't the most exciting thing about the figure.
In conclusion: A welcome addition to the Trek range. Shame it took so many Kirk/Spock/McCoy variants to get here.
MMC Score - 8 out of 10
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Borg Drone
A mechanical plague, a technological virus. The Borg exist to expand, and they expand by assimilating every race and culture they encounter. Resistance is Futile (I think it's law that you have to say that when writing about the Borg).
It's like, you wait for a really cool Star Trek Minimate for ages. And then two come along at once. The Borg Drone is excellently realised. Its face has a deathly pallor (the dark areas around the eyes are especially effective) and an expression that could be haughty or neutral.
The head piece is asymmetric with plenty of cool-looking tubes hanging out of it and what also appears to be some kind of rangefinder by the left eye. It also cleverly utilises the post hole in the head. Remove the head-piece and you'll find a beautifully detailed silver tampo that represents circuitry.
It really is amazing the level of detail that's gone into this head.
The body is also very impressive detail-wise, although the dark subdued colours tend to swallow the light which makes picking out the detail quite difficult. It seems there's not a millimeter left uncovered on the chestpiece. The obvious silver highlights draw the eye away from the moulding and texturing that's going on. Turn the 'mate around and there's what appears to be part of a spinal column apparent as well as more of that moulding.
Removing the chestpiece brings a huge surprise. Rather than the expected pure grey or black chest block there's what's left of a DS9 era Starfleet uniform complete with communicator badge, plus some definitely non-Starfleet-issue additions. Even the back of this chest block has been detailed with what look to be Borg implants.
The 'mate has brand new sculpts instead of regular hands. The right hand sculpt extends the forearm and ends in a disturbingly chunky looking circular saw. The left hand is shorter but thicker and appears to have hints of grey borgified flesh showing. A sweet touch is the bands of fiesh colour at the ends of the arms which are totally out of view unless the 'hands' are removed. There is a further non-standard piece that sits on the lower right leg making it much larger than the left. I'm not sure what this piece is supposed to represent but it looks good all the same.
The Borg Drone has no accessories.
In Conclusion: The best Star Trek Minimate yet. I can't think of a single other figure in the line that can stand up to this bad boy.
MMC Score - 9 out of 10
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Review and pictures by Rad Kerrigan
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