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he latest in the hugely successful Star Trek television franchise is Enterprise. Instead of taking the characters and universe we know and looking further along the timeline, this new series, just entering its second season, goes the other way, beginning with man's first ventures into deep space. A century before, man's first warp flight attracted the attention of the benevolent but somewhat condescending Vulcan race. When Enterprise's first episode begins, Vulcans have been holding mankind's collective hand, carefully supervising man's advances in technology until a time when the Vulcans deem they will be ready for open space exploration.
In "Broken Bow," the series premiere, Jonathan Archer is tired of being held back by Earth's overly cautious caretakers and is eager to fulfill his father's dream of taking mankind into its destiny as explorers in space on the new starship, Enterprise. Suddenly, a small capsule lands in the heartland of the United States, and from it emerges a creature never before seen on Earth, a Klingon. It seems that the Enterprise's first mission is at hand—returning the injured Klingon to his people, a perfect opportunity to test the new ship and meet new races. When the crew encounters the time-traveling race, the Suliban, Archer realizes just how unready they may be to face the vast unknown. Undaunted, however, and too stubborn to ask the Vulcans to bail them out on their first tentative steps, the crew of the Enterprise succeed in bringing Klaang to Kronos.
Art Asylum has introduced its first series of Enterprise action figures as seen in "Broken Bow." Included in this series are Capt. Jonathan Archer, Sub-Commander T'Pol, Lt. Malcolm Reed and Ensign Travis Mayweather of the Enterprise. Also included are Klaang, the injured Vulcan, and Silik, the Suliban.
Quite different from Star Trek figures that were so popular several years ago, Art Asylum has given Trek fans a series of figures that break the mold. Rather than the smooth, polished lines and features of the always cartoony 3.5" figures, Art Asylum seems to have gone through the Todd MacFarlane school of action figures, providing figures that are gritty, detailed, lifelike and incredibly well articulated.
Each figure stands between 7 and 8 inches tall, features excellent articulation and detail, and comes packed with extra sets of hands, communicators, phase pistols and other assorted accessories, as well as a translucent blue Enterprise stand and a small medal of authenticity, Art Asylum's "official seal of insanity."
A step up from the usual Star Trek figures
Art Asylum has done a great job with this series of figures, even starting with the packaging. But judging these figures from their appearance within those packages would be a mistake. The true features are for the most part hidden to those who would prefer to keep the figures locked up in their cages.
For example, in his package, Jonathan Archer seems to have some of the standard articulation points—shoulders, elbows, knees—but upon first glance he has no articulation in his hips, and his head looks like it may be in a permanent slouch. Not so! Rather, his head and ankles are on very flexible ball joints, and, most interestingly, he features a pair of fully articulated hips hidden underneath a flexible rubber shell that allow for full motion without revealing joints. The same goes for most of the figures, whose uniforms alternate from plastic to rubber in an effect that at first feels creepy and fleshlike, but soon reveals that Art Asylum is employing some very clever toy designers.
Each figure comes with relevant gear and extra hands to vary poses. Archer and Mayweather each have a communicator, scanner and phase pistol. T'Pol has a Vulcan scanner, a communicator and a phase pistol. Reed has a communicator, a scanner and a pair of pistols in a hard-shell case. Klaang has a Klingon disruptor, ceremonial knife and Bat'Leth. Silik comes with four extra hands and two Suliban hand weapons.
The facial likenesses are just a little off. Jonathan Archer, for example, almost looks more like George W. Bush than the actor Scott Bakula. Still, these faces more accurately portray their likenesses than the average action figure.
Some of the replacement hands are so similar to the installed hands as to make them redundant. Also, while the clever rubber shells make seamless leg articulation possible, twisting the joints to extremes may result in separation of the rubber from the plastic. A little care should be taken.
Silik's arms are completely rubber and have no elbow joints. Don't try to twist his bicep joints, as they do not appear to be joints at all, but rather connection points between rubber and plastic which do not rotate.
With more figures on the way, and a series of other toys, the first series of Enterprise action figures share the promise of the show itself, which at this time is considerable.
I found these figures to be quite a pleasant surprise as the full richness of their articulation was revealed. I'm just glad Art Asylum did not include sound chips that, at the push of a button, played the horrid Enterprise theme song! — Sean
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