Lieutenant Worf In StarFleet Rescue Outfit Rocks!

The Good: Generally good detailing, Accessories fit figure well
The Bad: Balance issues, Minor accessory issues
The Basics: A generally cool action figure, the Lieutenant Worf in StarFleet Rescue Outfit is a good figure with a few little problems most fans will be able to overlook!


Lieutenant Worf In StarFleet Rescue Attire is a figure I almost feel like I am being too hard on, but my rating ought to be considered as an enthusiastic "recommend" rather than just that this is an average figure. The figure is a little bit above average and has great accessories; I just think it's irksome that so few of the accessories either fit in Worf's hands or can be played with in any useful way. As well, the figure tips awfully easily, even when on his base. Even so, this is a decent sculpt and Playmates did a decent job with coloring on Worf's head ridges.

Basics

The Star Trek: The Next Generation 1994 Collection of action figures contained nineteen figures and it fleshed out the alter-egos of the main cast while presenting new, secondary characters and aliens. Lieutenant Worf In StarFleet Rescue Outfit As Seen In "Birthright I & II" Episodes was one of the more inspired figures in the assortment. It was part of the first release and never seemed to stay on the shelves, so it has generally maintained its value in the secondary market. Like most of the figures in this assortment, it features a SpaceCap pog which made it hunted by trading card collectors as well. Despite there being so many figures of Lieutenant Worf, this seems to be one of the more popular ones, fleshing out the whole line well

The Lieutenant Worf In StarFleet Rescue Outfit figure is the Klingon officer as he appeared while on a secret mission in "The Birthright" (reviewed here and here!). Lieutenant Worf is wearing a black bodysuit with a silver-gray belt. He has a broad chest and a Klingon head. His outfit does not have any distinct markings and is designed for stealth; it is what Worf wore while undercover creeping through the jungles.

Standing five and one-eighth inches tall, this is a decent likeness of Lieutenant Worf, played by Michael Dorn, immortalized in plastic. The character is molded with his hands ready to hold any of the accessories in a half-closed position. His legs have a very neutral stance, so the earlier more "action oriented" appearances of Worf balance well against this one in displays. There is a decent level of uniform detailing, though the outfit is very simple as it is all black with ribbing on the chest, arms and legs. The belt is made of a soft plastic which is not intended to be removed, but may be.

Lieutenant Worf's face is molded in a scowl and it lacks much in the way of detail, though the lips are curled out to reveal bright white teeth that are individually painted for distinction. The figure includes such important details as the distinctive Klingon head ridges and the facial hair molded into the plastic, though most of the facial hair detailing is simply painted on. The face and hair lack any sense of realistic toning. This Worf has the full ponytail, as is appropriate for the character by the time he wore this costume. Otherwise, the facial sculpt is identical to earlier Worfs.

The paint job is mediocre. The skin tones are monolithic brown and lack any shading or subtlety. The shading in the head ridges is excellent, though and there is darker to accent them more than just being simple black triangles. The eyes, though, are lacking in detailing and are basically little brown dots with white pupils. The uniform is appropriately colored and the figure looks good in that respect.

Accessories

Lieutenant Worf In StarFleet Rescue Attire comes with six accessories, including the base. This Worf actually features uniquely-created accessories for the figure, like the Klingon spear and ring, an explosive charge, homing device, backpack and an action base shaped like a Klingon symbol. That Lieutenant Worf comes with weapons makes a great deal of sense, as his role when in the StarFleet Rescue Outfit was one of security and he had to be adequately equipped! The Action base is unfortunately not enough to support Lieutenant Worf in posed and is a Klingon symbol cast in bright red and gold. The center of the base has a peg which fits into the hole in either of Lieutenant Worf's feet! When Worf stands flatfooted on the stand, he is fine for balance and appearance.

The Klingon Spear and Ring are two accessories that perfectly accompany this action figure. They were featured in the "Birthright" episodes and Worf showed Klingons how to play the game with them. The spear fits awkwardly in either of Worf's hands, but the real drawback of this accessory is that there is no way to pose Worf with the spear and ring to make them look like he is in the process of throwing either or both well. They do both feature decent molded details, though and the spear is appropriately pointy to make for a convincing weapon.

The Explosive Charge is an inch-long cylinder which resembles a German grenade from World War II. The homing beacon is almost the same size and is a minorly textured cylinder with a few "buttons" on it. Both of these accessories fit into the backpack accessory on the outer pocket!

The backpack is a very soft plastic backpack which has straps which fit around both of Worf's shoulders. This actually is a very simple, specific accessory which is surprising in that the straps do not wear out even with putting it on and taking it off the figure excessively. This holds the explosive charge and homing beacon and looks decent on Worf.

All five of these accessories are molded in a dull silver plastic that is utterly lacking in realistic coloring detail. Lieutenant Worf is over-accessorized and with the lame coloring of the accessories, it is a bit of a drawback for the overall figure. Still, Playmates included a SpaceCap pog which attracted trading card collectors to this figure in addition to toy collectors. The pog is a dark purple/black card with a headshot of Worf on it. The back only has a checklist for the various figures that have pogs and the pog may be popped out of the card to play the game that pogs are known for.

Playability

Lieutenant Worf In StarFleet Rescue Outfit continued a generally high level quality from Playmates and he was quite good at the time, pleasing collectors and fans alike. Despite being molded in a stiffer pose than suits the costume, this is not a bad sculpt of Lieutenant Worf. . Lieutenant Worf In StarFleet Rescue Outfit is endowed with twelve points of articulation: knees, groin socket, biceps, elbows, shoulders, neck, and waist. All of the joints, save the elbows and knees, are simple swivel joints. As a result, the neck turns left to right, for example, but the head cannot nod. Similarly, the shoulders are not ball and socket joints and only rotate. Still, Playmates dealt with this limitation by having a swivel joint in the bicep, that allows everything below to turn and offers real decent poseability!

Moreover, for use with actual play, Lieutenant Worf may bend or extend at the elbows, which offers a greater amount of movement potential making him one of the more realistic Star Trek action figures to play with (for those who actually play with these toys!). Unfortunately, his head does not have much of a range of motion due to the stiff plastic of the ponytail on the back of his head.

On his base, Lieutenant Worf is fairly stable, though only in flatfooted poses with the Klingon symbol turned sideways.

Collectibility

Playmates mass produced the first few waves of Star Trek: The Next Generation figures, but by the time Lieutenant Worf In StarFleet Rescue Outfit came along, there were some more limited figures. This Lieutenant Worf was not one of them, but it sold fairly well given how uninspired some of the other figures in the line were. Still, trading card collectors helped buy these figures up because of the collectible pog and fans are likely to find this figure a little harder to find now, though the price has not appreciated much in the secondary market.

That said, at least Playmates tried to make the figures collectible. Each figure has an individual number on the bottom of his left foot. In the attempt to make them appear limited, they had numbers stamped on them, though one has to seriously wonder how limited something should be considered when there are at least 19000 figures out there (my Lieutenant Worf is #018191!).

Overview

The Lieutenant Worf In StarFleet Rescue Gear figure is a good one and it certainly breaks up the monotony of having all Worfs in StarFleet outfits, but it is still not the best figure as far as balance or coloring goes.

For other figures from this series, check out my reviews of:
Picard As A Romulan
Data In Dress Uniform
Esoqq The Chalnoth

7/10

For other toy reviews, visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

| | |