The Good: Generally good coloring, Decent variety of accessories, Generally decent sculpt
The Bad: Obvious reused parts for figure and accessories, Accessory coloring
The Basics: A very average action figure, the Lieutenant Jadzia Dax In Klingon Armor figure tips easily off her stand, has poorly colored accessories, but otherwise looks great!
There are few characters from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine who regularly appeared in alternate guises. But the one who might have had a most regular non-uniform outfit was Lieutenant Jadzia Dax. Dax had strong ties to the Klingons and she appeared in several episodes in Klingon armor. The first time this happened was in the second season in "Blood Oath." That outfit became the subject of an action figure in 1995 when Playmates Toys made the Lieutenant Jadzia Dax In Klingon Armor From The Episode "Blood Oath" action figure.
Jadzia Dax appeared in her Klingon attire for the first time in the episode "Blood Oath" (reviewed here!). In that episode, Jadzia Dax finds herself visited by three old Klingons, who were friends of her prior host, Curzon. Jadzia has to make the tough decision of whether or not to accompany her old friends on a mission of vengeance and for that, she has to wear Klingon armor for protection.
Basics
The Star Trek 1995 Collection of action figures contained twelve figures and it focused on filling in gaps from the main crews from Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine while also offering alternate identities of the main cast, like Picard as Galen and a handful of memorable guest stars, like Vash (reviewed here!). Jadzia Dax in Klingon Armor is essentially the original Jadzia Dax head popped onto a new body, one adorned in Klingon armor.
This Jadzia Dax figure is the Trill scientist and warrior as she appeared in "Blood Oath," wearing a silver-gray armor with wide shoulder pads and a keyhole in the breastplate which allowed her to wear a simple insulated shirt beneath. The outfit looks generally decent with the armor featuring the ribbing from the original costume and pants also having realistic texturing as well.
Standing four and a half inches tall, this is a decent likeness of Jadzia Dax immortalized in plastic and this almost makes up for her mediocre balance. The character is molded with her hands ready to hold most of her accessories as her hands are in a half-closed position. Her legs have a very neutral stance, but is poorly balanced and she does not stand up easily unaided. This has nothing to do with her attire, as Dax in Klingon Armor has her wearing boots. There is a decent level of costume detailing, including the holster for her dagger that Jadzia Dax has on her right thigh. Like most Star Trek figures from this time, Jadzia Dax does not have molded fingernails or knuckles.
Jadzia Dax's face is molded in a neutral, though almost chipper expression that is realistic for the character. The figure is a decent sculpting of Jadzia, looking precisely like Terry Farrell. The figure even has a belt pouch which looks pretty good on her.
The paint job is one of the better ones for a Playmates figure. The skin tones include blush in the cheeks and Dax has proper spots along her hairline, like she is supposed to. The figure's lips are painted to look like they have lipstick and the look fits the figure and the character well. Jadzia Dax's eyes are bright blue with white pupils, which look fair, but is one of the weaker parts of the paintjob.
Accessories
Jadzia Dax comes with five accessories, half of which were created new for her. Jadzia Dax comes with a StarFleet duffel bag, a bat'leth, a Klingon dagger, cups of bak'dule and the base. The Action base is a Klingon symbol with no other adornments. Near the peak of the red spike of the symbol is a peg which fits into the hole in either of Jadzia Dax's feet! When Jadzia Dax stands flatfooted on the stand, she is stable for balance and has a decent, neutral display appearance.
The d'k tahg Klingon dagger is surprisingly appropriately colored as a gunmetal dagger which looks good in either of Dax's hands. The inch-long knife fits in the holster as well and it is light on molded details and is actually a little sharp - it hurts when one gets poked with it!
The StarFleet duffel bag is perfectly appropriate for Jadzia Dax as she used one in "Blood Oath." This is a simple cylinder, recycled from other figures, which has a thin plastic strap which allows Jadzia Dax to sling the bag over her shoulder. The cylinder contains decent molded details to make it look like it might be opened and it has a little white StarFleet symbol on it. The strap is thin and in perfect proportion to the rest of the figure. This accessory may easily be slung over Jadzia Dax's shoulder, but with its unrealistic purple color, it is hard to want it to!
The bat'leth is the same Klingon sword that has come with virtually every Klingon-themed Playmates figure since the first line. It is a three and a half inch long curved plastic piece with the blades poking out and the three grips. While the bat'leth is molded to look like it has decent molded details, like the wrapped leather grips, the accessory lacks any painted details, like the contrasting leather-color for the grips.
The cup of Bak'dule is a grouping of four small open cylinders on a curved tray. The cups do not come off and the tray cannot possibly fit in Dax's grip. Sadly, it too is cast in an utterly ridiculous purple plastic.
This is the unfortunate aspect of all three of Jadzia Dax's accessories outside the dagger; they are molded in an unrealistic bright purple plastic which looks unlike what any of the props looked like on the show. Clearly Playmates went through some effort to sculpt the accessories realistically, but the coloring completely guts the sense of realism and clashes with the coloring of the figure. Jadzia Dax is over-accessorized and with the lame coloring of the accessories, it is a huge drawback for the overall figure.
Playmates included a pog unique to the figure from SkyBox which attracted trading card collectors to this figure in addition to toy collectors. The SpaceCap has a headshot of Dax with a wormhole image behind her. The back has a checklist of all of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine figures that were intended to have pogs come with them. While this is a fairly unremarkable pog, the added incentive did generate interest with card collectors.
Playability
Jadzia Dax In Klingon Armor was one of the better figures in the 1995 line. The 1995 line, in addition to having some truly terrible sculpts (Dr. Pulaski looks nothing like what she is supposed to), it also featured some problematically executed figures. Jadzia Dax has mediocre balance and she stands poorly when off her base. Jadzia Dax 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, but the head cannot nod. Jadzia's head only turns about forty-five degrees, as her ponytail prevents the head from turning further. As well, 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 posability!
Moreover, for use with actual play, Jadzia Dax may bend or extend at the elbows, which offers a greater amount of movement potential making her one of the more realistic Star Trek action figures to play with (for those who actually play with these toys!). On her base, Jadzia Dax is stable enough and she may be posed in a few action poses, but she is not one of the best-balanced figures.
Collectibility
Jadzia Dax In Klingon Armor is one of only a very few women from Star Trek who ended up as an action figure that prevented this toy from being a complete pegwarmer. Fans bought this Jadzia Dax and she seems to have appreciated slightly in the secondary market a fair amount, but those who open her up or are discriminating in their tastes tended to be disappointed by the figure's lack of balance.
On the plus side, Playmates tried to make the figures collectible. Each Jadzia Dax figure has an individual number on the bottom of her right 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 11,500 figures out there (my Jadzia Dax is #011001!).
Overview
The Jadzia Dax In Klingon Armor figure is slightly unbalanced and is an action figure plagued by accessories that she either cannot hold or look ridiculous when she does. Even so, the sculpt and coloring of the figure are good and on her stand, she remains standing.
For other Star Trek figures from the 1996 line, please check out my reviews of:
Jem'Hadar Soldier
Odo From “Necessary Evil”
The Hunter Of The Tosk
Jean-Luc Picard As Seen In “Tapestry”
6/10
For other toy reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2011, 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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