The Good: Amazing sculpts, Decent balance, Great articulation, Cool accessories.
The Bad: Odd uniform choice for Worf, Vastly overaccessorized, Accessory issues.
The Basics: Diamond Select might make fans buy yet another Worf figure to get Chancellor Gowron, but they make it worth it with the quality of the figures in this two-pack!
It takes a great deal for me to feel sorry for a company, especially when a company has a virtual monopoly on a product or service. In the case of Diamond Select Toys, I occasionally feel bad for the company, at least when it comes to their production of Star Trek action figures. Diamond Select is the latest manufacturer to get the Star Trek toy line and they make, frankly, amazing figures. I feel bad for the company because they arrived at the party at least a decade too late. The Star Trek action figure market is virtually dead. The franchise was gutted, its artifacts sold off and consumer enthusiasm for the franchise wanes even as details about the next Star Trek film are strategically leaked.
I mention this at the outset of my review of the Diamond Select Chancellor Gowron & Lieutenant Commander Worf action figure two-pack because these are cool figures that deserved to have been appreciated by collectors and I’ve been able to find it dirt cheap, even now. While some of that may be attributed to the reluctance on the part of fans to buy yet another Worf action figure – especially one in such a historically limited costume for the character – the fact that these were not widely commercially available and still have not retained any real value indicates how depressed the Star Trek action figure market truly is.
Basics
Chancellor Gowron is a popular character from the Star Trek franchise who had not been made into an action figure since the original Playmates toy line. Nothing distinctive on this Gowron makes him the Chancellor (he does not, for example, come with his robes), but he is instantly recognizable as Gowron (hard not to love those big, distinctive, eyes. This version of Gowron stands 7 7/8” tall and features the Klingon leader in pretty standard Klingon armor. His boots each have their appropriate metal spike and the detailing on the costume is exceptional. In addition to soft-plastic sash and gun holster, the Gowron figure features exceptional detailing on the necklace the character wears. It looks braided with copper rings spaced judiciously around it. The facial sculpt for Chancellor Gowron is exceptional with details like the sideburns and eyebrows being meticulously created for this figure. The coloring details rival the sculpt, through the eyes are more blue than Gowron’s actual gray-blue eyes. There is a faint amount of coloring depth to the nose and forehead ridges on Gowron, but otherwise, the figure’s real coloring detail that makes him shine is in the hair. The hair has realistic depth and shading and that is an exceptional level of detail.
As for Worf, Lieutenant Commander Worf is dressed in his black and red Deep Space Nine uniform. He has great detailing on the hair – though the paintjob on his beard is a little sloppy and incomplete – but Diamond Select managed to get his rank pips wrong. This Lieutenant Commander Worf figure has been given a grade promotion to Commander, which he never was while in this uniform. While Worf has realistic depth and shading to his face and forehead, the sculpt is more basic than others in the Diamond Select line. Most notably, this Worf does not have knuckles or fingernails. He does, however, have his sash and it appropriately bears the symbol of the House of Mogh. For die-hard fans who want some versatility to the toy, the sash may be removed. The communicator on the Lieutenant Commander Worf is problematically underpainted. While the figure looks initially good, many of the details are just a little off. The obscurity of the uniform choice might be because Art Asylum created a near-perfect Star Trek: Nemesis Worf (reviewed here!) that made using that uniform pointless.
Accessories
The figures of Chancellor Gowron & Lieutenant Commander Worf come with a whopping eight accessories, all of which are interchangeable between the figures, save the extra hands for Gowron. Either figure, though, may use the StarFleet phaser rifle, a Type II phaser, d’k’tang dagger, Mek’leth, bottle of blood wine, cup for the blood wine, or the Klingon disruptor. That these figures comes with weapons makes a great deal of sense, as much of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was a war story and both characters are Klingon warriors.
The extra hands are exclusively for Gowron and feature the Klingon leader’s fists in spiked gloves. They simply pop in and out of the figure’s forearms and they look fine on the figure. However, using Gowron’s fists means that he cannot hold any other accessories, making it something of a wash to use the fists.
The Type II phaser is fairly detailed, though it has accurate coloring for the buttons, but not the charge indicator. Worf is able to hold the phaser in his left hand only; it slips out of his right hand. Unfortunately, there was no way to connect the phaser to Worf belt's when he is not holding it and he is forced to hold the gun in an awkward grip, as if he was holding a dagger. So, sadly, this is a poor accessory for Worf. On Gowron, the 1” plastic gun looks even more ridiculous.
Gowron easily makes up for that with the Klingon Disruptor. At 1 1/2” long, with meticulous detailing to the sculpt, the Klingon Disruptor fits the quality of the rest of the Gowron figure. Gowron can easily hold the Klingon Disruptor in his right hand in a grip that looks like it was made for the black, silver and rust-colored plastic gun. The Klingon Disruptor also fits perfectly into the holster on Gowron’s right hip and looks great there. Worf may hold the disruptor in either of his hands.
Only Worf may hold the cup for the blood wine and that nearly forces his fingers on his right hand open in a way that ruins the figure. The wide cup looks just like the one in the show: like coiled lead with a thin, wide mouth. It is well-cast for these figures, but one wishes they included hands that looked good holding it! I would almost have less of a problem with interchangeable hands that had the accessories molded into them as opposed to perfectly accurate accessories that either cannot be held or look doofy when they are!
The 1 7/15” blood wine bottle is molded to look just like the ones on the show, but does not have any label to make it match. Moreover, given that it is monotonal silver plastic, the bloodwine bottle looks silly in either figure’s hand, especially compared to the level of quality of those figures. That said, Worf may hold the bottle reasonably well in either of his hands. Gowron cannot hold it in either.
Gowron looks absolutely badass holding the bat’leth sword. The Bat’leth is 5 1/8” long and features the silver-gray blade cast to look clean and sharp. The grips are appropriately brown and made to look like wrapped leather. Gowron can hold the bat’leth perfectly in a two-handed grip. Worf’s hands also seem to be molded to ideally hold the bat’leth in a two-handed grip. It looks good with him, too!
Worf’s mek’leth is a curved blade that is surprisingly flat, as opposed to beveled for reakism. At just under 2” long, it looks like a little cutlass and is silver and black. It fits in either of his hands, but does not look great in either hand. Gowron may grip it in his right hand, but it looks no better there.
Both Gowron and Worf were seen using d’k’tang daggers in the show, so that accessory makes a lot of sense. The black and silver three-bladed knife is surprisingly intricate. It is cast with the side blades out and is 1 3/8” long. While there is no way to attach it to Gowron’s belt, the knife looks great in his left hand. Worf can hold it in his left hand as well, but it looks terribly small there!
Finally, there is the phaser rifle. At three and one-eighth inches long, this firearm is in perfect proportion to the rest of the figure and the attention to detail on it is as astonishing. Unlike the old Playmates figures, which came with solid-colored accessories, this phaser rifle is gray and black with colored details for the sight – which is raised - and the display. The figure is able to hold it with two hands in an appropriate pose and it's possible even to extend the right trigger finger to place it on the trigger. This is truly incredible for a toy in terms of detailing and styling.
Playability
Both Chancellor Gowron and Lieutenant Commander Worf embody a high standard for Diamond Select Star Trek figures in terms of playability. Both have sixteen points of articulation: ankles, knees, groin socket, biceps, elbows, wrists, shoulders, neck, and waist. The neck articulation is good for Worf, but Gowron’s hair is molded in such a way that makes his head articulation pointless. His head cannot actually move. The shoulders on both figures are more impressive. As ball and socket joints (like real shoulders!), they are able to strike a number of poses that might otherwise be impossible, including Klingon head butting!
Moreover, for use with actual play, both have great movement potential. Their balance is excellent and, because of the added articulation in the ankles and knees, they may be posed in outlandish poses and still remain standing!
Collectibility
Diamond Select had a comparatively limited production run on the Chancellor Gowron and Lieutenant Commander Worf two-pack, but as a further sign of just how dead the franchise is, this two-pack can be pretty easily found under its original release price of $30. Despite how sloppy elements of Worf’s paintjob are (as I moved the figure around more, I discovered his hand (for example) had a random red blob of paint on one side!), this is a pretty awesome Gowron figure and there is enough to both the figures and its accessories to believe that if Star Trek ever made a real resurgence, this would be one of the two-packs that would become highly sought-after.
Overview
Vastly superior to prior Gowron figures, the Chancellor Gowron and Lieutenant Commander Worf 2-pack might compel fans to pick up another Worf, but for all they get in this two-pack, it is a steal!
This toy is based upon Lieutenant Commander Worf as he appeared in the fourth season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (reviewed here!) and Gowron as he appeared throughout Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (reviewed here!)
For other Klingon figure toys, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
Worf In StarFleet Rescue Outfit
B’Etor
Ambassador K’Ehleyr
8.5/10
For other toy reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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