The Good: All right sculpt, Great accessories, Articulation
The Bad: Errors in detailing, Cannot hold all of his accessories, Dust sticks to shirt.
The Basics: This is a sadly average (at best) interpretation of Deep Space Nine's Chief of Operations from a very cool episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Over time, Some action figures change. I'm not talking out our desire to have them around, to play with or use as display pieces. I mean that sometimes a toy, an action figure, can actually be altered by removing the figure from the safe environment of its packaging. This, I have discovered rather unpleasantly, has happened with some of my "Trials And Tribble-ations" action figures from Art Asylum and Diamond Select Toys. This was especially pronounced with the Captain Sisko figure from that line and as I inspect my Chief Petty Officer Miles O'Brien figure from the same line, I'm discovering a similar, severe, discoloration.
The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine action figures from the episode "Trials And Tribble-ations" (reviewed here!) initially seemed very cool. That episode put key members of space station Deep Space Nine back in time into an episode of the original Star Trek and forced Sisko, Dax, O'Brien, and Bashir to go undercover in classic Star Trek uniforms. Sadly, even the limited edition Chief Miles O'Brien is hampered by a pretty severe problem that comes up as time goes by: dust.
Basics
The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine "Trials And Tribble-ations" Series of action figures contains a Chief Miles O'Brien figure, as he is disguised as a noncom. His is wearing the red and black Star Trek uniform. In that series, red was for Engineering. Standing seven and one-quarter inches tall, this is a fair likeness of Chief O'Brien immortalized in plastic. The uniform is well-detailed for the character and the face is a good likeness of Colm Meany's enduring character. While this O'Brien figure lacks some of the coloring detail that defines most Art Asylum figures, the coloring is good. In fact, the only real problem with the sculpt is that the face looks a little more angular than Chief O'Brien usually does. O'Brien has one of the more round faces in the Star Trek pantheon and this sculpt does not reflect that.
The paint job is generally well done. The uniform is appropriately colored and the figure looks good in that respect. Strangely, the Command Delta symbol is printed on the figure's shirt, instead of the appropriate Engineering Delta symbol. This leads to the biggest problem with the O'Brien figure: dust sticks to the rubbery shirt of the action figure. I recently took the figure out of storage and discovered there was ordinary dust on the action figure. Since then, I have attempted to remove the dust by carefully wiping it and then later with hot water and friction. Having ruined one figure this way, I am not messing that much with this one, but it suffers the same dust problem as the Sisko.
Accessories
Chief Miles O'Brien comes with four accessories: A Classic StarFleet communicator, a classic Type II phaser, a classic tricorder, and a pair of tribbles. That Chief O'Brien comes with a tricorder makes a lot of sense as he used one throughout "Trials And Tribble-ations" to attempt to find the tribble bomb. The tricorder may be slung over his shoulder as it includes a flexible rubber strap and it fits well into the figure's left hand as well.
The Communicator fits awkwardly in either of his hands and the detailing is absolutely amazing. The buttons are red and green and for such a tiny piece that attention to detail is incredible. Unfortunately, the top, gold grill does not fold over for any increased playability.
The phaser is similarly well-detailed. Unlike the old Playmates figures, which came with solid-colored accessories, this phaser is gray and black with colored details and it fits perfectly in either of O'Brien's hands. It is pretty decent that both of O'Brien's hands may hold accessories and the combination of tricorder and phaser for this figure makes for a good look!
Then there are the tribbles. The tribbles are simple fluff balls. It's pretty much what the standard is for a toy of a tribble, but it still seems pretty lame.
Playability
Chief O'Brien is one of the most playable and poseable Star Trek action figures yet and Art Asylum and Diamond Select Toys deserve a lot of credit for that. Chief Miles O'Brien is blessed as well by having nineteen points of articulation: ankles, knees, thighs, groin socket, biceps, elbows, wrists, shoulders, neck, abdomen and waist. The neck articulation is incredible given that the base of the neck is a ball joint, allowing for up and down posing as well as left to right movement. But the shoulders are equally impressive. As ball and socket joints (like real shoulders!), Chief O'Brien is able to strike a number of poses that might otherwise be impossible and allow him to be posed in pretty advanced poses. But what sets this figure apart is the articulation in the abdomen. In addition to turning at the waist, Chief O'Brien is jointed just above the abdomen region with a joint that allows for left to right and front to back motion.
Moreover, for use with actual play, Chief O'Brien has all sorts 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, while there is a lot of articulation, the ankles are somewhat problematic; they basically pivot the foot up or down and there seems to be a predisposition in the sculpt - at least the one I have - for the foot to be angled down some and there is some resistance to flattening it. I've found the left foot on my O'Brien to be particularly tight and pointed down in its default position.
Collectibility
Art Asylum and Diamond Select did not exactly mass produce the "Trials And Tribble-ations" figures. Indeed, most were exclusives, including the Chief O'Brien figure, which was exclusive to New Force Comics And Collectibles. Unlike previous Star Trek toy lines, there are no individual numbers on these figures, but mostly they were only available at hobby and comic book shops, so it is not like they were drastically overproduced by any means. The O'Brien is was still fairly well distributed and it does appear that the market was never flooded with these. As a result, it has - at the very least - retained its original value.
Overview
Art Asylum is usually one of the standard-bearers in terms of attention to detail, but between the facial sculpt and the misdetailed shirt, the O'Brien figure is a bit problematic. In regards to the sculpt, it is hard to argue with the articulation of this figure, but it is too easy to knock over and discovering (the hard way) that it gets so dirty from ordinary household dust and becomes virtually impossible to clean off without ruining the detailing on the figure makes it far less durable as a toy.
For other Star Trek: Deep Space Nine action figures, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Playmates Chief Miles O’Brien
Diamond Select Captain Benjamin Sisko
Diamond Select Ezri Dax
5/10
For other toy reviews, please check out my Toy Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the toys I have reviewed!
© 2012, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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