I was planning on one toy blog post for this week, in between movie reviews, and I reminded myself I had one particular acquisition backlogged. Quite a while ago, I introduced the
3 inch Marx space guys, including The Space Guy Who Doesn't Care. At the time, I knew I was well short of a complete set, but the ones still out there didn't interest me enough to shell out for the rest. About a month ago, however, I found a full set for a good enough price that I put in an order. Here's the lineup, starting with the figure that interested me most.
"You're saying the Prime Directive violates the principle of observer effect and basic ethics?"
It should be pretty obvious why I like this guy. One look at pics of this sculpt immediately made me think Captain Kirk. The pose, the facial expression, the wonky phone-thingy, all are perfect for Star Trek. I wouldn't seriously suggest that this somehow influenced the show, but it does make it clear that a lot of things about it were already very much part of the visual vocabulary of science fiction. In fact, the undoubted common source was the Tom Corbett TV series and comics, which Marx originally licensed in the early to mid-1950's and continued to recycle well after they stopped paying for the rights or otherwise acknowledging the source. Given this background, Trek was if anything more respectful to this and other earlier properties than the Marx staff who were directly involved. Meanwhile, here's the next pose in the lineup, and it's... odd.
"Why can't they make this suit unzip from the bottom?"
To be blunt, the pose and expression look like this guy is either in sheer terror or trying to find whatever functions as the space toilet. Still, it's reasonably intriguing, which is more than can be said for this guy, literall a major reason I did not want to pay for a full set. Beyond being clearly based on a TV aerial, I have no idea what this thing is supposed to be, and I don't care.
"With this, I bet we could pick up 20, even 30 channels!"
Things are looking up with the next pair. One is a space guy with a rifle that I already had in a silver color different from the rest. The other is a sort of wonky robot or alien; theories differ whether he's the enemy or on the space guys' side. What I was surprised to discover is that he's definitely sculpted as wearing trousers, with enough detail that I'm a little wary of showing the back. What would be underneath is anyone's guess.
Then there are the duplicates to the ones I already had, which are often the most intriguing. This time around, there were no big surprises. For the most part, the plastic looks the same, except for the robot and the rifle guy, which have a sort of milky, almost but not quite translucent texture. For further distinctions, the copies I previously got had some kind of pink staining that I can pick out, while the new group have a bit more "flash" around the edges. The big difference is that I now have a full set of helmets. I remain unimpressed by these, though I'm sure the quality of this batch hasn't helped. They're easily smudged, several seem to have pitting or air pockets, and as an extra annoyance, there's some residue of what looks like very fine-grained glitter. (Of course, I hate glitter.) Fitting the helmets proved a bit random. With some figures, they barely fit even when I tried multiple copies, especially the Space Guy Who Doesn't Care. With others, they lock down well enough that I can pick on the whole figure just by gripping the helmet. The big surprise was that the best and most consistent fit by far is the silver rifle guy, which makes me think he's closest to the originals in the molding and plastic. Here's a line-up of the duplicates, and a close-up.
"Okay, I'll do you if you do me..."
"And we're walking, and we're walking..."
"Do you know what this is?"
And while I'm at it, a lineup with the Aliens APC!
"We got nukes, we got knives, we got... a thermometer?"
With that, I'm wrapping this up. I have been debating a few more pics, but I think I've covered this well enough, and I have enough other things backlogged that I can fit in the guys later. That's all for now, more to come!
The "Star Trek" pilot episodes had crew costume more work-like than when the series got going. It's generally well known that their first go, "The Cage", was broadcast, most of it, as flashback in two-part story "The Menagerie", and "Where No Man Has Gone Before". Then they settled on polo neck shirts. I think in "The Cage" they also spent more time carrying equipment. Film "Forbidden Planet" is another classic of Space Guy costume and accessory design.
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