AA/ DST Spotlight- Captain James T. Kirk (Casual Attire)

Figure Name: Captain James T. Kirk
Manufacturer: Art Asylum Toys



Kirk was released carded as part of Art Asylum's first wave of Classic Star Trek figures...



...and as part of an Avon exclusive 3-pack with Bones and Spock.



And there's the one I had autographed by Shatner...



The Rundown: Art Asylum chose to release Kirk in his casual attire as their first carded Kirk, opting to use the more standard yellow shirt Kirk for their "Exclusive Premiere Edition". I like Kirk's casual attire, but I think they should have flipped those choices. Yellow-shirt Kirk definitely deserved the carded treatment, and the lesser-seen casual attire works much better as an exclusive. Oh well...



Kirk features your standard AA-style body. There's plenty of articulation coupled with a great sculpt. I especially like the proportions used here... this is definitely a young, barrel-chested "hero" Kirk.



AA's Kirk head is probably the weakest of their Classic Trek head sculpts. It's not terrible, but it's definitely a little off. DST's upcoming TOS Wave 5 head looks far superior (if we ever actually get that wave...).



My biggest gripe on the figure is the shirt. You've read my concerns before on it's longevity and my fears of it becoming brittle, but there's also issues with the gold paint on this release. The trim of the shirt and the wraparound insignia have already started to fade and have a greenish hue on mine. That's not fun.



Accessories: Kirk comes with a phaser and a tricorder. The Avon release only has the phaser.



If you don't have this guy yet, I wouldn't worry too much about going back to grab it. He's coming back again with the Electronic Captain's Chair as a "Trouble With Tribbles"-style exclusive which (going by DST's track record) should have a better paint job. Then there's the DST Wave 5 Casual Kirk, which is a different variation of the casual attire but looks like a better figure all around (if it gets released...). Oh, an then Toys R Us has a Casual Kirk release coming too, which will either be a reissue of this one or the DST Wave 5 figure. So there's plenty of options instead of picking this one up and having to deal with it's paint issues.

-James