Sneak Preview- Hollywood Collectible Group 1/6th Scale Mr. Spock Statue!

So remember last week when I spotlighted the AWESOME 1/6th Scale Captain Kirk Statue from the Hollywood Collectibles Group? Well, last night I got an e-mail about it from none other than the piece's sculptor, Jim Maddox! Jim thanked me for the kind review and very graciously sent over these sneak preview pictures of the upcoming Mr. Spock statue... which looks AMAZING! Spock is done in the same 1/6th scale that both the Kirk and the soon-to-be-released Gorn statues are sculpted in, but Spock ups the ante a bit by including- are you ready for this- his SCIENCE STATION! Wowzers! Take a gander at these early first looks, and be sure to check back at the site soon for an exclusive interview with Jim (a lifelong Trekkie) about his work on all the HCG Star Trek releases.













A HUGE thanks once again to Jim Maddox for hooking me up with these shots!

Star Trek 'Potpourri' Spotlight- Hollywood Collectibles Group 1/6th Scale Captain Kirk Statue

Item Name: 1/6th Scale Captain Kirk Statue
Manufacturer: Hollywood Collectibles Group



HCG released this Kirk statue in mid-2011 for a suggested retail price of $199.95. Here's the back of the box if you'd like to read it-



Got all that? Good.



The Rundown: As I mentioned WAY back in the Sideshow Collectibles Premium Format Kirk spotlight, I am always on the lookout for nice, higher-end Trek memorabilia to add some "oomph" to my displays. So when the Hollywood Collectibles Group announced that they would be making 1/6th scale statues based on Star Trek, I got pretty excited. Their first release, Captain Kirk in his command chair, arrived at my local comic shop this morning. Is he worth the high price tag? Let's find out...



When I first saw pics of this piece online, I was a little nervous about ordering it. The pictures made it seem pretty decent, but I have never bought an HCG item before and I know that final product can sometimes differ drastically from a company's solicitation photography. In the case of Kirk, I'm happy to say that the final product exceeds my initial expectations.



Let's start with the size- This guy is BIG! Kirk is made at a roughly 1/6th scale, making the statue about 10" tall (since Kirk is in a sitting position). I don't have a scale handy, but the statue has quite a bit of weight as well. The overall size and heft really sets this apart as a true centerpiece for display. One small point I should point out here- Kirk is permanently affixed to his seat, so if you hoped to use the chair for your 12" figures (like I did), you're out of luck.



If there was one area that worried me above all others, it was how Kirk's head would turn out. Shatner is one tough likeness to nail, and the initial HCG pictures didn't exactly fill me with confidence. The final product turned out much better than I thought it was going to. It's still not a perfect Kirk sculpt, but it's definitely better than a lot of the other product out there.



The statue really shines when it comes to detailing. Things like Kirk's delta shield and rank braids aren't just painted on; They are sculpted onto the shirt and then cleanly painted over. But the chair is where things get really cool...



HCG recreated the instrumentation at Kirk's fingertips in incredible detail. They even included the labeling system used in "Court Martial"! See-



Go ahead and jettison that pod Kirk. Finney's a jerk. Nobody will miss him.



Any toy collector can tell you: A bad paint job can ruin a good sculpt. That's not the case with this piece, as the paint work here is solid throughout. I didn't notice any stray lines on mine, and both the skin and shirt have nice paint washes that help the sculpted detailing really pop. Oh, and the boots...



...feature a slightly glossier sheen than the pants, helping then contrast against each other. I know this is a pricey piece, but I have seen other statues in this same range that didn't feature anywhere near this quality of paint work. Kudos HCG!



Printed on the bottom of each statue's base is the usual copyright info and the statue's individual number. HCG made 600 regular Kirks like the one I am reviewing, and 150 exclusive Kirks available through their site. The exclusive version is basically the same as the regular edition, but also includes a "captain's log" and data cards. While I really wanted those extra pieces, I went with my comic shop as it saved me a few bucks in the long run.



I'm pretty darned happy with this statue. While there have been Trek statues in the past, I really don't think they've ever hit the high quality that this one shows. Statues aren't everyone's cup of tea though, and the high cost will probably dissuade most casual Trek fans from picking this one up. BUT... if you are in the market for a nice, high-end centerpiece for your collection, you may want to check this one out. The statue is available through the Hollywood Collectibles site, but you can find the regular edition cheaper if you shop around a bit. And if the Kirk statue isn't to your liking, HCG has an AWESOME-looking Gorn statue slated for release by year's end. If the quality of the Kirk is any indicator, that Gorn is gonna be one crazy cool statue... Now I just gotta figure out where I'm gonna put these...

Reading Room Spotlight- "Star Trek- The Children Of Kings" By David Stern

So I am still in the midst of settling down after the Nashville trip. Between prepping the presentation, packing our bags, getting things ready at work, and writing that last article for StarTrek.com, I have been one busy little Trek fan. Things are back to being fairly normal now though, so I should be back on a regular spotlight schedule by week's end. I did pick up a few goodies at the show that I want to post up soon (including a couple of new autographs I need to scan for TrekAutographs.com), but with a limited amount of time today, I'm going to have to spotlight something I have pictures readily available of... which limits me to this book spotlight. So, without further ado-



"The Children Of Kings", as you might expect from the cover, is a Trek-tale set during Christopher Pike's tenure as the Enterprise captain. The story revolves around the mysterious destruction of Starbase 18. All signs point to a Klingon plot, but the presence of Orions in the sector throws all previous theories out the window... and leads Captain Pike and his crew into a battle between the two warring races.

Where to begin... Let's start with what the story gets right. I highly enjoyed the Spock/ Number One dynamic. It was interesting to see these two characters working together to solve one of the main mysteries of the plot. Dr. Boyce is also handled very well, with an inordinately large amount of the book devoted to his personal back story. And as a sucker for Orions, I was happy to see their race featured prominently in the novel.

Unfortunately, I have quite a few gripes with this one. I know it's wrong to judge a book by its cover, but when I bought this one I expected to read a story that highlighted the virtually unexplored Pike/ Spock relationship. As the story unfolds though, Pike becomes more of a guest character, disappearing for almost the entire book. With Pike gone for such an extended time and Dr. Boyce really filling the majority of the novel, I left the book feeling almost cheated by that cover. The problems don't end with the missing Pike though. Both the Klingons and the Orions feel like they are being written to fit later shows (like "Enterprise") as opposed to playing them as TOS versions. In fact, as I read the book, I found myself thinking that this story was meant for a different continuity... which is proven correct in the author's note at the end. David Stern states in the afterword that the 2009 film freed him of the need to write specifically to one vision of humanity's future and that "The Children Of Kings" was written as a prequel to the 2009 film. Well... that would have been nice to know going into this one. That would have helped explain why the author did things like choosing names and locales (like "Petri" and "Argelius") that have seemingly no relation to the established TOS versions. But with a cover featuring Jeffrey Hunter and Leonard Nimoy as their respective characters, it is hard to think of this as a 2009 prequel. Even more maddening though is to try and look back at this through that new perspective... since the Enterprise was a brand new ship in the 2009 film. My head hurts...

It is really tough for me to put aside my disappointment and confusion about this novel enough to recommend it. While the character of Boyce is handled well, and it is nice to learn more about him, I just don't find his story compelling enough to warrant devoting basically the entire novel to. Add in the confusing canon game and you've got one novel that you are probably better off leaving on the shelf... unless of course you prefer Enterprise as your chosen back story. If that's the case, you might like this take on Pike and company. For everyone else though, "The Children Of Kings" is sadly skippable.