Review: Kelvin Kirk And Spock Action Figures From Diamond Select Were Worth The Wait

The latest Star Trek products from Diamond Select Toys are action figures of Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock, the first “Star Trek Select” action figures based on the Kelvin timeline film Star Trek Into Darkness. These figures join the “Select” line that already features figures of Picard and Worf from TNG; TOS Kirk, Spock, and Khan; and Star Trek II Khan figures. Approximately 7 inches tall, well-articulated, and meticulously sculpted, these display-quality figures carry a manufacturer’s price of $24.99 each, and are way more cool outside of the box than even their attractive packaging might indicate.

So, how do these figures stack up?

Approximately 22 points of articulation

The figures themselves stand about 7 inches tall – Captain Kirk is just under 7”, and Mr. Spock is 7.25”, as is appropriate for these characters. They are intricately sculpted, with likenesses that range from decent (Kirk) to excellent (Spock). Kirk has a very intense expression on his face. Hair, ears, and facial features are highly detailed. Their uniform shirts are molded with countless raised delta shields, faithfully duplicating the uniform style of STID, and they have plain Starfleet logo badges on their chests. Rank stripes are sculpted into and painted onto their cuffs. The uniform pants are accurately molded, with ribbed sections just above the knees, and are slightly bloused before being tucked into the boots. The boots show the same attention to detail, with tooling indicating both the leather sections the real boots were made of, and the buckles on their calves. The heels of the figures have holes in them, though the bases the figures come with do not feature matching posts to enable them to stand securely.

Amusingly, the box text proclaims that each figure “features approximately 22 points of articulation,” which made me wonder why they didn’t know exactly how many points of articulation each figure has. Didn’t they make the bloody things? For your peace of mind, each figure is articulated at the base of the skull (head rotation and slight elevation), shoulders (both a ball joint and a rotation joint), elbows, and wrists. The interchangeable hands all feature a wrist joint. The figures have an odd and unattractive ball joint at the ribcage, which looks awkward but allows the figures to rotate their torsos and lean backward and forward while still having a solid waist attachment.

Below the waist, the figures have a combination joint at each hip, allowing for their upper legs to rotate forward and also to flex outward in a split, rotation at mid-thigh, a two-jointed knee, and slight rotation at the ankle. Counting each direction that each part can move, that’s well over 22 points of articulation.

Simply put, these figures are infinitely and wonderfully poseable.

Fit and finish

As with the sculpting, so with the painting. The shirts are not just one flat color; they seem to have a wash of some kind, or perhaps it’s just the plastic, but whatever it is, it allows for realistic highlights and shadowing in the sculpted folds of the garment. The faces boast painted eyebrows, upper eyelashes, eyeballs, and irises. If you look closely, Spock’s irises are black with white highlights, but Kirk’s irises are blue, outlined in a hairline of black, with a pupil and white highlights. Pretty impressive!

The only places where the paint job wasn’t perfect on my sample figures were the silver buckles on Kirk’s boots. Their uniform pants are even painted a charcoal gray, just a shade lighter than the black leather boots.

Otherwise, these figures are painted with extreme care, and close attention to quality.

Accessories

Each figure comes with loads of accessories. Both have an identical Romulan phaser rifle, and each comes with a Starfleet phaser rifle, though Spock’s is a beefier model than Kirk’s. Each has standard landing party gear, including a phaser, communicator (closed), and tricorder. I would have preferred an open communicator, as I think that would have had better play value. The communicator cannot be attached to the figure’s waist, and putting a closed communicator in his hand is no fun. Interestingly, their phasers are painted to be on the red “kill” setting, rather than blue for “stun.” Kirk comes with two additional interchangeable hands, while Spock comes with three, including one molded into the Vulcan salute. Sadly, Kirk does not come with hands molded into “hanging off the edge of a precipice” grips, though perhaps that would be on the 2009 Star Trek movie version, not the Into Darkness one. They also come with two translucent, colored “energy blast” accessories that can be popped on to the nozzle of the hand phasers, to simulate firing.

Each figure also comes with a “transporter pad” base, and can be placed nicely side-by-side to form a section of the transporter platform of the Enterprise. The bases do not have posts molded into them that would correspond to the holes in the figures’ heels, so the figures stand somewhat precariously. If you display them on your desk or bookshelf, they might fall over from the vibrations of a person walking by, let alone the jostling of a starship hit by phaser fire.

Finally, each package comes with a small foldout flyer featuring a number of Diamond Select’s Star Trek offerings, along with a feedback survey that can be mailed back to the company to sign up for their Collectors Club. One of these flyers was badly folded in the packaging I received.

Packaging

Kirk and Spock come individually packaged in large plastic packs, wrapped on two-and-a-fifth sides by cardboard. They are fastened securely within by a whole lot of twist ties and a few pieces of Scotch tape, and the whole package is attractive and sturdy.

The cardboard “spines” of the packaging feature large, bold photos of Chris Pine on the one hand and Zachary Quinto on the other, making it easy at a glance to tell which box is which when sitting on your shelf. Unboxing the figures took a good deal of time, due to the intense sturdiness of the packaging. If you are purchasing these figures to keep in the boxes, of course, this will not be an issue. But if you want to break them out of their prisons and play with them, as I did, it might create a bit more of a delay than you had hoped for.

Bottom Line

It’s hard to beat these figures for quality of sculpting, flexibility of articulation, quantity of accessories, or beauty of packaging. My only half-gripe was with the odd-looking ribcage joint, but even that makes for a wider degree of posing possibilities.

In my spare time, I am an illustrator. These figures are very poseable and will serve well as figure drawing models when they are not standing impressively on my bookshelf. In this Into Darkness Kirk and Spock, Diamond Select has produced figures any fan would be happy to own.

The Diamond Select Toys Star Trek Movie action figures are priced at $24.99 each. You can order Kirk and Spock at Amazon individually. The next figure in the Select line to be released will be a Borg, which you can also pre-order at Amazon.

Disclosure: Product samples provided by Diamond Select Toys for review.

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In your second photograph, Spock’s hand looks bigger than his head. Is that an artifact of the photo, or is his hand really that big on the figure?

It’s an artifact of the photo. His hand is appropriately-sized.

Thanks!

You can see the hands in comparison to one another in the last photo in the article.

At least they don’t look like a young Sean Connery…..

Collin St Bakery!! I approve!! Pls tell me that was a fruitcake.

Apricot Pecan Cake, actually. ;)

That’s even better. I’ve always meant to try that one, if this economy ever stops hating me.

Wonder if the Kirk figure has any new movie work lined up for 2019…..its not like he is that in demand according to IMDB his next movie is Wonder Woman 2 in 2020. Should have just taken the lower salary offered for ST4 instead of scuppering the current cast!

or maybe he’s holding out for Tarantino (if ST Thor bombed then likely no Tarantino Trek)

I really doubt he’s holding out for it. But it doesn’t mean he’d say no to it either.

of course he will be holding out for it. all the cast will be. look at the cast for the Manson movie.. and literally every QT movie since Res Dogs. stars go nuts to be in a QT movie. they drop their fees right down and all sorts to get cast in one of his films. that’s probably whats happened here. Pine and the JJ cast has got excited at the idea of Tarantino directing them and they want THAT for ST4. not a tv director and movie about Thor that would probably bomb which would mean itd be their ‘Nemesis’ and thered be no QT Trek movie (for them anyway)

I doubt Paramount want him anymore after refusing to illogically lower his quote for ST4 why do they even need him! No other studios want him apart from WB for Wonder Woman he is not exactly an A lister!

He just released a mini-series. ‘I Am The Night.’ Pine was great; the rest of the cast… meh.

That series was really weak though. Pine was ok but he is not really more than ok in most things he does! Hence why he is not an A lister by now! Looking at his upcoming projects he is not in demand either so should fire his agent get someone else who can convince him a lower salary for ST4 but still more than the other cast are getting is way better than nothing & if its a big hit he can get more for ST5!!

Might be taking a break or projects not announced yet. Or maybe he is keeping it clear for ST…

There is no ST4 project to keep space in your schedule clear for. On screen and behind the camera talent has moved on. Financing dried up. This isn’t Pine Hemsworths fault, either. It was Paramount that was walking back their agreement.

I dunno. IIRC, Paramount was breaking the contract when they offered that lower salary. Nothing wrong with wanting to get paid what you were promised.

The Kirk figure isn’t hurting for work. The QT Trek project isn’t set in stone, either….now that I think about it, it’s not set in anything at this point.

No screaming “KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!” accessory Spock head?

Will there be a Carol Marcus in space bra/panties figure?

What about Khan with pre surgery Ricardo Space Seed head?

Or Admiral Marcus with Tyrell crushed head

Anyone else think that Anton (AKA Chekov) also deserves an action figure? I do.

put on a red shit Mr Chekov..

aye keptin :(

No.

I’m not a fan of the double knee joints – they add nothing, and are in fact bizarre looking and less realistic than a simpler single knee joint configuration.

The midriff kills it for me. I think it looks aweful and probably does afford much more in terms of articulation.

The double knee joint allows for a deeper knee bend. But I agree, it looks somewhat bizarre.

And allows them to get into a full sitting position

Billion dollar idea: put fabric over the abdomen and crotchal regions to hide the joints. (Billion paid in me money as soon as it dries.)

The Spock one is spot on.

Its still amazing to me there was hardly any merchandise when Beyond came out. Why weren’t these release then? Three years ago not just when they had a movie to promote but to help celebrate the 50th anniversary as well? I still can’t believe just how badly they dropped the ball with that movie. I know the other Kelvin merchandise weren’t big sellers but if you actually made a big deal about the anniversary, made some real merchandise to tie it into the movie, maybe they would’ve gotten some decent sales.

they knew Beyond wouldn’t sell any merch

As I said, if they made it a bigger deal about it being the 50th anniversary many fans would’ve brought things based on that alone. Something exclusive and special but they didn’t even try. This is the same franchise that use to release new toys after a new episode of Voyager or DS9 aired. But yes, that was a different time, when Trek was just bigger.

had they gone with Orci’s ST3 at least the old time fans would’ve bought the Shat Kirk action figures that shatner would’ve been tweeting to his 3m followers

“Matt Damon.”

Does anyone know if the TNG Cobra phaser is cancelled? Haven’t seen them show it off or mention it in a long while now.

They never truly cancel most things, they just simply fade away into history.

Looks like they gave Quinto earlobes?

I have been searching everywhere for information on where the small rifles came from. All I could find was a concept art picture calling it a “tactical phaser”, which shows it as a phaser being attached to larger piece. They dont seem to appear in the Kelvin movies. My question is I see here you called them Romulan phaser rifles? Has this been confirmed?