Star Trek (The 2009 Movie) - CADET UHURA!

Star Trek: Warp Collection - Cadet Uhura - Playmates 2009

2009's Star Trek movie was a perfect example of how amazing a well-done property reboot can be. It was exciting, funny, faithful to the original series, and I certainly left the theatre wanting to see more. For such a great movie though, the toys were pretty lackluster. In all my stores they just sat on the shelves for months collecting dust. I can't speak for everyone's reluctance to buy them, but I thought they looked awkward and sub-par to every other line out at the time. The character likenesses were way off-base. This Uhura doesn't look a thing like Zoe Saldana. The scale was another issue. If they would have been scaled to fit in with the DST Star Trek line, I would have definitely been more interested. But as is, we were presented with something very different than what the collector community was expecting. It's a real pity because a well-done toy line for this movie could have been very successful. This figure isn't horrible by any means, but it falls way short of its potential.  Let's check her out below!

Ladies of STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES!

Uhura, Janice Rand, and Christine Chapel - Playmates 1993 & 1996
 
Since the Art Asylum/DST figures of Janice Rand and Christine Chapel seem to be stuck in perpetual limbo, I really wanted to highlight these two notable characters.  Christine Chapel was the head nurse under Dr. McCoy in The Original Series.  She had a great backstory of joining the Starfleet with the ulterior motive of finding her fiancé who had gone missing from an expedition five years earlier.  She also developed an unrequited love for Spock during her time on the Enterprise.  Janice Rand was Yeoman to Captain Kirk on the bridge of the USS Enterprise.  She predictably developed a romantic connection to Kirk which was never fully realized.  Both these characters (and of course the amazing Uhura) epitomize The Original Series to me.  Their hairstyles and outfits are wonderfully dated in a futuristic kind of way, and their portrayal of strong, intelligent, female crew members paved the way for many great characters to come.  From 1992-99, Playmates created a huge library of 5" figures based on all iterations of Star Trek.  And these three ladies are my favorite of the bunch.  Let's check them out below!

Art Asylum's Lieutenant UHURA!

Star Trek: The Original Series - Wave One by Art Asylum 2003

Oh my dearest Uhura, you brought class to the USS Enterprise, you had all the crew wrapped around your finger, and you paved the way for strong women in Sci-Fi (and in real life). My memories of Uhura are all fond ones.  I grew up in the 80's (without cable) and Star Trek The Original Series was a staple of late night PBS at the time.  My brothers and I would watch it from 11pm to midnight on the weekends and we were enthralled. I wouldn't call myself a Trekkie at all, I watched far more Scooby-Doo and Laverne & Shirley than Star Trek.  But the sense of nostalgia I felt was overwhelming when I saw these amazing Art Asylum figures.  She was destined to be mine. In researching the background of Uhura for this review, I learned a lot of interesting facts.  First off, her name, Nyota Uhura, loosely translates to "Star Freedom" in Swahili.  She was one of the first characters of African descent to be featured in a non-menial role on US television. Case in point, she served as a major inspiration to a young Whoopi Goldberg...