Battlestar Galactica Series 1 (Exclusives)
I recently got hooked on the Sci-Fi TV drama “Battlestar Galactica” and I was excited to find out that Diamond Select Toys was putting out the figures. But, until recently, I didn’t realize that DST’s BSG figs are superarticulated! Needless to say, I ran out and placed an order online. The first series features seven figures total - four standard and three online exclusives. I lucked up and got all three exclusives in a set from BBTS, so they’re getting reviewed first. I’ll have the standard figures posted as soon as they arrive from CSC (hurray for online shopping!). So expand the post to see my thoughts on Helo, Sam Anders, and Chief Tyrol.
KARL “HELO” AGATHON
Helo is probably my favorite character from the show, so I was pretty psyched to see that he made it into the first series as an exclusive. This figure is listed as only being available at Action Figure Xpress, but you can actually find him at pretty much any online shop.
The first thing you’ll notice about Helo is his recognizable articulation. DST is pretty much ripping off the Mattel DCUC artic model with these - and that is a very good thing. Aside from an ab crunch and some additional ankle artic, these are exactly like DCUC. So, we get ball shoulders, bicep cuts, ball necks, waist swivels, thigh hinge and swivel, thigh cuts, single knees, single elbows, wrist swivels, and ankle swivels. As far as artic goes, my only knock against them is the ankles. An ankle swivel is pretty pointless. If these guys had some forward/back ankle articulation they’d be absolutely perfect.
Helo in particular is a gorgeous action figure. His sculpt is the art-level masterpiece that you’d expect from a specialty market “statue” - but he has oodles of artic! Have I mentioned yet how much like the articulation? Oh yeah, I’m supposed to be talking about sculpt! From the neck down, he’s flawless. He has a nice, subtle dry brush of lighter blue paint over his dark blue uniform to pull out the clothing folds and texture, and his little paint accents are sharp and precise. There is absolutely no bleed or splatter anywhere. His buttons, uniform trim, pilot wings, belt buckle, etc. are all perfect. It looks like a high end hand-painted custom. Actually, I guess all of DST’s figs probably are hand painted. Nice work, Diamond!
If I had a critique for Helo, or any of these figs, it would have to be the head sculpts. They’re great, the detail is great, and the paint is great… but the likenesses are not so great. I don’t think I’ve ever really owned an action figure modeled after an actor that actually did a great job of capturing that individual’s likeness, but here there are a couple of glaring errors - mostly the lips and the hair line. If they had given Helo his widow’s peak and thin lips, I think the likeness would have been spot on. As it is, I can definitely tell this is supposed to be Helo, it just doesn’t look “exactly” like him.
Oh yeah, these guys are also pretty well stocked with accessories. Helo gets a handgun accessory that fits nicely into a holster on his belt.
SAMUEL ANDERS
The Samuel Anders figure is an FYE/Suncoast and Big Bad Toy Store exclusive (BBTS actually has all of the exclusives). Anders gets the same artic model as Helo, and completely reuses the same lower body as Helo. That’s pretty smart, since both of these guys are about the same size on the show. (They’re each 6′3″). Which brings me to another positive point about the BSG figs - the scale is great. They are all in a 7″ scale, but the taller guys stand taller and the shorter guys stand shorter, as they should. If you look at the group shot below, you’ll see that the Chief is considerably smaller than the other two. I really like that level of detail - it makes the whole set look that much better together up on the shelf when they all stand at varying heights.
Anders, like Helo, has a great paint job. The highlights are the really crisp tattoo on his arm and the brushing over his shirt that pulls out the musculature and subtle ribbing. He gets hooked up with a machine gun accessory as well as a pistol that fits in the holster on his belt. And, again like Helo, his only flaw is his not-so-great likeness in his head sculpt. He looks kind of like Anders, but his jaw is too wide. But the likeness argument is really a small nitpick against a really nice action figure.
CHIEF GALEN TYROL
Chief Tyrol is supposedly exclusive to Diamond Select’s own online store, but I’ve seen him for sale at plenty of other places (BBTS, Amazon, etc.). So you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding one if you want him.
The Chief is probably actually the best of the exclusives, since he has all the artic and detail that the others have, plus he also has a good head sculpt and a lot of accessories. He comes with an assault rifle, a grenade launcher (at least, I think that’s a grenade launcher…) and a medical kit. The med kit actually opens up, which is cool. There’s nothing inside, so it’s kind of pointless, but still a nice little touch. And Chief Tyrol actually looks a good deal like Aaron Douglas - the actor who plays the character. So win one for DST in the likeness department!
The Chief’s highlights are the sculpt details in all the pockets and seams on his uniform, and the crisp colonial fleet stamp on his shoulder. I can’t say enough about the paint detail on these guys. I guess I’ve just gotten so used to mass market figures that when I see these excellent specialty market toys I get all gushy about how awesome they look.
GROUP SHOT
The long and short of the BSG figs is this - high-end specialty market companies that are known for putting out great looking statues or “staction” figures (as I call them) are now jumping on the articulation bandwagon. Companies like DST and NECA are proving that heightened artic works for figures at this level, and I feel really good things about this line and others to come!
Tags: anders, battlestar galactica, BSG, chief tyrol, helo
These look pretty great, though I agree about the pointlessness of the ankle swivels. Is the rest of the series superarticulated, though? I’m sure I’ve seen those Cylon Six figures and don’t recall noticing very many joints at all. Perhaps only the exclusives (or the men) get the extra articulation?
Anyway, not sure how interested I am in the line given my lack of familiarity with the show, but if they ever go down in price I could see grabbing the Chief for a potential repainting project.
Yeah, one point I probably should have made in the review is that I don’t necessarily recommend these to just the average “toy enthusiast”. Unless you’re a fan of the show, there’s really no reason to get these (but, in my opinion, there’s no reason not to be a fan of the show. it’s really excellent, even for those who aren’t into sci fi). There are other, better articulated figures out there. But, as far as a small niche line for a specific TV property - they’re frakkin’ excellent. And if this is “the shape of things to come” in terms of specialty figures, then the future is bright indeed!
And, to your point about the solicits not showing articulation - Diamond is doing something weird. The sixes from series 1 have the same artic model as the men. best i can tell, every figure has this level of articulation. but for some reason, they release their product promo photography of just the sculpted 2-ups, before artic has been added. so all the solicits just show static completely unarticulated statues. That’s whay I never knew these were so poseable. it’s a bad marketing move by Diamond. They need to wait and do their promo photography of actual production samples so that all we toy geeks can be all “teh omg! they haz articulation!”
it’s like reverse false advertising.
Hmm, interesting. What I meant is that I thought I’d actually seen the Six figures in store and they didn’t look very articulated at all to me, but it’s entirely possible that I saw some other figure instead (given my lack of familiarity with either show and tendency to confuse them, I could easily have been looking at Stargate Atlantis figures). And I’m sure I saw that red dress Six, but then the dress would hide (and probably restrict, yes?) most of the leg articulation anyway.
Still, if the pants-wearing Six has the same articulation as the guys, I may have to consider picking her up now! I could even see grabbing the dress one… assuming the lower half of the dress could be removed. With a new paint job for the hair and resulting leotard, she could pass for any number of other characters.
Ah, yes! I’m with you now. The red dress one is limited in poseability, like you said. I think she just has upper-body artic. Not sure, I’m supposed to get her in the mail tomorrow!
But like you figured, I was talking about the black pants wearing Six. She’s jointed just like the guys. So I’m assuming all other pants wearing femmes will get done up the same.
Both of those Sixes are pretty easy to find online for relatively cheap right now. Last I checked, I think enchantedtoychest.com had them for 8 bucks or so, and I believe CSC has them on sale as well. And BBTS is running a 15% off sale right now, so they’re ripe for the pickins.