Categories Galactic Heroes Warduke Aayla Secura Things from my collection

05/18/2008 Diamond Select Toys Stargate Atlantis Series 2 Review

I was a fan of Stargate SG-1 from the beginning - from the original movie actually. When the spin off Stargate Atlantis was announced, I was a little leery of it. It started a little slow for me but it eventually won me over. Now with SG-1 off the air, Atlantis is our only way to get our Stargate fix on tv.

For years I wondered why no one was making Stargate figures. SG-1 was on what felt like a million years so the fan base must have been there. Was there fear of the franchise because how badly the Hasbro movie toy line did? Was the franchise license fee too high? Diamond Select Toys picked it up finally and has been giving us quality figures ever since.

Series 2 of the Atlantis series consists of five figures: Dr. Rodney McKay, Field Ops Teyla, a Wraith Queen, Field Ops McKay and the Previews exclusive Athosian Teyla.

The packaging is a pretty standard card back and bubble. The corners of the card back can get a bit dinged up but the bubble is firmly attached. The colors are vibrant and very much remind me of an Atlantis theme. My only issue is some of the figures are tied into the bubble with those dreaded twisty tie wires. I hate those things with a passion. It shouldn't take as much work as it does with them just to remove the toy from the package.

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The figures are sculpted by Jean St. Jean Studios and as always quality is delivered. I have heard a few people poo poo the head sculpts of this line. I have to strongly disagree. I think all of these sculpts are pretty dead on. I needed a second opinion because I didn't want to be swayed by own inner fan boy so I turned to my girlfriend. She doesn't have a lick of interest in either Stargate series and if she is around when I am watching them, she watches with a trademark eyes glazed over expression. She wouldn't know one character from the next. When I showed her these figures, she easily recognized them. She couldn't tell me their names of course but she said they very much looked like the characters.

The paint applications are good but sometimes they are a little glossy for my tastes. They can be almost a bit tacky as well on the softer parts like the vests. They aren't really tacky and they don't come off but they just don't feel quite right. It makes me worry a bit how they may age.

They all come with a nice variety of accessories. I wish DST would label what the accessories are somewhere on the package or even on their web site. Even though I regularly watch the show, I can't always remember what all the accessories are. It would be interesting for me to know what something is besides calling it a hand held computer thingy.

One accessory I did find lacking is there was no pistol for Field Ops McKay. It bugs me because now he has an empty thigh holster. I will probably just take an extra pistol from another figure to fill in the gap.

Another example of not knowing what an accessory is is this necklace looking thing that comes with Athosian Teyla. I can't remember what it is and it does look sort of like a necklace. I can't seem to pop her head off to put it on so I am perplexed even further.

I also had a small problem with my Wraith Queen. I hesitated to remove the rubber band that held her pistol in her hand while she was in the package. I regret removing it because now I can't get her to hold it correctly. I played around with it and tried reshaping the hand with no success. She holds her staff weapon even less successfully and I didn't even try her communicator thingy.

Also don't try to remove the vest off Field Ops Teyla. I saw her uniform was painted underneath and was investigating whether or not the vest would come off. In the process I broke the vest at the side seam and I will need to repair it with glue. It is a shame it wasn't made to come off more easily than that. I do like how we are getting alternate looks and uniforms for each character.

Each figure from series 1 and 2 comes with a piece of the Atlantis Stargate. The Wraiths in both series come with the base pieces. Once assembled it looks very nice.

The only problem is the Stargate isn't exactly to scale with the figures. It doesn't bother me because I know it wouldn't be feasible to include parts for a build a Stargate that was to actual scale. The parts would have to be huge or scattered over many more figures than two series. The gate serves its purpose well enough for me. Even better I can use this Stargate with any of my 3 3/4" toy lines.

Another bonus is when you collect four UPC's from the Stargate figures, you can mail off for a free Steve the Wraith figure. Unlike other companies like Hasbro, you don't even have to pay shipping on it making it really free. How cool is that?

You can find these figures now at your local comic shop or at several online retailers. If you can't find them there, you can get them directly from the Diamond Select Toys web site.

Expect to pay around $16 for each figure. I think this is a reasonable price considering how much you get with each figure.

I am giving each of these figures a *** 1/2 rating out of five stars. Each seemed to have a minor flaw here and there otherwise they would have been a four star rating.

I might have sounded a bit harsh on them but I didn't mean to. I really do like this line and look forward to series 3.