MAJOR DON WEST

LOST IN SPACE (TRENDMASTERS)

The 1965 sci-fi show Lost in Space began in the far off year of 1997.  In 1998, a year *after* the original show took place, and 30 years after the original show ended, it was somebody’s bright idea to reboot things with a movie.  And they sure did that.  Lost in Space is…well, it’s a movie with actors and sets, and things happening.  It’s also not very good.  Got a sizable marketing push, though, including a bunch of toys from the show and the movie, courtesy of ‘90s toymakers Trendmasters.  Series regular Major Don West was portrayed in the movie by Mr. Joey Tribianni himself, Matt LeBlanc, making him, I believe, the only Friends regular to get a proper action figure.  So, let’s look at that, and ask the figure the oh so important question: How you doin’? (Spoiler: not great)

THE FIGUE ITSELF

Major Don West was released in 1998 as part of the one and only basic figure series for Trendmasters’ Lost in Space movie tie-in line.  Don is based on his “space suit” look (if you can really call it that) from the sequence onboard the derelict ship, which was where most of the marketing push came from.  The figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  Trendmasters was definitely taking a page out of the Kenner playbook on this line, in terms of scaling, articulation, and overall style.  Unfortunately, they kind of missed the mark on the style part.  The sculpt is unique to this figure, and that’s good, because it avoids letting this sculpt infect any other figures.  It’s…well, it’s not great.  The head sculpt is supposed to be Matt LeBlanc, but it looks more like Joe Pesci.  The proportions are a mess, with the head and hands much larger than they should be relative to the figure’s very scrawny body.  He’s sort of pre-posed, but like half-heartedly so, so he’s just awkward looking.  Awkward.  That’s really the best word for the whole thing.  His paint work is fine.  It’s inoffensive, which is a high mark compared to the sculpt.  It manages to not break anything worse…mostly.  Not sure what’s going on with those bloodshot eyes, though.  They don’t help the overall look.  Don was packed with his helmet and blaster from the derelict sequence, as well as one of the larger “spider” creatures that they battle.  The helmet is comedically large, but it does at least do the cool flipping down over his face bit, which gains extra significance on the figure, because now you don’t have to see his face.  Honestly, I love that for him.  The gun is fine, but he struggles to hold it properly.  And the spider is a spider.  So, they didn’t mess that up.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I saw this movie in the theatre opening day.  I had books, I had toys, I had everything.  That included this guy here.  I remember the toy commercials for this line, and this guy was in there, and I had to have him.  He got played with a lot that summer.  He got snuck into kindergarten with me.  He’s…not good.  Bad, even.  Like, I’ve got all the nostalgia, but oh boy is this a bad figure.  Trendmasters did alright by the robot, but the humans are *rough*.  But, as you can see, the nostalgia’s been enough to keep him in my collection for almost thirty years, so I guess that’s good for something, right?