Tag Archives: SeaQuest DSV

#4014: Captain Nathan Hale Bridger

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

CAPTAIN NATHAN HALE BRIDGER

SEAQUEST DSV (PLAYMATES)

“Name: Nathan Hale Bridger

Rank: Captain

Assignment: seaQuest DSV 4600

UEO Military ID#: AI147-5024-TS9

Security Access: Indefinite

Date of Birth: November 10, 1963

Character Profile: Passionate, decisive leader. Extremely intelligent and inquisitive. Diplomatic and open minded. Dedicated to maintaining peace. Advanced degrees in geology and biology. Driven by great love for the sea and its exploration.

Personal History: Original lead designer on NORPAC Confederation’s Project seaQuest, 2007. Death of only son during military combat led to resignation of commission, 2010. Took refuge on isolated Caribbean island to pursue marine research. With rescued bottlenose dolphin, Darwin, pioneered method of rudimentary communication between humans and dolphins using hand signals. Close relationship developed. Assumed command of refitted seaQuest at request of Admiral Noyce, 2018.

Mission Specialty: Responsible for acting as intermediary, balancing concerns of Commander Ford’s Navy personnel and Dr. Westphelan’s scientific crew aboard seaQuest.”

Nine years ago, I brought up a thing I don’t often discuss around here: the ‘90s!  Okay, not that, but it *is* something *from* the ‘90s, namely SeaQuest DSV, the Amblin-produced sci-fi series that had a really great debut season, and then also two more seasons after that.  There was a lot of push behind the show at the start, including, amongst other things, a line of figures from Playmates, who were in the thick of handling the Star Trek license at the time.  The covered the majority of the show’s cast, including its lead, Captain Nathan Bridger, portrayed by veteran actor Roy Scheider.  Let’s take a look at that figure today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain Nathan Hale Bridger was released in the first and only series of Playmates’ SeaQuest DSV tie-in line in 1993.  As the show’s star, his presence was kind of a guarantee.  Notably, this marked Scheider’s first time as an action figure (and his last time too; NECA solicited one for their Jaws line, but his estate pulled the rights before release), which was pretty cool.  The figure stands just shy of 4 3/4 inches tall and he has 14 points of articulation.  The SeaQuest figures had an articulation scheme similar to Playmates’ Trek line, but tweaked to actually be a bit better.  They get proper t-hips, rather than the somewhat pointless v-hips, and also had thigh swivels (which Trek only had on the larger First Contact figures).  It means that Bridger gets a rather impressive movement scheme, should you wish to go all action oriented with him.  Bridger’s sculpt was totally unique to him.  Like with the articulation, Playmates was clearly aiming to keep these figures in line with their Trek stuff stylistically.  They’re the same style, but, again like the articulation, they seem a bit improved.  The detailing’s a little sharper, and the uniform has less areas of smooth coverage, and the internal proportions are a little better, with the head in particular being smaller relative to the body than the Trek figures tended to be.  There’s a lot of nice character specific elements on his uniform, like Bridger’s slightly more casual layout, with rolled up sleeves and a more zipped down collar.  The main selling paint is the head sculpt, which is honestly a pretty respectable likeness of Scheider, so you can pretty clearly tell who he’s supposed to be without much of a hint.  Apparently, though, Scheider didn’t feel the same, and went back and forth with Playmates and their factories regarding the exact nature of it, which is rumored to have played a part in the short-lived nature of the line.  The paint work on this figure is pretty good.  Generally, it’s pretty basic application, especially on the head.  The uniform gets some pretty impressive work on all the markings and insignias, though, and ultimately the only detail missing his his name on the front of the uniform.  Bridger was packed with a Stun Gun, PAL (Personal Audio Link), SeaPoc computer, mammal vo-corder, away team launcher with undersea spelunking hook, and display stand.  It’s a pretty nice selection of standard issue stuff, for the most part.  The launcher and spelunking hook are definitely goofy and gimmicky, but they’re also totally removed from the main figure, so they don’t really ruin anything.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I missed SeaQuest and its tie-in figures in their initial run (being under two at the time), but came around pretty quickly, thanks to the show’s consistent re-runs on the Sci-Fi Channel, and the fact that my dad had a full set of the figures.  Bridger’s not my *first* figure from the line, but he’s a very early one,  purchased for my by my dad, some time in the late ‘90s.  He mostly got mixed in with my Trek figures (especially the Cadet Data, given the similar uniform set-ups), which got him some decent play when I was a kid (which resulted in the bald spot my figure’s got on the back of his head).  He’s really not a bad figure, and showed that Playmates was very much throwing their all behind what was an unproven property.  It’s a shame it didn’t pan out, but he’s a nice figure.

#1196: Dr Z – Rubin Zellar

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , ,

“DR. Z” — RUBIN ZELLAR

SEAQUEST DSV (PLAYMATES)

drz1

Okay, I went slightly ‘90s with yesterday’s Cannonball and Domino review.  I went a little more ‘90s with the Superman Red review.  Today, I’m going full ‘90s.  Yes, today I tackle SeaQuest DSV. SeaQuest, to those of you that don’t know, was a sci-fi series from the early ‘90s set in the futuristic world of 2018, aboard the naval submarine SeaQuest DSV 4600.  It was a little like classic Trek, but in the water.  Its first season was very strong, and heavy on the actual science (each episode ended with Dr. Robert Ballard explaining the science of that week’s plot), and featuring a diverse and fun cast of characters.  There were two seasons after that, but it’s generally in everyone’s best interest not to talk about them.  The series was fortunate enough to get a short-lived line of toys by Playmates (the then current holders of the Trek license, no less), which covered most of the main crew, plus two of the show’s antagonists.  Today, I’ll be looking at one of the antagonists, Biochemical Terrorist Rubin “Dr. Z” Zellar from the episode “Games.”

THE FIGURE ITSELF

drz2Dr. Z was released in 1993 as part of the first and only series of Playmates’ SeaQuest DSV line.  He’s based on his early appearance from “Games,” when he’s first picked up by the SeaQuest and is masquerading as a prison warden.  He probably spends a greater portion of the episode wearing a borrowed SeaQuest science staff uniform, but that might have proved slightly confusing in the toyline, since it would have made him look like an actual member of the crew.  The figure stands about 4 1/2 inches tall (putting him in the same scale as Playmates’ Trek line) and has 14 points of articulation.  While the Trek figures all got saddled with those wonky v-hips, the SeaQuest figures actually got pretty traditional t-hips, and also got thigh swivels too.  Odd that the unproven show got the better treatment.  The sculpt is pretty similar to the Trek stuff in style, which is to say it’s not super ultra realistic, but it’s still a halfway decent recreation of Zellar’s look from the show.  The head sports a passable likeness of Zellar’s actor Alan Scarfe, and the general proportions are actually a little better than the Trek stuff I’ve looked at.  The standout bit of this figure is definitely the fur coat, which is surprisingly well detailed for a figure of this era and scale.  Zellar’s paintwork is pretty solid; it’s not the most exciting work, but what’s there is nice and clean, and the once again the jacket stands out with some detail work to keep it from being too drab.  Zellar was packed with a number of cool accessories, including a pick axe, a display stand, and a ….weird gun thing.  The coolest piece is the T5-6000 Cryo-Chamber, originally meant to carry Zellar, but in actuality carrying the prison warden he replaced.  It’s just a simple plastic shell with a cardboard illustration on top, but I really like it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I picked up Zellar from Yesterday’s Fun this past summer, as he was one of the two SeaQuest figures I didn’t yet have.  There’s no denying he’s a well done figure, but he’s also one of the most frustrating figures from the line.  SeaQuest was hardly defined by its antagonists, so the fact that we got two of them in place of the three missing members of the Season 1 crew, is really annoying.  “Games” is certainly a memorable episode, and Zellar’s a compelling villain, but the success of the episode hinges more on its focus on Dr. Kristin Westphalen, who was absent from the toyline (interestingly enough, she was the only of the three unreleased crew members to get a prototype, but was left unreleased for whatever reason).  Zellar’s presence in the line seems to have come at the expense of the character that would give him an actual reason to be in the line at all, which just feels rather backwards.