Ok, so I got these guys on Sunday (seriously, I was shocked) and was overall very pleasantly surprised!
My mini-review:
Packaging: I'm not in love with this new, generic bright-blue Star Trek color scheme, but that's coming from CBS, not McFarlane, so I can't blame them for it. But otherwise, I like it. They're fairly small, and there's very little waste. The card fronts are customized with a pic of the character and a different accent color (red for Picard, gold for Kirk), which is nice. The backs are the same/generic, and multilingual, but show off both figures well.
The only complaint I have here is that they're not collector friendly. There's one rubber band around the waste (which fortunately is soft and doesn't damage the figure) but there's no way to remove it easily without cutting it. The sides of the plastic shell are taped to the back - nice - but the top and bottom are glued, so you still have to damage the plastic to remove them. Ah well.
Sculpt: We've already talked about the fact that Picard doesn't look quite like Patrick Stewart. But in hand, it's a bit better. Kirk is spot on. The bodies are also quite good and close to how the character would be - Kirk has his "hunch" while Picard is ramrod straight. In photos, Kirk's neck looks long, but it's fine inhand.
A couple oddities on Picard, though. As mentioned already, he's got the two lines down the front of his uniform that only appeared in a handful of episodes at the beginning of season 3. Those uniforms also didn't have the built-in jacket belt, so this is technically a hodgepodge of two uniforms. A second oddity appears on the back of the jacket - the bottom black section is straight across, instead of up at an angle. And the pants are missing the department stripe along the "V" near the boots (EDIT: I was reminded by Oxnard that that was only true in the season 1-2 uniforms...my mistake!). These things are ones no one would notice but a huge fan (although it's worth noting that Playmates got them right 25 years ago...just saying).
Articulation: Pretty great overall. Ball joint neck, elbows, knees, and ankles. Cut waist. Wrist pegs that are basically shrunk-down Hot Toys-style pegs. The shoulders are the newer standard style restricted ball joint (if you have the DST figures, think of the shoulders on the TNG/DS9 line). The legs are odd - there're two peg joints (think of the old Playmates elbows), one that goes in-out and one that goes up-down. They're a bit odd at first, but they do a good job, and they look a lot better than ball joints.
The only downside to the articulation for me is that in areas where the articulation would hinder sculpt, they favored sculpt. I agree with the decision, but it does detract from poseability. All the wrist pegs only allow for slight rocker movement because the long shirts fall over the wrists. Picard's ankles only have slight articulation because of the way the pants lay. And most importantly, Kirk loses his waist swivel completely. It's there, but the shirt blocks it from even the slightest turn.
Paint: Great. Honestly rivals Mezco's, it's THAT good. I'm really impressed. No stray lines, everything straight. I did have a little slop on both insignias, but they're really minor. Both the red sections on Picard and yellow on Kirk have highlighting when they didn't need to bother, and the boots are shined. Really an A+ job, especially at this price point.
Accessories: Kirk comes with a phaser, communicator, and phaser rifle. The communicator fits nicely in his left, while the phaser fits well in his right. He also has a replacement right hand for the phaser rifle handle, which works well. He holds everything great. The phaser is oversized for some reason as Sybeck mentioned earlier, but the communicator and rifle seem right.
A couple nits on the rifle for me - First off, it's mirrored on the left/right sides, which, as fans of the prop know, is not correct - the controls were different on either side. Also, the interior gold pipes should be ribbed, not smooth (well, the gold part was ribbed inside a smooth clear shell, anyway). They made the interior gold portion movable, which is a nice nod to the prop, but it's really loose, and is just molded in color and not painted like everything else on both figures, so it feels cheap by comparison.
Picard comes with the Ressican flute (no box) and the incorrect First Contact-style phaser. The phaser fits in his right and the flute in his left hand. There's also an additional right "Engage" hand, which is a nice touch.
The big problem here for me is that I hate it when a figure comes with an accessory that they can't use properly. The articulation doesn't allow for Picard to play the flute. He can hold it in both hands awkwardly in front of his chest, but that's it. I don't see myself ever displaying him with it. It also feels like Kirk gets so much more than he does. Couldn't we have gotten a tricorder instead, and a desktop monitor? Or a cup of earl grey? Those seem like better choices based on the articulation.
They both come with round stands, with an embossed insignia and the words "Star Trek" on it in TOS font. There's pegs that fit into holes on the base of the feet like Playmates figures did. Again, Picard seems shortchanged here - couldn't it have the TNG logo instead?
All in all, I really like these, complaints aside. At this price point, they're both AMAZING and I wouldn't miss them if you're on the fence. But it does feel as though Picard is playing second fiddle to Kirk - the sculpts not as good, he doesn't come with as much, his stand isn't TNG-related, his uniform isn't quite right. Aside from the waist articulation, Picard's lagging behind in every category. He's still a great figure - but Kirk is just a bit better in every possible way.
