Today we welcome Hikaru Sulu to Zach Trek II, with a whole string of firsts:

This is the first Sulu collectible on Zach Trek II, the first 9″ Playmates figure, and it’s a figure of Sulu’s first appearance in the pilot episode of Star Trek (well, the second pilot episode. I guess that ends our streak of firsts). This was one of four figures produced with these uniforms (Kirk, Spock, and Scotty being the others).
Let’s take a closer look:



Ordinarily, I’m not bold enough to rip open a figure’s packaging, but this box is pretty beat up (probably my fault for poor storage), so I don’t think I’m losing much value by opening it.






This is a “Collector Edition”, and I think it is more of a collector’s piece than a toy. For a toy, it would be odd to have Sulu in a uniform he only wore for one episode and by the time this figure was produced, smaller action figures were the norm for kids to play with. So I don’t like this so much as a toy, but as a collector I do like the rare uniform and the size, which is reminiscent of early GI Joes and the early Mego Star Trek figures.
Next Week on Zach Trek: Next Tuesday we’ll introduce one more crew member from the Enterprise. If you’ve been following along from the start, you probably know who it is. In the meantime, look for a category page for Mr. Sulu.
It seems very strange that the picture on the box would feature a different base from what’s in the box.
Playmates had already made a lot of 9″ figures, so maybe this came with a new base that they didn’t have available yet when they took the photo or maybe they were just careless.