There were few new lines that inspired "let's hunt new figure" excitement in the 1990s, mostly because back then I didn't know a figure existed until a bunch of other people told me they had it. I aggressively pursued new Star Trek: The Next Generation figures and in 1994, I remember hitting up ex-retailer Best (not Best Buy) for toys quite often. They had an unusual system - their business was a mix of mail-order catalog and traditional retailer, so there was a conveyor belt at the registers that went back to the stockroom. If you asked "Do you have more of these?" they would send out a box or a large tray filled with them, which proved fruitful as the pegs were overrun with "just different enough to make you mad" season 1 versions of the main crew when what you really wanted were Dr. Crusher, Locutus, and Q. (Some of which wouldn't hit until later, of course.) Klingon Warrior Worf was one of few significantly different new takes on existing characters, so I was pretty jazzed to find this one. I was slightly less jazzed to discover every figure in the wave seemed to have a random, weird color of accessories but Playmates made this their calling card around this point. (See also: TMNT.)
So. Worf! We love Worf. This 5-inch plastic figure would go on to provide the basis for numerous figures, including a new version of Gowron, a vac-metal version of Worf (which was all kinds of baffling), Kruge, and I'm probably forgetting a couple of others - Playmates really loved reusing body molds. The outfit is quite nicely done, but is technically inaccurate - "authenticity" was basically hogwash for toys back then, as this figure cobbles together a couple of versions of Worf's outfits into a pretty decent whole. If you were a kid in 1994, you loved it. If you're a nitpicker in 2013, you're going to have some issues here but it's a pretty solid figure that's largely based on "Redemption."
Articulation is standard for this line, with articulated neck, waist, hips, knees, shoulders, elbows, and biceps. Those keeping track will find 12 points of articulation on a nicely-sculpted body. Worf's baldric (or "sash" to people who are me) is well represented here, and the bulk of the figure's deco is hidden away under a soft plastic shell of robes. There's a lot of silver and gold in there, and those kinds of paints tend to rub off on many action figures - so the robes probably did everybody a service by protecting the paint during storage or multiple moves. Everything you love about a Klingon outfit is here - fingerless gloves, spiked boots, the belt buckle with five dots on it for some reason, and an armored spine. For the 1990s, this was a solid toy figure.
Playmates was cool enough to give us decent gear, but not the gear that would make the most sense. A Bat'leth was not included, but the pain stick, disruptor, and robes are still solid choices. The club, I have no idea why I need one of those. The figure has an unusual bonus in the form of his robes, a soft plastic garment which can be easily removed over the shoulders. While his handheld accessories come in a random color variation of brown, silver, or purple, the robes were actually painted - which was extremely unusual with figure accessories of that era, particularly from Playmates. I don't find any of the extras to be particularly exciting, but the figure itself is fairly awesome with a good sculpt, a nice facial expression, and enough articulation to make you mad that you ever bought anything from Kenner at the same price.
In 1994, these figures went for about $4.99. This isn't bad, considering with inflation that's close to $8 and on eBay, they're about $3. Most figures in this line - save for a few "rare" ones - are largely worthless thanks to Playmates' campaign to appeal to adults by numbering them in addition to the normal kid audience buying and playing along at home. This entire era of toys is largely worthless, so why not buy one and tear it off the original packaging? It's worth the asking price.
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