While the notion of a "gag figure" is relatively new, it's hard to pinpoint where it really started. One early candidate may be Morn, a rare example of a goofy non-antagonistic non-speaking character to appear not just in an action figure line, but in its first wave of products. The figure's unique look loomed over the series' background, but he rarely got a chance to steal the spotlight - his most exciting adventures happened off-camera, and were described by the main cast. He's faked his death, gone on blind rampages, and of course just kept drinking like his namesake Norm from Cheers.
At 4 3/4-inches tall, Morn looks great. The Platmates crew took some liberties, but it's quite close to photographs of the costume taken outside the set's normal lighting. The quilted vest matches well, but the sleeve texture is a little off and the area below the knee and above the boot is not an exact match. Still, there's no reason to dwell on this too much as the glossy head sculpt accurately reflects his long, wrinkly visage complete with warty skull adornments. Even more impressive, Playmates went through the trouble to paint some of those moles and warts, which we rarely saw. Painters visually deepened the lines on his face with some deft use of paint, and the soulful eyes are as good as (if not better than) the bulk of other alien toy action figures of its day. Clearly it's a toy, but it's a very good toy.
In terms of articulation and accessory interaction, the figure is largely very good. He can hold his guns and plugs in to his stand just fine. It's worth noting that Morn - and indeed Playmates' entire Star Trek figure line in this scale - did not really concern itself with functionality as later lines did. He can't really sit on a barstool, were one to exist, thanks to the v-crotch articulation that causes his legs to spread out a bunch. It's the same as all the rest - they can "sit" but not without giving you a bit of a show. All of hte joints move nicely, with a grand total of 12 points of articulation. It may not sound like a bunch, but for 1994 this was arguably as good as it got outside G.I. Joe. He looks decent standing and you can get some decent action poses out of him, but the figure really impresses by how most of the joints integrate into the design itself. You don't see too many eyesores and creases compared to some other figures.
This is one of the better figures in the line in terms of technical precision, and it's close enough as accuracy for the era goes. Some features and colors are exaggerated, but it's undoubtedly Morn and odds are nobody watching the show would pick up on the differences without freeze-frame and squinting. Also, it's worth noting that figures of this era were individually numbered - which would probably be a good idea except now, we really know that they probably made too many. Thousands - and in the case of some Next Generation figures, hundreds of thousands - were produced, resulting in some characters being available at or below the original retail price nearly 20 years later. At a going rate slightly higher than most other characters of this era, he's still pretty good and worth owning if you're a big fan of the show.
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