After making their way aboard the Enterprise-E, journeying to the Delta Quadrant, and universe-hopping their way into the Terran Empire, the team at EXO-6 is beginning their next big venture this summer with the debut of the first Star Trek: Discovery characters in the company’s 1:6-scale lineup.
Based upon Sonequa Martin-Green’s character as she appeared in Star Trek: Discovery Season 2, the new Commander Michael Burnham figure from EXO-6 has the science officer clad in the original blue-and-silver Starfleet uniform in which the Discovery crew began their television adventures.
Equipped with a number of 2257-era accessories and alternative hand options, the new Burnham figure stands over 11 inches tall, complete with all the heavily-detailed design elements that the Star Trek: Discovery costume and prop departments put into the series.
Unlike some of the earlier EXO-6 figures — such as the First Contact Picard which included many layers of costume material that were tough to work around for action poses — the Burnham figure is very easy to position into different stances once the joints are flexed a bit (even though her uniform being just as tight as the Discovery cast have described to fans).
The details in this figure’s uniform are quite impressive as well, from the complicated construction of the blue costume down to the tiny field of silver Starfleet deltas which line the torso areas. Though the silver zippers on the front thigh areas are screen-print and not functional, all other silver-colored portions of the costume are textured and emulate the ‘real’ Gersha Phillips design very well — down to the silver deltas and soles on her boots.
The wide boot soles and slim figure build also make the Burnham figure one of the more stable releases from EXO-6’s Star Trek lineup to date, allowing for dynamic poses without having to rely heavily on the included stabilizer to keep her standing (something that can’t be said for some of the previous figures).
Unlike the magnetically-enhanced figures from the 24th century, Burnham has no built-in accessory connection points under her uniform — instead, she features a wrap-around utility belt to which the three holstered accessories slide on for placement at her hips.
It looks great once in place, though the very (very!) small connection spoke that must be pushed through the belt requires extremely nimble figures, and if one is not careful, pulling at the faux-leather belt too strongly can result in a little stretching that may cause the belt to sit a bit lower on the figure’s hips than is intended.
Burnham comes equipped with a 2250s-era Type II phaser which separates in to three segments just like the Anovos replica, plus the hefty Discovery-era phaser rifle, trusty communicator, and tricorder with pull-out hand scanner.
As always, the level of detail on the tiny accessories is really quite remarkable — from the inlayed gold and copper detailing on the weapons to the separable components of the hand phaser and tricorder. The stock and forward handle on the phaser rifle also articulate into multiple positions, and even the barrel of the hand phaser rotates.
That said, a few small magnets (like used in the TNG and Voyager figure tricorder accessories) would have been a beneficial feature here, as the power cell on the hand phaser and the tricorder hand scanner don’t always want to stay in place when the accessories are held in an upright position.
With the complexity of the costuming and props that the Star Trek: Discovery team produced for the television series, EXO-6 has done a remarkable job scaling them down to the one-sixth size for their character figures — and as the Discovery crew has left these uniforms and gadgets behind, this figure is a nice way to keep them memorialized.
The new Commander Michael Burnham figure is available now from EXO-6 for immediate fulfillment for $215 USD, and was just joined this week by their new Commander Saru figure (also from Discovery Season 2).
Watch for our review of that next Discovery figure, along with the recent Next Generation-era Judge Q release, soon here at TrekCore!