EXO-6’s Star Trek “The Cage” Captain Pike Figure Is No Illusion – TrekMovie.com

Star Trek: TOS “The Cage” Captain Christopher Pike 1:6 Action Figure

Manufacturer: EXO-6
Price: $210
Grade: A

Captain Pike

EXO-6 got their Captain Pike figure from “The Cage” out in early December, but this reviewer got stuck in a holiday time warp so forgive his lateness to this party. EXO’s Spock figure from “The Cage” was one of their finest, and Christopher Pike has been on the EXO menu for a while.

Pike has long been a footnote in the Star Trek saga who might have never been seen by television viewers had Star Trek’s first season not been such a punishing pressure cooker, its technically demanding episodes often taking six days or more to film. In order to keep the series on schedule and budget, Gene Roddenberry came up with the idea for something he called “The Envelope”—a way to incorporate footage from the show’s first pilot, which featured a different captain and crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise, into not one but two episodes, “The Menagerie” parts one and two.

That decision was pivotal. Producer Irwin Allen had done the same thing to save money on his shows Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Lost in Space, adding enormous production value to those series, but Roddenberry’s idea expanded on Star Trek’s world building, creating a past for the Enterprise, a captain who preceded James T. Kirk, and a history for Mr. Spock that deepened his character, showing him willing to sacrifice his career and perhaps even his life to take his former captain back to the planet Talos IV after he is injured by radioactivity in a cadet training accident. Pike, as a character, never got the same kind of depth as Spock, at least not until the character’s incorporation into Star Trek Discovery and later Strange New Worlds, portrayed with tremendous charm by Anson Mount. Now Pike has taken his place in the Trek pantheon as one of the most popular captains.

EXO-6 Cage Pike

Pike is a very challenging figure in terms of a likeness—actor Jeffrey Hunter was kind of a living Ken doll, his features so flawlessly proportioned and delicately chiseled that he was cast as an idealized Jesus in the biblical epic King of Kings before he was hired to captain the Enterprise in the first Star Trek pilot.

EXO-6 previewed Pike’s likeness at least a couple of years ago at the Las Vegas Star Trek convention, and some fans have been critical of the look. To these eyes the likeness (by Dean Tolliver and Waruna Weligamage) looked a little cartoony, but the final result (with paint details by Hadyu Toys) is pretty tremendous, with just the hint of a scowl of concentration, capturing the no-nonsense, focused demeanor of “The Cage”’s Pike perfectly.

Like Spock, Pike comes with a beautiful blue suede field jacket and the complicated gear harness worn underneath (which, it must be said, doesn’t seem to perform any function as we never see how the communicator and laser pistol fit onto it).

Artist Jim Maddox reproduced the early pistol and flip-open, transparent communicator in micro detail, and EXO has done its usual fantastic job with the early green-gold command shirt and black pants—which include belt loops and pockets!

The EXO-6 “The Cage” Pike is available now on the EXO site for $210. And note, their “Cage” Spock sold out quickly last year.

EXO-6 has shown off an alien Talosian which will hopefully see the light of day before the company wraps up its “Cage” line. I for one would love to see Number One and a Yeoman Colt, but the company has already cancelled a couple of TOS figures (including a Richard Daystrom!) in its care to avoid any line-killing disasters.

And speaking of Pike, one of their next releases will be Admiral Pike from Strange New Worlds.

With Trek’s 60^th anniversary hitting this year, EXO-6 has been one of the most satisfying merchandise makers to handle the franchise in years, and we kind of wish they could just keep producing Trek figures forever.

Closer look at Pike

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Jeff Bond is a freelance writer and book author who’s addicted to plastic models and action figures. You can catch up with him on Facebook and Instagram where he posts model works in progress, and takes commissions. His latest Star Trek book is Star Trek: The Motion Picture: The Art and Visual Effects.

Find more Star Trek merchandise news and reviews at TrekMovie.com.