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Product Enterprise Lt. Gay Ellis

Jeff's back with another unique sixth scale review tonight, but I'll let him tell you all about it.  What's the scoop, Jeff?

Product Enterprise- Lieutenant Gay Ellis from UFO, ltd ed

Stop sniggering at the back, you have to remember the 70’s were a more innocent, some cruel people might even say naive age. A time when the word gay simply meant happy, and indeed was a popular name in the UK for girls, mind you in the 1920’s the name Lettuce was popular as well, can’t see either catching on again.

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, ‘who is Gay Ellis’ I hear you cry. Well in the Gerry Anderson produced show ‘UFO’, made in 1969 and set in the far flung year of 1980 she was the head of operations on Moonbase, Earths last line of defense against an alien menace, visiting our planet to harvest human organs for their dying race, and it didn’t hurt that she was pretty darn cute!







Packaging - ***1/2
Another nice full colour, flap fronted box, a design that has become something of an industry standard. Sure, kudos is always due when someone breaks the mould a little (see SST SW boxes, and that Enterbay Bruce Lee box is a thing of art, but you pay for it!) but all in all, the reason this design has become a standard is because it works so well.

There’s a wealth of pictures from the series UFO, showing views of Moonbase and Lt Ellis in a variety of poses and outfits, well basically two outfits. One, the Eagle Transporter pilot suit (not available here) and the other her fetching and rather iconic silver Moonbase suit. 

Once her flap is opened…ahem, you can see her lying in a clear plastic tray being held down by 5 twisties. She’s along side her pen, note board and her figure stand emblazoned with the S.H.A.D.O (Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organisation) logo, that like the Avengers is fitted with a sound-chip, that delivers many phrases and background sound effects, alarms etc.

Sculpting - ****
Now I said in my Avengers review the Product Enterprises had found a star in Andrew Teal, and I still stand by that. Were he a Far East sculptor I’m sure he’d have his own fan club by now. Suffice to say as a facial likeness goes this is right on the money. The character was played by Gabrielle Drake who stared in loads of UK TV series right through the 70’s 80’s and early 90’s. She was and I’m sure still is a beautiful woman and Andrew has captured her likeness fantastically, even sculpting her eye lashes to stand proud, giving a far more realistic look than just picking out in paint. 

She also has two new hand sculpts, both with rings on their fingers and are sculpted to hold her accessories. So all in all a solid piece of sculpting that will appeal to fans of the show but also to any customisers as it’s a far more realistic face than any generic Cy/Cool girl.

Paint - ****
Apart from the rings picked out on her hands all the major paint ops are on her face, and the face is a top job, no slop at all, and some super detailed work is carried out around her eyes capturing her elaborate make-up spot on! 

The hair is painted a purple/pink colour with some subtle streaked shading. Now this was a style and colour favoured by all female personele on the base, no explanation is ever realy given for this….but hey it was the 70’s. Some might have preferred a more detailed job here, but again the quality of the sculpt means plenty of detail is achieved by the play of light and shadow (hard to see with my flash photography). I did also wonder if they might do the hair in a more shiny metallic hue as seen in the series, but fortunately they didn’t as I’m sure we’d have lost some of detail in the sculpt had it been too reflective. 

Articulation - ***
Not the figures strongest area, but still very good, no double elbows or knees, but apart from that all the articulation you’d expect from modern 1/6. This is going to appeal primarily to fans of the show and I can’t imagine them wanting to pose her in anything more adventurous than standing with her note board and pen, that said mine is displayed sitting, but the articulation is such you could pretty much have her in any position you want….stop sniggering again! 

Accessories - ***1/2
Not a wealth of accessories, but what she does have is character specific and works well for posing. Perhaps a S.H.A.D.O side arm might have been nice, but to be honest I can’t remember if she ever used one on screen. So her main accessories are her pen, notepad and a sound chipped stand. It delivers many lines, and again like the Avengers set is crystal clear in its sound quality.

Outfit - ****
This is an area Product Enterprises are going from strength to strength! With each release from the first Avenger set through Dracula, Kenneth Williams, the second ‘in colour’ Avengers and now this, quality gets better with each release. It’s basically a small facsimile of the screen worn outfit and consists of a silver jump suit with silver faux leather panels, silver high-heeled boots, silver laced up hot pants (worn over the jump suit of course…it’s the future!) and a wide silver belt/corset, this has a working buckle and has details that look not unlike white Jedi food capsules and a large rigid silver panel with the figure icon from the S.H.A.D.O logo. She also has a miniature version of the logo on a badge worn on her chest. 
I’m torn between whether the sculpt or outfit are her best feature, but both easily deserve top marks.

Fun Factor - ****
Definitely a must have for fans of the show, and she looks great displayed, but how could a hot babe in a silver jumpsuit with lace up hot-pants and purple hair look anything but great. She’s proving a big draw to my two daughters (5 and 3) but as I just said, what little girl wouldn’t want a doll dressed in silver with purple hair, in fact she looks like a grown up Stephanie from their favourite show Lazy Town. Of all my figures displayed, this is the one they constantly want to hold and play with. And Daddy the Ogre has to say sorry, time for her to go back on the shelf, remember….Daddies toy!

Value - ****
I’m not sure what she’ll retail for in the US, but by UK standards at £29.99 I think she’s a steal. Cheaper than SST stuff over here (but remember we have to import it) with the added bonus of a sound-chip. So for this quality of sculpting and this attention to detail on the outfit it’s got to be full marks.

Things to Watch Out For -
No problems at all, but be careful with her pen, it’s tiny and I almost lost mine a couple of times…phew!

Overall - ***3/4
To be honest Lt Gay Ellis is going to appeal mostly to a niche market, and as such you could expect it to cost a lot more and lack articulation, perhaps even a rigid statue would have been good enough for a lot of fans, in fact the only other Lt Ellis figure I know of was a ¼ scale statue made by Marmit in 2004, it was a mail away exclusive in Japan and cost a lot of money. 

But personally I’m ecstatic that PE is sticking with the 1/6 articulated, fabric dressed figures. It’s a big collectors market as Medicom, Hot Toys and SST have shown us, and with PE’s 1/6 70’s ‘Tom Baker’ Doctor Who and Cyberman round the corner, and the Space Vixen destined for a release next year. I shall certainly be coming back for more. She really was a gnats whisker from 4 stars, and had she had double elbows and knees she’d have got them!

SCORE RECAP:
Packaging - ***1/2
Sculpt - ****
Paint - ****
Articulation - ***
Accessories - ***1/2
Outfit - ****
Fun Factor - ****
Value - ****
Overall - ***3/4

Where to Buy - 
If in the UK you can get her direct from Product Enterprise for £29.99 or in the US I’ve seen her here for $59.95. Alternatively eBay may have a few bargains.


Figure from the collection of Jeff Parker.

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