Customising Mego Star Trek action figures

Will the real Rigellian please stand up?

In 1980, a purple alien passed himself off as a Rigellian from Star Trek: The Motion Picture. But he was an imposter!
Scroll down to read the whole saga and see more pics!

Mego's imposter:

It may have been no more than a typographical error, but it was one that slipped by me for many years. Every cardback identified the Saurian as a Rigellian. However, numerous interviews with the movie's makeup artist, Fred Phillips, and costume designer, Robert Fletcher (such as in The Making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture by Gene Roddenberry and Susan Sackett) had named and described all the new alien races. Mego's purple reptiloid "Rigellian" is clearly a Saurian.

The chelonoid Rigellians (pictured above far left, courtesy Citadel Miniatures of Britain) were a race of green turtle-like humanoids, one of many races that inhabited the planets orbiting Rigel. (Others included the Vulcanoid Rigellians, Federation members mentioned in the original series, and the supposedly politically-neutral Orions). The Rigellian Lord wore a metallic breastplate "shell", shoulder armour and a full-head helmet. His attendant wore a breastplate and cap and carried a long metal staff. (This staff was seen again as a prop on Vulcan in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, so the Vulcan connection with Rigel continues!) Citadel's Saurians are pictured above, far right.

But someone at Mego got it wrong. Actually, Mego's figure seems to be wearing a hurried amalgam of both white costumes! Roddenberry and Sackett's book specifically mentions that Saurians were only in the Rec Deck crowd scene of ST:TMP, so all Saurians in the movie wore Starfleet uniforms. The clothing sculpting on the chest of Mego's figure is reminiscent of the curved white drapery (see below) designed for the Rigellian ambassadors in the San Francisco footage. The Mego figure's shoulders and ankles have definite Starfleet uniform lines. Perhaps at one time it was planned to release more aliens?

My Rigellian custom:

Well, here he is (above centre)! As you can see, I went for a bit of an amalgam myself. When I noticed that the donor figure even came with its own staff, I just had to create the accessory for my Rigellian. Indeed, for several weeks of planning, I was just going to do the Rigellian Attendant, but then I realised that if I'd already customised the Betelgeusian Chief Ambassador, why just do the Rigellian Lord's lowly attendant?

Spurring me on was the appearance of Rigel IV denizen Alonis Cobaryn in Starfleet: Year One, the serialised novel by Michael Jan Friedman (Pocket Books, 1999-2000). The physical description of Cobaryn was definitely reptillian, tallying with ST:TMP's Rigellian. He was distinguished from other Rigellian races - and even the correct planet number was mentioned! Yay!

So out came my craft knife, the Fimo clay and a hairdryer, the Knead-it five-minute putty and some new paints...

Did you guess the "ingredients" for creating my Rigellian?

Yes, it's Boss Nass, from Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace! He even came with his own staff, which was just begging to be made over as a Rigellian artifact.

The recipe:

1. Divest a Boss Nass action figure of his rubbery outergarment and carve away the detailing from the chest until the surface is smooth.

2. Chop off the top of his head and trim down the brow ridges and cheek jowls. Reshape the mouth slightly to sharpen the top lip into a beak. This is later emphasised with black paint.

3. Make him a helmet. After several unsuccessful attempts to carve a cubic helmet from five-minute putty, I decided to try Fimo clay and a hairdryer (rather than risk baking the whole figure in the oven). It worked! About 20 minutes on full blast set the Fimo hard.

4. Five-minute setting Knead-it putty is used to extend the veil and create some shoulder armour. My thumbnail was all that was needed to shape the bottom edges where the draped robes would be affixed.

5. The pants, sleeves and veil are painted white. I almost used off-white, but I worried that the effect would be too similar to the Andorian female's dress I'd painted the week before. As it turned out, a small scrap of white felt was the only effective medium to create the drapery, and felt doesn't come in off-white. Serendipity strikes again!

6. Paint the armoured pieces gloss black, then add a topcoat of metallic gunmetal. Perfect! (I'm so glad I decided not to use the silver.)

7. Cut two shapes from some felt for the draping robes. Add a suggestion of folds by gluing offcuts to the pieces. Glue to the shoulders along the edge of the armour. I previously tried Fimo and the putty for these drapes but arm movement would have been prevented. The felt works beyond my wildest dreams, but a lot of planning went into this very simple looking solution.

8. Chop the sides from the circular shape of Boss Nass's staff. Knowing how most silver paint just hates PVC accessories, I went for an aluminium cooking foil look on the staff. This is the fastest customised accessory I've ever done. (And it was the original staff that made me consider the astounding similarities between Boss and the Rigellian in the first place. Even if the staff is meant to held by the Rigellian Lord's attendant, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to make one.) I've since found a great liquid silver finish that has replaced the cooking foil.

More Mego customs:

[Betelgeusian] [Andorian female] [And the rest]

Playmates customs:
[Recipes for customising] [Tellarite] [Arex] [M'ress] [Dr Selar] [Capt. Bev and Prof. Data] [Tuvix]

Races of the United Federation of Planets

A Rogues' Gallery of Andorians

A Summary of the Physiological Roots of Andorian Culture by Leslie Fish

Captain Therin's photo album

See Therin and Grol hosting intergalactic game shows

Therin's Log of the USS Hood (Fiction by Ian McLean)

That other blue race

Separated at Birth...?

Ian and Therin's hot links

The Andor Files

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Star Trek © Paramount Pictures Corp. This website is not intended to infringe on copyrights held by Paramount/Viacom. The Mego Customising pages © 1999 Orange Eye Productions. No text or graphics may be reproduced without permission.

Page revised August 2006
URL: http://www.oocities.org/therinofandor/index.html
Email Therin and Ian at: lindsay96@ozemail.com.au