You may remember earlier this week when I reviewed one of the Re-Mego Space 1999 figures. I had pretty good things to say about David Kano but today I'm taking a look at one of the few females in the line, Sandra Benes and it won't be as flattering.


Sandra Benes was a somewhat important character in the original Space 1999 show, although she had a reduced capacity and minor name change in the second season. Sandra's character is actually the last Space 1999 character to appear in any form as she served as the "host" for the short featurette "Message from Moonbase Alpha" which was made 25 years after the original show and released on the actual date that Space 1999 was supposed to take place. While all that is cool, how is this figure based upon her?

Packaging:
The packaging here is almost identical to David Kano's so I'm not going to spend too much time on it. Yes it's a cheap card stock, yes the entire thing seems a little cheap, but it also feels very Mego to me too. I do enjoy the back of the package as much as I did last time. Reminds me a bit of vintage Kenner cards which showed pictures of the rest of the figures.


Insider her little plastic prison she had a piece of tape holding her in that Kano did not. It was easy enough to release her from.

Articulation:
Sandra's articulation appears to be about the same as the other Mego or Mego-like figures. I didn't undress her to check for sure (I felt dirty) but I'm guessing the range of movement is about the same. She stands alright on her own, but I noticed almost immediately she was taller than everyone else by a fair amount. I quickly discovered if I removed her boots she was the same size as everyone else.


Once I pulled her boots off, I also noticed that her foot pegs were cracked and could easily fall apart. I tried putting her feet back in the boots, but the hard plastic boot was too tough and her feet just won't fit in properly.


Which led me to wonder what use her ankle articulation was to me if it was going to be in a plastic boot anyway? And if her boots didn't fit because of her feet and her feet were damaged why not just pop her feet off? So that's exactly what I did. I ripped the remaining plastic on her feet off (this was very easy because this plastic is more brittle than Larry King's bones) and put her boots back on and she's perfect size. Despite removing the ankles entirely, she honestly isn't losing any articulation because her boots prevented it from being used anyway.


Sculpt:
Aside from having to rip her feet off, I quite like the sculpt on this figure. Her body is of a fair proportion and she definitely looks feminine. The boots despite being much harder than typical Mego boots are quite sexy in a 70's fashion sense.


The head sculpt is the real winner, with a quite appealing face. Her hair is a bit boyish, but you can tell that this is a chick. It definitely looks like the actress who played Sandra Benes, but it also looks a bit like Elizabeth Sladen AKA Sarah Jane Smith from Doctor Who. Although I also think she looks a bit like Natalie Imbruglia. Whatever the case, she actually looks cuter than Zienia Merton who played the real Sandra, but still looks enough like her that you won't mistake it for not being her either.

The paint work is pretty good on the face, but the hair does have a rub mark on it. Her nose also has a dark spot that looks like it's came from brushing up against something. I'd be tempted to try and clean it off but I'm afraid most cleaners might melt the nose. Unfortunately the head is very rubbery. I've heard that Classic TV Toys has a issue with a lot of their heads being very rubbery, but this is the first time I've encountered it. Her head almost moves like jelly. Whereas the other heads were harder this one definitely feels cheap. Her hands seem a tad too small as well, though they are functional. Then there's that whole foot issue again.


Her costume is fan-farting-tastic other than a little gap around the neck where the gold line on her arm isn't quite sewed on right. She also has a little hint of hip showing in the front that I couldn't seem to get rid of, but still all in all the outfit looks quite good on her. It's also ridiculously screen accurate with very little to nitpick about. The logo is still a sticker, naturally and that's always going to seem a bit shoddy but I haven't had any of them start to peel.

Accessories:
These figures still don't come with much but Sandra has a little bit to go her way. She comes with removable clothing, boots and a little phaser gun that almost looks like brass knuckles. I guess that's better than a communicator that looks like a popsicle.


Value:
At $5 it's hard to say that this is a bad value, but I'm a bit conflicted. On one hand her feet were prone to breakage and I actually had to break them off to get her to be in proper scale. On the other hand, I didn't lose anything by removing her feet because her boots act as feet. If you're looking to make this figure barefoot, I guess you're at a loss. Mego articulation at the ankle is almost always wasted though because the boots don't allow movement, so should I really penalize a figure for that?


Something strange is afoot.
Score Recap:
Packaging - 7
Sculpting - 7
Articulation - 6
Accessories - Phaser
Value - 6
Overall - 6.5 out of 10

There is a lot to like about this figure. The face is pretty, perhaps prettier than the actress, but is still looks the way its supposed to. The costume, boots and phaser all look quite nice. Unfortunately there are quite a few downers as well. Her boots are too hard to work with the feet and I had to rip her feet off. Even if it doesn't effect the final outcome, I'd never let Mattel get away with me having to break the feet off of a figure. Her head is rubbery and the figure feels pretty cheap overall.


Despite the relatively low score, this is a solid pickup if you're looking to add some females to your Mego ranks. Most Mego and Mego-like figures have females with rooted hair that makes the figure look too much like a cheap Barbie doll. Sandra Benes is a nicely sculpted figure with a decent outfit but certainly lived up to her bootleg qualities. For $5 she's a fair bit of customizer fodder though. The quality just isn't as good here as it was on David Kano.