In 1998, Exclusive Premiere, the makers of numerous nostalgic pop culture figures and dolls, finally put in a bid to make Babylon 5 action figures. Though the cerebral nature of the series didn’t lend itself to a huge, exciting, Star Wars-scale line of toys – after all, how much action can an action figure of Ambassador Kosh really have? – it was nice to have, at long last, some fun little reminders of the B5 universe. In one of his Usenet postings, even series creator J. Michael Straczynski admitted to being a fan of the toys.
Of wave one, only G’Kar and Sheridan had articulated legs. G’Kar has one red eye and one blue eye, placing this rendition of the character somewhere between the middle of season 4 and the middle of season 5, when Dr. Franklin gave him a blue artificial eye intended for use by human patients.
Exclusive Premiere quickly became notorious for releasing major and minor variants of the Babylon 5 characters, the most notable of which was the pre-transformation Delenn (below), which used the same body and arm molds, though with a different paint job, and a new head for the season 1 version of Delenn. It quickly became a much-sought-after variation.
Oddly, the post-transformation Delenn’s bone crest is painted gold. Perhaps the manufacturers assumed it must be some form of jewelry, such as a crown. The pre-transformation Delenn and the Lennier figure from the third wave of B5 figures were painted more accurately.
