Stargate SG-1 Desert Combat

Next to the original Star Trek TV series, the Stargate SG-1 TV series comes in a close second to being my favorite science fiction TV show.

When it was first announced that the Stargate movie franchise was being adapted for a TV show there was a lot skepticism amongst fans.

The original Stargate movie starred Kurt Russell as Jack O-Neill and as portrayed he was a by the book military professional.

In the TV series O’Neill was played by ex-MacGyver star Richard Dean Anderson and his O’Neill was anything but by the book.  Irreverent is the word that best describes Anderson’s ONeill.

Along with O-Neill there were three other individuals who traveled the Star Gate intergalactic highway: Teal’c (an alien warrior), Daniel Jackson (a geek linguist and historian) and Samantha Carter (a military tech genius).

Their mission was to travel from Stargate Command via the Goa'uld gateway and explore other worlds.

They encountered aliens (both good and bad), strange creatures, explored bizarre alien cities and did all the other things a typical (let’s explore) outerspace adventure is want to do.

The only difference is the tone of the show really stressed friendship and family, featured some wicked humor and boasted some pretty amazing visual effects for the time it was produced.

During the show’s run Diamond Select Toys produced a number of figure series along with a few other Stargate related items.

One figure series: the Desert Combat Series, consisted of five figures (four of which I have: O’Neil, Carter, Jackson and Teal’c).

A fifth Jonas Quinn figure was available but I believe it was a special chase figure and more difficult to get than the other four.


The six -inch figures came with a section of the series' robotic MALP or a section of the Goa’uld Transport Ring.

The piecemeal MALP comes with real rubber treads, a movable two piece arm with grasping claw, a swiveling radar and sensor dish, several swiveling sensor probes, and various protuberances and depressions bristling with dials, button and indicators.

It’s a nicely crafted, structured and functional miniature of the full-size MALP unit.

The Carter figure includes a complete Transport Ring with inscriptions, images and dial location indicators.  It’s given a tarnished and ancient look by the clever use of paint application.

Packaging consists of standard bubble packs with molded cradle areas to hold the figures and accessories. A large Stargate SG-1 logo decorates an upper panel with the individual characters photo and name on a lower panel. 

The reverse side of each bubble pack shows bust photos of each character in the set along with a brief description of the TV series premise.

All of the figures are dressed in variations of Desert Combat clothing.

Teal’c and Jackson are attired in full desert camo with a tan t-shirt under a full camo jacket, camo pants with belt, desert high top boots and a multi-pocket vest complete with smaller pockets over the shoulders.

Carter comes with camo pants, belt and boots but wears only a sleeveless deep tan t-shirt.  O'Neill wears a similar shirt with short sleeves and camo pants. belt and boots.

O’Neil, Teal’c and Jackson brandish Goa’uld hand weapons. Carter carries a sighted black rifle with an oversize ammo canister.

She also comes with a blaster and an ancient stone tablet with symbols.
Carter features, as with all the other figures’ features, look exactly like the characters they are designed after.

Carter sports her short yellow hair, has bright blue eyes and slightly darker skin tone lips.  The sculpting is spot on with clean crisp features, excellent color coverage with flesh and clothing varying tones and shadows and perfectly scaled.

All of the figures feature full articulation with the majority of articulation points hidden by the figures’ clotting.  Features and skin tones look natural with slight tonal variations.

Arms, legs, elbows, wrists, necks, heads and torsos all move in natural swings and pivots which allow the figures to pose realistically with or without weapons or accessories.

The O’Neill figure wears a lidless camo cap and black sunglasses and has a short barrel machine gun with gold barrel, a small communication device and what appears to be a handheld translator.

Jackson is equipped with a machine gun, an ancient Egyptian statue of a deity complete with gold stripping and red piping decorations and a silver lidded canister.

A heavy gold Goa’uld staff weapon is Teal’c’s weapon of choice.

The overall quality of the figures, accessories and packaging are excellent.

As a big fan of the TV series I wish I had all of the figures that Diamond Select Toys produced.