"Buy" Your Command

I like Cylons, and, as you can see from the picture above, I'm not referring to the "skin jobs" or "toasters" from the recently concluded Battlestar Galactica series on Sci Fi Channel. I mean the "man in a bulky suit" Centurions from the original series (and, to a slightly lesser degree, the CGI "Guardian" variety from Battlestar Galactica Razor).

It's all in that sinister helmet: the roaming red eye, the Darth-Vader-like mouthpiece, and, of course, the soulless, monotonous electronic voice.

On the original show, there were two types of Centurions: silver and gold — that is, the workhorse foot soldiers/pilots and the "command" Centurions.

We saw the first golden Centurion in "Gun on Ice Planet Zero"; it's name was Vulpa, and, surprisingly, it spoke in a much-lower monotone than its silver minions. This effect deepened the sense of dread I already felt about the Cylons.

Anyway, thanks to the "return" of the classic Centurions in Razor (and there are sure to be more in the Caprica series), Diamond Select Toys has rendered them as action figures. I picked up the "Galactican goldenrod" version, called "Cylon Warrior Commander," at Toys R Us, where it's one of three store exclusives (the others are a "Battle Damaged Cylon Pilot" and "William 'Husker' Adama," both from Razor). As to the silver "Cylon Warrior" from Razor, it's a Toyrocket exclusive.

One look at the Centurion's helmet was all it took to take me back to those bygone days of lumbering, shiny Cylons. I waited a couple of days before buying "golden boy," just to be sure I wasn't craving the toy because it "existed." But I couldn't get it out of my head, and now it is mine ... and it shall do my bidding for the rest of my life by obediently intoning, "By Your Command, Lord Edzo."