Funko Pops, to me.
I understand that some of them are fairly overpriced, but I also really like them as is. It doesn’t work on all characters, but it sometimes work on a lot and there’s so much representation and variety that it’s good to have a few.
If people want to talk about waste of plastic and vinyl, they should bark at the companies who make teeny tiny figurines that serve no purpose and have so little detail that spending any money on them is a waste.
I agree with you as a contemporary but I do think it’s important to remember that while DS9 started slower it ended up delivering excellent narratives on the same topic.
They are both worth a watch though because Bab5 had a grittiness to it that most other sci-fi wouldn’t embrace until the resurgence of Cyberpunk. Bab5 contains several love letters to Gibson buried in its themeing that even DS9 (the grittiest of Star Treks) didn’t come close to matching.