[Raine24]

Playmates Toys Boldly Returns To The Star Trek Universe

The copy is the exact sort of vagueness one expects, mostly confirmation that the line won't drop until next year with "Playmates will launch its new Star Trek toy line in 2022, following Star Trek’s entry into kids’ content with the premiere of Star Trek: Prodigy, the first Star Trek series aimed at younger audiences."

Jeez, even StarTrek.com is ignoring the existence of TAS. Ouch. However, among the slew of current and upcoming series, they did mention that there will be "future selections from the expansive Star Trek Universe of series and motion pictures"; considering the failure of Playmates' last dip into Trek with toys based on the '09 reboot film (the entire second wave was cancelled, leaving crews incomplete and the parted out playset forever unfinished while remaining stock flooded discount stores) and the tenuous status of the current programs, one would hope that Playmates will be keen to appeal to fans of the established franchise with a healthy variety of pre-reboot offerings

I personally hope they decide that not making any of the '09 figures compatible with the 350+ deep line they'd already done was a really, really, really boneheaded move and that, in addition to whatever scales they choose to produce, we'll see a modern continuation of the 4.5" line finishing off the crews they ever got to the first time (Enterprise, TNG movie crew, DS9 in FC uniforms, etc.) and perhaps some select re-issues with a touch of new tooling. Because while I have no interest in buying repros of figures I already own, if they put out a boxset of the TNG crew with 2nd/3rd season Wesley, Riker with a proper uniform, and Deanna in her dress, I'd have no problem repurchasing the same old Picard, Data, Worf, and Geordi to get them. Hell, a straight-up reissue of the bridge with new stickers and a swappable screen graphic would be an insta-buy for me

So, any trekkies here?

[Thor Laserpunch]

I am and I love TAS… an overlooked gem in the franchise. Was it really for young kids though? It had rather mature and comparatively high concept content compared to, like, Thundarr or whatever.

While this could be good news, I have had little confidence in Playmates since the 90s. I imagine they could do the new line(s) in 4.5” format, but that is such an oddball scale nowadays, and while the 90s collection went deep, the articulation and sculpts imo do not really stand the test of time and they probably would not look too good next to the newly designed and engineered figs.

[Raine24]

My understanding is that they went in specifically with the goal of creating a children's series that would stand up to an adult audience. I guess a proto Batman TAS in that regard

Some of those '90s figures still look good now (others not so much... I'm looking at you, Pike) and the line was already headed toward increased realism and posablity after the first couple of waves but the rampant parts re-use tended to mask and stifle that progress, imo. I don't think a slightly stylized approach to smaller figures would be a bad thing, especially when playsets are involved, while the realistic and sharp sculpts could be saved for the 6-7" figuress

[Comedian]

7A4ECECF-084F-4AFC-A305-A69507467F06 by Comedian Horseman, on Flickr

[Thor Laserpunch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Raine24

My understanding is that they went in specifically with the goal of creating a children's series that would stand up to an adult audience. I guess a proto Batman TAS in that regard

Some of those '90s figures still look good now (others not so much... I'm looking at you, Pike) and the line was already headed toward increased realism and posablity after the first couple of waves but the rampant parts re-use tended to mask and stifle that progress, imo. I don't think a slightly stylized approach to smaller figures would be a bad thing, especially when playsets are involved, while the realistic and sharp sculpts could be saved for the 6-7" figuress

I thought the likenesses were generally good, but the softness in detail, the glossiness of the plastic, and the often horrible articulation or pre-posed nature of feet and such is something of a turnoff in hindsight.

I’m curious though if they were to make new figs in that scale again if the secondary market value of 90s figures would go up…

[Raine24]

I can't speak to the gloss (I kind of like it in a "this is totally a toy" kind of way) but the pre-posed stuff was mostly in TNG's 1st wave. It was dialed back by wave 2 and was almost gone entirely until they started putting less articulated figures into the range and the awkward ass poses came back with a vengeance. I'm still ticked the only monster maroon men we got were 5poa, in a line with 12poa as standard

The toys were totally a product of their time right down to the randomly colored accessories, but compared to the standards and other lines of the time like The Dark Knight Collection, the 4.5" Trek line really holds up in articulation and accuracy to the source, imo, as much as I'd love some minor tweaks... like being able to sit like a human being!

[Thor Laserpunch]

Imho, be toyetic or be realistic. Pick a lane. For 90s toys, they weren’t bad at all (tho I personaly find most 90s figure lines to be weak and derivative, so that’s not a big compliment), but they were right at the cusp of what evolved into the adult collectible figure market and soon felt outclasssed by what came in the years after.

I’m trying to figure out who these monster maroon men are

[Raine24]

I can totally respect that, and if I didn't have like 150 of these things on my shelf I might be in the exact same camp

"Monster maroon" is a nickname for the TOS movie uniforms from Wrath of Khan onward. We only got those uniforms in the Generations wave which had no next to no articulation, and I specified men because Saavik came along later and didn't suck

[Thor Laserpunch]

That’s funny, never heard that before.

Yeah those Generations figures were kinda crap, eh? Clearly a rush job.

[Raine24]

Maybe it's more of a costumer/propmaker term? Like dustbuster, skant, or extra crispy

The Generations line was just... what? I get it: they were given uniform designs that weren't used and a skydive suit from a scene that was deleted, and that's really bad luck, but they made the choice to gimp the articulation on their own. I mean, they made a Bird of Prey with fixed wings! They really didn't seem to care, and botched it again with the next two movies

It was nice that they finally got the Engineering playset out, though. It was supposed to be part of the TNG line till the transporter bombed, and I'm happy they found a way to get it onto shelves

[Thor Laserpunch]

Wholeheartedly agree on the awesomeness of the Engineering playset. I was way too old to be playing with toys at that point, but rules are made to be broken.

I also agree with your appraisal that the uniform gaffes in that line weren’t the fault of Playmates… I kinda didn’t hate the figs at the time, though. In hindsight, I imagine real world practicality of meeting a deadline probably had a lot to do with the decisions they made. Of course, they coulda had plenty of time to figure it out and just dropped the ball, but we’ll probably never know… Something tells me it’s a little of column A, little of column B.

The whole franchise kinda hit it’s high point in the 90s though and imo kinda lost steam after the end of TNG, try as they might and not through any fault of the Trek crew at Paramount as they were continuing to put out quality material, the fan base just seemed to sorta… dissipate.

[Raine24]

It was a long, steep fall after TNG, for sure. DS9 still had respectable numbers, but Voyager struggled, and then any chance Enterprise had at continuing at its reduced budget ended with Les Moonves taking over the studio. Someone who thinks making Star Trek is "embarrassing" suddenly being in charge of it is never good news

We went from Playmates making 100,000 bridge playsets at $50-60 retail and selling out, to Diamond never even hitting 10,000 units of any $10-15 Trek figure they made. That's a big drop in demand for only a decade and a half

[Thor Laserpunch]

Yeah Les is exactly the guy you want at the wheel of a richly high-concept sci-fi series. The man’s main claim to fame is directing CBS’s mission to be a network palatable only to grammies and grampies who think watching attractive middle-aged folks interecting with quirky millennials in banal procedural crime dramas is a good time.

Trek has had a little bit of an upswing in the past few years, but I reserve the right to remain skeptical that it’s still a franchise that can have succesful toy tie-in lines. Particularly with Playmates being the producer of said toys. I can’t really think of anything they’ve produced in the past 20+ years that didn’t seem like a passionless obligation to keep the lights on.

[Raine24]

It's confirmed that Varner Studios is onboard the Trek train with Playmates!

Instagram & Twitter links

Though probably best known for their work on TMNT (from the first prototype onward) our interest lay in their having sculpted, effectively, the entire output of Trek toys from Playmates during the '90s. Their return after having skipped the reboot line is a strong indication of Playmates seeing this as a "return to form" and hopefully a sign that they're pursuing a successor of sorts to their original efforts rather than starting from scratch as the successive licensees have done