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Here we go again... Playmates is back in the Trek business!


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#61 dchimpy

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Posted 26 January 2022 - 10:39 AM

The more I think about, the more I'm cool with the 5" scale. Even if it's not exactly the same as the 90's figures. I'm not sure they'll be able to make new playsets with the way things are priced these days, so the option to use the old playsets in this scale is nice. Plus, with these new figures, I don't have to have Riker and Worf ready to tackle someone while at their bridge posts. There's a Q &A on youtube, and it sounds like these will retail for around $13 per figure, which is a relief now that I'm paying $23 plus for 6" Legends, Black Series and G.I . Joe.

 

Here's a link to that Q&A

 

 



#62 Morgan

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Posted 26 January 2022 - 12:47 PM

I'm glad they've finally figured out that people don't want a new figure scale, like 6-inch or something, and that for many people this is a nostalgia hobby. 



#63 djc242

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Posted 27 January 2022 - 01:49 AM

The more I think about, the more I'm cool with the 5" scale. Even if it's not exactly the same as the 90's figures. I'm not sure they'll be able to make new playsets with the way things are priced these days, so the option to use the old playsets in this scale is nice. Plus, with these new figures, I don't have to have Riker and Worf ready to tackle someone while at their bridge posts. There's a Q &A on youtube, and it sounds like these will retail for around $13 per figure, which is a relief now that I'm paying $23 plus for 6" Legends, Black Series and G.I . Joe.
 
Here's a link to that Q&A


Thanks for sharing that! Good info. $13 is pretty reasonable I think.

Yeah, kind of odd that the TOS ship and phaser are up first. Those are clearly reaching to the ahem, senior officers out there, who by now have any number of more accurate versions. They should have started with something more recent for the new, younger fans. I would be fascinated to know how many people have watched TOS for the first time during our Years of Hell.

#64 bgiles73

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Posted 27 January 2022 - 08:41 PM

There are so many other sources for more detailed, more expensive highly breakable ships and other collectibles. This is a concept that appears to have been lost over the many years that products like this have catered solely to collectors, lets make a toy for kids to play with and that parents can buy without breaking the bank. If theres no toys or video games to keep new generations entertained the way this traditionally would occur, then the whole thing just dies on the vine. I suggest Eaglemoss for the detail you want. That big Enterprise D electronic kit they have that you get one component at a time is really nice. Just no way I see anyone buying Junior that no matter how great a kid he is!

#65 dchimpy

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Posted 27 January 2022 - 10:15 PM

There are so many other sources for more detailed, more expensive highly breakable ships and other collectibles. This is a concept that appears to have been lost over the many years that products like this have catered solely to collectors, lets make a toy for kids to play with and that parents can buy without breaking the bank. If theres no toys or video games to keep new generations entertained the way this traditionally would occur, then the whole thing just dies on the vine. I suggest Eaglemoss for the detail you want. That big Enterprise D electronic kit they have that you get one component at a time is really nice. Just no way I see anyone buying Junior that no matter how great a kid he is!

Yeah, while I was hoping for 6 inch line like Star Wars, I'm happy with what these are. I barely touch or pose my Diamond Select/AA figures as I'm terrified of breaking them. Plus, I think the Diamond Select Wrath of Khan looks horrible. I'm glad someone will be making toys can be played with. I'm sure they'll make TOS figures in their 60's uniforms, I can't wait to see those!



#66 djc242

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Posted 28 January 2022 - 12:32 AM

There are so many other sources for more detailed, more expensive highly breakable ships and other collectibles. This is a concept that appears to have been lost over the many years that products like this have catered solely to collectors, lets make a toy for kids to play with and that parents can buy without breaking the bank. If theres no toys or video games to keep new generations entertained the way this traditionally would occur, then the whole thing just dies on the vine. I suggest Eaglemoss for the detail you want. That big Enterprise D electronic kit they have that you get one component at a time is really nice. Just no way I see anyone buying Junior that no matter how great a kid he is!


I’m not suggesting they make collectible grade stuff. Some of their 90s ships were spot on, like the Vorcha, Warbird, DS9, and Voyager and rugged as hell. I’m sure mine were thrown into the couch a bunch. Just thought having the oldest Enterprise as the first offering was odd. If anything, TWOK refit would make sense to go with the first figure wave, or the Disco-prise. Still the 1701 but seen on the current shows. A Discovery or Protostar would have also been a good first ship IMO.

I’m not expecting hyper accurate anything from Playmates. If it happens, great. As a kid in the 90s some of the stuff was too off the mark for me. I skipped the Excelsior, Defiant and a few others. Fingers crossed this new line makes it to a better Defiant. Hoping for a Cardassian ship too.

#67 Tiberius

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Posted 28 January 2022 - 03:32 AM

I too would have thought, WoK enterprise, EntD, or Discosame with the phaser or how about a TOS group to go with the ship? Only 2 Disco figures? Strange New Worlds might be a good stretch?
The figures look better, the ship might look better than the previous PM version, but the phaser seems the same half scale version from the past lets see what happens, bring it PM

#68 Tiberius

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Posted 28 January 2022 - 03:33 AM

Or what a reliant?!?

#69 Morgan

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Posted 28 January 2022 - 02:44 PM

The Reliant is definitely overdue. But I have to wonder how deep they'll go into the TOS & movies.

 

If they split the lineup 50/50 among TOS/TNG/DS9 and the four new series, I think that would probably be realistic.



#70 bgiles73

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Posted 28 January 2022 - 05:31 PM

I heard some one mention that Super7 might be doing Star Trek Ultimates. That might mean collector grade figures. Not really great to scale with Hasbros Marvel and Star Wars 6 inch figures, but another option for collectors. This could all be a rumor because I heard it from a source other than Super7. I really hope Micro Machines gets back into making Star Trek Starships and covers as much as Eaglemoss has. That would really be incredible.

#71 djc242

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Posted 29 January 2022 - 12:56 AM

Micro Machines would be cool. Just hope they are better than the last Star Wars line they did for The Force Awakens, Rebels, and Rogue One. Not as good as their first offerings for either franchise.

#72 Matty-lad

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Posted 30 January 2022 - 05:17 PM

I'm kinda hoping the heads on these can be transferred to the 90s figures to fill out some of the gaps... Thinking the likes of Uhura from TWOK as I've a few Flashbacks Janeway figures to use. Same with the likes of Ogawa, Shelby etc.



#73 Whirlygig

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Posted 31 January 2022 - 12:56 PM

I haven't gotten my DST figures out in awhile.  Will they crumble to dust if I touch them?  Will those rubber bits crack under the stress of being picked up?  Yes, it would be fun to have at least as many of these as we got of those, and replace them all with something more durable and playable, however, I'm past that phase of life now sadly, and, I'm still skeptical that it will succeed long enough to go as deep as DST did.  I was never into the original Playmates, too odd looking for me...though I did grab the Playmates VOY crew since DST never got to those.



#74 MisterPL

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Posted 31 January 2022 - 02:28 PM

The whole reason I joined the Art Asylum message board was to express my concern over the rubber pants used on the Enterprise figures. After using the required amount of vulgarity, I finally got Digger's attention and he assured me the "space-age polymer" would hold up over time, unlike the animated eyelids on the Furby Yoda figures at the time. Those were cracking and falling off at retail. It wasn't pretty.

 

A few weeks ago came across the Archer figure in my basement and the soft material did indeed hold up.

 

Is Playmates going to offer any other scale but 5" this time around?



#75 Razorgeist

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Posted 31 January 2022 - 07:53 PM

The only thing that has my attention is the Enterprise.  Kind of strange they went with the classic Enterprise but I guess that vibes with Strange New Worlds coming out (makes me wonder if they retail the Enterprise to make it closer to the original incarnation).  The detailing looks fine and it seems as though they went back to their original mold and modified it as the connection points to the nacelle pylons are quite similar to the 95 ship they did.  My only complaint is the grid pattern on the saucer.



#76 Zodou

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Posted 01 February 2022 - 08:50 PM

This seems like an odd way to re-introduce a toy line, by releasing a bunch of stuff people already have and in better forms; nearly ignoring every current Trek series. I mean, I'm not a fan of new Trek, but it would make the most sense to start there given that's what's the most fresh in people's minds. I know the original Playmates line was bought primarily by adult collectors, but do they really think kids are going to be racing out to buy a phaser and Enterprise from a 50+ year old tv show? I know they're iconic, but are they still in demand by the people who'd be buying props/ships. Odd choices overall. Although, I understand some of the figure choices; freshening up old classics. As a collector, I'd buy a toy of the Protostar before I'd buy a toy of the TOS Enterprise as I've got a dozen replicas of the TOS E. But I don't have a Protostar, because no one's made it yet. They dropped the ball.

 

Post script: The phaser is s straight up re-release of their awful, inaccurate 90's version. (minus screw and speaker holes) No excuse for that, there's so much reference out there, this is just a cheap, cost-saving move that suggest their confidence (Or lack thereof) in the line.



#77 MisterPL

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Posted 11 May 2022 - 09:01 AM

As someone who just got back into collecting Star Wars (thanks to my waning interest in anything offered by DST lately), I'd have been tempted to dive into a 1:18 scale Trek line. At 5", I'm just not interested. As with Art Asylum's choice to offer 7" figures, they just won't fit in with what I have in mind.

That said, there might be a handful of new Playmates figures that could make it into my cross-universe collection.

 

Zero is listed as a 4" figure (though it's probably in the 5" scale). That'd look good sitting in the corner of my sandcrawler. Saru might be underscaled enough to fit into a cantina. I'm not seeing any news on future releases for the Playmates line but an upcoming figure from ReAction has my attention.



#78 Alex

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Posted 31 May 2022 - 12:21 AM

So far I really like what I'm seeing in the way of action figures. It looks like Playmates FINALLY learned their lesson about sticking to the 4.5" scale instead of once again having to be told "or we can do this the hard way" while they try to ram a new scale down our throats. I just wish this would wake DST up to the fact that the only two scales that matter to trek are 4.5" and 7", and 4.5" matters for the "retro" 90s style stuff, while 7" matters for the hyperrealistic stuff. Don't get me wrong, I would absolutely love for DST to revive their 7" line so that I could finally have a Janeway in that scale, but if they won't do that, (and they regrettably seem hell bent on not doing that,) I'll gladly take Captain's Burnham and Saru in the 4.5" scale. Sure, having a mix of PM figures Displayed next to DST ships is a little weird, but at least I'm not missing entire captains if I do that. Definitely like the prices for the figures, as that's clearly Playmates' strong suit.

 

I'm not going to lie, I'm not exactly thrilled with the ships and accessories, which isn't a good thing as I tend to prefer those to figures, especially if the figures aren't getting playsets. (Now show me an Enterprise–E Bridge Playset and I'll go full Fry/Futurama "shut up and take my money" meme faster than you can say Ferengi!) I fully expect Playmates' ships to be more in line with their previous offerings, which honestly isn't inherently bad, but starting with Kirk's 1701, as opposed to literally any other ship including Pike's (SNW) 1701, Discovery(-A,) La Sirena, or the glaringly obvious choice of the Protostar that seems to have a full crew pretty much ready no less is a fairly odd choice to say the least. Don't get me wrong, it shouldn't be one of the last ships released like it was in the 90s, and it's not that I don't want it at all, but this is both an odd choice for collectors and children alike. If you're a collector, you probably have at least one of DST's infinitely better renditions of this ship, whether it's the original 40th Anniversary release, or one of the numerous "HD" reissues, all of which make the Playmates ships look like a joke. If you're a kid, I'd be a bit surprised if TOS was among the Trek you'd been exposed to thus far. Right now I'm seeing preorders for this ship going for $59.99, which is basically in line with a DST offering, and admittedly has me asking "who is this for" for the reasons that I've just mentioned. People don't seem to remember this, but the Playmates 1701 was one of the most easily damaged ships available even if you let it sit on a shelf. DST's 1701 was more durable (at least if you didn't get a dud that slipped through quality control, and DST was good about replacing those,) and that doesn't exactly bode well for playability if this is basically using a tweaked version of the 90s mold. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised and the changes they've made will prevent this thing from falling apart again, but I'm not exactly holding my breath just yet. I want this to be awesome, but I'm going to need one in my hands to know whether or not it actually will be. Also, if the images we're seeing are correct, why only three buttons on the ship, and why make them so much more overt than the ones on the 90s version that at least attempted to try and blend in with the design as much as possible? (The 90s ship had the bridge noise, warp drive, phaser, and photon torpedo; which sound did we lose?) I mean, Playmates has literally had two decades to look at what DST did, look at what they themselves did, and find a way to do it better. Why not discreetly place buttons in the "saucer grid" so that a handful of sections could be just slightly depressed without big "LOOK AT ME, HERE I AM" buttons that are calling unnecessary attention to themselves, or the single bridge dome button that DST used that looks great, but hinders playability. I mean, we literally have laptops that basically have keys that are so thin that they prove the technology to do this exists, and exists even on dirt cheap laptops; it's an easy aesthetic and playability improvement and Playmates just ignored it. Sure, it's not the Art Asylum/DST concept of "what if we jam a cheap touch screen into the ship" that always was cost prohibitive, but it's a much less expensive compromise, and one that wouldn't make this ship run into the same $500 price bracket as the Playmobil 1701 playset that I want but definitely can't afford.

 

As for the Phaser, I'm really not impressed, and I don't say that lightly. I'm still hoping DST puts out their cobrahead at some point, and after seeing this, I'm kind of hoping that some point is sooner than later, because it doesn't look like Playmates has learned anything about how to build a Phaser in the past two decades. I mean, they used to partner with Art Asylum for sculpts, and the AA/DST Phaser is laughably more durable than the Playmates one was, at least from a sculpt standpoint. Why didn't they literally just call up DST, back up a truckload of money to use their sculpt, (or cut a deal for DST to do some more collectors quality ships in exchange for said sculpt; there are several ways to make an agreement work for both parties,) and then just stick new Playmates electronics in DST's infinitely superior and more durable Phaser sculpt? Not only would this have made everyone happy, it would have given us the best Phaser option to date, and I'd be the sucker who buys yet another TOS Type I and II phaser instead of the guy looking at the new offering and going "why did they do that?"

 

I really think DST should be doing ships and accessories at the collectors level, Playmates should be doing figures and playsets, possibly "retro" versions of ships, and Paramount should go back to the way they did things in the early 2000s where the concept of a traditional master toy licensee didn't exist for Trek because they realized no one company could handle the license correctly. This would really result in the best line available for all toys that we'd want to see.

 

For those who've mentioned video games and Micro Machines, and that we need more things like them, first let me say that I agree with you, and second, let me go into a little bit of detail on each.

 

Video Games: So the good news on this front is that we're getting at least two new ones that aren't ST: Online, and that aren't low end mobile games that cheapen the whole experience. Prodigy is getting a console game on all three major systems, and I'll be preordering my physical copy for the Nintendo Switch shortly. I have no doubt that it'll likely be an awful game even by the standards of licensed games aimed at kids, but it's the first Trek console game in the adventure style since the 90s, so I'll gladly give it a shot and hope I'm pleasantly surprised. It's also the first Trek game on a Nintendo system since that awful DS9 game on the SNES, and that alone is reason enough for me to purchase it. It's the first Prime Universe Trek game on a console that isn't an MMO since the aforementioned DS9 game if memory serves me correctly as well, so that alone warrants a purchase in my book. I'm not expecting Bridge Crew, (granted I would love a Bridge Simulator for the Nintendo Switch, and would happily pay for the absurdly priced collectors edition physical copy that doesn't fit on a shelf correctly if one were to be developed,) or even something like the old PC adventure games like A Final Unity or 25th Anniversary, but this is long overdue in my book. (And given that I just sunk well over $100 on classic Ninja Turtles games and will splurge even more when a new retro style TMNT game comes out later this year, I can safely say that I will gladly plunk more money into Trek games too, especially when they make my Nintendo Switch feel like an SNES nostalgia trip.) On top of that, it looks like we're getting a classic style Trek game too, Star Trek: Resurrection, which is supposedly going to be a PC release. I won't lie, I'm a little irritated that as usual, Mac gamers are getting overlooked here, (which would be fine if Trek wasn't the kind of franchise where over half of the audience tends to be the supposedly mythical creature known as the "Mac gamer,") as are Nintendo gamers, which seems to be par for the course with Trek games outside of the upcoming Prodigy game, but at least someone is attempting something new for the first time in years. I hate that my options are either not playing it or buying a cheap PC because nobody thought that a port would be smart idea, but I love that Trek is getting some love in the video game department.

 

Micro Machines: So these would unfortunately require Playmates to basically convince Hasbro to play nice with them, and I would admittedly gobble these up like a Ferengi to latinum, but I need more people who are with me on this if any of us have any hope of considering Playmates and Hasbro to make these a thing again. I admittedly splurged on the Star Wars ones for TFA/RO back in the day and would do so twice as much for Trek Micro Machines if given the chance, but the fact that Hasbro didn't even think to pump these out when they had the license in 2012 when Into Darkness came out should tell you how disconnected they are from the fanbase of toy collectors on these. (Granted, Hasbro also is the only licensee to grossly mismanage the Trek license worse than Playmates did with the Trek XI line; at least Playmates made an effort there, Hasbro focused solely on Kre–O that nobody wanted and was baffled when the line tanked.) Heck, Hasbro owns Power Rangers, and that franchise had some cool Micro Machines back in the 90s too; I would pay stupid money for a giant box of Megazord Micro Machines, but Hasbro hasn't even hinted on exploring that idea, and that's for a property that they own lock, stock, and barrel! It honestly baffles me sometimes how they handled that line. On one hand I'm glad that they did the Star Wars ones again, but on the other, there are at least two more franchises that would benefit from them for similar reasons. (Trek Micro Machines are great for fleet building, a line of Megazords would be great for the exact same reason; collecting them in a Micro scale works really, really well for the sheer quantity of them.) Again, you don't have to sell me on these though, my wallet is open, but the Hasborg Cube doesn't want to assimilate my money.



#79 Dilithium1

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Posted 21 July 2022 - 11:01 AM

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#80 Dilithium1

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Posted 21 July 2022 - 11:18 AM

Data looks like Zuckerberg, Picard looks like Bezos and Spock looks like Woody Allen

Im still holding out for Mego or Mego-like SNW and a SNW Transporter Playset






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