Im just wondering who here uses YouTube and who here subscribes to any Star Trek focused channels?

I have a few that I would highly recommend for all kinds of Star Trek fans;

Geekology
Join the wonderfully geeky conversations between Sven and David. These two English men are what Id call old school Star Trek fans and have some great opinions on a wide variety of Star Trek-related subjects. They review the Eaglemoss Star Trek Starships collection as well as other Star Trek merchandise both past and present. Sven adds a bit of Transformers flavour to proceedings too and both seem pretty knowledgeable on all things Robots in Disguise and Star Trek. Highly recommend checking these guys out.

Irish Trekkie
Co creator of the Star Trek: Discovery Unofficial Fan Page on Facebook, Damien brings a touch of Irish magic to proceedings with his in depth reviews with a fellow YouTuber by the name of Chris, The Trek Collector of Star Trek: Discovery. They have also collaborated with David and Sven, as well as the Trekyards team in live chats regarding all things Star Trek.

Irish Trekkie also reviews the Eaglemoss Star Trek Collection.

Trekyards
Samuel Cockings and Captain Stuart Foley bring some Star Trek knowledge onto YouTube and break down and analyse the Trek ships in great detail. They have also begun reviewing Star Trek: Discovery and Orville episodes. They both bring some nerd cred to the table and produce enjoyable and informative videos for your viewing pleasure.

The Trek Collector
Chris T. Judge brings some more Irish charm to the world of Star Trek on YouTube and whilst he isnt a regular uploader on his own channel, he is a frequent collaborator with The Irish Trekkie on The Nerd Escape Podcast, where both enjoy lively debate about Star Trek. They have featured special guests from both behind and in front of camera on Star Trek and on his own channel, he too reviews the Eaglemoss collection as well as other ship and prop specific Star Trek items.

All of these great channels are out on YouTube and if you dont already, Id highly recommend you check each of them out.

I wondered if anyone else had any recommendations? Star Trek or otherwise.

I think the refit could be done by using the current Enterprise A which fixed a lot of the light bleed and translucent plastic issue the original refit had.

I just hope the Reliant is cast in the plastic they used for the A rather than the plastic they used for the old refit.

id rather have a non saucer separating Enterprise D that had a better sculpt than the current version.

I never thought the pearlescent plastic looked that authentic, it kind of made the ship look and feel like a toy. If they can add the pearlescent look to it without casting it in substandard plastic then cool but honestly if we're doing a Wrath of Khan refit, the paint job on that ship was not pearlescent, or if it was it wasn't apparent, even on Blu Ray, from what the special features suggest, it was muted by ILM and made to look grittier so that it was easier to film. The sculpt on that toy though is phenomenal.

Reissuing the A with the deco of the Refit as it was seen in Wrath of Khan would be my option

I've always thought that the one starship legends ship that could do with a complete remake was the Enterprise D. The sculpt is pretty inaccurate and I hate the printed on windows rather than the sculpted windows they've used to great success on many of their other legends.

So what ship would you like to see remade (not reissued) by DST?

DST will only get to see my money if they do an 18 inch, replica built from the original ILM CGI model lights and sound Kelvin Timeline USS Enterprise NCC-1701 from Star Trek. A toy with no light leaks or translucent plastics but built with some quality and attention to detail.

Right now though, I couldnt care less about the DST Star Trek range. I dont own any of it anymore.

Ah man, the Jack Sparrow looked great. I guess the fifth film didn't generate much interest in a toy line. Shame!

As Zach is around, I wonder if he could clear up a few questions I have about th Reliant;

1) will it have light up windows like the Romulan Bird of Prey?

2) will it be cast in the same pearlescent plastic as the Refit Enterprise?

3) will it have the same aztec texture as the refit/A

4) is the prototype for the reliant on the packaging for your recently released Khan Select figure?

Its not even the finished product but a resin prototype model.

If anyone subscribes to Netflix then Id urge you all to watch The Toys that made us.

Coming soon will be an entire episode dedicated to Star Trek Toys which will feature Mego, Playmates and of course Art Asylum and Diamond Select. They will also feature the toys that were made by Mega Bloks and Hasbro as well as upcoming toy licence holder; McFarlane Toys...

Itll chart the failures of the Star Trek toy licensing as well as the successful 90s Playmates Line so should be incredibly informative and perhaps give us some idea of where DST are with Star Trek themselves.

Not sure on the release date but itll be sometime soon. Theyve already covered Star Wars, Barbie, He-Man and GI-Joe. Star Trek and Lego are among the toys covered in the next 4 episodes.

Oh really? That sucks. Was looking forward to a select Jack sparrow.

Ugh, does it really matter Whirlygig? Because if it matters to you then fine but you know what... who cares.

Toys R Us for whatever reason is gone, the crisis here is that there are thousands of people out there whove lost their jobs and their livelihoods and here we are, the same ridiculous rabble of men who are perhaps too old to be buying toys for themselves at TRU and who are certainly too old to be getting so worked up about the opinions of others, arguing over some irrelevant nonsense about whether or not one toy company produces cheaper tat than the other...

You know what guys, Ive been thinking about this for a while now, probably a little too long to be honest but I think Im actually done right now.

I have come here often and been outspoken, right, wrong, ridiculous and perhaps some here think of me as rude, and ok thats fine but you know, that isnt who I am in reality, this place just winds me the hell up as does internet fans in general and for that reason Im out, this forum brings out the worse in me so, thats it.

Wait for me to close the door on this party before you break out the champagne 😉

 
My thread of discussion here with you so far has been to call out your nonsense claim that Hasbro toys do not compare well to Mattel toys, not to tie any of that in with anything about TRU's situation.

Where exactly do I claim to say that Hasbro toys do not compare to Mattel toys?

Nonsense? Its just an opinion so chill out. If I recall, I said that Mattels Jurassic World Toys are far superior to that of Hasbro's; meaning Hasbros Jurassic World Toys. My general opinion of Hasbro has been rather critical of late however as their TOYS FOR KIDS have been lacking and have felt cheap when compared to their 2008 offering - anyone remember the Big Millennium Falcon - thats not to say that ALL of their lines are rubbish because certainly their lines geared towards collectors are anything but and as you pointed out, the 5 inch Avengers line, albeit something smaller than anything they do for Star Wars currently, is rather good. Hasbros Star Wars toys for kids are really terrible though.

I feel Mattel (the second biggest toy company to Lego) are doing better things with their toys for kids than Hasbro right now. The Imaginex lines are brilliant, their Jurassic World line looks really a lot of fun and driven by variety and quality, HotWheels, Barbie and Mega Construx, Mega Bloks... the only area I think Mattel are behind in is their DC lines, but if WB got their act together and finally sorted out their film franchises, perhaps Mattel would feel a bit better at making a proper go of their Multiverse line.
 

If you want to get on with TRU finger-pointing, well, consider that here in the US, even though Star Wars has WAY TOO MANY different active lines (which even an idiot can see...I don't know why nobody at TRU could see it...for crying out loud there was a Hot Wheels and a Titanium line simultaneously for a couple years -- yet another department where Hasbro trumped Mattel, AHEM)....... they still only accounted for about one aisle of your typical TRU store, out of countless (I dunno maybe 50-60?) other aisles...  So unless they were stockpiling Star Wars in the back to a ridiculous degree, which who knows, they might have been, it seems a bit silly to pin it all on Star Wars.

Ive not once pinned it all on Star Wars but I have suggested that one of the main reasons for Toys R Uss decline is their over reliance on Star Wars toys selling at the rate they sold at 10 years ago. I think Im not far off when I say toy stores in general put a lot of their eggs into the Star Wars basket when The Force Awakens released. That backfired as a year later, shops like TRU still had a massive stock of TFA toys still clogging up one or more aisles with even more toys for Rogue One coming in hot... it was and has been overkill with Star Wars and a huge reason as to why we havent got as much for Last Jedi and Solo.

So no Im not pinning all the blame on Hasbro and Star Wars, in fact none of the blame really. While Hasbro toys for kids are lacking the quality they had 10 years ago, the rest of the blame is on TRUs poor management; they were so out of touch with what kids wanted that they ordered a ton of Star Wars stock and stocked toys that kids just arent as Into now as they once were.

They failed to change with a changing market, they didnt act quick enough and its those who are working in their stores that are now paying the price for such a massive error in judgement, not just relying on Star Wars to save them, but Lego (another company whove seen sales decline) and other massive toy lines that were once big money makers but are now not as big.

TRUs downfall both in the US and the UK was due to incompetence in the board rooms, huge losses in recent years due to over ordering and a lack of interest from consumers, huge greed on the part of their executives who will pick apart whats left of TRU and run with the money, leaving those whove worked at store level making the sales and greeting the customers, without work, without a pension or any finciancial aid, and an unwillingness or just out of sheer ignorance and greed to accept that parents were no longer interested in visiting these large soulless warehouses and that kids were no longer playing with traditional toys but were moving to new technology and toys that offered some kind of interactivity.

As for HotWheels vs Titanium... what line still exists today... hmmm... oh yes! HotWheels...

As for Hasbro... as a complete sidebar to this topic but perhaps still as a result of TRU going under, I cant really see Hasbro staying around for much longer. Give it a few more years and theres likely to be another massive casualty of a collapsing toy industry. Like Kenner, I can see it being bought out by either another toy company like Mattel or by Disney (of which was a rumour a couple of years ago) as it becomes survival of the fittest toy manufacturer.

All of Hasbros lines that are more geared towards kids have lost so much of what made them popular for both kids and collectors. Their comparatively speaking smaller Marvel toy line perhaps being the one exception to that rule but not immune to it. The biggest toy lines they produce toys for right now; Star Wars, Transformers... both have suffered in recent months and years in a decline in sales and that IMO is down to there being such a divide in both price but also quality between their basic budget kids range and their collectors range. The day that toys just used to be toys for either kid or collector is kind of gone.

The 5 POA figures and vehicles lack detail and quality most collectors look for and the collector lines are often too expensive for parents to justify spending on kids who are more into playing video games.

Put aside what the reason might or might not have been for TRUs closure, one thing that is certain; the toy industry has and will continue to have to change in order for it to survive in a world where kids just arent interested in playing with ships or action figures anymore.

Here in the UK, Toys R Us stores are also closing their doors. Its such a shame but honestly its been expected for a while. Toys R Us used to be the destination for toy shopping but in recent years their stores have become just soulless warehouses.

We have another out of town toy store in the UK called Smyths and they provide an experience I remember Toys R Us once having - an exciting experience where kids can go in and try out a lot of the toys before buying.

I dont buy the rise of the internet being the only reason. TRU just failed to keep up with the changes to what customers expected. Poorly managed by soulless men who are so far removed from what the consumer wants and what the kid expects. Far too expensive, soulless sheds full of toys on shelves kids could not reach.

I wonder though, in time, will the Toys R Us name return in some manner?

Any bid to save TRU is doomed to fail unless they can rejuvenate the business and redefine what it means to be a Toys R Us kid in 2018 and furthermore, tap into a unique customer experience you will only ever find visiting a new TRU store. That doesnt mean relying on only nostalgia, that means redefining the brand, making tough decisions on what Toys R Us is not just today but 10/20 years from now.

I believe that if Toys R Us is as important as everyone thinks it is in the midst of the turmoil surrounding its demise, then when the dust has settled and we all move on, there will still be a demand for it to exist.

If that demand disappears or turns out to be nothing more than nostalgia as we realise that actually like so many businesses before it, Toys R Us is just a relic that serves very little financial purpose to exist, then it will go the way of the dinosaurs being replaced by what consumers actually want.

Toys R Us may just turn into a dated symbol of how much the toy industry has moved on and changed and will continue to change and reduce in size as kids become more interested in interactivity and connectivity than traditional play.

Legends though in the UK are rarely stocked at toy stores. Theyre not seen as toys for kids in this country. Im talking about ACTUAL TOYS FOR KIDS - legends and black series have always been geared towards older fans and collectors. The Star Wars TOYS have clogged up toy stores like TRU and not shifted at all and thus when the Force Awakens came, toy stores over ordered and suffered for it. TRU, on top of their already disastrous financial situation, bet on Star Wars toys to sell and they didnt.

Lines like Black series, the upcoming vintage collection and the Marvel Legends lines will improve and go from strength to strength because... everybody now.... its adults who are buying them, not kids.

To be honest, it was somewhat down to the weak sales of Star Wars toys that contributed to the closure of Toys R Us.

The sad fact is; kids arent playing with toys in the same numbers as most of us were playing with toys back in the 90s. The rise in popularity of the video game and VR and interactivity etc... has really crushed the toy industry.

The other sad truth here is that Hasbros toys in particular (see their Jurassic World line compared to Mattels) are made seemingly on the cheap. Their offering for Star Wars I feel has taken a huge leap back in terms of quality and design. In 2008 we were getting a huge amount of articulation and detail on figures and ships, since the financial crash and recession though, plastic prices have gone through the roof and toy companies had to cut back.

If we take the Millennium Falcon both from The Force Awakens and from Solo, both of those toys are utter crap. Made from an overly flexible cheap feeling plastic, omitting paint application, a landing gear and putting features and details on the ship that werent in the movie... Im trying to understand why the most recent version of this toy has lights going up the mandibles rather than in the engine and room for only one person in the cockpit, and no play area in the rear?

Hasbro; if youre ever gonna do a new Milennium Falcon, recreate your vintage ship. Give it modern electronic and interactive features but base it upon that classic toy; fold away landing gear, add the electronic engine in the rear, smugglers give away storage and make it work for both kids and the bigges buyer of toys; fans.

Ok then, maybe you should go check out the basic line of Infinity War figures, which are so good they almost have this adult collector contemplating shifting gears to pay half as much and collect ACTUAL TOYS FOR KIDS instead...

Good for you, Id agree with you! The Infinity war basic figures do look good, reminiscent of Kenners old Jurassic Park figures, if there was ever a toy line to contemplate your very existence, it would certainly be the Marvel Avengers Infinity War basic figures. In these financially uncertain times I dont blame you for wanting to shift gears and return to collecting that which you most certainly had as a child. I myself are contemplating the excellent Mattel Jurassic World line! Those toys look great!

However, I would be keen to see how well those basic 5 inch figures are selling to kids and not just the dozen fanboys visiting this site but regardless I was talking about Star Wars, not Marvel - it wasnt the lack of sales of Marvel toys that helped (not caused) the closure of TRU.

Star Wars is also a far bigger toy line than Marvel and pretty much anything. Toy companies like TRU bank a lot on Star Wars toys actually selling so to use Marvel toys as some kind of an excuse seems redundant.

Im coming from this from a UK citizen and honestly, Toys R Us was far too slow at changing with the times. They had certainly become lazy and not fast enough to react when competition did begin to arrive.

What should of happened about a decade ago is that Toys R Us should of begun closing their big, out of town retail park warehouse stores to focus on (in the UK at least), smaller, boutique style high street and town centre shopping mall stores. Focused on providing an unbeatable and creative experience with staff that were passionate about the toys they were selling, with events happening within the stores. An Apple or Lego store type of setup. A destination where kids could try out EVERYTHING in store and parents could connect to the website and click and collect, pay and collect, pay and deliver and all the standard things one expects from any retail outlet.

In the UK the Toys R Us experience was a soulless one, driving miles outside of town to visit a large shed with toys rammed down long and tall aisles. That might have worked in the 80s and 90s when I remember visiting TRU as a kid, but that wasnt going to fly in the 2000s.

If anyone was to purchase the TRU brand in the UK, significant changes would need to be made to ensure that it was offering something unique and exciting to both kids and parents and quite honestly, I dont think that theres anyone out there with the kind of money needed to rescue TRU and with the imagination and ingenuity it would need to bring it back.

Also one would have to think whether or not it was worth saving? Toys R Us is a dead brand and with toy sales not what they once were and with other, cheaper alternatives available, what makes TRU in the UK at least, better than Smyths Toys, Lego Stores, The Entertainer, Tesco, John Lewis, Sainsburys, Argos, ASDA(WalMart), Amazon and independent high street stores... Toys R Us has the nostalgia sure, it has a proud history but its also known for being run by greed, unenthusiastic staff, unreasonably expensive and a dreaded place for parents to visit.

Toys R Us had become increasingly disreputable. The customer these days wants the personal shopping experience, they want to be enthused by passionate and dedicated staff. Its not always about the money, its about the experience because whats stopping anyone from ordering everything online. People do love to wander a high street in the UK, browsing the shops and kids are no different but in every shop, those stores with passionate staff who know their product and take care and responsibility over their customers are the stores that do really well, especially when youre dealing with niche or non essential products like toys have become.

Yeah from various toy hunt videos I watch on YouTube, Id say that Toys R Us in the states was vastly superior to that of Toys R Us in the UK.

Smyths Toys in the UK seem to have really expanded here in the UK and really showed TRU for what it was; an expensive soulless shed, full of overpriced toys.

1701D I put the link to the review in the thread! 
 
The critics were apparently given an advanced preview of the first three episodes. 

I saw, I agree with you Goth, it's as I expected - I mean sure if the comedy falls flat or that it's an awkward viewing experience that doesn't know what it is then it'll be seen as confusing, not as comedic as most people expect and an uneaven balance between drama and humour is not what you expect to see when watching a Seth McFarlane production. It's fart jokes, riskay dialogue etc... he is though very tuned into issues that effect the world today and because of that I think he'd be great as an executive on an actual Star Trek show.

McFarlane is doing a Star Trek show. The only problem is, is that it isn't Star Trek and so people aren't going to be expecting something serious from a parody nommatter how hard McFarlane tries to convince us that it's not a parody, it's a comedy/drama. McFarlane has made a name for himself doing Family Guy and that's what we expect to see when we see him. He's typecast.

Now give this guy a genuine Star Trek show that he doesn't appear in himself but produces and I reckon it could be really well received. Lord knows Star Trek needs a bit of levity and comedy mixed with drama.

Really? What review were you reading?!?

It wasn't really unexpected. The Orville is trying to be Star Trek. People are expecting comedy and parody and what they'll get is an homage to Star Trek: The Next Generation.

That's fine in principle but the world has moved on from the 80's/90's and The Orville is kind of too little too late and not Star Trek to be doing something that only Star Trek can do.

In the other corner, you do have Star Trek and the same problems exist, you're creating a Star Trek show that goes too far in the other direction away from what Star Trek is popular and famous for doing. The question at the end "how do the women get from wearing that blue jumpsuit to mini skirts in 10 years" should tell you all you need to know about the problems facing Discovery; how do you explain that this is a show that is supposed to exist in the same universe as a show from the 60's - like The Orville will confuse its viewers over what that show is focused on being, Star Trek: Discovery will confuse its audience too; when is this series set because it looks nothing like TOS!

I wonder if CBS/the Discovery team are looking at The Orville and how Star Trek fans are reacting to it and thinking... shit, what do we do now?

I still don't think The Orville will go past a first season, if it does, it may be joining Discovery on a streaming service but I think what it has done is perhaps opened some eyes as to what Star Trek fans really wanted out of Star Trek from when Enterprise was cancelled.

Yeah, that's what I was hoping it would be is a more optimistic sci-fi show with some comedy. I think the critics were expecting it to be 90% comedy, and i assume were thrown off because it had more story. It appears from the trailer to have as much or more story than Discovery. I think that's a good thing and can work with comedy.

I'm not sure that Discovery has no story. I think there's quite an extensive story with Discovery - whether it's any good remains to be seen.

The Orville reminds me of 90's sci fi show, episodic tales that wrap up after one or two episodes and while I agree with Seth McFarlane's opinion that sci-fi (including Discovery) is becoming rather dystopian, his series needed to be advertised as something more than just a clear parody of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The problem with The Orville is that it's not Star Trek and to be anything more than just seen a parody, McFarlane needed to do something original but with the aspirational and optimistic qualities Star Trek once had. He hasn't though and that's why The Orville won't succeed. Plus I think he's better off if he doesn't appear in his shows or films unless he's providing a voiceover.

I didn't say Discovery had no story. A serialized show inherently has to keep things somewhat simple. That's why they have chosen to fall back on a war themed story. I would expect Orville to have some variety of episodes some light ones and occasionally some well thought out ones.
 
I think another good example of a comedy series that is doing this is Rick & Morty. I avoided that series for a long time and recently watched it and to my surprise there were some really good sci-fi stories. The type of stories that make you think rather than just tuning in each week to see who's winning the war.
 
I don't know how well the Orville will do, but at this point I think it will outlast Discovery.

I think The Orville is the kind of series that won't make it beyond its first season, certainly it won't outlast Discovery or Star Trek but will have its fans that may want to see it continue but only as a poor substitute for Star Trek.

That being said. I think The Orville is what Star Trek: Discovery should of been. Rather than a reimagination, Discovery should of been a return to Star Trek's unique style of storytelling.

The Orville is that return but because it doesn't have the weight of the Star Trek continuity and the brand loyalty behind it, it won't make it beyond its first season.

Having said that, I think that the style of stories Star Trek told during the 90's and Enterprise really won't work for today's audiences (including for most Star Trek fans) but I don't believe that serialised storytelling is the way forward for Trek either. Modernising the format Star Trek followed between 1966 and 2005 is likely the perfect blend between episodic storytelling and the type of TV audiences love watching and streaming today. Will people want to rewatch Discovery the way that every other Star Trek series is enjoyed.

I like being able to put on an episode of TOS or TNG or VOY or DS9 or ENT and enjoy it on its own, because it's thought provoking or helps me with a problem I have or just makes me happy without having to watch the whole series to understand the episode. Being such a serialised show, Discovery may not have the longevity the older Star Trek's have enjoyed and continue to enjoy.

If Orville can prove that most people want episodic TV rather than the heavily serialised show Discovery is, then it could prove a credible threat to Star Trek. More likely though is that like Doctor Who has done, Orville may show CBS executives that Star Trek would work better if it was more episodic and less serialised - only if Discovery fails to hook in an audience.

Im curious... for those whove seen Orville, are you mostly enjoying it for what it is or are you enjoying it because you wish on some level Star Trek was doing something just as familiar and predictable with its universe?

In terms of longevity...

Do you think The Orville has to break out from its TNG shadow or do you think Star Trek: Discovery needs to learn from its own franchises past and The Orville and be a bit lighter and brighter and more like traditional Star Trek to survive?

I find this fascinating because in many ways The Orville is more Star Trek to many than Star Trek is at the moment so I wondered if that was a bad thing for Star Trek or for Orville? Or whether both are doing the right thing and neither should become something that is different from what they set out to be?