86 replies to this topic

[Jpatrik]

Hope the trip to LA paid off handsomely in collectable plastic dude!

 

Xmas and new years over I am feeling relieved and have resolved to fill the gaps in both the Transporter series & Space Talk series of figures (I always get to Jan 1st and decide on my collectable focus for the year for some reason - weird ritual)

 

You are very lucky to have friends to dig your collecting.  Most of my nearest and dearest are quite tolerant and accepting of my army of plastic men, though they do not understand.  So I am limited to talking to people who come into the store and whatnot.

 

Adulthood...hmmm...as another birthday approaches I have mixed feelings, though with relative age I am starting to realise that social conventions and norms are all invisibilities and social conditioning.

 

 - Jim

[robster]

Not much Trek wise,just some small Spidey stuff. There was more in Portland though,on Monday,nothing here at my beach though,where I'll be till early tomorrow morning. Actually there WAS a lot of Trek stuff in L.A.,I just wasn't in that zone at the time,lol! Did get you a Kurn though,if you still want one. It's in Raleigh soon,lol! I threw it in on one of my orders at Amazon.

 

Are you old? You don't look old in that pic,but that could be an old pic of course,lol! I'm old and I don't care. Age is how you FEEL,not the number you ARE! But that's just my opinion.

 

Funny being around here,you'd think they'd be used to people who are not from here or even the US,but boy do I get looks and comments every time I open my mouth and talk,lol! I sound British,and some of the people here are just,OH MAN I love your accent!,and others just look me in the eye like they WANT to say something but don't. I just smile and leave. Some mistake me for an Aussie,but that's a common mistake,LOL!

 

In Portland again tomorrow,and now that I'm kinda almost Trekkin' again I might pick up some items I saw there on Monday. Then it's Raleigh for a nice long relaxing weekend. Although the walk on the beach I just came back from was pretty good too. Now I'm off to inhale some ice cream and get some salt water taffy. I'm an ice cream maniac,if I could LIVE on that stuff I would! Like I tell the kids at work,when I eat ice cream I don't EAT it,I just go,FHWOOOP,and it's inhaled. LOL!

 

Then after Raleigh it's New York for the last few days before going back in exile. muh. But it's been 99% fun so I can't complain of course.

 

WAS gonna watch fireworks on the beach last night but fell asleep,lol!

 

And HAPPY NEW YEAR to EVERYONE!

 

J-R!

[Jpatrik]

Definitely still in need of a Kurn action figure - if you could help me out with one that would be all kinds of amazing :-)

 

I'm actually a couple of weeks away from my 30th birthday.  I have mixed feelings about it.  I guess I don't mind ageing as long as I am relatively healthy and can still run around quite easily.  In terms of other 'life' stuff like marriage, cars, money, success - I try not to compare myself to others and judge my success based upon my own life goals that I accomplish (last year I ticked off quite a few!).  So yeah agree with you on your stance on age - plus I'm just going to regenerate at the end anyway!

 

Oh the Aussie accent.  There is the REAL Aussie accent, and the one that the rest of the world thinks we use.  Everytime I see it on TV it makes me cringe.  Crocodile Dundee has a lot to answer for!  I have never been properly overseas (just a few days in New Zealand) and I imagine myself being quite self conscious about my accent!

 

I'm lactose intolerant, so I cannot eat ice cream (except the soy ice cream of which there are but two flavours in Australia!).  You lucky bastard.

I miss ice cream so much.

Especially that puke green coloured one with the choc chips.  I could eat myself stupid on that stuff!

 

 - Jim

[Redshirt#7]

Wow, sorry to dig this up, but seriously Jpatrik, wow, I was inactive while this was around and I've got to say, I just spent an hour going through your website, and it's a gold mine of info. As you may know, I'm a huge Playmates fan, so seeing these prototypes is a fantastic experience, particularly as I haven't seen nearly all the stuff on your site (the only ones I have seen are some of the group shots, that turned up as tiny pics in the early Star Trek magazine in the 90s). Just wanted to say thanks for sharing the info!

[Jpatrik]

Ha!  No worries Redshirt - I realised that there wasnt too much playmates promo stuff out there on the web and got tired of having to dig for it.

 

A lot of the material came from an old stack of action figure magazines from the 90s that I managed to find at the collectables store I work at.

 

If you have any more material which might prome interesting, please by all means send it to me!

 

 - Jim

[robster]

Anyone buy the Unofficial Guide to ST Playmates toys book out this week? I might look for it and buy it if it looks good,and by that I mean LOTS of pics,lol!

 

J-R!

[Redshirt#7]

What, what, what, what?!?

 

A Playmates book???

 

Fascinating.

 

Any links? 

 

Thanks Jpatrik, I know what you mean! You have to dig through decades of webpages sometimes to find small amounts of info, so it's great to see them all on one site!

 

It must be fun working at a collectors store, I'd love to work at one. Every time I go on holiday there's one just around the corner from the hotel I frequent, I could spend (and have spent) hours in there, just looking through the high end collectables I neither have the money or space to get, or in some cases toys from my childhood.

 

I'll have a look, but from memory, everything you have I have, except for one thing, I think. I've got the pics of the Gorn captain, Kurn and co and the First Contact guys, but, do you have a picture of the first and second Voyager waves, ala blue background like the Kurn pic? I'm a little short on time, so I haven't checked your site properly, but if you don't, I'll have a go at digging it out of storage. It maybe a few weeks before I could get it, and my copier is "stone knives and bare skins" compared to those around, but if you haven't, I'll take a look!

[Commodore Kor'Tar]

I want to see a link to this book as well.

[Jpatrik]

Redshirt  - yes I have promo shots of the Kurn/Captain Sisko/Seska/Kirk in spacesuit wave - they're all together and somewhere on the site (interesting cause the prototype for Captain Sisko utilised a totally different body to the figure we eventually got).

 

http://upcloseandpla...at-toyfare.html

 

I do not have any Voyager promo stuff - so yeah if you want to send me a copy that would be awesome.  Or if you wanted to simply send me the magazines I could scan them.  Needless to say I would be willing to offer you some money

 

And yes whats this playmates book - first I've heard of it!

 

 - Jim

[Redshirt#7]

I thought that too! Odd they used the skinny body with TNG badge, seems really odd. Perhaps it's because based on the pictures, the Voyager figures weren't out long enough for the pic? Or they only had the bodies for Kim and Commander "Chuckles" as Q called him and, obviously, they took priority?

 

I'll go and get my crates out and have a look! Don't worry about money, I'll have a go at scanning it. I'll send out a message when I find them, no guarantees, and it may take a bit, but I'll give it my best shot!

 

Oddly enough, in one of the magazines it describes an action kick Geordi and a punching Borg, no doubt these turned into the S2 Geordi with spring loaded phaser rifle and the Borg with the missile arm.

 

The magazine also had pics of the innerspace Defiant and Galileo, prototypes I believe. If I find anything of interest Playmates related, I'll scan them, and discuss what to do over PM if it's alright?

 

The UK magazine was fantastic, they'd have a two/three page spread on the latest toys, aptly titled "The Most Toys", with the writers thoughts on the latest merchandise.

[robster]

My bad. It's not a new book,just the old one shipping again. I bet you all have that one already. Just google it and you'll see it.

 

J-R!

[Redshirt#7]

I haven't, yet! I'll be on the look out for it, here's a link to Amazon UK for it:

http://www.amazon.co...s=kelly hoffman

[Jpatrik]

No worries Redshirt - I appreciate anything you can throw my way dude.  Without sounding pretentious, I hope the website stays there for a long time and can be a good reference source for people who are interested in some far flung future when the playmates toys have been forgotten.

 

Just send me an e-mail dude - james@destructo.com.au

I check the email more than the forum I guess :-)

 

 - Jim

[BadBunnyMike]

I was working on that database on the New Force Reference Site but sadly that project has doed. If I decide to host it myself I will start it back up again

[Jpatrik]

Bad Bunny - dude that website is and always will be a favourite of mine, and I sincerely hope you manage to get it up and running again.

 

I only started the Up Close & Plastic website as a way of preserving my Star Trek cardbacks and promo items - I simply couldnt be bothered keeping them all so I took a scan and threw them out (well, most of them at least)

[robster]

The Playmates book is of course a lot cheaper on US Amazon. And this week there's a 2nd edition of Trekkers Guide to Collectibles on Diamond's shipping list.. I THINK I have the 1st edition. Pretty good,if it's the one I'm thinking of.

 

J-R!

 

[BadBunnyMike]

Awww if I knew you were gonna toss the promo sheets and stuff I woulda took em off your hands. Yeah it is really sad the Ref site stalled, Rick at New Force didnt want to pursue it any longer, and when I switched over to a new comp I couldnt get the login info anymore. I might...just might try and find a hosting site for it myself and switch over.

[Jpatrik]

If anyone is interested, I found an awesome interview with Jim Garber of Playmates Toys.  Conducted in 1995, he talks extensively about the Star Trek action figure line.

 

Hope everyone can read the scans - I tried my best to clean em up :-)

 

http://upcloseandpla...toys-talks.html

[Redshirt#7]

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant interview, as someone fascinated with the production of my little plastic friends, that was a very informative, very funny in some parts, read.

 

A stunning find, I know a lot of people on here who'll be very interested in that interview!

 

One thing, does anyone have any photos of Dorn and Frakes with their respective action figures on the TNG bridge, that's mentioned in the interview?

[Jpatrik]

Yup - found that photo.  I updated the post with the playmates interview to include the photo.

By the looks of things, I'd say it was taken on set sometime during season 5 of TNG...or maybe season 4

 

http://upcloseandpla...toys-talks.html