I don't see how this could make money. Compared to ten years ago, there's so much content on streaming services now, and movies overall in the pandemic era have been sparse as well.

I don't get how Paramount thinks there's a financial upside to this, esp with this cast. Even SNW isn't popular enough (and it's popular) to support a film at this point I would guess.

A Dr. Crusher International Edition sold for $57.00 plus $8.00 shipping after 9 bids.

I don't see these come up for sale all that often, but apparently they've held their value well. 

I didn't think this was too tough of an item to get, but they were limited to 4000 units and sold in the UK and Australia only. 

Discovered relatively recently that PM had realized quite late in the process, in late fall 1994 just as the movie was about to come out, that the movie uniforms were not used.

So it appears that they got some sketches early on, in late 1993/early 1994 when the movie was in pre-production and Rob Blackman designed the updated uniforms, tooled up the figures, and then as filming started in May 1994 they never checked back in with Paramount to see if anything had changed.

Not a vast difference out back, but the maple leaf is immediately noticeable. 

Here's an interesting error I haven't seen with Micro Machines, and this one is kind of subtle: the name of the array is printed properly on the bottom card, but the shuttle is marked as the obsidian, and the Kazon torpedo is labeled as the Karemma vessel.

This is weird cause you'd think the printing would be done in a way that the card element is a single-piece item. But this suggests that the ship names could be switched around during the printing process, and some of them could be messed up.

Here's the small collector set, with a few differences from the US version. I haven't seen what the back of this one looks like, however. The maple leaf is perhaps noticeable, but not much bilingual text on the front except for the top left portion and bottom left portion. 

It's too bad these didn't get some kind of large, PM-style, sticker for the front in a bright color to differentiate them. The differences here are subtle, at least from the front. I will try to find what the backs of these look like. 

Here's a Troi with pog for $10 bucks if anyone is interested. Seller doesn't appear to ship stateside: https://www.ebay.com/itm/375375179079

And let us know if you've been able to pick it up. I want to see someone get a good deal on something for once.

Yup, this one always looked like Jerry O'Connell to me from the very first second. Can't shake that impression to this day.

They spent so much time and effort on these, with all these new cardbacks and accessories, but here's the thing: The figures were never grounded in anything seen on the show, so collectors couldn't be bothered to spend money on them.

I think the completists got these just to have them, but even at the time the reaction was very meh. (I still don't have a single one).

The effort on these figures was so far above and beyond anything that came out in 1995 or 1996, for instance, it must have cost way more to produce each of these. 

Lore pre-production paint proof (1993)

I always thought his Pakled outfit was a little baggy and bulky, and perhaps this prototype with very arched eyebrows will seem a little less baggy. It's hard to tell tbh, though I think this is the production torso as well.

Lore did have somewhat silver eyebrows in the actual episode, but did he actually look that different from Data?

Yeah, and we didn't ultimately see a lot of figures use this card back, which seems a little weird in retrospect.

The 1996 common series card back was a huge step down, and it hasn't really aged really well.

Here's a pretty cool error I haven't seen too often with the 1995 figures: Ro without a Skybox card. This is kind of a cool look because it opens up the art on the backer card.

The 1995 line did not have Skybox card errors too often, but there were a good number of figures that were on the wrong backer card. 

I haven't seen many Ro figures overall with any kind of error.

They should just let an eBay store list it in some large lots. Somebody might actually get a good deal on there for once.

Commander William Riker pre-production paint proof (1992)

This one is from the Greg Jein collection, and it's Riker from his bodybuilder days. This one is hand-painted, as you can see, and it has a bit of a matte finish, in comparison to the shiny production figures.

It doesn't have a holster on the right leg. One of these proof figures, perhaps this one, is on the back of the 1992 figures in the pictures. On the back of the package it is also without a holster as pictured there, even though the production figures have them. 

If you look at the figures on the back of the 1992 packaging (and later for that matter) it's clear that they're hand painted, and the paint finish is quite different from the production figures.

Here's a good example of the Dark Torso/Light Sleeves Spock. Got this one recently, and was really surprised by how vividly this example illustrates the dark torso aspect. This is definitely not the lilac-colored torso, as you can see, but a darker and spotted torso

This one is numbered just north of 12000.

The sculpt quality is pretty amazing, I have to say. Especially on Scotty.

Kirk looks great too, a bit above what PM was able to achieve with their recent sculpts. 

I want more characters from Hiya, lots more.

Here's the ol' 1701 in Japanese packaging. These do not come up for sale often, so it's always a treat to see these just appear briefly.

I think these were waaay cooler than the single packs the US got, primarily for drug stores I might add, though I can see why the US was not given this particular option: It can't really sit on a peg, and it's also not as flashy.

This line did not extend to the later DS9 and Voyager lines, so you won't see, for example, a Defiant or Farragut in one of these boxes. Which is kind of a shame. I wonder if Japan got the later waves at all. 

Note the individual stickers/print on the front that identify the ship.

In Dec 2023, this Yar figure sold for $200 plus $16.99 shipping.

The seller noted that it had some card warping & some other aging issues, but it looked okay.

Well bought, I have to say. Of course, there is a good number of these around, and they are not as rare, per se, as some rare international packaging variants. (One of them I don't even have a picture of, and I only saw it once on eBay in 2015).

I think this is a pretty realistic price in this day and age, and of course it commanded much more money in the late 1990s, before The Ebays. But it was never in quite as much demand as Tapestry Picard, and of course people who owned one tended to also own the other, cause they were completists or they wanted bragging rights.

I've never owned this one, I have to admit (or Tapestry Picard for that matter), and it's still kind of a might want, though there are some other rare packaging variants that I want much more.

Congrats to the buyer for getting this one for $200 though! I don't think I've seen one go for less in the past 10 years.

Here's a curious observation that was brought up by a reader almost 30 years ago in a letter to one of the action figure mags: The 1993 figures that came with pogs sometimes had very low foot numbers, despite the fact that pogs came later.

The explanations for this, as I see it, could be that:

1. Figures were produced sequentially, but some were simply packaged later

2. Some number ranges were produced later

Another interesting issue are the Canadian TNG 1993 pog figures on 1994 TNG cards. Some of them have low foot numbers as well. 

I'm leaning towards explanation 1: All were produced sequentially, but some batches were set aside to be packaged later with pogs or 1994 Canadian cards w/ pogs.

More than anything, I think this is the decline of the whole action figure toy category in big box retail stores, or what remains of such stores. We are not in the 1990s, and not that many people are buying action figures in Walmart, especially from somewhat dated properties.

I see Star Wars figures languishing on the shelves too, with incredibly high price tags, and how many Star Wars shows are out there now anyway? I've lost count.

I have a feeling that had PM focused on crowd-pleasers that had never been done before, it would have recaptured some of the magic.

Wrath of Khan Spock, for example, was one such figure that had been in demand for ages. And it seems to have been the line's best seller -- no surprise there.

Just from the TOS movies alone we sorely needed:

- Terrell in space suit

- Voyage Home Spock

- Sybock

- Valeris

- big ass Reliant ship model

Not completely unexpected tbh, but I'm going to go ahead & blame the meh figure choices, and also the fact that one could get vintage figures (and ships) new in box on eBay for less than $14.99 or whatevs in stores that actually bothered to stock them.

A Tri-fold Borg recently sold for $1025 + $8.55 shipping after 14 bids.

There's perhaps no such thing as a mint example, as many of them have humidity damage or have separated from their blisters, but this one was pretty good when it came to condition. These were being sold at the infamous 1996 Huntsville convention, where people were lining up in triple-digit heat for hours to get the convention Scotty and Sulu figures (and everyone kept them in their packaging, assuring thousands of examples survived in excellent condition), while the Borgs were being largely ignored.

This was perhaps a very expensive way to get into Tri-fold Borg ownership in the year 2023, especially given the fact that you can just buy a lesser one on a separated blister and glue it back, such as the example a few posts up. 

Here's a very lopsided Dax bubble. I don't usually see this error on this series, but it was a little more common on some others, esp the 1996 unified card figures.

I think this would have done better than the Kazon ship, which is the only other unproduced large ship that was shown as a prototype.

But how often these were really seen on screen even on DS9 -- not a huge number of appearances. The runabout was an easier sell to retailers perhaps cause you could put figures in it, even though it was inexplicably inaccurate as delivered.

For every one thing that PM did right during this time, two things would be done wrong.