7 replies to this topic

[Jpatrik]

Any Australian collectors out there?

 

As an Aussie, still collecting Playmates Star Trek figures, I have strange memories of being a kid and getting quite frustrated that not all the figures were released.

Wave 1 & 2 of Next Generation came out just fine and could easily be found in Kmart, Target and Toys R Us.  But from Wave 3 onwards (The 7^th season set) only a handful of figures could be found.

 

The DS9 and Voyager lines seemed to suffer the same fate – I remember seeing Dax, Bashir, O’brien and Dukat a million times.  Often in places where hundreds of figures were displayed!

 

What’s more – figures were often released with space cap or trading card removed!!

 

I dragged my poor Mum from store to store, only to find the same old figures.  And the stores never looked sold out – I remember a whole shelf of Tarchannen III Geordis in the Myer toy section in Melbourne.

 

As a kid, I had no idea what was happening – and used to stare at the action figure backing cards.  Longingly dreaming of Lt. Barclay and Worf in Rescue Outfit

Does anyone have similar recollections?  What happened?  Or is it just that Australia is too much of a backwater town to receive the good stuff.

 

Love to hear your thoughts.

 

- Jimmy

 

 

[Redshirt#7]

I don't know, but it might answer a question I was going to ask.

I got a Picard in his Season 1 and 2 gear and I immediately realised he wasn’t from this country as he was missing the Bandi logo that’s on all the European figures. He had his Base in the front of his plastic tray, not in a plastic bag behind him, and he was missing his Card. All info relating to the card was blacked out on the back with a sticker. It sounds very much like what you described. In addition, I had heard about the figure distribution to Australia on various sites. Nowadays, most of the blame is put on Customs and the rigorous checks they perform on stuff. It seem stupid that loads exist of one and none of the other, maybe somebody else knows something here?

[Jpatrik]

Yup, that's an Aussie figure all right.

 

Can you imagine how disappointing it was for a kid to carefully peel off that obnoxious black sticker, only to find out that there was supposed to be a trading card included?

[BadBunnyMike]

Okay i do know that with the Ds9 line there were a few figures that only were released in Australia, and i believe the same with the TNG line too for canadian exclusives at the time...Lawaxana and Sarek if i remember right. And with Ds9, it was like Bashir, Dax and Obrien...in duty uniform that came out in wave 1 of Ds9 instead of wave two

[Jpatrik]

Mike, indeed you are correct.

Dax, Bashir & O'Brien in Duty Uniform came out with DS9 Wave 1 in Australia...

...the only problem was that those were the ONLY figures released in Australia!

 

No Sisko, or Kira, or Quark etc.

[STPlayMatesCollector]

I have had my own problems obtaining Star Trek figures over the years. I live in the Uk and found my first Star Trek figures cheap at the local market. However later series became harder and harder to find (exept the Generatons range, which was ok, except Scotty and Chekov). The final sets where only available in specialist collectors stores at over inflated prics due the the difficulty and/or rarity! This problem still persistes and I only been able to get some figures from the US and, even with postage costs end up cheaper than here in England

[Redshirt#7]

I have had my own problems obtaining Star Trek figures over the years. I live in the Uk and found my first Star Trek figures cheap at the local market. However later series became harder and harder to find (exept the Generatons range, which was ok, except Scotty and Chekov). The final sets where only available in specialist collectors stores at over inflated prics due the the difficulty and/or rarity! This problem still persistes and I only been able to get some figures from the US and, even with postage costs end up cheaper than here in England

 

 

I live in Birmingham, and have as you say come into difficulty with getting figures.

However, I don't know weather your someone who doesn’t like/use the site, but have you tried eBay?

 

I started recollecting Playmates last August, and was shocked at how much the price has gone down. I've bid/purchased of eBay nearly 150 times, and have only ever dealt with 1 untrustworthy seller. If you wait long enough, some real good deals can come along. If your an open boxed seller, and don't necessary care if the figure is complete, common figures usually go for around £1-£3, sometimes more if get into a bidding war. Common boxed figures are usually around £5-£7, and sometimes less. Rare stuff varies, if its a collector then you can expect a big price tag, but I've ended up a Cobalt blue Seven Of Nine for £8.00. However, you can sometimes, get someone auctioning their collection of, and even though the price might be high, in the end sometimes its only a £1.00 or so for each figure. Postage sometimes is a killer, but I don't mind paying £3 on top to make sure my items arrive in good condition. But as said already, you have to wait and have patience, and watch the feedback on the seller, and prepare to be beaten on auctions.

[Jpatrik]

I concurr - ebay is the only way to go these days to get the Playmates figures.

And Redshirt is right, even the most expensive and 'rare' figures can be had for an absolute maximum of $30.00

 

And as for retail - same thing happened in Australia.  They just disappeared from toy stores and all the usual outlets.  In the 'pre-internet' days, there were figures that I didnt even know existed!

Overnight, they went from a $8.00 purchase at the local Target/Kmart to a $30.00 chunk of money at the collectables store.  I know thats pretty standard for an action figure these days, but we're talking 1995/1996 here!