89 replies to this topic

[JMW326]

Ok, It is obvious that Star Trek will not become as popular as Star Wars with kids after just one movie, It needs to firmly establish itself first. secondly if i was a kid running around Toys R Us i would definitely go with Star Wars toys over Playmates and DST's Star Trek toys (hell Im doing that now! LOL) - why? because as a kid i would think how lame are those toys!!! I mean come on, that BMF was amazing, the Playmates 1701 was shit!!!!

Kids aren't stupid - neither are parents, quality is everything to Kids and parents want something that's worth the money, the PM toys weren't worth the money - a toy needs to be exciting, interactive, it needs to have a huge amount of playability as well as being cool enough to play with for more than 5 seconds - nothing DST, or Playmates produced is even remotely interesting to a 4+ year old regardless of weather or not they liked the movie, the toy line is it's own entity and it has to be just as good as the movie/TV series it's promoting.



Exactly, a toy has to look cool - Playmates Trek 09 toys didn't look cool, DST's toys don't look cool to a kid. I would disagree with your point about figures not being able to bend and interact with kids - these days kids are spoilt for choice, they have their Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3, 3D movies, it's all about interactivity - toys these days have to interact with kids for kids to be interested, Playmates Star Trek line was like something out of the 1980's. take Hasbro's Star Wars line, year in year out those toys have gotten more and more sophisticated because these days they are competing with every major console! Also kids are meticulous on detail - figures and ships need to look like or resemble what they are meant to be.



If we want kids to love Star Trek toys, firstly Star Trek has to have at least 2 more films under it's belt plus some sort of cartoon on TV - worldwide. second the toys need to be engaging they need to offer kids something new and exciting - each figure that utilises the same uniform (lets face it the Trek uniforms are pretty samey) needs to come with something exciting like a blaster cannon or collectors card or build-a-something part etc... the ships need to be cool and not just the Enterprise but some villain ships like a Klingon Battle cruiser with launching torpedos, lights and sounds, interactive parts and vibrating motion if hit by an enemy torpedo! Star Trek toys need to be exciting packaged in bright and bold boxes, made to a standard that is acceptable and like Star Wars, has a line that appeals to kids and collectors. Put simply - Hasbro need this license to show us and kids how Star Trek IS exciting.

You said you thought that, to kids, Star Trek is:



I agree, with the advances in technology now, Hasbro could make an amazing Enterprise complete with projectiles, lights, moving parts, sounds and perhaps a vibrating motion that is caused when you interact with your own 1701 with an enemy ship - you could get a 1701, your friend could get a klingon battlecruiser and they could talk to each other! for example: Kirk: "This is the USS Enterprise, stand down weapons" Klingon ship: "Phaser fire" Uhura: "Sir their launching missiles" - then as the kid fires the projectile from the klingon ship, it hits the Enterprise so the Enterprise vibrates with a computer command issued "Secondary damage to lower hull" or something like that - Hell if you can get Buzz bloody lightyear to talk to you and react to what your saying - you could get Hasbro to put together Trek ships that interact with one another.



I thik we can agree the toys for Star Trek by Playmates were awful. I think your wrong - I think if I'm still pretending to be a kid right now, I'd have been excited about that drilling rig scene! and that sword that folded out! that was cool!, ok the swords didn't glow or anything but thats Star Wars, Star Trek has to be different kids don't want Star Trek to be Star Wars! plus Star Trek has laser guns! there cool! action figures need to be as cool as the characters you see on screen, Hasbro would need to limit the number of crew in Uniforms for characters in different attire, something a little more intricate and interesting rather than the plain block colours - obviously you going to want a Captain Kirk and Mr Spock figure in Enterprise uniforms but if so add something to each of those figures that improves the look of them.



Yeah sure cool aliens! aliens are cool! produce more!



One thing is certain, if you want to see Star Trek toys fly off the shelves you need to:

1) Make the toys cool, must haves, up to date with all the latest interactive toy technology - this is Star Trek, our future, the toys need to cash in on that futuristic technology and really include some cutting edge stuff!

2) Promore them endlessly on kids TV around the world with adverts that don't look dated

3) The packaging has to look better than it did - photos of the characters/ships from the movie, bio's on the back, information on the character etc...

4) Insentives to buy - buy one get one free, build a something promotion, collectable cards etc...

5) reasonable price - you pay for exactly what you get - if the Enterprise is to cost $99.00 then make it worth $99.00

6) most of all though, get rid of DST, never give it back to Playmates and give the license to HASBRO!!!!!!!!!!!!

While I would love to see Hasbro do a 3 3/4" line it wont happen any time soon. As for DST, they have done some great figures and are taking a break from them now. They may do more they may not. But for right now posting a mini book about a biased opinion over and over again is just:

[knightone]

I believe your wrong in what you say about the new movie not growing the franchise and I would like to see the basis for that argument however my conclusions to what the new movie did for the franchise are completely opposite to yours, friends who've never liked Star Trek, loved the new movie and can't wait for the sequel - I think what the new movie did do was bring in a lot of casual fans. I think there is genuine excitement among the wider world for the sequel - the critical acclaim that Star Trek had over 2009 and in the run up to this years OSCAR's just goes to show that the 2009 movie was well liked and "had legs" and those legs continue to walk. If the sequel is any good and does well at the Box Office, the positivity surrounding Star Trek will only grow.


Kids are casual viewers, they are young and innocent and have minds that wander and continually explore new things - they won't be hard core fans from the off-set. Again I disagree so much with your opinions on the new movie and it's appeal to kids, the worst thing you could do is dismiss a child's willingness to accept serious stories and enjoy them as much as adults do, aside from that, from where I was sitting, Star Trek was so much fun, space battles, a decent story, exciting characters, space ships, cool fights etc... it was all there and I would assume (because lets face it all this is blind assumption) that a widespread amount of kids enjoyed it - you may ask how come the toys didn't sell - well like the movies, TV shows, video games and cartoons kids like or don't like, bottom line is that a toy line has to be just as good as any of the afore mentioned - Playmates Trek line just sucked and did not represent the quality of the movie itself. We will obviously have a better idea of the demographics for Star Trek when marketing begins for the sequel and who CBS give the license to, if Hasbro win it then i think we can be sure that if the biggest manufacturer of toys thinks Star Trek action figures and toys have a chance of selling then there must be some sort of market out there for them.

Excitement for the movie and the sequel, sure. But excitement for Star Trek in general? Excitement to buy merchandise? Excitement to explore the rest of the Trek mythology? Hardly. Where are the throngs of new fans flooding the various forums and clamoring for books, magazines, toys, and collectibles? Nowhere that I have seen. The excitement they are feeling for the movie is no different from the excitement for most blockbusters. But it's not enough to make them hardcore, lifelong fans nor inspire them to spend money outside of buying a movie ticket and/or a DVD.

Sure, there are kids who can enjoy and understand the serious movies and shows. But does that mean it generates excitement to have toys from it? Does it provide the same level of excitement, fun, and a "cool" factor. For the most part, no, probably not. Definitely not enough to support a toy line to the level of Star Wars or even WWE.

It takes more than space battles and space ships. It's the feel of the movie or show that makes a difference. And any Star Trek movie (classic, TNG, Abrams) has a completely different feel from a Star Wars movie. The simple fact is, the Star Trek movie wasn't aimed at kids, wasn't all that kid-friendly, and wasn't exactly a great vehicle for pushing toys.

It's the difference between "Whoa, that was so cool, I want to relive that experience over and over again!" and "Eh, that was good, but what's next?". I've heard a lot of the same things in toy aisles that other people here have heard. When a parent says "Look, Star Trek, you liked that movie didn't you?" and the kid reliably responds, "Yeah, it was okay." and keeps moving down the aisle looking for something else, they aren't even looking at the toys close enough to see whether or not it is of high quality and that speaks volumes. The movie just isn't inspiring the desire to play and recreate/relive the experience. Star Trek in general rarely has.

I think you are exaggerating the lack of quality in the Playmates line. Was it the best toy line ever, hardly, but it wasn't so bad it would have turned off kids had the movie inspired the feelings it needed to in order to get them excited in the toy aisle when they saw them.

[bgiles73]

Like the Batman franchise, the Star Trek franchise is being spoon fed to the world - and quite rightly so - It's my belief that over saturating the market with Star Trek ultimately led to it's demise. Paramount and CBS along with JJ Abrams realise that if you plough straight into Star Trek and chuck everything at the consumer then even before the sequel is out, people would have lost all interest in it and switch off - My guess is that if the sequel is a bigger success than the first movie (of which at this moment in time none of us can tell or have an opinion on) then we will see a lot more Star Trek. The way I see it the first movie was a test to see if done well, Star Trek could become relevant and popular again with a much broader based audience - It did and now it's up to the sequel to build on that success - If that works out well then I think we'll see Star Trek back on our TV's with perhaps Cartoons/animated series and a larger toy line than what we saw in 2009. What we won't see however is a flood of Star Trek - studio's now understand that flooding the market with a certain product hinders the profitability of that product rather than helps it.

I agree with this statement 100%. Oversaturation could be a bad thing. An animated series would be good, in that canonistas could dismiss it the same way that the original animated was dismissed from continuity. At the same time an animated series could build on kids imaginations and help to introduce other aliens and Star Trek concepts. With the right mix of action and interesting aliens and ships a whole toy line could be built on an animated series with minimal cost to Paramount/CBS.A good cartoon would be all the advertising they need. This could be done in the style of Clone Wars or Manga or both! Just do something that hasn't been done before! A live action television series should not be a consideratio until JJ is done with at least his trilogy. Oversaturation would further drive a wedge between fan and non-fan by adding to the confusion of a would be casual fan!

Sorry for beating that dead horse once more!

[bgiles73]

Just looking at some of the Tron: Legacy figures by Spin Master at Entertainment Earth. They look pretty good so far. Maybe if Playmates, DST or Hasbro don't get Star Trek in 2012, Spin Master may be interested. Tron, like Star Trek has been a niche market product for a long time. It looks like Spin Master might build a good reputation for themselves with Tron. There are rumors that they will be doing figures for the classic movie too so Star Trek might fit in really well with the kinds of licenses they are starting to gather at Spin Master. Check out these upcoming Tron toys:

http://www.entertain...mber=SM6014379A

They are also doing die-cast. Could you imagine a true die-cast starship line for Star Trek?

http://www.entertain...mber=SM6014381A

[BadBunnyMike]

The only thing I have to say about this whole thing is that I don't want it to switch to ANOTHER Toy company ESPECIALLY Hasbro. I don't want to get ANOTHER Re-release of the Same damn characters AGAIN just in a different scale. Especially if it is 3.75 I won't buy them. I just hope that once the economy picks up DST can continue to produce DIFFERENT Figures and not get the same ol crap we've got before just with a different toy company. Because honestly NO major Toy Company is going to want to take chances with a license right away. They are going to crank out classic series until they are blue in the face to see how well it sells. Then if it flops, then we have lost ANOTER Established toy company with an Established Line and a variety for something that didn't work out with another company.

And I'm sorry but if people on the board are hella mad at all the Kirk and Spock variants DST are putting out Hasbro is NOTORIOUS for doing that. I'm sorry but I don't need a Star Wars Battle Droid with Red stripes, Blue stripes, yellow stripes, NO stripes...the same with other molds. R2D2 painted different and labeled R2D4. To kids sure it might be cool, to collectors it would piss me off to get such subtle variants like that. And then every so often Hasbro will go back and do like a "legends line" or "classics" line or some other crap and Re-release the same stuff again that they FLODDED the market with a few years prior. I am very ANTI Hasbro and think that we just need to give DST a little more time to figure out a different marketing stragety.

[bgiles73]

Why all the hatin? I don't think anybody really wants to see DST loose the license, well maybe a few. Honestly though, there's no reason there can't be a 3 3/4" line produced by another company at the same time that DST's line is being produced. Hell, I wish Playmates would have just concentrated on the 3 3/4" and left the larger scale (7") to DST. I didn't buy any of Playmates' 12" so I have no opinion on those. I do know that I have collected Star Wars for far longer than I've collected Star Trek.

I fully support a 3 3/4" Star Trek line. I know a hell of alot of Star Wars collectors that said that if the 2009 movie would have had a 3 3/4" line comparable in quality to Star Wars they would have gotten into those too, but alas, the Playmates figures were what they were. I also know that Hasbro has no interest in doing Star Wars figures in a 7" scale. My meaning here is while I know alot of Star Wars collectors who would jump all over a Hasbro Star Trek line in 3 3/4". Just as many would be all for a 7" DST Star Wars figure line. So I see that with a few compromises maybe we could all end up with what we would like to ultimately see. If DST can produce the 19" Star Wars Ultimate Quarter Scale maybe one day it can be renegotiated where they could do a 7" Star Wars line.

Star Trek needs a company like Hasbro with resources to ultimately make it a line kids can appreciate. But it also needs Paramount to push all of it with an animated series, video games, a little cross-market promotion (The Air Walk Shoes were a good start- But Hasbro could bring us "Red Shirt Mr Potato Head", Star Trek Transformers, real die-cast metal ships, etc,etc,etc...) The world also needs Star Trek Legos. Keeping Star Trek as a specialty shop only niche item is not going to grow the franchise and that's all it will ever be, if it remains being marketed in the way it's being sold by DST alone.

[weyoun_9]

<<<ALERT>>>

INFO OVERLOAD. CANNOT PROCESS.

(But I'm gonna comment anyway)

It's more of a comment regarding kids and their willingness to buy products from the "past" of a franchise even if it is not on their current radar. I'm using myself as an example. As a kid, I was NOT a fan of TOS. Wasn't interested no matter how had my dad wanted me to be. He pretty much forced me to watch "Encounter at Farpoint," at which point I was in love with TNG and wanted all the TNG product I could get my hands on.

When Playmates started out in the '90s, TNG was the primary focus of their line at first. After it was successful and was starting to really grow, they tested the market with a TOS crew set. By this point, even though I hadn't seen much or any of TOS aside from the movies, I was sold on the franchise and bought the TOS set and all subsequent figures.

My point is...if they can hook the kids with the new film, or even (soul dies a little) and "Clone Wars-esque" Animated series, and the line does well...then it is likely that they can also get the kids interested in the other properties in the franchise. Certainly, at least, TOS and TNG. They may not even know the characters that well, but they will recognize them as part of the universe they've come to love. A few digital dowloads of "classic" TNG eps (not for you, for them) or a set of trading cards to complete...they'll be hooked. It's more about the marketing, I feel, than the actual awareness of the entire franchise.

Oh...and aliens. Kids love aliens. They'll complete the crew to feel cool and then they'll want the aliens because they're cool.

Either way...I'm starting to build my own. I switched scale to the Doctor Who scale and I have already sculpted two new heads, a Benzite and an Andorian female from Enterprise. (I bought some blue sculpey). There will be pictures when they're camera ready. In a different thread of course.

[Gothneo]

Whilst many members here will assert their doom and gloom opinion on the popularity of Star Trek and the viability of Star Trek action figures, all we've seen are two dreadful companies tell us that their bad products won't sell and that buyers see no market for this bad product - companies are not saying Star Trek won't sell, they are saying Star Trek produced by Playmates and Diamond Select Toys don't sell.

I don't think most people are arguing about the popularity of Star Trek itself, at least I'm not, just the popularity of certain products, such as Start Trek Action Figures.

and... Actually, you have 4 companies in the recent mix.

AA had the license, and it basically bankrupted them, so DST acquired the license and then DST acquired AA. While the DST product is very similar to AA product, I'll contend that DST made its own mark with the TNG, DS9 & WOK offerings. Any TOS stuff DST has done has been re-hashed AA product.

The fourth company is EMC, which is basically offering re-issued MEGO's. People seem to like them and they seem to sell well at the moment.

But wow. Such great innovation! Offering something that was done 30 years ago... and with less quality!

If you ask me, I think still think the Trek Tek DST has been doing recently has been pretty neat and innovative, and it seems to sell! I have a DST Communicator on my desk at work. People always think its cool and ask where they can buy one. It seems they are more apt to buy something thats just a bit techo geeky then they are to get an action figure. At least thats my take.