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Status of DST's Star Trek license.


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#141 MisterPL

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Posted 30 June 2021 - 09:03 AM

Is there ANY Star Trek product that DST has slated for release in 2021?

 

I posed this question on the MinimateMultiverse board and Zach gave this response:
 

"I do not believe so. We have some ships in development, but they aren't quite there yet."



#142 MisterPL

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Posted 13 July 2021 - 11:58 AM

Given today's news, that turned out to be a masterpiece of understatement.



#143 RizzoPSU

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Posted 13 July 2021 - 11:38 PM

I'm excited and hating for this bc it's been long enough since they tried the first time 30 years ago, failed on the jj movies, now it's all these years later. I hope they learned from all the positive and negative comments all this time. The 2 limp companies that came after should have had the fan drive like Playmates does .... but

Chuck and "Chops", at Diamond Sucks at Trek won't listen to fans or ppl buying, nor will McFingSquatter....hell that guy all he did was probably get the figure license bc he lost a bet to Chops about fans buying "another Kirk or Picard on the pegs". 15 to 20 years from now they both will probably produce one Trek item and tell fans; "f@ck you we could've done that."

God, I hope Playmates nailed it this time. I kinda think they did. Looking at the promo picture it's gonna be:

Data in TNG uniform from 'Picard'
Burman Season 1
Picard - Picard Season 1
Pike - Discovery Season 2
Spock - Discovery Season 2 with jacket

#144 djc242

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Posted 14 October 2021 - 10:28 AM

Maybe someone has mentioned it all ready but the new DST website has zero Star Trek. Nothing comes up when you search either.

#145 MisterPL

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Posted 15 October 2021 - 11:51 AM

That's been the case for existing product lines as well. The site is now more of a store so they don't want to show product they don't have in stock, even as a placeholder. At least that's what I've read elsewhere.

 

That said, the latest official response about the status of the license and 1701-C was posted in a since-deleted NYCC 2021 Q&A; they've run into "road blocks." 



#146 Razorgeist

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Posted 16 October 2021 - 10:53 PM

I'm excited and hating for this bc it's been long enough since they tried the first time 30 years ago, failed on the jj movies, now it's all these years later. I hope they learned from all the positive and negative comments all this time. The 2 limp companies that came after should have had the fan drive like Playmates does .... but

Chuck and "Chops", at Diamond Sucks at Trek won't listen to fans or ppl buying, nor will McFingSquatter....hell that guy all he did was probably get the figure license bc he lost a bet to Chops about fans buying "another Kirk or Picard on the pegs". 15 to 20 years from now they both will probably produce one Trek item and tell fans; "f@ck you we could've done that."

God, I hope Playmates nailed it this time. I kinda think they did. Looking at the promo picture it's gonna be:

Data in TNG uniform from 'Picard'
Burman Season 1
Picard - Picard Season 1
Pike - Discovery Season 2
Spock - Discovery Season 2 with jacket

 

Im definitely optimistic that Playmates has the license now though as a person who only collects ships Im wondering what they'll do first.

 

 

That said, the latest official response about the status of the license and 1701-C was posted in a since-deleted NYCC 2021 Q&A; they've run into "road blocks." 

 

 

Im wondering what these road blocks could be.



#147 QuePaso?

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Posted 27 October 2021 - 01:58 PM

All Enterprise C Fans - When will the Enterprise C and Reliant be released? Have you lost the license?

DSTChuck - We have hit a couple road blocks and will update everyone as soon as we have final word one way or another.

 

Are there anymore Star Trek Select figures planned at all? My Kelvin Spock and Kirk are lonely and they'd love for Bones, Uhura and the rest to join them!

DSTChuck - Right now we have no figures planned.

  

    Folks ... I think DST, as we all knew, is done with ST.  Their level of disinterest in the franchise is off the charts.

 

    At least they have found something much better to focus on :huh: --

 

Will we finally have a glimpse at some #JemAndTheHolograms merchandise? #PrettyPlease

DSTChuck - Soon I hope



#148 djc242

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Posted 28 October 2021 - 10:05 AM

Hoping someone else can do the same type of ships soon.

#149 Tiberius

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Posted 28 October 2021 - 10:52 AM

Theyll never say never, nor reveal the truth

#150 Alteran195

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Posted 28 October 2021 - 04:42 PM

Hoping someone else can do the same type of ships soon.

Playmates probably will with their return. Hope they're better than the old ones.



#151 Razorgeist

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Posted 29 October 2021 - 02:55 PM

Playmates probably will with their return. Hope they're better than the old ones.

 

If memory serves me they mentioned electronic ships in their announcement.

 

Yeah Im disappointed that the C is held up but Im of the opinion that DST is still going to release it.



#152 djc242

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Posted 16 November 2021 - 11:14 AM

They are too busy making a Darkwing Duck figure apparently. I didnt have that on my DST excuse bingo card.

#153 Alex

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Posted 27 December 2021 - 05:08 AM

All Enterprise C Fans - When will the Enterprise C and Reliant be released? Have you lost the license?

DSTChuck - We have hit a couple road blocks and will update everyone as soon as we have final word one way or another.

I'm wondering what those "road blocks" are myself, and if they're the typical "battery compartment doesn't fit inside the ship" kind of road blocks, or the more severe "Playmates won't let us finish the last three toys we had planned for Trek" kind of road blocks. Of course, knowing how DST and Playmates had planned to handle things the last time around, the optimistic take would be that they hit a "Playmates wants to use DST for the sculpts of new ships and they'll handle manufacturing logistics" kind of road block, but I'm pretty sure something that positive (both DST and Playmates playing to their strengths and using the other to counter their weaknesses) would tear this place apart faster than a matter/antimatter reaction. :P

 

It's worth noting that what we've seen so far suggests that Playmates has the rights to DSC–onward, but not necessarily to the older shows. Back when Viacom split into Viacom and CBS, control of the toy rights went to the CBS side of things which is how DST had everything from TOS–ENT. When the new movies rolled around, the toy rights were up for grabs for new content because of the split; those went from Playmates to Hasbro, to who knows at this point. Likewise, new TV content supposedly didn't or at the very least, might not have fallen under the old license either which is how McFarlane managed to grab a DSC license that they did a whole lot of nothing with while DST continued to plug away at their ships and phaser that we've yet to see. Viacom and CBS merged back together again into ViacomCBS last year, but that likely means that they still have a patchwork of licenses and thus licensees that they still have to work with. (It's entirely possible that DST could be allowed to finish their line while Playmates ramps up theirs.) It's also possible that ViacomCBS is very happy with having Trek's toy license split between a few different companies depending on which show the toys are from.

 

Alteran195, I want to be optimistic for new Playmates ships, I really do, but when their last outing was the Kelvin Timeline 1701 and that thing was the worst of DST's design elements (limited playability) combined with the worst of Playmates' design elements (a lousy sculpt,) it's hard for me to get my hopes up. Part of me hopes they'd use DST for the sculpt and handle the manufacturing, but as I said, that would be something so positive I don't think we could handle it. Part of me worries that they haven't learned from past mistakes though. I worry that we'll get a half–painted mess with a poor sculpt and no playability and be having the same discussions we had in 2010 about what went wrong with the line, even though I'm hoping we see something like the first run from Playmates or the launch of the Enterprise–E from DST. Of course, the "real solution" to this would be to have two toy licensees, one for toys aimed directly at kids, and one for stuff aimed at collectors, but that'll probably only happen after ViacomCBS sees that a single licensee is serving no one well, and that'll take time.



#154 Razorgeist

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Posted 27 December 2021 - 11:55 PM

I hope your right about that Alex.



#155 Alex

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Posted 28 July 2022 - 12:29 AM

Razorgeist I'm not sure what's more depressing; the fact that the last reply to this thread was your reply to me roughly half a year ago, the fact that DST didn't have any Trek updates at SDCC, or the fact that the Trek announcements at SDCC this year were underwhelming at best.

 

I'm totally cool with what Playmates is doing on the action figure side of things, but if that mockup of their new 1701 is accurate, well let's just say I'm really, really going to miss DST's ships and probably be pretty disappointed for awhile going forward. (Glad to see that Playmates at least learned to finally stick with the only scale they used that anyone cared about though. I really wish DST had taken a page out of their playbook when they still had an action figure license for Trek and given the 7" scale another shot. Maybe they still do have one, but I'm assuming its lapsed by now.)

 

I really wish DST would at least reissue some ships again, if only to show some signs of life in their share of the Trek license. Run the Enterprise–E again, (and again, and again; we can never have too many of those,) as well as the Klingon BoP and maybe even the Enterprise–D. I wouldn't mind another round of updates that tweak the ship or maybe offer improved electronics in some cases.

 

The real kick in pants though is that we finally have new Trek with loads of new designs that I would love to see DST take a crack at, and it looks like DST may not be in a position to do so. (I don't know if their license only allows them to finish what they've started, if their ships are in a different category than the new Playmates ones, with Paramount possibly splitting "collectors toys" and "childrens toys" into two separate licenses, or if they're just financially unable to tackle more electronic ships right now, but it doesn't exactly seem like there's more in the pipeline.) Picard season one gave us an updated Romulan BoP, DSC and now SNW have given us a new version of the "classic" 1701, (as well as what I'm pretty sure is a variation of the Picard BoP,) not to mention the U.S.S. Discovery and the Voyager–J among the list of new ships to tackle. Oh, and we never even got DST's take on the U.S.S. Voyager which I've been drooling over in anticipation ever since they basically proved they could do the thing justice after their Klingon BoP featured retractable wings and landing gear, A.K.A. "the two things you need if you're going to tackle the U.S.S. Voyager." Oh, and that's not even getting into

 

Spoiler

 

I'd really love to know what the deal is with DST's Trek lineup; are the obstacles financial, logistical, (e.g. COVID–related issues that are holding things up at factories in China,) personnel related, (I know the death of Tom Sasser really threw a wrench into the electronic ship line, and could easily see the issue being that they just haven't found someone with his experience and skill working on ships of this calibur,) or legal (licensing related) in nature?

 

My hope is that DST has a license for toys aimed at older collectors while Playmates Toys' "master license" is effectively intended for toys aimed at the younger crowd. In a way this would make sense; Playmates and DST are both smaller toy companies, and unlike a Hasbro or a Mattel, Playmates doesn't have the resources to run a collector's division like Hasbro does, and DST doesn't have the capacity to crank out electronic ships for big box retailers. If Paramount was smart, they made sure that both companies could play to their strengths. Back in the day Art Asylum basically did collector's sculpts for Playmates before acquiring the Trek license, so maybe we'll get lucky with a similar arrangement again. Before Playmates pulled the plug on their 2009 line they supposedly were working with DST to do some cross–licensing that both companies could benefit from, so if nothing else, there's at least a precedent for them to play nice with each other.

 

My dream would be sculpts by DST distributed via Playmates, with the former handling the design and the latter just handling the manufacturing process, but I doubt we'll see that anytime soon. (Then again, Playmates acquiring DST so that they could have a dedicated "collector's division" isn't exactly unrealistic, especially if DST is in the financial straits that some here have claimed they're in. I'm not expecting it, but I wouldn't be surprised by it either.)



#156 Razorgeist

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Posted 28 July 2022 - 09:04 PM

 

 not to mention the U.S.S. Discovery and the Voyager–J 

 

Ahh someone else who's a Voyager-J fan!

 

 

Oh, and we never even got DST's take on the U.S.S. Voyager which I've been drooling over in anticipation ever since they basically proved they could do the thing justice after their Klingon BoP featured retractable wings and landing gear, A.K.A. "the two things you need if you're going to tackle the U.S.S. Voyager."

 

Yeah Im right there with you on getting a Voyager from DST.  its probably the one hero ship I'd love to see them tackle.

 

Im wondering if paramount is waiting for LV star trek con to do a bigger blowout when it comes to trek info.



#157 MisterPL

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Posted 31 July 2022 - 02:11 PM

DST could get my attention with a new round of Star Trek Minimates. Whether they'd get my money would depend on what was offered. 






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