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Playmates Star Trek :TNG Romulan Warbird


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#1 ShipNerd

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Posted 16 March 2013 - 01:08 PM


The Romulan Warbird of Star Trek The Next Generation was unlike her predecessor from TOS. She was HUGE. Far more Powerful, yet still Romulan with the use of her Cloaking Device. Her technical name translated into Basic was the D`deridex Class Warbird. More than a match
for anything Starfleet could handle. But the Romulans despite the enormous size of this vessel preferred subterfuge than outright confrontation.



The TNG Romulan Warbird was designed by Andrew Probert; The same artist who designed the Enterprise D. Probert was well known and still is for many other projects outside Star Trek, for example Back to the Future's Delorean had a lot of Probert to her.

Interestingly enough, Probert visualized the Warbird designed along a Y-axis. Basically if you took the Playmates Warbird and put it on her Nacelle, upright like below. Her Engines ..and Beak were also designed to fit the Y axis. But the Producers of TNG wanted her to be along the lines of the
Enterprise D. They also trimmed down the size of Probert's design as to not to dwarf Picard's Enterprise. Years later Mr. Probert got a bit of fun revenge in a Ships of the Line Calendar (again a Calendar I recommend to all TrekToy board members) creating a Romulan CapitalShip even dwarfing
his original TNG Warbird design.



The Playmates Warbird had many features from Probert's original conceptual work. The toy featured many odd "knob" like features on the ship. I asked another Trektoy board visitor Wayne on what they were. We could not come to
a conclusion. There were at least Eight of them on the Toy. Four Aft, Two on top and two more on the beak. Wayne finally just said..ask the guy. I did not expect a response from his Blog site, but surprisingly I did. And we learned their true purpose. They were the equivalent of a Federation Starship's Phaser Arrays, except these were Knob-like Disruptor Arrays. When all considered the fields of fire from these "knobs" would protect the ship from all angles of attack. A big thanks to Andrew Probert for solving our mystery! On the image below Red Circles are the "weapons Knobs" The Yellow oval highlights the sound buttons on the Playmates Warbird. It's important to note the Knobs were never shown on any of the Star trek TV series doing what they were intended to be. Oh and that big primary weapon featured on TNG; on the Warbird's beak, Mr. Probert envisioned as a Nav Deflector!




Below you can see the Playmates Warbird Light up her Nacelle beautifully. You can also note the main disruptor array on the "Beak" of the Warbird (Which Prober mean to be a Nav Deflector) And one of two "Knobs" on the beak as well. Just imagine..if the artist had had his way..the Warbird would be firing not one but two Green beams Forward. One from each "Knob" on the "Beak's head.



So the Playmates Romulan Warbird in 1993 may not be up to level of sculpting as a AA or DST ship. But traces of her origins were actually correctly placed on the Toy! As portrayed Below...perhaps there was meant to be only one "Bird" in the TNG-DS9-VOYAGER era.




(Note Toy Stand in for Klingon Bird of Prey in this shot is a "Hot Wheels" Star Trek Series Toy)

Shipnerd




#2 Jedigreedo

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Posted 16 March 2013 - 02:04 PM

Nice write-up! I almost got one back in the good ol' days when it was new. But, when my family and I went in search of one at Target we found an opened one and were very disappointed at the size. I already had the Enterprise-D and the Vor'Cha, and the D'Deridex just seemed puny. I got a GI Joe F-16 jet for the same price instead.

I've considered picking a Warbird up since we've had so many ships made now in the DST line, but due to the small size and lack of a stand I'm holding out hope that DST will make their own. At least there isn't much in the way of lights they have to worry about! Although it would be interesting to see if they could accomplish some window lighting since the only areas to focus on are the head and the tail, which are fairly bulky.

#3 richpit

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Posted 16 March 2013 - 05:30 PM

Great write-up! I always liked this ship. I still have one lying around in its box somewhere...

#4 Redshirt#7

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Posted 29 March 2013 - 06:54 AM

I just bought the Romulan Warbird on eBay thanks to your comments here, and I just want to say one thing, thank you.
Playmates ship prices are down for some ships (pretty much all TOS and TNG), but DS9, the Defiant and Voyager are horrific in price (

#5 Qcjoe

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Posted 07 May 2013 - 09:12 PM

That used to be my favorite playmates ship.



#6 WORF22

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Posted 08 May 2013 - 07:07 AM

i have mine on my desk at work next to my NX-01, 4 batmobiles, Aeryn Sun Peacekeeper addition and my tng 25 pez



#7 Hayesimus

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Posted 11 June 2013 - 03:09 PM

I have 2 of em. :P

#8 VulcanFanatic

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Posted 11 June 2013 - 09:52 PM

I liked the Romulan Playmates ship as well as the Klingon ship and the 1701-D, but in those early days of Playmates ships they didn't have stands, which sucked.

#9 geobac43

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Posted 17 December 2013 - 08:31 PM

I used a 3 X 14 in lexan polycarbonate (1/8in thick), bend it, cut the profile of Romulan Playmates ship (and the Klingon

Vor'cha Attack Cruiser Ship) worked well.as a stand



#10 Jpatrik

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Posted 18 December 2013 - 05:33 AM

I just purchased a Romulan Warbird and ordered these stands called Flightpose

 

http://flightpose.com/index.cfm

 

Someone else on this forum may have suggested them (thank you, whomever you are!) but I hope they do the trick!

 

 - Jim



#11 Destructor!!!

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Posted 18 December 2013 - 10:32 PM

I'm sure I'm not the first person, but I have linked to them a few times. I must bag a couple more, actually.

 

If it was me that inspired you, you're welcome!






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