Playmates Enterprise review

Company: Playmates Toys
Item: Star Trek XI, Enterprise, 2009

We as collectors have been pretty spoiled as of late with all the great DST Trek ship releases. I was really excited when Playmates first released images of the new Enterprise. Personally, I think the design is a perfect blend of the old TOS concept and a new modern styling that would make it fit more with this day and age. Playmates first pictures really captured what I had seen on the Trek movie trailers. So needless to say I was anxiously awaiting my purchase of this ship. I couldn’t have been more disappointed with the final product.

Just to give a preview, this may be my harshest review as of yet. Many of the issues discussed may be just the ship I bought but until I get my other ship from my New Force pre-order, I won’t be able to tell. Many of the issues I already foresee not being solved but others may just be a bad set of coincidences. So let me start with what I see as the positives to this ship.

Let me start with the packaging. The box itself is not a traditional square but has a few new angles that make it stand out. The first thing I noticed on the shelf is the lack of a “try-me” button that has been a standard for most Trek ship releases. I guess batteries are a bit expensive these days and Playmates decided to cut this corner….just one of many as we’ll soon see. Being that this is being marketed to kids, I think not having a try-me feature is going to be a huge mistake. The packaging also uses bright colors to catch the buyer’s attention. The back of the packaging gives a basic technical schematic to the main parts of the ship while also shilling other Trek items that one can buy. I think Playmates did a good job trying to find something that was different to try to separate the Enterprise from the rest of the space vehicles on the market with Star Wars. The packaging (sans the try-me) is one of the better things that Playmates did in my opinion.

The only saving grace of the ship itself is the beautiful sculpt. The bones for making this a great release are there. All the peripherals really make this disappointing even more so because it COULD have been so great. The detail on most of the ship is pretty good. I especially liked the saucer grid pattern that is sculpted in. The warp nacelles also are highly detailed except at the back where the nacelle ends look a bit “warped” (I would laugh at the pun but this ship just takes the humor right out of me). One other feature I really like is the use of transparent plastics on the deflector dish, on the nacelles and other smaller places along the ships hull.

This is where things get sloppy. I’m probably just going to start listing problems and try to let some of my pictures do some of the explaining along the way. In addition to the warped warp nacelles, many of the joints along the hull do fit together perfectly or have added material that was overflow from the molding process. The primary hull and saucer section suffer from the un-tight joints while the nacelles suffer from the over flow. The double battery compartment system does detract greatly from the overall look of the ship. I just don’t see the need for it. Its not the wiring because there’s only one button to activate the lights. Was there not enough room in either place for 3 batteries? I know DST’s ships stack up two batteries to make room for all three in the same compartment. Another distracting part of this sculpt is the endless warnings, legal disclaimers, and copyrights that are placed all of this ship. On the underside of the saucer section we have the frequency disclaimer which is usually just written on the instructions or in the battery compartment as opposed to on the sculpt. On the engineering section there is another copyright line with a serial number and that looks like it was branded in with a hot iron. It just looks shoddy. I can deal with the disclaimers but seriously, they couldn’t put them on the battery covers….you have two for crying out loud! Another issue with the construction of this ship is that the glue used to hold the pylons to the warp nacelles is clearly visible. On mine its splashed all over the underside of the nacelles and in some places actually messed up the paint scheme. To top that all off, this ship did not come with a play cover for the bottom battery compartment. Playmates to my knowledge almost always included one of these with their previous releases so why it was omitted here is beyond me.

Now onto my real concerns about this ship (what there’s more?!). The paint applications on this ship are pretty much horrible. I’ve seen better paint apps on dollar shop toys….I exaggerate but there are some serious problems. If I had a quarter for every smudge, I would be able to buy a new ship practically. My biggest concerns are the smudges on the most highly visible part of the ship, the name and registry. The deltas on the inside of the nacelles look absolutely awful. The weirdest paint app that I have ever seen is the registry number on the underside of the ship near the deflector. For some reason above the registry, there is a shadow of the NCC-1701 that can be faintly seen. I don’t want to go on through every little smudge but I think you get the idea.

The lights on this ship are of really good quality….almost too good of quality as we’ll see a bit later. The blue is extremely brilliant and is really one of the parts that attracted me to this ship in the first place. There are white LEDs in the saucer section and a red one towards the back of the saucer. It seems as if there are a set of LEDs in each of the nacelles. Finally there is one blue LED in the deflector dish. As you push the button on the top of the saucer section, the sounds cycle through various phrases and sounds from the movie. So far it seems as if it’s a completely random selection as to what sound and light sequence is played. I find this to be a far cry from the old Playmates ships that had separate buttons for each sound. I liked that for play purposes especially as a kid. Its kind of annoying that when you are in a heated dogfight with Klingon Birds-of-Prey you push the button expecting phasers but instead get a quote from Zachary Quinto as Spock. I don’t so much mind the movie quotes but it’s the random nature that makes no sense to me. On the positive side though, all the phrases and sounds are of very good quality and can clearly be heard. The light sequence displays also fit the sounds very well.

Onto my biggest problem….the worst case of light bleed I have ever seen in a toy. If anyone wants to know how the upper saucer section is wired won’t have the least bit of problem figuring it out because the bright LEDs create a clear shadow pattern of the wiring. DST and Playmates in the past avoided this issue by either making the ship out of studier plastic or applying a base coat of paint instead of just casting it in the final color. The saucer is by far the worst with the super bright white LED, but the nacelles too suffer greatly from blue light bleed. The deflector only has minimal light bleed at a nearby joint. I’m usually not a stickler for light bleed issues but these are just excessive in my opinion.

My final observation about this ship is the display stand which is another saving grace. It is cast in an ice blue plastic and is much sturdier than its DST counterpart. It even has a paint application on the delta coloring the bottom silver (although shockingly there’s a smudge here too). There’s not a lot of wobble and it seems as if this stand will withstand the test of time while at the same time being very visually appealing.

Overall, all of these problems in isolation I could have dealt with. It’s the fact that they all appear on the same toy that really wears me down as a collector. I paid $29.99 for this ship which is the same that I paid for the DST TOS-E, which is $5 less than what I paid for the DST Ent-E, and which is $5 less than what I will pay for the DST Ent-D. Keep in mind that all of those are specialty market releases that have much lower production runs. Being that so many more of these Playmates Enterprises are being produced for the mass market, shouldn’t they have either better quality or a lower retail price? Did I get $30 worth? My answer is no. Maybe Playmates should have stuck with decals because putting paint applications on their ships just isn’t their forte. Add to this the joint problems, the excessive light bleed, the random phases/sounds, and the excessive legal disclaimers and it all adds up to a poor ship. Its really a shame because this has the possibility to be a great release if just a few more steps in quality and quality control were taken. I’m really hoping that I just got a “bad ship” because its really the poor paint job that distract me the most. Maybe some other people on the forum can update us on their ship to see if these are persistent problems or just localized problems. All I know is that after this purchase I am truly thankful for the quality that is put into the DST ships. I really believe that the ships we have received thus far arre the best ever produced and I also hope that the DST Ent-D blows them all out of the water. As for this Playmates release….well lets just hope their next ship release is a bit better.

Positives:

Interesting Packaging

Good overall sculpt

Sturdy display stand

Loud/clear sounds

Bright LEDs

Negatives:

Horrific paint job

Joint gaps and casting overflow

Excessive light bleed

Random sounds

No “try-me” function

Rating: 1/2 out of 5 stars.