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Action Figures Science Fiction Star Trek (Playmates)

Star Trek: First Contact Action Figures (1996)

Welcome to our look at the Star Trek: First Contact toys, or “how Playmates killed the Star Trek action figures.”

I admit to being frequently critical of Playmates Toys’ for its handling of the Star Trek line from 1996 onward, and here is where I think they went wrong.

With the eighth Star Trek film on the horizon, Playmates liaised much more closely with Paramount this time around, trying to avoid a costly fiasco like the incorrectly-costumed toys from Star Trek: Generations. … Read more

Categories
Action Figures Science Fiction Star Trek (Playmates)

Star Trek: Generations Action Figures (1994)

Star Trek action figures - photo copyright 2006 Earl Green / theLogBook.comHere’s an entire series of toys fraught with bloopers.

In pre-production for Star Trek: Generations, which premiered over the Thanksgiving 1994 holidays, a new costume design – rather a spiffy one, I always thought – was conceived for the crew of the Enterprise-D in their first film. But at the last moment, despite the fact that a lot of money had been spent actually creating these new costumes, the powers that be decided to reduce the number of “new” and unfamiliar elements, opting instead to outfit the Enterprise’s crew in a random mix of their original Next Generation uniforms and DS9-style jumpsuits.

There’s just one problem. Playmates had gotten to work on their new line of Generations toys before the movie ever got in front of the cameras …and as far as they knew, the new uniforms would be in use. … Read more

Categories
Action Figures Science Fiction Star Trek (Playmates)

Star Trek: The Next Generation Wave Two (1993)

Star Trek: The Next GenerationWith the success of the first wave of Playmates’ Star Trek: The Next Generation action figures, the question became: what next?

For the most part, the answer was repetition. Just do what you did before, and everything will be fine.

The same Enterprise crew members released in the first wave once again formed the backbone of the new selection of characters, only this time in the season one and two spandex uniforms. … Read more