Click here for this week’s podcast.
Click here for the archives.
We’re going to have two podcasts this week after a bit of a hiatus– in the first, Vince and I discuss the Star Trek/Star Wars rivalry and wonder if these two franchises are similar enough that this rivalry should even exist.
LLAP
-Captain Logan
For the last several years, Star Trek had been working mostly with Art Asylum to do its toys– that company did very detailed figures for Enterprise and Nemesis, as well as some other Trek lines including Borg Assimilation. But the new movie has gone back to Playmates, who inundated us with actions figures back in the ’90s for Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and most of the films at that time. The new 3 1/2″ figures are like a blast from the past; they look a LOT like the Next Gen figures did, but there is also a 6″ figure line, and they’re almost as detailed as the Art Asylum figures. Here now is a list of all the lines and playsets that Playmates has come out with– if you’re a collector like me, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed with what they’ve done.
Galaxy Collection: 3 1/2″ Figures– $7-8 each (prices vary by retailer)
There are ten figures in each line– they all include every main character (three are not pictured here): Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Pike, Chekov, Sulu, Uhura, Scotty, Original Spock, and Nero. As I mentioned before, these are a lot like what Playmates was making in the ’90s, and these are the figures that are compatible with the bridge and transporter playsets.
Warp Collection: 6″ Figures– $9-10 each
These are the figures to buy if you want something very pretty to keep in the box and you don’t care about having figures compatible with the playsets. These are much more detailed than the 3 1/2″ and they look a lot more like their real-life counterparts. I’m very impressed with Playmates for giving us this option– it seems like the strategy is to make the smaller figures for kids to play with, and the bigger figures for older fans to collect.
Command Collection: 10″ Figures– About $30 each
These are the 10″ figures with cloth clothing, and again, Playmates made a lot of these back in the 90s. Definitely more for collectors than to play with, and I think they look quite good.
Transporter– About $25.00
This is almost the same toy they made for Next Generation but revamped to look more like the new movie. I really like the work station. Again, just for the Galaxy Collection figures.
Bridge– About $25
The bridge looks really fun, and a lot less white than I expected from the previews. Apparently those big door-looking things are information displays– I really wonder what that’s going to look like in the film. Anyway, all the Galaxy Figures come with their own chairs, which makes me wonder if the bridge actually comes with all of its chairs, or if you’ll end up with two full sets of them if you buy the bridge and all the figures…
U.S.S. Enterprise– About $30.00
Here’s the Enterprise, which looks pretty good. I’m having a hard time getting used to the bright white color. I haven’t seen it out of the box (the box doesn’t usually do these things justice) and I’m not sure how many sound and lighting effects it has.
Tricorder, Communicator, and Phaser– About $15.00 Each
As you can see, Abrams really hasn’t taken too much creative liscence with this stuff. It’s hard to see the communicator as especially futuristic considering what our cell phones can do right now, but I’m glad the movie is choosing recognition of its source material over realism. The toys themselves look really cool, but I’m a little disappointed in the lack of sound and light effects– each one really only has two or three variations. There have been some original series tricorders put out in recent years that do all kinds of stuff. In my opinion, these are more for the kids than for the collectors.
If you’ve been wondering what merchandising is out there for the new movie or considering collecting some of this stuff, I hope you’ll find the info and prices useful! Less than 3 weeks to the new movie– yay!
LLAP
-Cap’n Logan