Where are the toys?

Discussion in 'Star Trek Movies: Kelvin Universe' started by BriGuy, Jun 10, 2013.

  1. publiusr

    publiusr Admiral Admiral

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    Chicken and egg again.

    Star Trek doesn't sell, so we won't push for big display...that helps sell products...

    Self fulfilling prophecy.

    But right you are about playmates.
     
  2. publiusr

    publiusr Admiral Admiral

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  3. ALF

    ALF Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Maybe another way to say it (Agreed 100% on BillJ's original statement) is that the Star Wars fans are buying all the toys and Star Trek fan's aren't buying as many. It's more of a risk to toy companies maybe to licence Trek. In the mid 1990's you could go into a department store and see Phasers, Tricorders, Playmates action figures lining a good part of the wall and bigger kits like the shuttle and the bridge, etc. Of course, that was because there were 2 series' and TNG films in release. That was a good time. :mallory:

    Luckily, the passage of time means you can complete your Playmates collection on the cheap through eBay (very cheaply if you don't mind them loose). Damn, those were terrific action figures. I only wish the Enterprise NX-01 crew got the same treatment so that they could be displayed together in the same height class. The Art Asylum figures were crap.

    And yeah, I wouldn't have gotten the Trek XI figures even if they had been free. They were seriously that bad.
     
  4. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    eBay? I completed my ST'09 figure collection (both scales) at Poundland:cool:
     
  5. ALF

    ALF Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Sorry, I was referring to the Playmates line of figures that started in 1993 and spanned the TOS-TNG-DS9-VOY series'. Good sturdy moulds, great accessories and a reasonable price point.
     
  6. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Ah, understood. My bad.

    Those old Playmates figures were excellent.
     
  7. C.E. Evans

    C.E. Evans Admiral Admiral

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    Only because more Star Wars toys are being made and they're also being produced & distributed better.
    No more than for any licensed property, really. There is still a healthy demand for Trek toys (probably healthier than one for G.I. Joe toys). It's just that it's hard for the big three U.S. retailers to get over the Playmates fiasco. They determine what goes into retail stores. With the exception of a few offerings in Toys R Us stores and some specialty shops, Diamond Select caters towards the collector's market where most have to get them from online outlets.
    It was also a time in which the toy industry in general was doing better. These days, it's shrunk considerably at the retail level with a lot less floor space allocated towards action figure lines in most department stores (where there were once two or more aisles dedicated solely towards action figures, you'll find just one today).
    Many potential customers felt the same way and also passed on them.
     
  8. publiusr

    publiusr Admiral Admiral

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    I have this fantasy where Bill Gates and Buffer take me hostage, I escape and then sue them for everything..and then I'm sitting back wondering what to do with my new wealth...

    I then start my own toy company, and all the nice garage kits of trek models I mass produce and sell dirt cheap.

    Then I buy out all the toy cars from the shelves--especially the NASACAR products--and have them destroyed.

    All to the point of putting spaceships on the shelves and keeping kids interested in space like they were in the 1960s Saturn V kits everywhere, and not a furby in sight.

    Lastly, I make it to where NASACAR fans have to resort to over expensive resin kits, with the only NASCAR replica being a low quality garage kit missing parts--with an insulting instructional video by Tim and Eric of how to assemble it.
     
  9. USS Ername

    USS Ername Cadet Newbie

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  10. publiusr

    publiusr Admiral Admiral

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    That's my point. Enterprise toys should get the detail toy cars get. If you only had lego 57 chevys with bumps all over, the car collectors would go nuts--at the same restrictions of quality spaceship fans have to endure.

    There ought to be a law ;)
     
  11. GalaxyX

    GalaxyX Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Dear God that's just stupid.

    A ton of us have no problem having a model of the nuEnterprise alongside our old models. I don't think most kids or collectors would care either.
     
  12. BillJ

    BillJ The King of Kings Premium Member

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    I'm not sure it was a stupid notion on Abrams part. He simply didn't want Star Trek competing with Star Trek for shelf space and dollars. Tough to compete with Star Wars and Super-hero merchandise when you're already competing with yourself.
     
  13. JarodRussell

    JarodRussell Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I think the very idea that Star Trek is somehow competing with itself is stupid to begin with.
     
  14. BillJ

    BillJ The King of Kings Premium Member

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    It isn't because there's only so much shelf space.
     
  15. thumbtack

    thumbtack Commodore Commodore

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    Sales of action figures and related toys are down 65% from the boom years (1997-2007) and the Star Wars sections at Target and Walmart are tiny. We'll see if Disney can change that.
     
  16. JarodRussell

    JarodRussell Vice Admiral Admiral

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    [​IMG]

    Online shelfs are wider.
     
  17. C.E. Evans

    C.E. Evans Admiral Admiral

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    It's also some nerve for someone who is only borrowing a property to tell its owner what they can't do with it.

    No way was CBS going to stop merchandising the rest of Trek just for one movie anyway, so it really was a stupid idea (or at best, arrogance).