MEGO TMP Bridge Playset

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Nifty photos of this rare piece of memorabilia:

http://apieceoftheaction66.blogspot.com/2009/08/mego-spotlight-uss-enterprise-bridge-3.html


Actually, the blog does a good job covering a lot on Trek toys.

 

[Maurice]

Heh. I'd have loved this as a kid...about 5 years before TMP came out!

 

[Therin of Andor]

Heh. I'd have loved this as a kid...about 5 years before TMP came out!

A coincidence!

I spent yesterday revamping my old Geocities site ready for a move to Blogger. Geocities vanishes forever at the end of October.

http://andorfiles.blogspot.com/

The current top story is my Mego 3.75" Andorian customizing project, and the first pic of her shows her near the TMP playset.

The playset is vacu-formed plastic. When the huge box arrived in the post after my eBay win, I thought it was empty!

 

[SeerSGB]

For some reason, I keep thinking of the 1701-C bridge from TNG or even the Bozeman's bridge when I look at that playset.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Seems the TMP playset is a blog topic of choice:

http://reflectionsonfilmandtelevisi...11/retro-toy-flashback-49-uss-enterprise.html

 

[General_Phoenix]

Very cool. It's a shame they didn't build it out of some really durable plastic like a lot of the Star Wars playsets though.

 

[Christopher]

For some reason, I keep thinking of the 1701-C bridge from TNG or even the Bozeman's bridge when I look at that playset.

Well, those were both redresses of the bridge set originally built for Phase II/TMP, so that's understandable.

 

[Cryogenic]

Nice topic.

I'm not overly familiar with the production sketches and designs for ST:TMP. But something closer to this bridge was originally planned, right?

It's amazing how spare and clean it looks. Clearly, this look was saved for the Enterprise's refitted sickbay.

Also: the doors. Or, more accurately, door. I think Starfleet should sue Charles Xavier for plagiarism. *cough* >> http://www.mutanthigh.com/tech/cerebra1.jpg

Clearly, that embossed airlook design is cooler than a couple of sliding grey oblongs, but where would Star Trek be without its sliding oblong doors, I ask you?

And vacuum-formed plastic? Talk about cheap! Well, I guess, thirty years on, it's all the more incentive to look after something precious.

The playset is vacu-formed plastic. When the huge box arrived in the post after my eBay win, I thought it was empty!

That's a gorgeous shot of Starfleet HQ in the background. It didn't come with the package, now, did it? Man, that sky looks a million times better than even on the Blu-ray release.

P.S. Middy...

Seems the TMP playset is a blog topic of choice:

http://reflectionsonfilmandtelevisi...11/retro-toy-flashback-49-uss-enterprise.html

Did you get that link via a post of mine?

http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?p=3415709#post3415709

I love the Internet.

 

[potablog]

Nifty photos of this rare piece of memorabilia:

http://apieceoftheaction66.blogspot.com/2009/08/mego-spotlight-uss-enterprise-bridge-3.html


Actually, the blog does a good job covering a lot on Trek toys.

Hey, that's my blog! Thanks for the compliment!

 

[Yeoman Randi]

^ ah POTABLOG, too bad youre married~ (well, ok, im married too.) GREAT BLOG, and what a great site you have up!!

Therin, i have to repeat what Cryogenic said....thats a great shot of Starfleet HQ, thanks for including that in your picture!

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Seems the TMP playset is a blog topic of choice:

http://reflectionsonfilmandtelevisi...11/retro-toy-flashback-49-uss-enterprise.html

Did you get that link via a post of mine?

http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?p=3415709#post3415709

I love the Internet.

Indeed I did. Indeed I did.

 

[potablog]

^ ah POTABLOG, too bad youre married~ (well, ok, im married too.) GREAT BLOG, and what a great site you have up!!

*Blushes* Thanks for the kind words!

Potablog

 

[Therin of Andor]

That's a gorgeous shot of Starfleet HQ in the background. It didn't come with the package, now, did it? Man, that sky looks a million times better than even on the Blu-ray release.

It's one of the eight official TMP lobby cards! (See the traditional credits info box in the lower left corner?)

I have the full set, then one day had a chance to buy this one as a single, so I framed it and sat it behind the playset.

When TMP came out, it played in Sydney's now-defunct Paramount Theatre, a gorgeous art deco theatre with marble statues, columns and a fountain. The outside had display frames for all eight lobby cards, and huge mounted-on-wood, head-and-shoulder blow-up portraits of the main cast. I used to stand and admire those lobby cards and when I found a set in a collectibles store I had to have them!

 

[FormerLurker]

If this playset and the figures with it had been made to fit with the pre-established TOS figures and playsets, I would have snapped them up in a heartbeat.

 

[QuasarVM]

That playset looks more like the Phase II bridge than the TMP bridge. That "door" looks like the place where the holographic weapons station would have gone.

I think Mego must have been working from pictures of the P2 bridge that were in some magazines during its production...

 

[Christopher]

Well, it's not like the TOS bridge playset was authentic either. They were going for the general impression, not perfect accuracy. Remember, these date from a time when toys were made for children to play with, not for collectors to put on their shelves.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I think Mego must have been working from pictures of the P2 bridge that were in some magazines during its production...

Well, the Mego TMP Enterprise model was capable of "saucer separ", in line with one of the aborted storylines for what would have been the new ST project (film/TV/film, etc). The saucer had four little legs, but essentially this was also to increase playability.

 

[QuasarVM]

I think Mego must have been working from pictures of the P2 bridge that were in some magazines during its production...

Well, the Mego TMP Enterprise model was capable of "saucer separ", in line with one of the aborted storylines for what would have been the new ST project (film/TV/film, etc). The saucer had four little legs, but essentially this was also to increase playability.

Interesting!

 

[DestinyCaptain]

Ya know, there's a shot of the bridge construction from the Phase II-era that shows a huge circular whole in the wall. The article I remember running with it said that it was to be a special targeting area. It was next to the weapons station like in the Mego set. Hmmm...

 

[Christopher]

No, the targeting area was meant to be a sphere. I agree with the evaluation in potablog's article, that the circular door in the Mego playset was meant to represent the airlock doors. Again, these weren't made as collector's items, so accuracy to the screen or other reference sources was not a priority. The goal of a playset would be to combine various interesting features of the ship -- for instance, the original Mego bridge having a transporter alcove included.

So I really don't believe they were trying to make an accurate recreation of the Phase II bridge. Rather, they were trying to make a cheap vacuform toy for kids to play with, and only cared about creating the general impression of the Enterprise sets from the movie and designing it in a way that would be playable. Given the flimsy construction they used and the way the playset was assembled, there's no way a rectangular sliding door would've worked; a circular hatch with a rotating cover was probably the only structurally stable thing they could come up with.