More Diamond Select Figures

[MatthiasRussell]

Diamond Select appears to have little to no interest in making more Trek figures. Meanwhile, they never made any Voyager figures and while Archer, Kirk, and Picard have chairs, there are no Sisko or Janeway captain's chairs. TAS and book characters like M'Ress and Mackenzie Calhoun could use figures. There are also numerous strange aliens in need of figures.

Who also has DS ship toys but wants the Defiant, Voyager, and others?

I never liked Playmates figs but feel Diamond Select has done good work. We should rally together, show DS we want more figures, and they need to supply our demand.

Please join me in regularly emailing "customerservice@diamondselecttoys.com" to encourage more attention be given to Trek.

http://www.diamondselecttoys.com/

 

[Biffette]

I would love to purchase more DST figures, even if it is only to add to the 20+ variations of Kirk they have already produced. They've explained that the demand is virtually non-existant. Not necessarily the demand from the consumer, but the demand from the retailer. DST bases their production runs on pre-orders from retailers, and if the pre-orders do not reach a set minimum DST will not produce the figure(s) at all. If we were to get anything at all from them at this point, it would be the TOS wave five which they have been dilly-dallying on for some time: Yeoman Rand, Nurse Chapel, McCoy (short-sleeve), and Kirk (green-wraparound). Sometimes they've included the Salt Monster when they mention this wave, but not in the most recent rumblings.

In addition to emailing Diamond Select directly, I would also suggest emailing various retailers to ask about Star Trek figures; if they start showing interest in pre-ordering figures DST will show more interest in making them. My understanding is that DST has recently re-upped their contract with CBS(and Paramount?), which suggests they'd like to make more figures.

 

[MatthiasRussell]

That's a good idea. Which retailers? Toys R Us. Amazon. Who else would stock trek toys? I'm all for blitzing whoever it takes to get more figs but enough fans have to rally behind the idea.

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

I LOVE my Diamond Select figures, unfortunately, I only collect the TNG line. I'd love for more of them, but there's not many more they could really come out with that would sell great (Guinan? Yar? I'd get 'em for sure!) to make it feasible.

And since they probably based most of their sales on the Kirks and Spocks, I'm no help there.

 

[Frontier]

That's a good idea. Which retailers? Toys R Us. Amazon. Who else would stock trek toys? I'm all for blitzing whoever it takes to get more figs but enough fans have to rally behind the idea.

No, I'd look at New Force Comics, Big Bad Toy Store, Entertainment Earth. Sites like that which cater to the niche. Toys R Us and Amazon have virtually no interest and are too big of a market place to give a rats ass about our e-mails.

I also think there is a mitigating factor: the economy. I love collecting figures, but not even I -- who has a stack of boxes as high as the cathedral celing and 3ft by 6ft deep -- can afford to buy them in this day and age. 3 or 4 years ago? I bought everything. Now? Ha! Just no money. I imagine a lot of collectors are in the same boat.

So... I just don't see much movement on that front.

The ships... we'll get Defiant and Voyager eventually, we will. DST's problem with ships isn't demand, like with figures. It's the production times and delays via china. I remember the 1701-D was announced for 2006 or 2007 and took until 2008 or 2009 to finally come out because of such. Same thing is holding up the Excelsior and Enterprise-B right now, I imagine. The ships are one of the few products with demand though. So we'll get Defiant, Voyager, hopefully DS9... especially since they can do re-issues of First Contact battle damage Defiant, and Year of Hell battle damage Voyager. Maybe also USS Sao Paulo defiant repaint and Warship Voyager from "Living Witness" as well. Those repaints are really key for the ships being more profitable.

As far as book or TAS characters... that'll likely never happen. They did a Calhoun figure via Communicator magazine back in the day. It did not sell well.

One thing book that would likely sell would be a ship, the Titan. Or a repaint of the E-D as the Excalibur-A. They could likewise make the Enterprise-C (pristine condition), Enterprise-C battle damage, and a third repaint of the E-C as the original Excalibur from New Frontier.

 

[Therin of Andor]

No, I'd look at New Force Comics

Rick at NewForce has taken a few big gambles. He had the exclusive 5" Playmates "Flashback Janeway" (designed by me in a competition!) and an Art Asylum "Trip Tucker in regular uniform". The problem is, such exclusive figures have to be ordered in huge numbers. What made these two figures viable was that they were cannibalized together from existing parts. Lately, he's tried to get the numbers together on a few other possible exclusives, but they have been prohibitive to making any kind of profit. The pool of buyers is simply too small at the moment.


Flashback Janeway promo banner by Therin of Andor, on Flickr

As far as book or TAS characters... that'll likely never happen.

Never say never. Until then, we customize!


M'Ress and Arex landing party, customized by Therin of Andor, on Flickr

They did a Calhoun figure via Communicator magazine back in the day. It did not sell well.

It's my understanding that the Mackenzie Calhoun of "New Frontier sold extremely well, but the Official Fan Club had to order thousands of units and he was already going to be a niche figure. So when the axe fell at the Official Fan Club, there were still a mountain of Calhouns to shift.

One thing book that would likely sell would be a ship, the Titan

Requiring a whole new sculpt. Not profitable. The overlap wanting this ship would require that they be avid ST toy collectors, who are ship completists - and who read the novels to recognize the Titan.

Or a repaint of the E-D as the Excalibur-A.

Doable, sure, but how many people would want one? I would think that anyone who needed such a ship in their collection has already scraped off the designations of an Enterprise-D and made their own Excalibur.

If we were to get anything at all from them at this point, it would be the TOS wave five which they have been dilly-dallying on for some time: Yeoman Rand, Nurse Chapel, McCoy (short-sleeve), and Kirk (green-wraparound). Sometimes they've included the Salt Monster when they mention this wave, but not in the most recent rumblings.

Yeah, the proposed DST Salty had major mold-release tooling problems, IIRC. But... the retro-Mego figure of the Salt Vampire has finally been released via Diamond. Mine arrived with Pike this week.


Salt Vampire by Therin of Andor, on Flickr

 

[P0sitr0nic]

I just want Voyager figures, especially the Doc.

 

[C.E. Evans]

I've always been partial to a 3.75-inch line of figures from every Trek series and movie. Playmates had the opportunity to do it, but screwed the pooch big time with their ill-fated Star Trek XI line...

 

[Caesar753]

I just want Voyager figures, especially the Doc.

Agreed. I would love to see some Voyager figures, especially Janeway.

 

[Vinkula]

I'd like the damn Ent-D to arrive... To Finland or back to other shops where I could find it easily. (Don't suggest Amazon or Ebay, I don't like those places). And Voyager, as a ship, would be cool too.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I've always been partial to a 3.75-inch line of figures from every Trek series and movie. Playmates had the opportunity to do it, but screwed the pooch big time with their ill-fated Star Trek XI line...

Mmmmm. How are Playmates' ST XI figures (and very cool playsets, esp. the transporter) any less exciting/accurate than the Mego TMP, ERTL ST III or Galoob TNG figures?

 

[C.E. Evans]

I've always been partial to a 3.75-inch line of figures from every Trek series and movie. Playmates had the opportunity to do it, but screwed the pooch big time with their ill-fated Star Trek XI line...

Mmmmm. How are Playmates' ST XI figures (and very cool playsets, esp. the transporter) any less exciting/accurate than the Mego TMP, ERTL ST III or Galoob TNG figures?

Who said anything about the Playmates' ST XI line being "less exciting/accurate" than those previous lines (well, other than consumers)? Playmates bungled it due to flooding the market with too many Wave 1 figures all at once, ultimately forcing the major U.S. toy retailers--Wal-Mart, Target, and Toys R Us--to all pass on Wave 2, essentially cancelling those planned figures and any other future waves Playmates might have had in mind.

 

[Chris3123]

Unfortunately it's not just post-TOS Trek that Diamond halted production on. They killed the Stargate lines at about the same time. And that's after they announced a new SG-1 wave, featuring new characters such as General Hammond and Ba'al.

Meanwhile, they never made any Voyager figures and while Archer, Kirk, and Picard have chairs, there are no Sisko or Janeway captain's chairs.http://www.diamondselecttoys.com/

As for the Sisko chair, it's worse than them just never making it. Just like with that Stargate SG-1 wave I mentioned, they actually were going to release the chair, but they canceled it.

As you can see, it would have included an exclusive Season 4 Sisko figure.

 

[Frontier]

You know, I've got add in here that I can't help but think the prices are also a significant detractor. $15 for an action figure is a lot of money. $30-35 for the ones with command chairs, likewise. $40-45 for the ships is... well, it's acceptable only due to the insane quality of the things -- especially compared to playmates, whose ships outright suck ass. I never had an issue with their figures, but their ships where atrocious! The only decent ones where DS9 and the Defiant. I also have their Voyager one, but it stinks -- I only have it cause it's rare, lol.

Frankly, the dollar value on the things just is asking too much. I remember when I could walk into Toys R Us and buy a G.I. Joe for $3.99. It wasn't as long ago as you might think; 1993-1995 time frame. The way the prices of ALL toys have ballooned is just unreasonable. Because they're a lot lower in quality (thank you, China!) and yet they've more than doubled or tripled in prices. Now I can understand a 3 inch figure being less expensive than a 6 inch or 7 inch. But the 3 inch figures are now $7-9 and the 6/7 inch ones are $14+ and... just, no.

I bought my nephew some G.I. Joe's for X-Mas. I literally took one out of the package for him, and his arm was broke within 5 minutes. The plastic was just sooo low grade, it wasn't funny. It was a joke. I beat the hell out of my G.I. Joe's and I never broke them in all those years. These new ones? I could sit on one accidentally and break it in 6 pieces.

What I'm ranting about here is that, maybe if they lowered their prices even just $2 or so, they would sell that many more. Enough to make it profitable for them and affordable for us.

I think the market for starships is where the money and collectors are at.

They could make a lights only (no sound) 8-inch or so starship, sell that for $25-30 and do it with a lot of the not done-to-death ships. I mean, it's sad when the only Prometheus-Class you can buy is either a $50 resin model you have to make, or a cheap hollow plastic Japanese thing. I know a lot of fans who'd love an Akira-Class. The Delta Flyer. Et cetera. A lot of fans who, love the original Enterprise and the E-D and such, are tired of buying new variants of the same. I literally own versions of the E-D in the following sizes: 1 inch (Hallmark minature) 2 inches (micromachine) 3 inch (hollow plastic Japanese) 5 inch (Hallmark ornament) 6/7 inch (die-cast from season 1) and then the big 16-inchish art asylum one. And there are a few variants I don't own...

 

[MatthiasRussell]

Unfortunately it's not just post-TOS Trek that Diamond halted production on. They killed the Stargate lines at about the same time. And that's after they announced a new SG-1 wave, featuring new characters such as General Hammond and Ba'al.

Meanwhile, they never made any Voyager figures and while Archer, Kirk, and Picard have chairs, there are no Sisko or Janeway captain's chairs.

As for the Sisko chair, it's worse than them just never making it. Just like with that Stargate SG-1 wave I mentioned, they actually were going to release the chair, but they canceled it.

As you can see, it would have included an exclusive Season 4 Sisko figure.

Wow. That sucks. Would love to have had the Defiant command chair, even mor than Voyager's since Janeway didn't REALLY have a command chair; more like she shared the bench. The good news is, if we can insight/inspire DST to give us more figs, they already have a mold for Sisko's chair.

 

[MatthiasRussell]

You know, I've got add in here that I can't help but think the prices are also a significant detractor. $15 for an action figure is a lot of money.

Ordinarily i would agree and there are some I won't but because the faces look terrible but for the most part, DST did an excellent job and even got creative with the 3 Borg figs. I will pay for quality figs that represent my favorite characters (but busts and statues don't interest me). The only playmates I ever bought was the Calhoun and the 8472 cause I couldn't stand their quality, especially in light of the nice SW figs Hasbro made.

So, anyone think we can encourage more Trek figs if we band together? More importantly, anyone want to try a write in campaign?

 

[Caesar753]

So, anyone think we can encourage more Trek figs if we band together? More importantly, anyone want to try a write in campaign?

It's certainly worth a shot. Count me in.

 

[Pauln6]

So, anyone think we can encourage more Trek figs if we band together? More importantly, anyone want to try a write in campaign?

It's certainly worth a shot. Count me in.

Point me in the right direction and tell me what to do!

I think the TWoK range was quite successful, possibly because they brought the key characters out in quick succession but on the other hand, if they do that, it's harder to keep the ball bouncing. Three crew and one 'villain' might be a good aim for each wave. I don't think that there is any reason why the villains need to be era specific either. Children as oposed to collectors will be quite happy for TOS Kirk to fight (or kiss) the Borg Queen.

The lack of retailer interest in the Borg wave was very surprising and the shelving of the Chapel and Rand figures was similarly surprising at a time when they were re-releasing the other TOS figures.

The recession isn't helping but drumming up enough support to persuade them to dip their toes back in the water and release something new around the time of Star Trek XII might be worth a shot. Fans do have to put their money where their mouth is though.

I was always a fan of the idea of a full wave of TMP crew to go alongside the TWoK crew because we could include aliens from the Rec Deck scenes which would add more variety than multiple versions of Kirk (although you could milk TMP for about 4 versions).

 

[Frontier]

Well remember, DST/AA does all the rest of trek while Playmates does Trek XII. Or at least, theoretically; who knows if they'll want to do Trek XII after the way the Trek XI figures bombed.

 

[C.E. Evans]

If I understand it correctly, Playmates is out of the Star Trek toy business again--and has been for awhile now. The license for new Star Trek XI (and likely Star Trek XII) toys is up for grabs for any company that wants it or can afford it.