Looking at the photo up close, it looks like foam rubber.
McFarlane phaser replica scrapped
- Thread starter C.E. Evans
- Start date
Looking at the photo up close, it looks like foam rubber.
Yeah, you're right, it does.
Well so is my phone and it was both cheaper than that and is actually a working tricorder.
P
phones aren’t collectors itemsWell so is my phone and it was both cheaper than that and is actually a working tricorder.
Whatever the reasons, neither of the following two movies had toy lines, even though they were intended to be mainstream blockbusters. Apparently a lot of folks in the toy business didn't think it viable. Yet McFarlane bought in on a Trek show on an unproven pay service that was, at best, going to draw a tiny percentage of the audience of the first Abrams movie. I don't doubt there's a collector market for this stuff, but what McF was promising with the phaser seemed too good to be true for the price they were planning. They were offering a collectible at a toy price point.
If McF got to the point of laying out cold, hard cash without confirming the orange cap issue, well, that's on them. Would have been a silly mistake for a company in their business, but maybe they were told one thing at first and then another later on.
Truth be told, I suspect Discovery will support a lot less merch than we've seen in the past, unless it really picks up steam in the coming years. That's the downside of doubling down on the existing fanbase to support your new streaming network.
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For anyone bummed about the lower-end DSC phaser getting cancelled I would highly suggest checking out MakerLabStore on Etsy. They have a great replica with working lights and parts that sells for about 50% that of the Anovos ones w/ all the features, and for a mere 100 (not including S/H) for just the basic prop version.
Sounds like it may not have been McFarlane's decision to cancel it:
https://trekmovie.com/2018/05/27/to...rek-discovery-phaser-pre-order-cancellations/
https://trekmovie.com/2018/05/27/to...rek-discovery-phaser-pre-order-cancellations/
Yeah, sounds like either stores didn't want it or the studio didn't. That he still hopes to make it suggests it was the studio, which seems odd for a merchandising machine like Star Trek. But maybe someone decided it was the wrong time to be marketing guns to kids.
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I did wonder about that. It's the most real gun like Trek weapon in shape and colour since the STV/VI phaser and perhaps they feel that it isn't the moment to try to sell replicas of it.
No one under 30 watches Star Trek.
Which is something an animated series and cool toys (like, idk, a phaser or something) might fix.
It's been suggested elsewhere that the demise of Toys R Us may have played a part as well. McFarlane's comment read to me like Paramount was pushing for the phaser and stores decided against it; certainly this is what was predicted when Toys R Us went into bankruptcy – the remaining retailers are going to become very cautious about what they carry, without a big brick and mortar company to take a chance on untested product lines.
Crazy idea, I know, but they could start by making Discovery a show all ages could watch.
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Quite possible. But having seen so little Trek stuff in mainstream stores for so long, and after the catastrophic failure of the Abrams toy line, and with the niche nature of All Access, I assumed this was pretty much destined to be a specialty market item.
I work with elementary schoolers. Most of them have never heard of Star Trek, let alone Discovery. Great toys alone won't make new fans, the KT stuff mostly warmed shelves. I think CBS ought to be cooking up a Star Trek animated series (in addition to DSC) if they want it to survive in the long term.
Nah. Discovery should stay what it is. Not all shows need to be a catch all for all audiences. A well animated show though would do wonders for Trek with the lower ages or people that just don't want anything to dark. Some might be more accepting of darker themes in animated form vs live action too. The type of animation I'm talking about is something like this.
- This is the season 3 trailer for the anime Attack on Titan.
- This is a preview for Knights of Sidonia. It's a anime that Netflix funded and can be found on there.
I picked these because they're show with human characters with the right amount of detail I think a Trek show would require or might need when it comes to locations, etc. I expect any animated project to be short seasons too so that level of detail could be done.
There really needs to be one. You can't keep just pandering to an aging fanbase. Adults who watch now (like me) probably started watching TNG as a kid, and then went back and caught TOS and the movies later. There's nothing really like that to "hook" kids today into Star Trek unless their parents watch it. An animated series (and also as importantly, a video game these days) would go a long way to build up new young fans. Star Wars gets it with stuff like Clone Wars and Rebels. Star Trek needs that.
I swear to God, Paramount and CBS has their heads up their asses with this IP. If Star Trek 2009 and after had been handled by a competent team, Trek might be as popular/huge now as it was in the mid-90s. But they have really shit the bed after 2009.
Discovery is cool, but almost no one outside of the core fanbase (in the US at least) even knows it exists, much less watches it.
Unlikely, because no toys would ever be made if that was the case. Eaglemoss seems to be on a roll with their line of ships from Star Trek Discovery, so it's not an issue of a lack of customers. And the failure of the Star Trek 2009 line had more to do with the line itself and retailers being burnt by far too much product too soon, causing them to say no to further product, and subsequently killing the entire line instantly. But afterward, Hasbro did pursue a license for Into Darkness toys--but only to help kick start their still largely unnoticed Kre-O line. An argument could be made, however, that by the time Beyond came out, there really weren't that many movie toys being made anymore unless it was Star Wars or a superhero movie. That does indeed reflect on Star Trek's popularity if it can't hang with those properties.
With the case of the DIS phaser, it seems like McFarlane was all set to release it as planned in the next few months, but something happened with the powers that be (likely CBS), and McFarlane was forced to abort it. We can speculate what that "something" is, but it's unlikely that it had anything to do with DIS not being free to watch in every home (heck, I don't have All Access myself, but I wanted that phaser all the same). It's also possible as mentioned earlier, that the demise of Toys R Us may have been a factor. A lot of McFarlane toys--even stuff more niche than DIS like some anime properties--seemed to be pushed through TRU, and losing that outlet may have caused some numbers to be re-crunched.
The worst-case scenario--and the one I hope truly isn't the case--is that the phaser might have been scrapped due to recent real-world events.
Hey guys - Brian from TrekMovie here. The way I read Todd's comments is that CBS is pushing for Disco, and McFarlane and retailers don't think it's viable. It reminds me of the mid-90's, when Paramount was trying to push DS9 and VOY products.
Discovery has a very small audience base. Unless that changes it's going to be very difficult to get much merch into the marketplace.
Discovery has a very small audience base. Unless that changes it's going to be very difficult to get much merch into the marketplace.
