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McFarlane phaser replica scrapped

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.

Then they are probably going to have to follow the Diamond Select/Eaglemoss online model if they want to get merchandise out there.
 
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.

You have a point. There should be a Star Trek series that appeals to all ages -- including kids -- and is readily available. But I think it should be another series. At this point, Discovery is what it is. An animated series would be a good way to go to hook in kids. Even better if they make it tolerable for the parents watching it with them...

My brother, who has a five-year-old daughter, started showing her TAS. Which my brother says she likes. But they should make another animated series. Then my niece could watch something not from the '70s.
 
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.

Corporate exec: I know, let's put it on a startup pay streaming service, so that only a tiny percentage of people will even consider watching it. And let's make it TV MA, so only a subset of that niche audience can see it.

Showrunners: You know what that idea needs? Subtitles. Lots and lots of subtitles.
 
Corporate exec: I know, let's put it on a startup pay streaming service, so that only a tiny percentage of people will even consider watching it. And let's make it TV MA, so only a subset of that niche audience can see it.

Showrunners: You know what that idea needs? Subtitles. Lots and lots of subtitles.

Yes, Discovery is an odd duck. It doesn't really know what it's about or who its audience is.
 
I would be down with a Trek animated show, but I would guess such a show, like the Star Wars shows, would strongly, strongly benefit from a healthy parent franchise to feed viewers into it (and vice versa). Star Wars has exactly the sort of cross-platform synergy that Trek needs and lacks.

Even if they got kids to watch a Trek cartoon, what would those new fans graduate into? A syndicated show from the '80s? One of the subsequent spinoffs? The current show with gore and Klingon nudity and lots of subtitles about alien politics?

Star Wars creates fans for life partly because it doesn't confine kids to the kids' table. As a kid, that sort of treatment drove me nuts.
 
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Then they are probably going to have to follow the Diamond Select/Eaglemoss online model if they want to get merchandise out there.


Yeah.

Given the size of the STD audience, its composition, and the relatively low public awareness of the show it's not surprising that mass market toy and model retailers (the McFarlane phaser had an under-40-dollar price point, didn't it?) are not eager to climb aboard.
 
I don't know if any teenagers post here, but maybe there are posters who started with the Abrams films and then discovered (no pun intended) other Star Trek series through Netflix? Maybe they can say how they delved further into Star Trek afterwards.

A few of my friends told me there's a local station that's airing the first five Star Trek series every day. H&I Television Network. I haven't watched it. I don't normally watch TV (yet here I am posting about a TV show) except on Netflix or online, but maybe new fans are discovering TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, or ENT that way. "But those shows are old! Kids won't like them" Maybe.

But kids today seem more tolerant of stuff from decades before. Which surprises me, to be honest. The '80s and '90s to them (20-30 years ago) are like what the '50s and '60s were like to me when I was a kid. Back when I was growing up, if you liked anything from your parents' generation, you were the exception. And most wouldn't be caught dead admitting to it. Hence the expression, "It's an oldie, but a goodie." You had to have the qualifier. But I didn't think the '50s were cool like kids today think the '80s are cool.
 
I don't know if any teenagers post here, but maybe there are posters who started with the Abrams films and then discovered (no pun intended) other Star Trek series through Netflix? Maybe they can say how they delved further into Star Trek afterwards.

A few of my friends told me there's a local station that's airing the first five Star Trek series every day. H&I Television Network. I haven't watched it. I don't normally watch TV (yet here I am posting about a TV show) except on Netflix or online, but maybe new fans are discovering TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, or ENT that way. "But those shows are old! Kids won't like them" Maybe.

But kids today seem more tolerant of stuff from decades before. Which surprises me, to be honest. The '80s and '90s to them (20-30 years ago) are like what the '50s and '60s were like to me when I was a kid. Back when I was growing up, if you liked anything from your parents' generation, you were the exception. And most wouldn't be caught dead admitting to it. Hence the expression, "It's an oldie, but a goodie." You had to have the qualifier. But I didn't think the '50s were cool like kids today think the '80s are cool.
I was born in the '90s, but to me, the eighties have always been sort of a golden Era of Sci fi, much of which doesn't really look dated in the way '50s stuff must have 20-30 years later. I probably would have gotten into Star Trek sooner if I'd realized there was more to it than that cheesy '60s Kirk and Spock stuff my uncle was always talking about, but I was only vaguely aware at best of TNG and Voyager.
I learned to love TOS once I started watching it though of course.
 
The cancellation news really sucks. I wanted a Disco Phaser and Communicator for my collection. I'm not popping $500 for one though. Perhaps certain '3D shipyard' custom printer, a certain Mad Man, will step in and fill this void. *wink wink, nudge nudge

Q2
 
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In other news, the new "Toys That Made Us" episode about Star Trek claims that the ST property is finally in good hands with McFarlane Toys.

Kor
 
In other news, the new "Toys That Made Us" episode about Star Trek claims that the ST property is finally in good hands with McFarlane Toys.

No matter how good the product, if retailers don't want it... they are going to have a problem selling them in enough volume to make a profit.
 
Random aside, I was disappointed that Docu didn't cover my all-time favourite Trek toy:
N0kLhMD.jpg

I was waiting, waiting, waiting... ah they're up to TMP now.:(
 
Random aside, I was disappointed that Docu didn't cover my all-time favourite Trek toy:
N0kLhMD.jpg

I was waiting, waiting, waiting... ah they're up to TMP now.:(

I did get to see the propeller Enterprise that went around in circles, that I had when I was a kid. Brought back memories.
 
No matter how good the product, if retailers don't want it... they are going to have a problem selling them in enough volume to make a profit.

The fact that McFarlane is savvy to what retailers are interested in is probably part of the "good hands."
 
Discovery is probably only very much loved by a few thousand people, found to be "not bad" by a few thousand more. And what percentage of them would be interested in a phaser prop? Very very niche market.
 
Discovery is probably only very much loved by a few thousand people, found to be "not bad" by a few thousand more. And what percentage of them would be interested in a phaser prop? Very very niche market.

A niche-within-a-niche that's ridiculously well-off. They're certainly doing better than I am, if they can plunk down $500 for what's really just a toy gun.
 
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