Merchandising! Merchandising!

[Jeyl]

Umm, what was embarrassing? That Playmates had too much variety in their Starfleet uniform sculpts or not enough?

Not enough is an understatement. The only thing that differentiated the characters was their head sculpts and the color of the uniform. That's it. You could put Kirk's head on Bones' blue uniform body and he'd have the same hight and dimensions.

Now, if you really want to see something embarrassing, Try this out. The character toys came in three sizes. Small, medium and large. Look for a medium figure of a crew member in a star fleet uniform cut the uniform off.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Umm, what was embarrassing? That Playmates had too much variety in their Starfleet uniform sculpts or not enough?

Then why did you say:

It would have made more sense to have just one body with swappable heads.

Isn't that what they did? Economizing with one torso sculpt. Oh, you mean all in one pack?

In any case, there was variety by putting some characters in cadet outfits, and there was an intention to do the opposite for Wave 2.

Look for a medium figure of a crew member in a star fleet uniform cut the uniform off.

And what happens?