Merchandising! Merchandising!

[Whofan]

Although the film was a hit(financially at least ), it seems the toy merchandise (Well at least the Playmates stuff) kind of fell flat and ended up in bargain stores, and the second wave was an online exclusive.

So will Playmates be doing the figures again or will another company, such as Hasbro, pick up the license? I know DST does TOS/TNG/DS9 stuff but they seem more for the specialty market and I don't think they have any license for Abram's Trek. Or will they just skip the toy license all together?

 

[The Castellan]

Although the film was a hit(financially at least ), it seems the toy merchandise (Well at least the Playmates stuff) kind of fell flat and ended up in bargain stores, and the second wave was an online exclusive.

So will Playmates be doing the figures again or will another company, such as Hasbro, pick up the license? I know DST does TOS/TNG/DS9 stuff but they seem more for the specialty market and I don't think they have any license for Abram's Trek. Or will they just skip the toy license all together?

I say get a REAL toy company to make the figures. Character Options are GREAT at making figures that actually look like the characters they are supposed to portray. Look at their Doctor Who line, both Classic and Nu.

Hasbro, Mattel and ESPECIALLY Playmates are overrated guys who are more of quantity than quality. Plus you're gonna get so many variants...I mean look how many damned Anakin Skywalkers are found in the toy isles.

Plus Playmates, apart from making shitty figures, killed their lines with both so many different scales and the collect and build gimmick, where you had to buy not only each character, but each VARIANT of each character, so you had to buy ALL the figures, not just the main ones. It canceled the second waves, and prematurely ended the first wave before the remaining figures would come out. Ask anyone who bought those silly bridge and transporter sets. Same thing with the equally crappy Terminator Salvation figures. Now, even more than two years later, both of those Playmates lines are taking up room in the clearance isles, keeping the Fabulous Moolah figures company.

 

[The Castellan]

Also, apart from a few exceptions, toy lines based on movies never do well....the newest Pirates of the Caribbean toys are already collecting dust and the same goes for Tron toys. I even saw some Superman Returns figures still collecting dust.

I also feel it good example of Karma with Playmates screwing over fans of the NECA TMNT figures, so they could sell their same old drivel, and causing NECA to no longer make TMNT figures, which were the nicest. And getting back at those damned scalpers who buy up everything and sell on evilbay for extortionist prices. I saw one of them do that with the Jar Jar Trek figures and I laughed at the guy and told him, "You're gonna regret it".

So at least that made me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

 

[F. King Daniel]

They'd certainly have had a string of successful novels had the line not been cancelled (four post-STXI adventures were written and are gathering dust on a hard drive somewhere)

 

[Phily B]

They're releasing a tie-in game on the consoles this time.

 

[F. King Daniel]

And they've got a series of comics re-imagining TOS epiodes with their STXI counterparts.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Although the film was a hit(financially at least ), it seems the toy merchandise (Well at least the Playmates stuff) kind of fell flat and ended up in bargain stores, and the second wave was an online exclusive.

The second waves of 3.75", 5" and 12" figures were not produced. A few online sellers tried to crunch the numbers to get them made, but were unsuccessful.

 

[C.E. Evans]

Although the film was a hit(financially at least ), it seems the toy merchandise (Well at least the Playmates stuff) kind of fell flat and ended up in bargain stores, and the second wave was an online exclusive.

As already mentioned, the second wave never came to be. That's how badly the Playmates line performed, the major retail chains basically said "no more Star Trek toys, please." Some Toys R Us stores are still trying to get rid of the stock they have.

So will Playmates be doing the figures again or will another company, such as Hasbro, pick up the license? I know DST does TOS/TNG/DS9 stuff but they seem more for the specialty market and I don't think they have any license for Abram's Trek. Or will they just skip the toy license all together?

I don't think there will be a toyline for Star Trek XII. There probably will be various high-end collectibles, model kits, and various food products, but I don't think we'll see toys in retail stores like we did for Star Trek XI.

 

[Biffette]

I love tie-in merchandise, and there are two aspects of nu-Trek merchandise I didn't see last time that should really get made:

1) Valentine Cards (you know, with the corny sayings: "Kirk to Enterprise, I'm falling in love without a chute!")
2) School supplies (backpacks, folders, notebooks, etc)

 

[shapeshifter]

IMO, the quality of the previous film's collectible items wasn't an issue, COST was. I wanted many more of them than I ultimately got. Why? Price.

Uh, let's see, eat/pay rent or buy outlandishly priced Trek collectibles?

 

[Greg Cox]

They'd certainly have had a string of successful novels had the line not been cancelled (four post-STXI adventures were written and are gathering dust on a hard drive somewhere)

Actually, I have mine on a floppy disk!

 

[FarStrider]

They'd certainly have had a string of successful novels had the line not been cancelled (four post-STXI adventures were written and are gathering dust on a hard drive somewhere)

Actually, I have mine on a floppy disk!

They still make those things???

~FS

 

[F. King Daniel]

They'd certainly have had a string of successful novels had the line not been cancelled (four post-STXI adventures were written and are gathering dust on a hard drive somewhere)

Actually, I have mine on a floppy disk!

Can I have a copy?

 

[Jeyl]

Here's a problem I had with the figures. You could make the entire line with only four molds. Every character with the exception of Uhura could get around with just a different head, and only Spock, Uhura and Nero stood out as their own unique figures amongst the lot. It was embarrassing. It would have made more sense to have just one body with swappable heads.

And the Enterprise Toy itself wasn't that good at all. Just plastic with a label of the Enterprise. The Target Exclusive Enterprise model that came with the BluRay set at least had some aztec patterns on the saucer section. Plus, I despise the one button sound/light cycle. The original Enterprise-D, which was made by Playmates, is still my favorite toy ever made. It had multiple buttons that allowed you to initiate any action you wanted. Phasers, torpedoes, impulse and warp drive. You didn't need to cycle through them to get what you wanted. If they made their next ship with that function, the only thing that would make it perfect is to do what Art Asylum / Diamond Select has been doing with their new ships. Giving them a "lights on" function. You push a button, and the lights turn on and they stay on. The blue lights that the Playmates NuEnterprise had were pretty much the only highlight, but they weren't on long enough to enjoy. If it had the option to keep the lights on, I would have scored it much higher.

 

[BillJ]

Speaking of the game, has anyone heard anymore news about it?

We had the original announcement but then it seems everyone has went quiet about it.

 

[F. King Daniel]

No doubt the Veil of Secrecy that shrouds STXII also covers the prequel game. It is, after all, supposedly "canon" and there'll be some easter egg in the movie referencing it.

 

[BillJ]

No doubt the Veil of Secrecy that shrouds STXII also covers the prequel game. It is, after all, supposedly "canon" and there'll be some easter egg in the movie referencing it.

I don't get it? The game is suppose to be released a full year before the film anyway...

So whatever they're hiding will be spilled well before the premiere anyway.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Here's a problem I had with the figures. You could make the entire line with only four molds. Every character with the exception of Uhura could get around with just a different head, and only Spock, Uhura and Nero stood out as their own unique figures amongst the lot. It was embarrassing. It would have made more sense to have just one body with swappable heads.

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

 

[BillJ]

The Playmates action figures were horrible.

 

[F. King Daniel]

No doubt the Veil of Secrecy that shrouds STXII also covers the prequel game. It is, after all, supposedly "canon" and there'll be some easter egg in the movie referencing it.

I don't get it? The game is suppose to be released a full year before the film anyway...

So whatever they're hiding will be spilled well before the premiere anyway.

Yeah, but they're probably keeping the game itself as shrouded in secrecy as they can, just as they are with the films. Same policy, probably.

And I have a feeling the game's gonna be delayed until 2013, to better cash-in on the movie hype.