Playmates Toys wins STAR TREK XI license.

[C.E. Evans]

If anyone remembers Playmates did figures and ships for TOS thru VOY and everything in-between during the '90s. They've just been awarded the license for Star Trek XI toys
linky

Under the deal, Playmates will make figures, ships, and likely accessories (phasers, communicators, & tricorders) for the new movie only.

Art Asylum will continue to produce toys for everything prior to Star Trek XI...

 

[ChristopherPike]

All I can say is, I trust Playmates have improved since the 90's. I was hoping for more realistic figures to match those made for Enterprise and Nemesis. Art Asylum digitally scanned the actors for their toy making process. That was a massive leap forward in quality compared to earlier products, which were rendered childish looking by comparison.

 

[EliyahuQeoni]

Hmm "childish looking" toys. I'm not even touching that one...

 

[Akiraprise]

Well, that kind of sucks. AA has much better quality products. On the plus side Playmates is more heavily featured in chain stores like Wal-Mart, so that could get a younger crowd into Trek again.

 

[ChristopherPike]

EliyahuQeoni said:
Hmm "childish looking" toys. I'm not even touching that one...

A clue that the target age range is about to drop drastically, I suppose. I always figured AA aimed at fans, memorabilia geeks and possibly early to late teens.

 

[EliyahuQeoni]

Definitely.. AA is aimed much more at adult fans and collectors. I do think its a good sign that they're trying to market to a younger audience. Marketing solely to an aging fanbase isn't likely to keep the franchise healthy.

Of course, I'm not sure why they can't have both PlayMate and Art Asylum doing merchandise for the movie, since they each target a different demographic.

 

[RoJoHen]

I love all my Playmates toys. You can actually play with them.

I don't get why you'd want to own action figures if you're just going to stand them on a shelf somewhere. They need to have adventures!

 

[P0sitr0nic]

Crap.

 

[cardinal biggles]

RoJoHen said:
I love all my Playmates toys. You can actually play with them.

Bingo! I've never understood the point of toys being collectibles for the sake of being collectibles. I can understand a very popular toy being worth a lot of money in the future, but actually making a fully articulated action figure that serves no purpose but to sit on a shelf and collect dust...

 

[Devon]

Playmates I believe have a much larger distribution than AA does at the moment. It's not a bad thing at all! They ARE toys, not meant for serious detailed collecting (though if you're into collecting such things, then cool.) I remember Playmates was all over First Contact.

Also, in case anyone may have missed it, Corgi/Master Replicas have extended their Star Trek License which reportedly includes the new movie as well.

http://trekmovie.com/2008/01/26/corgi-announces-star-trek-movie-license/

 

[C.E. Evans]

Devon said:
Playmates I believe have a much larger distribution than AA does at the moment. It's not a bad thing at all! They ARE toys, not meant for serious detailed collecting (though if you're into collecting such things, then cool.)

That's exactly it. With Playmates, these toys will be available in retail stores everywhere like Hasbro's Star Wars toyline and will be much more affordable than through the direct market.

I think these will be toys in the most classic sense. Made to be taken out of the box and played with. Still, quite a few of the old Playmates toys--particularly the ships--are worth anywhere from $300-$400 USD these days in their original unopened box...

 

[igrokbok]

They can be in Wal Mart, big deal. AA's stuff was all over the place, Toys R Us for example. And the figures and ships kicked ass and were aweseome. They were also hanging on the clearance rack. WHy? Because no kid wanted to "play" TNG Nemesis or Enterprise. Better get Trek back to being "fun" again before you start worrying about trying to sell stuff to the kiddos. First priority is making the kids want it. Hopefully JJ will do that.

 

[EliyahuQeoni]

Devon said:
Also, in case anyone may have missed it, Corgi/Master Replicas have extended their Star Trek License which reportedly includes the new movie as well.
http://trekmovie.com/2008/01/26/corgi-announces-star-trek-movie-license/

That is indeed good news. I have the Corgi 1701 and love it. It makes for a good desk display and its sturdy enough to play with (Not that I would do that! )

 

[cultcross]

C.E. Evans said:
Still, quite a few of the old Playmates toys--particularly the ships--are worth anywhere from $300-$400 USD these days in their original unopened box...

The main reason for that being of course that the majority were taken out of the box, played with, had their heads snapped off, had that stupid red beam chopped off their phaser (first thing i ever did on getting a new figure as a kid!).
Figures/ships marketed as collectables will gain value much slower, because a solid percentage of the buyers have them on shelves gathering dust.

I'm quite glad playmates has got the licence - let's make Trek toys fun again! I don't care that much if the likenesses suck, if they're well articulated, got cool accessories and make kids actually want to have adventures with them. Let's have phasers like when i was a kid when every kid in my neighbourhood had one, even the ones who loathed star trek, just because they were loads of fun.

 

[P0sitr0nic]

Im still hoping for an AA Voyager series.

I have a good ammount of the old Playmates figures (a large collection) and they simply never were up to par with even GI Joe or SW figures.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

I'm not really into the toys...but those AA toys were way cool. I saw the Farscape ones, and they are actually fairly decent likenesses.

I can't stand toys that don't even look like the person. Some of those DS9 toys of Avery Brooks don't look anything like him.

I mean, I'll all about Avery Brooks, but not if you can't even tell it is him!

 

[MisterPL]

I don't have anything nice to say about Art Asylum's business model. And it hasn't gotten any better since Diamond Select bought them. My only lament will be the absense of Minimates based on new Trek. (Not that DST/AA would ever get around to producing them.)

As for Playmates, I still have the toys I collected the first time and for the most part have fond memories of the line. That said, the line became more frustrating than fun toward the end with product that became increasingly more difficult to find.

I guess my big question is what scale the new Playmates figures will be in. I can understand why they'd go with the previous 5-inch scale but at the same time I'd be more interested in the 3 3/4" scale that's made Star Wars so successful. That and I'm wondering if they'll have another contest for a walk-on role any time soon.

 

[Franklin]

RoJoHen said:
I love all my Playmates toys. You can actually play with them.

Mr. Hefner?

 

[startrekwatcher]

That's great news. I love the AA figures but the days in the 90s when Playmates had the license brings back some wonderful old memories. Trek was at its peak. TNG, DS9, VOY were on. Every store had the figures.

We got tons of figures each year with several waves with variety. We got aliens and crew alike. The thrill of walking into a store and seeing a newly stocked peg full of figures, rummaging through them for the best looking of the lot and that elusive chaser figure.

I remember looking forward to Toy Fare issue with photos of the figures from the annual Toy Fair. They had great customer service with Mara Hart who was always helpful in providing release dates and case pack assortments. She even sent me a "1701 sticker" for my Yesterdays Enterprise Yar which didn't carry the yellow sticker the way Tapestry Picard had.

While there is no comparison between AA and PM figures I still say for the size and cost PM did a good job and the likenesses were pretty good(the EMH, Bashir, Dax, Chakotay, Species 8472, Picard etc). They also for the cost came with some neat accessories and the SkyBox cards/pogs.

So I'm definitely looking forward to being able to going back to the stores come this winter and picking them up. I'm also looking forward to AA's line this year(Kirk/Spock Amok Time two pack, TWOK Spock/Uhura/Saavik/Regula Kirk, TWOK two pack dying Spock and grief-stricken Kirk, DS9 wave two with Kira/OBrien/Bashir for starters).

 

[C.E. Evans]

igrokbok said:
They can be in Wal Mart, big deal. AA's stuff was all over the place, Toys R Us for example.

The initial ENT and "Nemesis" figures perhaps, but everything AA has created since then has only been available through online stores or comic book specialty shops. Definitely not all over the place.

And the figures and ships kicked ass and were aweseome. They were also hanging on the clearance rack. WHy? Because no kid wanted to "play" TNG Nemesis or Enterprise.

The toys appealed to collectors and longtime Star Trek fans, but not to kids, IMO. It also didn't help that Trek's popularity was on the decline at the time too and that those productions weren't exactly attractive to kids either.

Better get Trek back to being "fun" again before you start worrying about trying to sell stuff to the kiddos. First priority is making the kids want it. Hopefully JJ will do that.

Marketing and merchandising towards kids is an important first step towards that, I would think. It worked wonders for Lucasfilms during the Star Wars prequel films by introducing toys before the movies and it's been a successful formula other studios have adopted as well with The Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc.

You gotta grab the kids' attention before the movie comes out. Make it something they want to see on opening day or during the first weekend.

In this capacity, the toys become an important marketing tool in itself to sell the movie to the very young crowd who may actually never heard of Star Trek before or simply aren't very familiar with it...