Re: New Trek Toys?
I only bought the three prop toys, having no interest in the others. They're pretty cool. Though the comm could have more features, it's emerged as my dark horse favorite by virtue of feeling the sturdiest of the props and having a nifty magnetic latch on the lid to hold it closed. The phaser is also pretty neat, and feels the most substantial of all three toys. The chrome looks a lot less silly in person (which hasn't stopped me from filling the screw holes and seams on the two I bought in preparation for a repaint ). In some ways, I'm most disappointed in the tricorder, because its so damn small. It probably has the coolest features of any of the toys, but seriously looks like a toy, rather than a replica of one of the screen props. It would certainly fit with Playmate's history of making seriously undersized tricorders. It's too bad, because the tricorder was the one I was most anticipating.
Now, I say this not having seen any images of the real prop from the film; it's possible that it really is this small, as there's an interview floating around out there with one of the production designers recounting how the actors were requesting the tricorders be made smaller so they'd be easier to handle during the action scenes. But there's a number of aspects to the design that suggests it's intened for two-handed use, which on the toy just can't happen. Plus the display on top is so small, being about the size of a few postage stamps laid end-to-end, that it's almost impossible to read it without holding it six inches from your face. And I'm in my twenties, so it's not like I have Old Man Vision. On the plus side, the spring-loaded doors and automated power-up and shut-down sounds are crazy cool, and light sequences and sound effects beat the pants off the old TNG tricorder the company made back in the '90s, which only had one flashing LED and a flashlight bulb behind the main screen. So I'd still recommend it, just not as a way to have faithful, inexpensive prop replica.*
*(Reserving the right to change my mind, of course, if it does turn out to be faithful in size.)
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