I see kids with superhero/ wrestling action figs around my neighborhood. but I do think they are dying out.
Where are the toys?
- Thread starter BriGuy
- Start date
AA (DST, actually) only has rights to Trek Prime, not the new films. Viacom has Trek split between CBS and Paramount so they license them seperately.
I'd be fine with Minimates based on the new films. I've only seen pictures of these mythical Hot Wheels Star Trek vehicles. Hasbro's Kre-O sets and Fighter Pods are everywhere though.
After Playmates lost their Trek license, DST could have extended theirs to include both Star Trek XI and Star Trek XII, but chose not to. Hasbro then stepped in and got a full license from TOS to Star Trek XII just like Mattel did for their Hot Wheels line.
I own about half of the Hot Wheels run from the first 3 series they released; was able to get all the Enterprises except the NX-01. I ended up getting them off of eBay the year after they came out though. I'm still kicking myself I didn't buy them when they originally came out. Would have saved myself about $10 a ship and been able to spend that on others in the series.
I made sure to get the series they just released (Excelsior, Kelvin, Vengeance, STiD Bird-of-Prey); found them online before everyone ran out of pre-orders.
I'm going to make sure I sign up for that Star Trek Collection Eaglemoss is going to release here in the US too. You'd think I'd learn to never pass up on miniature space-ships.
It kind of irritates me that Hasbro has the licensing to make all sorts of toys from the entirety of Star Trek and all they've made so far were some Lego ripoffs no one bought.
They should have made all the Trek characters in 3 3/4 size and stuffed them on shelves next to the Star Wars figures. I know I'm not the only collector who would buy a James T. Kirk & a Luke Skywalker so they can team up to take out Darth Vader and his Klingon troops.
Last edited:
Just to clarify, Hasbro may be the master toy licensee for Star Trek in the mass market (with the exception of Mattel in the die cast category) but DST still has rights to Trek Prime (TOS through Nemesis) in the specialty market.
I'm not sure if DST went after the rights to the new films or not but if they did I'm sure Hasbro's offer was far more enticing to CBS.
I'm not sure if DST went after the rights to the new films or not but if they did I'm sure Hasbro's offer was far more enticing to CBS.
They didn't make them because no one bought them the last time around. Hell, if you keep your eyes open you can still find figures from the 2009 film on various retailers clearance shelves.
This is what makes me suspicious about Hasbro having the master toy license. It's entirely possible that Playmates is retaining some rights to the property. I can't fathom why Hasbro would dismiss two categories in which they excel (action figures and role play) in favor of another category that's already dominated by two other venerable players (LEGO and MegaBloks).
Doesn't make sense.
But it wasn't the scale, it was the execution. Hasbro OWNS the 3 3/4" category.
Then again, I know collectors who were disappointed that Playmates didn't pick up where they left off with their 5" figures so scale may have played a small role in the overall performance of the line.
I still think the Playmates line would have performed better if they'd have simply released a complete bridge crew in the first wave. Releasing the modular bridge playset over two waves was a big enough risk.
Some DST Trek toys have appeared in the mass market (namely at Toys R Us stores).
Or it may have been a case that DST didn't want to shell out more money to extend their license to cover the new films. Trek licenses tend to vary, they can either be full range or cover a specific range of properties.
It does if Hasbro has a long-term strategy for their Trek line--use it to initially push their previously largely overlooked Kre-O line before eventually moving to action figures, ships, and role play toys.
The big three US toy retailers--Toys R Us, Wal-Mart, and Target--didn't want the complete bridge crew in the first wave. They wanted more of a variety of figures (not everyone in the standard Starfleet uniforms).
What Playmates could have done, IMO, was just repeat what they did with their original TOS figures back in the '90s--release the complete bridge crew separately as an exclusive box set in limited numbers.
I think they're exclusively in TRU stores, which may allow the distinction Hasbro's mass market agreement needs aside from "they do original while we stick to new." Hasbro's not offering any product from the Prime Universe, are they? The only comprehensive product line I've seen yet is fron Mattel.
If Hasbro really wanted to tap the Prime market, they could sneak cheap figures into their Fighter Pods line. (Although I hope not since their Enterprise already looks a lot like DST's Minimates Enterprise in terms of size and play features.)
I'm sure that's likely. That and I don't know that the new Trek has many fans inside DST. It's possible that one property is also more affordable than the other.
We are talking about the company that reportedly sat on the Indiana Jones license for a generation, waiting patiently for the day when a new movie tie-in would maximize a toy line's potential. I can see either company doing that actually but especially Hasbro. (Category squatters!)
So instead they went with half the characters wearing the same cadet uniform. Be careful what you wish for, retailers.
Now you're just making too much sense.
I couldn't help thinking, while I looked at the various uniforms in STID, how much more toyetic (or just retailer-friendly, I suppose) this film might have been to buyers. If Hasbro wanted to launch a new 3 3/4" Trek line, this could have been a nice place to do so.
Shuttlecraft and costumes and Klingons, oh MYYYY!
The Klingon D-7 (although it briefly appeared in Star Trek XI as a Klingon warbird in the Kobayashi Maru simulation).
http://www.hasbro.com/common/produc...0d3fb6b9/B16FBB4B50569047F53252A6182EFFB2.jpg
And a Gorn.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EIWmkIoGc...4lEQl_c/s1600/Star+Trek+Kreo+Blind+Gorn+1.jpg
I think they're really focusing (understandably) on stuff from Star Trek XII right now.
IIRC, it really depends on the extent of the license and what terms have been established between CBS and the licensee. It seems to be a case of how many properties a particular license covers (for example, the Trek license that IDW comics has doesn't cover every Trek series).
Well, to be fair, not a whole lot was being done with the Indiana Jones property in general during that time. It was kind of dormant except for an occasional item aimed at the collector's market until a new movie came along.
I think there were only three characters in cadet uniforms in the 6-inch range, but only two in the 3.75-inch range and none in the 12-inch range.
So instead they went with half the characters wearing the same cadet uniform. Be careful what you wish for, retailers.
We may still see them one day, I hope. I just don't think that Kre-O will be the end all of Hasbro's Trek line. If it is, then it'll be a reversal of their initial press release when they acquired the license.
http://toynewsi.com/news.php?catid=311&itemid=18270
"We’re excited to offer fans the opportunity to experience icons of STAR TREK in exhilarating new ways with our KRE-O building sets as well as with new roleplay items and more.”
--John Frascotti, Chief Marketing Officer, Hasbro, Inc.
(emphasis mine)
What may be logical to collectors, may not be logical, reasonable, nor intelligent to the market researchers at the toy companies.
Logic and reason have no place in business apparently.
Somewhere out there, is an alternate universe where Star Trek made a huge comeback in the toy world back in 2009 because Hasbro acquired the license then and went into Star Wars mode with it.
As you said, the Klingon ship is from Trek XI but that Gorn is modeled after the one in the video game tying into the Abrams films. It's certainly not the original or the one from ENT.
Personally I hope Hasbro stays away from Trek (TOS or otherwise) until they've gotten Star Wars back on track. They seem to have lost their way with that property and that's pretty sad.
For the moment, I'm perfectly content to collect Minimates and the annual Hallmark ship ornament.
Could be a much-simplified design based on this guy, though.
I think the big issue there was that they stretched themselves too thin between all of the lines they had going; Plus they were too Clone Wars happy.
Now that they are scaling back on the extraneous Clone Wars lines and there will be new films coming everything should figure itself out in the next few years (though I may be wrong; this 6 inch black series may explode in their face).
In hindsight, it does make sense to concentrate initially on things from the most recent Trek productions, but there are images of future Kre-O figures from Wave 2 based on the original timeline.
An Andorian (Shran from ENT?) and a Ferengi (Quark).
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DuyLG31b8...rek+Kre-O+Kreons+Series+2+Shran+and+Quark.jpg
Worf and General Chang
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SrBXI012G...Trek+Kre-O+Kreons+Series+2+Worf+and+Chang.jpg
Classic Kirk and Spock from "Amok Time."
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Z4I8dPQKi...Trek+Kre-O+Kreons+Series+2+Kirk+and+Spock.jpg
Presumably these will be out around Fall 2013 with Wave 3 to come later.
There were distribution problems with the last several waves, resulting in some figures being extremely hard to find and some waves being skipped at retail because stores were still stuck with previous ones. I do recall a representative from Hasbro addressing this in a Q&A session at one site and promising that the problem will be fixed.
IIRC, the Clone Wars line--based on the animated series--is over and done. I think their strategy with the 6-inch Black Series will be to have them in limited numbers (at least in fewer numbers to the 3.75-inch figures). Kind of like how they're doing with their Marvel superheroes line, IMO.Kevman7987 said:
Gotta agree this was the problem with the 2009 action figure line. They would have been much better off concentrating on a single size and producing a larger range of them rather than trying to split up the pie with all the different figure size variants.
I also got the feeling Playmates took the licence for granted a bit. They thought they'd be able to produce a large range like they did back in their 1990s heyday, so they left out figures like "standard uniform" Chekov and McCoy presumably on the assumption that they'd just be able to release them as part of a second wave at a later date. Of course, the second wave didn't come.
I disagree; the multi scale was a small part of the issues.
]The 3 3/4 figures were mediocre at best nice head sculpts, but they were downright puny- they were much smaller than Star Wars, Marvel Universe and Joes.
For me the best part about the Megos I had as a kid was Batman could help Kirk fight the Green Goblin, my four year old fights GI Joes and Imaginext guys to him it is not an issue, but to anyone over 6 scale becomes an issue.
Just look at the figures form Speed Racer and Avatar they sat sat on the shelves for ages too, why – they did not fit- even Mattels’ attempt at the DC universe has had so so sales – scale matters.
Plus building a bridge/ transporter play set to me is really cool idea to me at 41. I Iike having a dio with chairs and consoles, but to kid- not really a great accessory, and as a parent to buy a transporter playset that is only 60% complete and then I have to chase down four more figures (Nero, Spock and Uhura gor the pad and Wave 2 Checkov for the 2nd control console [ yes there was going to me wave 2, w/ the different uniforms and space suits and Alien critters]). I would not be happy.
No not buying it the multi scale defense.
I remember they tried to use the 'Build-A-Bridge' thing with figures from ST-Enterprise- get a figure with a console section, get the entire set and you have a 'full' bridge. Nice idea but stores only seemed to stock the same three figures and no way you could get a complete set unless you hunted online.
The first reboot toys also had the prop toys down scaled for tiny hands - they reminded me of the AMT Exploration Set model kit. If they had made them full scale and accurate like the DS replicas I think they would have sold a lot more, even at higher prices.
The first reboot toys also had the prop toys down scaled for tiny hands - they reminded me of the AMT Exploration Set model kit. If they had made them full scale and accurate like the DS replicas I think they would have sold a lot more, even at higher prices.
IMO, there were multiple problems with the Playmates Star Trek XI line--too many figures at different scales all at once, some customer dissatisfaction, and a general overestimation of how many people were going to buy Star Trek toys in general. In a way, the scarcity of Star Trek XII toys is a result of Trek just not being anywhere near the level of Star Wars, Transformers, and the various Marvel properties, whose toys you can find fairly easily at retail.
Similar threads
