Skip this if you’re not up for a toy-collecting rant

Kind of awkward huh?As has probably been painfully apparent lately, I really off of the sci-fiaction figure collecting bandwagon in 2008, largely thanks to Doctor Who. (Hey, there are worse hobbies/habits to have, and in all likelihood there are less expensive and more “mature” ones too. At least my practice run for a midlife crisis involves little bits of plastic.) Now it’s looking like next year’s Star Trek movie is going to make 2009 a hell of a year to have fallen off the wagon. I was always a sucker for the Playmates 4″ Star Trek line that was in stores throughout the ’90s, starting with TNG and then moving on to encompass classic Trek, DS9 and so on. Now, according to Trekmovie.com, the new movie will bring us:

The new Star Trek movie will have some toys coming from Mattel (like Star Trek Barbie) and other companies will have movie products, but the main toy line is from the venerable Playmates Toys, whose 1990s Star Trek toys are a favorite of many fans. There will be at least two wave of toys next year from Playmate Toys, with Wave 1 released in March and April before the film (an important marketing decision) and Wave 2 in September, which may be timed to coincide with the probable autumn DVD release.

Star Trek Movie Enterprise Vehicle – Arriving March 2009
Authentic and detailed scaled model of the USS Enterprise from the Star Trek movie featuring lights and sounds from the movie. Comes with display base that attaches to the ship’s lower hull and allows you to change the ship’s position.

3.75″ 10 pack set
The 3.75″ line has 10 initial figures in Wave 1, and the figures come with accessories such as phasers, communicators, and displays. [NOTE: playsets are sized for these action figures.]. Each figure in the set comes individually wrapped in its own card. The ten figures included are:

  • Kirk in Enterprise outfit
  • Spock in Enterprise Outfit
  • Original Spock (AKA Prime Spock which is Leonard Nimoy’s version)
  • McCoy in cadet outfit
  • Sulu in Enterprise outfit
  • Uhura in Enterprise outfit
  • Pike in Enterprise outfit
  • Nero
  • Chekov in cadet outfit
  • Scotty in Enterprise outfit

PLAYSETS – Available March 2009
Enterprise Bridge Playset
The Enterprise Bridge playset (sized for 3.75″ figures) has electronic features, including lighting and sound effects from the film. The set includes a bonus Captain Kirk action figure.

Transporter Room Playset
The Transporter Room will allow the action figures to beam in and out, with appearing and disappearing effects after being placed in the Transporter cylinder. The set includes a bonus Scotty (of course!) action figure, and features lighting and sound effects.

OK, couple of thoughts here. First off, this info, supposedly from the manufacturer, seems to be pegging the figures at Star Wars scale (3.75″) rather than the 4″ scale of, well, nearly all of Playmates’ previous Trek figures. In fact, the main reason I gave up on the Star Trek figures in the late ’90s – aside from the fact that I started devoting my disposable income (man, those were the days) to the new Star Wars stuff – was that Playmates suddenly decided to abruptly switch to a 5″ scale and then a 6″ scale in the space of a couple of years. The only reason I was happy to hear about Playmates getting the new Trek license was that the early scuttlebutt seemed to indicate they’d be back to the 4″ scale that made up the bulk of their ’90s output. I probably won’t bother if these are in a different scale. If they’re actually in the 4″ scale, then I’ll have to knock over a liquor store or two. 😆 At the very least, I’ll probably get the Enterprise. The figures, I’ll have to wait and see. I’m still working on picking up the Doctor Who and Torchwood figures from this year, and those being imports, that ain’t a cheap proposition. So all it takes is for Playmates to pull another screwball scale change, making everything incompatible with their past stuff, for me to bail out on the new Trek figures. As much of a diehard figure collector as I am, I even bailed out on the Star Wars Episode III stuff early after I had a few key characters in hand. I work way too hard – especially now that I have to find and seize every spare moment that I’m not taking care of the boy – to bring in the money for all of this silly “fun stuff” that I like so much, so out-of-left-field changes in scale are a great excuse for me to write off a whole line that I might’ve been looking forward to. So part of me is saying “Don’t screw it up, Playmates,” and another part of me is going “Go ahead, do something funky with the scale. I’ll just skip the whole thing.” I haven’t bothered with any of the Art Asylum stuff in recent years for that same reason, despite how well-made it all is.

Other than that, the only merchandise I’m really up for is the soundtrack. Star Trek music a la Michael Giacchino? Rawk! Still, bit of a change from around 1994, when it seemed like* I was buying everything except Star Trek Underoos.

Anyway, maybe I’ll be back later to post something that people are actually interested in. Who knows?

* it seemed like that, but I really wasn’t

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