{"id":48953,"date":"2016-09-07T10:43:02","date_gmt":"2016-09-07T17:43:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.entertainmentearth.com\/news\/?p=48953"},"modified":"2019-03-05T18:05:51","modified_gmt":"2019-03-06T02:05:51","slug":"history-of-star-trek-toys-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.entertainmentearth.com\/news\/history-of-star-trek-toys-part-3\/","title":{"rendered":"To Boldly Play: A Warp-Speed History of Star Trek Toys (Part 3)"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1986, Star Trek<\/em> turned 20, and the franchise was on an upswing. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home <\/em>was a box office hit, and, in even bigger news, Paramount announced Star Trek: The Next Generation <\/em>would launch the next year in first-run syndication.<\/p>\n

With new, weekly Star Trek<\/em> on the horizon, the chance for the history of Star Trek<\/em> toys – which had gotten off to a promising start during Star Trek: The Original Series\u2019<\/em> run<\/a> but had largely slowed to sporadic releases of new Star Trek <\/em>movie toys<\/a> – to develop in bold new directions was so close, you could taste it.<\/p>\n

And it tasted like processed oats.<\/p>\n

The Galoob License: Trek Toys That Could Have Been<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Paramount and General Mills capitalized on the excitement surrounding Star Trek: The Next Generation\u2019s<\/em> September 1987 debut with a sweepstakes. The grand prize? A walk-on role in a Star Trek<\/em> episode!<\/p>\n

\"Image:

Source: TrekCore<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Like a tribble gorging itself on quadrotriticale, I ate box after box of Honey Nut Cheerios that fall, hoping that inside one of them I\u2019d find my Trekkie golden ticket. I didn\u2019t, but did manage to win one of 75,000 little plastic Enterprise<\/em>s.<\/p>\n

\"Image:

Source: Michael Poteet<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

I still own it. The decals flaked off long ago, and I had to glue the saucer section to the stardrive because the posts meant to keep the two parts together don\u2019t. But it\u2019s remarkably detailed for a four-inch replica cereal box toy, and after the hours I spent staring at it as I daydreamed my own 24th-century adventures, I\u2019d never dream of \u201cdecommissioning\u201d it now.<\/span><\/p>\n

This Star Trek Enterprise<\/em> collectible<\/a> was the work of Lewis Galoob Toys. Galoob was then best known for making Micro Machines, though its first big success, back when original Trek<\/em> was on the air, was one of those creepy, cymbal-clashing monkey dolls like you see in Close Encounters of the Third Kind<\/em>. They also hit it big in the early \u201980s with Mr. T dolls (insert your own \u201cpity the fool\u201d joke here).<\/p>\n

Galoob planned TNG<\/em> action figures, vehicles, playsets and more. Unfortunately, the U.S. was slouching toward recession, and toy sales were slumping across the board.<\/p>\n

Only 14 Galoob Trek<\/em> toys ever reached the market: ten 3-1\/2-inch action figures (six Enterprise<\/em> officers and four aliens), a shuttlecraft Galileo<\/em> and a Ferengi spaceship scaled for the figures, a six-inch die-cast Enterprise<\/em>, and a phaser replica that doubled as a flashlight.<\/p>\n

A few years ago, the staff at TrekCore<\/em> wrote an amazingly thorough three-part series<\/a> about Galoob\u2019s Trek<\/em> toys. If you want to learn all about the toys that never made it past prototype stage\u2014including a molded-plastic Enterprise<\/em> playset I suspect would have had play value rivaling that of Kenner\u2019s classic Millennium Falcon<\/em>\u2014I recommend those articles to you.<\/p>\n

Galoob came out of the recession strong, and was acquired by Hasbro. But its Trek<\/em> toys never sold that well, and the company lost the license. (In the \u201990s, however, they would release several Star Trek<\/em> Micro Machines.)<\/p>\n

Would Star Trek<\/em> toys ever<\/em> live long and prosper?<\/p>\n

Playmates\u2019 Epic Toy Trek<\/em> <\/strong><\/h2>\n

In 1992, Playmates Toys started making it so.<\/p>\n

Over the next eight years, Playmates produced nearly 500 unique styles of\u00a0\u00a0Star Trek <\/em>action figures in various sizes<\/a> (350 at 4-1\/2-inches) as well as a number of vessel replicas, costuming accessories and playsets.<\/p>\n

\"Image:

Source: TheFwoosh.com (User Artistix)<\/a><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

During most of the \u201990s, Trek<\/em> fans could count on finding their favorite show not only on the airwaves\u2014the best seasons of TNG<\/em> (which signed off in 1994), Star Trek:<\/em> Deep Space Nine<\/em> (1993-99) and Star Trek:<\/em> Voyager<\/em> (1995-2001)\u2014but also on store shelves long occupied by competition from a galaxy far, far away. The mission of market saturation set forth in 1979 had finally been accomplished.<\/p>\n