214 replies to this topic

[HellCat]

I recall the 09 movie toys we had at work not selling and later seeing tons of them in discount stores.

[Fero McPigletron]

TTTMU could have mentioned those, aw.

I'm not a Star trek watcher so I didn't know that the Enterprise couldn't land on planets. That was cool.

[G.B.Blackrock]

Yeah, the 09 Playmates line was pretty heavily maligned (rightfully so).

It flopped so bad, they never even released the second wave, which was required to complete people's bridge and transporter playsets!

[Spark]

 

Yeah, the 09 Playmates line was pretty heavily maligned (rightfully so).

It flopped so bad, they never even released the second wave, which was required to complete people's bridge and transporter playsets!

 

Hah, I remember that.

[Dake]

Maybe because the actual movie was Kurtzman&Orci toxic turd-burger of a flick? Hardly something that really appealed to kids (too nostalgic) and outright offended a lot of adults (too much defecating on a beloved childhood memory).

 

Not a good way to sell toys.

 

Eh, the toys were just bad. I remember in the lead up people were pretty excited to get a 3 3/4 line of ST figures... then they showed up. Had they been good figures, the sales would have been there, and I think there were even plan for TOS stuff. As it was though, nope.

[G.B.Blackrock]

 

Maybe because the actual movie was Kurtzman&Orci toxic turd-burger of a flick? Hardly something that really appealed to kids (too nostalgic) and outright offended a lot of adults (too much defecating on a beloved childhood memory).

 

Not a good way to sell toys.

 

Eh, the toys were just bad. I remember in the lead up people were pretty excited to get a 3 3/4 line of ST figures... then they showed up. Had they been good figures, the sales would have been there, and I think there were even plan for TOS stuff. As it was though, nope.

 

 

Honestly, I'm not so sure. I didn't think the figures themselves were so bad, and that Transporter set (while incomplete, which was its own problem) emulated the effect pretty well, IMHO. What would you have suggested the 3 3/4 figures do differently?

[Dake]

Personally, I was just hoping for something on par with Joe/Star Wars/Marvel of the time. Instead, they were more like Mattel's Avatar line - a bit regressive compared to Hasbro's best (the same buck for all the male figures was definitely a strike). Also, I think they were true 3.75, so they were both aesthetically different and smaller than everything on the shelf.

[G.B.Blackrock]

Personally, I was just hoping for something on par with Joe/Star Wars/Marvel of the time. Instead, they were more like Mattel's Avatar line - a bit regressive compared to Hasbro's best (the same buck for all the male figures was definitely a strike). Also, I think they were true 3.75, so they were both aesthetically different and smaller than everything on the shelf.

 

Actually, don't most Marvel figures use the same male bucks? In any event, I wouldn't expect any different for a line where everyone uses the same Starfleet uniforms.

And, they all had elbows and knees, which is more than can be said a for lot of Star Wars figures these days (although, going by your already stated "of the time" caveat, I don't think the Black Series had started yet, so perhaps Star Wars figures back then still had them).

I'm just not sure what makes these guys (who, bluntly, look too much the "same" to start with, so that's a strike against them before anything else) "regressive" in a way that could have been fixed. 

Edited by G.B.Blackrock, 27 June 2018 - 05:20 PM.

[Dake]

The Star Wars line of the time was the Legacy collection and Saga Legends which was made up of highly and super-articulated figures. Marvel did use common bucks, but they weren't rectangular blobs, and they still had a few different ones to choose from. Kirk, Spock, Scotty and McCoy shouldn't all be the exact same. They also had soft facial sculpts and pretty basic legs. 

 

I freely admit my expectations were high though. Nobody did that scale like Hasbro, but I had hopes of having Kirk and Han chilling in the Cantina and it just didn't work out.

[Spark]

Was it before or after that point where they used pretty much the same construction on Terminator Salvation figures and they all just sat on shelves forever?  They really did look pretty lackluster on the shelf against everything else.

[G.B.Blackrock]

I do think one of the issues (speaking just about toy construction, and without regard to whether or not things were helped by the popularity... or lack thereof... of the movies) is that we're looking at an era where, even if the axe hadn't YET fallen, 3 3/4" scale was becoming less viable for toy companies. Perhaps if Playmates had chosen to do their Trek line at a scale closer to the old ST:TNG figures (arguably one of the few times a Trek line was a commercial success), they'd have done better.

[AgentOrange]

I do think one of the issues (speaking just about toy construction, and without regard to whether or not things were helped by the popularity... or lack thereof... of the movies) is that we're looking at an era where, even if the axe hadn't YET fallen, 3 3/4" scale was becoming less viable for toy companies. Perhaps if Playmates had chosen to do their Trek line at a scale closer to the old ST:TNG figures (arguably one of the few times a Trek line was a commercial success), they'd have done better.

No. Wrong. 2009 was near the 1:18th zenith. MU started strong, Joe was still alive at retail, DC was trying to get on board with Infinite Heroes, SW was producing top quality figures with The Legacy Collection. By contrast, Marvel Legends was dead, DCUC was on life support, NECA hadn't begun its strong collector oriented push yet. Oil and plastic were expensive, everyone got on board 1:18. Even the A-Team movie.

They also tried a 1:12 line for the movie that bombed just as hard because the toys were shit.

Edited by AgentOrange, 28 June 2018 - 03:53 PM.

[G.B.Blackrock]

 

I do think one of the issues (speaking just about toy construction, and without regard to whether or not things were helped by the popularity... or lack thereof... of the movies) is that we're looking at an era where, even if the axe hadn't YET fallen, 3 3/4" scale was becoming less viable for toy companies. Perhaps if Playmates had chosen to do their Trek line at a scale closer to the old ST:TNG figures (arguably one of the few times a Trek line was a commercial success), they'd have done better.

No. Wrong. 2009 was near the 1:18th zenith. MU started strong, Joe was still alive at retail, DC was trying to get on board with Infinite Heroes, SW was producing top quality figures with The Legacy Collection. By contrast, Marvel Legends was dead, DCUC was on life support, NECA hadn't begun its strong collector oriented push yet. Oil and plastic were expensive, everyone got on board 1:18. Even the A-Team movie.

They also tried a 1:12 line for the movie that bombed just as hard because the toys were shit.

 

 

Woah, dude! Did I accidentally kick your puppy or something? If so, I apologize.

I was just trying to think of something Playmates might have done that would have made the figures more successful. As it is, I'm still not even convinced that the 3 3/4" figures were bad in any way that wasn't dictated by being... well... a Star Trek figure line.

[Dake]

I guess the question at hand is why are you trying so hard to find another reason?

 

As AO says, 1:18 was going quite well. Rise of Cobra hadn't come out yet and flooded the pegs with overpriced figures dressed in gray and MU and Star Wars were crushing it. 

 

Playmates' Trek and Terminator figures would have been great for the late nineties/early 2000's (though even then, their sculpting wouldn't have stood up next to Hasbro's Star Wars output), but definitely not when seen hanging on the pegs next to the big three from Hasbro in 2009.

 

Ultimately though, just trust your eyes. Believe me - I wanted to buy them so bad. I reeealy wanted to get to these guys in 3.75 because I have about a thousand other 3.75 figures. Yet even once the line flopped (remember the movie was hailed as the savior of Star Trek - it did great - there should have been plenty of people looking), I couldn't bring myself to spend the money on them at clearance. They just didn't look very good compared to what collectors had come to expect at that time.

Edited by Dake, 29 June 2018 - 08:31 AM.

[G.B.Blackrock]

I guess the question at hand is why are you trying so hard to find another reason?

 

As AO says, 1:18 was going quite well. Rise of Cobra hadn't come out yet and flooded the pegs with overpriced figures dressed in gray and MU and Star Wars were crushing it. 

 

Playmates' Trek and Terminator figures would have been great for the late nineties/early 2000's (though even then, their sculpting wouldn't have stood up next to Hasbro's Star Wars output), but definitely not when seen hanging on the pegs next to the big three from Hasbro in 2009.

 

Ultimately though, just trust your eyes. Believe me - I wanted to buy them so bad. I reeealy wanted to get to these guys in 3.75 because I have about a thousand other 3.75 figures. Yet even once the line flopped (remember the movie was hailed as the savior of Star Trek - it did great - there should have been plenty of people looking), I couldn't bring myself to spend the money on them at clearance. They just didn't look very good compared to what collectors had come to expect at that time.

 

Oh, I agree. But I disagree with the idea that the figures were especially defective. They're simply Star Trek figures. Unless you're REALLY into the franchise, that makes for a fairly boring figure. It was always going to be that way.

Add in that these aren't even our versions of Kirk, Spock, et al, and there was even less reason to get excited about these things.