One of the less obvious excitement points for me last year when Iron Man was coming out is that I realised that there would be toys…
Um I mean figurines…
Ummmm collectibles. Yeah that’s right, collectibles.
So the movie was fast approaching and the toys (really I’m fooling no one) hit the stores and dragging a long suffering Tracey behind me I headed to the lay-by counter loaded up with all manner of Iron Man stuff (I did not buy the children’s mask or gun thingy). In general they are all pretty cool and take their turns on display.
Then this year it was Star Trek’s turn (I thought it might be Watchmen’s turn but things ended badly there) and I expected another trip to the toy shop with a lot of Star Trek goodies.
You see over the last five or so years the company Art Asylum and Diamond Select have been producing truly excellent Star Trek toys, much better than the rather simplistic and child-focused Playmates toys of the past. The Enterprise character figurines are all pretty awesome and the replicas have been excellent.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the Romulan Senate, for some reason Playmates was awarded the new movie toy rights.
Oh well, but I’m sure they’ve improved, why else would they give them the contract back?
WHY?!?!
The new and improved phaser in the Star Trek film is really neat and a nice update on a familiar design, the visible flipping from stun to kill was also a cool little addition.
The Playmates replica phaser is a tacky looking chrome covered plastic disappointment. It just looks cheap. And I at least want my replicas to look vaguely like I can display them rather than closing the office door and pretending I’m in a Die Hard-like phaser shoot out that…
…ummmm I need to rethink that sharing thing.
Needless to say I find the Playmates replicas to be poor at best and it’s a real shame because despite the flaws in their figurines their prop replicas were really good and I still treasure my Original Series phaser and communicator, for display purposes only, of course.
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