"Saw the new Star Trek and Terminator toys" Topic

I stopped off at Target to pick up some of those rocket shaped bubble bottles everyones been talking about for my retro-sci fi project and saw the new Star Trek and Terminator toys. I'd have to say these look like total crap. Playmates must be really hurting because the production value of these looks cheaper than the old Playmates Star Trek toys from the 90s.

First the Star Trek figures. A departure from the cartoony look of the old Star Trek figure and these are 3.75" tall and pretty much compatible with your standard Star Wars action figure. However the sculpts are pretty poor by todays standards and look absolutely ghetto next to the Star Wars figures on the nearby racks. I think they tried to save money by communizing the torsos. Each of the male figures had this broad flat chest, with the only difference being a Star Fleet uniform or a cadet uniform. The heads looked a bit small in proportion to the torsos. The likenesses were not so great. Given the shape and pronouncement of Cadet McCoy's eyebrows, I almost thought he was Spock. I had a hard time telling the difference between Pike and Kirk, without reading the card the clue was Pike has some grey hair in his temples. Half the phasers were bent up. Hasbro must be rolling around laughing right now. Articulation of the figures was pretty low and the pose was pretty flat, pretty much like a classic Kenner Star Wars figure.

I then saw the Enterprise toy and was even less than impressed. The box has photos of the toy and although what I saw of the actual movie ship was starting to grow on me this was less than complimentary to it. Rather than having panel detailing and varied colored panels this is all white and if there's any panel detailing you can't see it in the photos, it appears pretty much smooth and white, yes white pure white. Upon lifting the box I was surprised at how light it was. I had to check to see if the seals were intact and even picked another one up. It almost seems like both were empty boxes! Whatever this thing is made of, there's not much mass to it.

Next I saw the new Terminator Salvation toys. These look like the same style cartoony Star Trek figures Playmates made in the 90s just bigger. Not impressed with any of the action figures. I also noticed that John Connor was not present. Even noticed he wasn't present on the back of the card. I saw an article last week that the John Connor figure had a helmet on and goggles and you couldn't tell who he was. I wonder if the figure was pulled from the release. The flying Hunter Killer did look nice and tempting however. It would make a nice ship for 28mm or 15mm gaming. However I wasn't going to pay $20 USD for it just yet.

It seems like Playmates really cut a lot of corners and used the same people and technology they did when they made the old Star Trek figures. Very disapointing.

Now going over to the next aisle I found the Hot Wheels Star Trek ships. They had the Galaxy class Enterprise-D, the Constitution up-fit (aka Enterprise class) Enterprise-A and the Miranda class Reliant there. These looked very nice and put the Playmates stuff to shame. The ships were all roughly the same size approximatley 8" long. This put the Galaxy class at roughly (going by memory) about the same size as the one in the Ertl Enterprise 3-piece set. The Enterprise-A and Reliant were pretty much to scale with each other (judging by the length of the warp nacelles) and were about the size or maybe larger than(again going by memory) the Enterprise in the classic AMT 3-piece set (the one with the Constitution class Enterprise, Klingon D-7 and Romulan Bird of Prey). These were nicely made and although I think I could have done a better paintjob myself, were well worth the $12 USD each. Also they had some weight to them, must have some metal parts.

Thanks for the review, I dont really collect toys anymore but I still love the toy isle. Now I see I dont have to dash out right away. So the enterprise was in a solid box? Most vehicles have the window so you can see it (except the star wars vehicles but you pretty much know what you're getting with those…)
I want a Hunter Killer, but yeah, I will wait before I shell out 20 bucks (thats what I say today anyway..) Hope some knock offs make it to the dollar store someday!

The Hot Wheels ships were proudly displayed in clear boxes but the Playmates was completely enclosed in a box and the photos on the outside did not lend much to it.

I was pretty excited to see what the Terminator toys would look like, but after seeing them I was not at all impressed. I have held the Hunter Killer in my hands on several occasions now and just can't buy it. It could have been so much better . . . . oh well, money saved.

Jeff

I've seen the 'action figures' for both Trek and Terminator, (Christian Bale is JOHN CONNER?, no wonder he didn't want to 'appear' W/O a 'mask')…and echo just about everything CmdrKiley said…even the figures had versions of the silly 'phasers' etc that looked like something you'd see in the 'dollar store' (chromed plastic knock-off rayguns)…and the 'new' OLD 1701 in completely sealed box…(what, no way to 'test' the 'actual movie sounds?')

The new 'nacelles', especially the fitting of the front 'caps'….made me shudder! and I slowly put the box down and carefully SLISHED back away. The bit about buying all the 'GALAXY series' figuret to get the parts for the bridge/transporter 'play mat' thing…(plastic frames with stick on screen decals????)…and I was not impressed with any of the TERMINATOR stuff either.

I saw the Hot Wheels 1701-A and Reliant Ncc-1684 toys and still couldn't bring myself to pick them up. I MIGHT get a 'new' 1701 movie metal version and 1701D, but am NOT holding my breath.

Maybe it's 'me' but after seeing what came out from companies like Rc2 for Halo and then McFarlane's UPGRADE for Halo 3/Halo Wars…I'm 'spoiled'. Supposedly the producers of the new TREK film didn't make it for 'Trekkies/Trekkers'/long-time/long-suffering 'fans' (who have been with the franchise over 40 years in some cases)…but when you consider actual Trek Toys (phasers etc) supposedly were used in a 'flashback episode' of DS-9 and look at them, even NOW…and then compare to the 'new' trek toys…(I've seen better 'IP infringement knock-offs' being hawked from the back of a van in a dark alley next to the 'watches' and 'tennis shoes'…as far as QUALITY in a toy line in general. Remember the 'Turbo man' toy from Jingle all the Way that spoke 'spanish' and fell apart?)

Well, they wanted a 'new' audience…and made the movie for 'movie-goers'…NOT the 'Trek' community at large, or something to that effect. Obviously, the concepts behind the toys must have been something similar, as they think TODAY'S 'kids'…(the Wii Generation/Halo Wars crowd where graphics look better than REAL LIFE for some things!)..will accept this….'felgercarb' and just lap it up in droves?

IF the props in the actual movie look this bad…(which doesn't even come close to the ORIGINAL 'props' used in FIRST TV show…which is REALLY 'sad')…I don't think even 'good script' will save this….and the franchise some say Berman desecrated….can finally be pronounced, 'it's DEAD, Jim!'….(I'm a DOCTOR, erm, a BARTENTACLE, not a TOYMAKER!!!)…I'm debating even seeing the movie now…(unless the fast food toys, IF someone does them, are 'better'…)

Hailing frequencies CLOSED….

The Hot Wheels diecast stuff sounds nice – any sightings in the UK? Some American ebayers will ship across here, but I don't really fancy spending £20.00 GBP for each ship…

I noted the Enterprise Bridge does not have any of the surrounding consoles. Each figure is sold with one of the consoles. To assemble the WHOLE bridge, you need to buy not only the Bridge playset, but every figure in the set.

I won't be. Man, I've seen happy meal toys that were done better than this.

Doctor Bedlan is correct about the bridge playset and the consoles. The really stupid thing is that they sold the transporter/engineering playset the same way. So not only do you have to buy all the figures to complete the bridge, you have to make sure the figures actually come with the bridge pieces and NOT the transporter pieces.

Also if you really like certain figures (As above I think that they look awful) you better look closely, because they may not actually help you complete the "build-a-playset" you already paid big cash for.

I picked up a couple of the Flying HKs. They aren't bad for the price. Not sure why the package shows them as Silver, as they are black. I am thinking about using them to supplement the older style Flying HKs I already have as the Hunter Killer bomber which was designed for T2.
I was not impressed with anything else I saw from a gamer's point of view.
The new move has the machines as much grimmer and less polished then the original movies.
I have always loved the chrome machines moving through the ruins of L.A. The contrast between them and the human forces to me is part of the overall appeal of the whole War Against the Machines setting.
I hope the movie is good. I don't think Arnold is required to make it work.