It's great to see so many people here reminiscing about the Playmates line; clearly I'm not the only one who it meant a lot to
I remember reading an article about a guy who found a Defiant in a clearance bin at a Walmart in someplace like West Virginia a couple of years ago. Somehow, the ship had managed to escape inventories and returns for YEARS! (My guess would be it fell behind a shelf and was just discovered recently by some worker). Presumably, they sold it to him for the sticker price, to boot!
That's a steal - loose Defiants go for $50 minimum on eBay, far more if they're MOB. The same goes for Voyager.
I regretted not getting the
Enterprise-B when I had the chance, thinking I could get it again later. As it was, I only ever saw it that one and only time.
Yeah, I didn't realise they made an Enterprise B until recently. Back in '94 I couldn't escape the 'battle damage' Enterprise in stores, which I never bought as I felt it was a waste of time as I already had the standard Enterprise model. I never came across the Enterprise B or Klingon Bird Of Prey. Evidently these were made in much smaller qualities. Both fetch a fair price on eBay these days too.
I loved the TOS movie figures too. It was cool to make them in the unfashionable TMP costumes, but then there was no Decker or Ilia. She did come later in the line though. I heard that the Sulu and Uhura figures were supposed to be Decker and Ilia, which makes more sense, but for whatever reason Playmates changed their minds. They never did Scotty or Chekov in those costumes.
Overall it would have been better to do them in the TWOK uniforms to go alongside the brilliant Saavik and Khan figures in that line, plus Scotty and Chekov from the Generations line.
Interesting about Decker and Ilia; I hadn't heard that. I think Playmates were curious to see what demand there was for movie-era figures and opted to release them chronologically - i.e. start with the uniforms from the Motion Picture and go from there. You have to remember that this series was released in 1995, so at that point you already had Kirk, Chekov and Scotty in their red movie uniforms from the Generations line released the year before. It's a shame really, as the TOS crew in posable red uniforms would have been brilliant and customisers have to rely on the crappy bodies released from Generations to make them. I always found it interesting that they released Saavik as portrayed by Kirsty Alley from TWOK rather than Robin Curtis who appeared in two movies as Saavik (definitely the right call IMHO), but clearly made less impact.
I remember when I was twelve I glued a pin onto the back of one of the insignia resembling bases to stand the figures on and made it my own comm badge. Then I left it on my shirt when it went in the wash..
Interesting fact - the Starfleet bases the 4.5" figures stand on are exactly the same scale as the communicators they used in the show.
I also love/hate some of the choices they made, at least early on. Like not doing Doctor Crusher with the rest of the crew right off the bat, putting those weird uniform rips in the first Riker (and then just painting them over in subsequent releases) the opening circuit panels in Data, Picard in the off duty jacket instead of the regular uniform, etc...
RIGHT?! I never got the rips on Riker and they still annoy me to this day. I think they were trying to corner the boy/young teen market and that's why we got Riker with Action Man-style rips and no Dr. Crusher and a random Romulan instead.
I always blamed the limited edition figures, while I only collected the occasional one, a couple of my friends were dirty completists, after not being able to get the 1701 figures, they pretty much quit cold turkey.
The 1701 figures effectively made it impossible to complete my collection. I was an eleven year old living in rural England with limited funds, so the possibility of getting hold of them was way beyond my ability. Through eBay, I now own every single 4.5" figure ever released apart from Picard from Tapestry. I refuse to pay several hundred dollars for him and make do with the version from the 1701 multi-pack. I do hope one day to get him MOC, but can't justify it at the moment.
And yeah, I think by the time Ezri was cast the line was all but dead. I mean, the only reason we got the TNG crew in the grey topped jumpsuits were as Target exclusives.
It's a shame we never got the DS9 cast in the seasons 5 - 7 uniforms (including Ezri), but you're right - Playmates had totally given up at that point. The quality control in the Target Exclusive movie uniform figures is AWFUL. The bodies are all re-paints of the VOY figures and they re-use the heads from the first series of TNG figures, despite the fact the cast are noticeably older at this point in time. The heads were manufactured differently then, so their necks are all way too short. The scale is terrible too - Riker is barely taller than Picard. Beverly's paint job also makes her look TERRIFYING and permanently surprised. All in all it was a very disappointing end to the line. The Seven Of Nine cobalt uniform figure was the only saving grace.
