The return of Playmates Toys to Star Trek made our Most Anticipated of 2022 List. Playmates was the master toy licensee for Star Trek during the 1990s and they are returning this year as a global licensee across action figures, vehicles, ships and role play for all ViacomCBS Star Trek Properties. And today we got our first look at the first wave of their new Star Trek Universe collection, which will include the 10 characters and items.
The first figures and toys from Playmates will be available to fans this summer in a collection of retro figures from classic Star Trek shows and movies, and new figures from Paramount+ series.
UPDATE: First Wave Of New Playmates Star Trek Toys And Figures Now Available For Pre-Order
Figures
Playmates will be releasing five-inch (1:14 scale) figures from three different Trek eras. Each figure has 14 points of articulation. The Star Trek Universe figures will be packaged in either 1990s nostalgic packaging or newly designed Star Trek Universe blister cards, depending on the character.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Admiral James T. Kirk, Captain Spock, and Khan Noonien Singh as seen in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. (Nostalgic packaging)
(Playmates Toys)
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Lt. Commander Data, Captain Jean-Luc Picard, and Commander William Riker. (Nostalgic packaging)
(Playmates Toys)
Star Trek: Discovery
Star Trek: Discovery’s Commander Saru and Science Officer Michael Burnham. (New Universe packaging)
(Playmates Toys)
Toys
Playmates is also making new Star Trek vehicles and role-play toys, with two releases in the first wave.
Star Trek: The Original Series Enterprise
The replica ship, 18-inch scale, includes lights, sounds, and phrases. (Nostalgic packaging) [Updated with clarification on scale]
(Playmates Toys)
Star Trek: The Original Series Phaser
Star Trek: The Original Series Phaser complete with lights and sounds. (Nostalgic packaging)
(Playmates Toys)
Coming this July
The first wave in the Star Trek Universe collection will be available online in July 2022 and in stores this fall. No pricing has been released at this time.
UPDATE: First Wave Of New Playmates Star Trek Toys And Figures Now Available For Pre-Order
More to come
In a statement, Playmates outlined what’s next:
The toy company will continually expand the Star Trek collector line with fan-requested favorites based on the dozens of Starfleet heroes and infamous aliens featured in the brand’s 13 motion pictures and 11 live-action series – from the original 1960s show through the current hit shows on Paramount+, including the premiere of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
Additional Star Trek Universe collection figures and accessories scheduled for release in early 2023 will be announced later this year.
Keep up with Star Trek merchandise news and reviews at TrekMovie.com.
They messed up the TOS Enterprise a fair amount. Saucer decals are much too far forward. Nacelle inward grilles and recesses are up too high – they should be in line with the aft vents. Nacelle caps are too small – looks like pigs in blankets.
These are toys don’t forget, they’re not supposed to be screen accurate scale replicas :)
Yeah, Ryan, that logic will NEVER float around these parts.
I get it Ryan. But they had all those details right on their 90s version.
So were the Art Asylum/DST ‘toys’ but they still got everything right on those. (For the most part)
Indeed! I wanted to buy the Eglempss XL version of the Enterprise-A, but ultimately never pulled the trigger because the details were noticeably less accurate than the Art Asylum version.
(And the non-XL version couldn’t compete with Hot Wheels)
I’d love to collect again, and I’ve always wanted the phaser.
looks very smart choice to make 5″ because longtime collectors can use the new figures (better articulated, better sculpts) in those playsets and vehicles…
pricepoint around $15 hopefully? Anything more might bring unwelcome comparisons to what you can get for Marvel Legends/DC McFarlane pricing at $20-ish
hopefully the pricing on the Enterprise is not as much as the DST ships…
sort of surprised they managed to get the phaser done without cosmetic changes done to skirt toy gun regulations…
Walmart sells the new Playmates Ninja Turtle figures for $13. I think the turtles might be a little bit shorter, but hopefully the Star Trek ones are around there as well
I wonder why they decided on five inch figures. I hope this means bridge playsets and in scale shuttlecrafts will follow. They should work nicely together.
Sorry, I only accept first-wave Riker figures with giant tears in their uniforms.
haha yes
Personally, I was partial to Data with the forearm panel that opened up.
Genuinely cool idea that was!
And back panel too!
THE BACK OPENED UP?!? I never took him out of the package, so I never saw that. Now I feel cheated!
The back panel also had a hole to insert a diagnostic tool.
Thinking of the future of the franchise, I’m hoping to see some priority on figures and sets kids can actually play with.
I would have loved to have been able to get TAS and TNG action figures for our kids when they were still at the age of imaginative play.
Prodigy sets and toys would seem to be the strategic priority to build up viewership and make Trek mainstream again.
There are other companies covering the collectors niches.
Not impressed. Enterprise is jacked up like a Dollar Store knock off. Phaser is the same horribly inaccurate toy released previously and the figures pale in comparison to the DST release. Utterly disappointing. Guess we are back to the failed ‘Trekkies will buy anything’ mentality. Hard pass.
Be nice if they said where the 14 points if articulation are and maybe something about accessories.
I want them all. 40th Anniversary for Wrath of Khan and 35th Anniversary for Next Generation.
“Toys AND Figures”?
Figures are toys.
All figures are toys, but not all toys are figures… remember that, Lorna Dune :P
Actually not all figures are toys.
Collectors editions with plastics that are toxic with extended handling are fine for collectors, but won’t meet safety standards as toys.
And once again, my feeble attempts at humor get nitpicked.
It’s just not that long ago that I was obliged to divert presents to our kids that came with the NOT A TOY label on the front into display cases. Never an amusing moment for either parents or kids.
I’m all in favour of less expensive, safe and less perfect versions that real kids can play with.
I will say however that had it come out sooner that extraordinarily expensive Playmobil Enterprise would have definitely come into our house. Given the hundreds of dollars of Playmobil our kids got each birthday and Christmas while they were in the target age, putting out a bit more to get a licenced Trek version would have been an easy decision.
All I say is : PLAYMOBIL® 70644
You are never to old for a key chain :)
Maybe someone in your houshold will have a taste for that.
Can’t say that novelty keys chains are a thing here. Sturdy steel seems to be more our need.
It would be nice if the Trek licensing offered more of a complete line with smaller sets to get kids into it the way Playmobil’s main series do.
The amount of Playmobil that got passed down by our kids to friends and schools was astonishing though.
There was a time when the new releases of Playmobil catalogues would hold their interest for months.
Between that and Playmobil’s keeping them engaged in imaginative play for years longer than they would have otherwise, it wasn’t a bad investment. There was a Future Planet series that they used for Star Trek and SW scenarios.
I would note that while they loved to build the Lego sets, they didn’t get much play because the models would fall apart at inconvenient moments unless glued together. Later the blocks became more tight fitting and this was less of an issue, but the kids would get frustrated trying to get them apart if they made any errors building them. So while Lego series would be profitable, I’m not sure they would be as successful in promoting play.
my heart says yes, but my wallet screams no….oof these will be tough to bypass :D
Nowhere NEAR as good as the original Playmates ‘Trek toys.
Finally, Star Trek II Ertl action figures
I know right! The ball joints in the leg make them feel the same. Here’s hoping they are able to put out a full crew set and not stop at 3 like Ertl!
The return of the ‘Multiple Buttons’ Electronic Starships?! It’s been so long. I vastly prefer this method of play over the single-cycle button method that Diamond Select went with (And Playmates with their NuEnterprise toy from Trek09). Sometimes when you want to fire torpedoes, you just want to fire torpedoes the moment you press the button.
Yes, hard agree!
For the so-so quality of the props, they better be toy priced vs. collectable priced. Didn’t they do the ST2009 props? Those were so-so and cheap. Will they release a Reliant and Ent-C before DST does?
I find it HIGH-LARIOUS that folks are demanding DST quality at 1990s Playmates prices.
Do we know the pricing for these new ones?
$15. And I agree that’s outrageous for what’s being shown here. I spoke too soon in the above post and would retract it if I could.
If Playmates also made playsets like bridge and transporter sets and/or small vehicles like shuttlecraft, it would increase the likelihood that I’ll buy more figures.
Agreed! I’m guessing that’s why the line is 5 inches.
So, is there one of Kirk riding a horse?
No, but I saw a prototype of featuring figures of Kirk and Picard in the rustic kitchen making scrambled eggs (frying pan, Katarian eggs, and bottle of dill ARE included).
…that one, got a chuckle out of me –
Since these are the same scale as the old Playmates toys, I hope we see figures from where they left off – namely the end of DS9, VOY after season 2, Enterprise, and the TNG movies.
Not the same Scale, these are 5″ those were 4.5″
Sounds logical to me
Great news! This would be the first time a movie era red uniform Spock was released in this size and format. Looks great.
5 inch scale? Lackluster articulation? Disappointing likenesses? Hard pass. They could’ve made a toy line to rival the Star Wars Black Series. These seem predestined for the clearance bin. I’m so disappointed. I was going to be all in on these.
Ya agree, all figures except Discovery they’ve done before. Why can’t CBS land Hasbro and Lego.
To be fair they never did a Spock in that uniform and never an admiral Kirk. They Did do a tubby Captain Kirk for Generations with no articulation and a poor rendition of the uniform in 94 though.
These are awful. Like laughably bad. They look almost the same quality as the Playmates ones from…what, 30 years ago? Action figures have come a LONG way since then. This is just…well, the line will tank and that will be that.
They likely are reissues of the old Playmates figures.
They’re new likenesses. Some likenesses are better now (Khan). However, some are definitely not better. (I’m looking at you Spock!)
I definitely see the resemblence.
you’re looking at prototypes. Calm down
Calm down?!?!? I can’t! There are men at my house right now threatening to hurt me if I don’t buy these things!
There’d better be a Linus figure down the line!! lol!!
One can Hope!!
So was the 21 inch size an error from Playmates? I’m seeing updated articles saying its actually 18 inches now
Perhaps. I only just noticed yesterday a bit of the press release excerpted here refers to toys “based on the dozens of Starfleet heroes and infamous aliens featured in the brand’s 13 motion pictures and 11 live-action series”, and that has to be a mistake, since there aren’t 11 live-action series yet. Right now, there are 7, or 8 if we include either the Short Treks (which isn’t a regular series in the same way as the rest, and also isn’t entirely live-action) or Strange New Worlds (which isn’t out yet, though it will be soon, and which I assume they’re counting); if we add 8 (the number of live-action shows including the upcoming SNW) to 3 (the number of animated series), we get 11, so either they meant to include all the shows including the animated, and thus the “live-action” part was a mistake, or they meant to say just the live-action, and the “11” part was a mistake.
High marks for playmates finally putting out proper TWOK figures!
So close to the classic 4.5 size wonder how they will look side by side. Definitely picking up the TWOK and TNG figures. Really hope they make more film related items. Playmates was known for making figures of just about anyone and I think a captains subset would be amazing! imagine a Stiles, STIV Saratoga captain, Kelsey Grammer, ent-c capt Garret and Ronny Cox!
(TWOK Nitpicking though the black piping wraps to far around the neck and Spock has an admirals armband.)
So the two biggest problems with the Playmates figures from the 90s were the gripping hands could not hold accessories very well and the figures hip-joints did not allow the figures to sit properly. Looking at these new ones, and I see the same problems with the hands, but they will probably come with extra gripping hands (at least I hope). But the leg joints look ball-jointed, so I hope they can sit correctly.
Speaking of accessories, I hope they come with some nice ones! And a bunch!
It just occurred to me: That’s the first 5″ scale red movie uniform version of Spock that Playmates has ever produced.
How about some Trek babes like Shahna, Miramanee or at least Rand!:)