Star Trek is getting back into toys with Playmates Toys deal.
Anyone alive during the Golden Age of Star Trek television during the 80s and 90s can tell you all about the Star Trek Playmates Toys line of action figures. Easily some of the most popular toys from that time period, the line of toys was as eclectic and unique as they came and didn’t just focus on the shows or films either. There were even lines that featured members of the Enterprise as cadets.
And I don’t care what anyone says, I firmly believe they made Jean-Luc Picard look like Wesley Crusher on purpose in that line. Well, thanks to Star Trek: Prodigy targetting kids, Playmates is getting back into the Star Trek toy-making game.
Action figures and other Star Trek toys have largely been a thing of the past for nearly two decades, with the newer shows not generating any interest among licensors. Any toy lines that did make Trek stuff, mostly focused on nostalgia pieces to sell to collectors.
Star Trek: Prodigy will usher in a new era of Playmates action figures
The new line will focus on Prodigy but will also expand to include pieces from Nu-Trek and old-Trek. It’s not been announced who’s going to be part of the first line of action figures, but it’d stand to reason that it’ll be the entire core cast of Prodigy, which should include the hologram-Kathrine Janeway.
Unfortunately, these toys are coming at a time where there’s no singular major toy store to sell them in. Sure, it seems likely that Target, Walmart, and online retailers will make them available, as well as Playmates Toys, but there was just something awe-inspiring about walking down the science-fiction isle of action figures and seeing the Star Trek action figures stand tall and dwarf the Star Wars ones.
More than likely the action figures will be slightly different than the older models, but maybe they’ll follow suit with the WWE and create some old-school ones that will appeal to older collectors.