At New York Comic Con in October, Nacelle Company CEO, Brian Volk-Weiss, announced the first wave of their upcoming line of Star Trek action figures. As TrekMovie.com reported at the time, the plan is for the figures to be under $30, allaying my initial price point fears. In place of those concerns, a new concern arose, which Volk-Weiss has recently addressed.
At NYCC, Volk-Weiss announced that the first wave would consist of the following characters:
- Captain Jellico (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
- Peter Preston (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan)
- Valkris (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock)
- Captain Garret (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
- Tuvix (Star Trek: Voyager)
- Mirror Archer (Star Trek: Enterprise)
- Weyoun (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
- Captain Sulu (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)
As Trek Core reported at the time of the announcement, the goal was to steer away from the common characters, "like Captain Kirk, Seven of Nine, Data, etc." and this is technically in keeping with the original September announcement. The problem, though, is that the only "main cast" characters here are Sulu and a mirror universe version of Archer.
Apparently, enough fans were upset by this that it has prompted Nacelle to revise some of their plans. In an Instagram Reel from November 20, Brian Volk-Weiss responded to these concerns, saying that his company has been communicating with Paramount and that an announcement will be made in early 2025 that Volk-Weiss thinks "will make everybody happy."
To me, this is promising, but this entire sequence of events also highlights the balancing act required to meet the needs of both older fans of Star Trek and newer ones. Nacelle's initial plan seems to have had older fans in mind. By producing more obscure characters, it would give decades long collectors a chance to fill in gaps never made by the likes of Playmates or Art Asylum/Diamond Select.
This makes sense. After all, both McFarlane Toys and Playmates (in their 2020s relaunch attempt) started with the likes of Kirk and Picard and then quickly folded. Maybe only making the same handful of characters over and over isn't a key to success. At the same time, though, not all Star Trek fans were alive or buying action figures yet in the 1990s when Playmates' line was at its peak.
For decades now, most Star Trek characters—even the bridge crews—have been increasingly hard to come by. They have had to be bought second hand, either used or at high prices if they're still in the box. Plus, major characters, like Seven of Nine, Doctor Phlox, or Ezri Dax, were often released as convention exclusives or were otherwise hard to get from the start.
All of this is to say that there is absolutely a set of Star Trek fans who are champing at the bit to start their own collections with the major characters they love. At the same time, there are fans who have been waiting for decades to complete their collections with notorious guest characters, like Tuvix or Captain Jellico. (I can definitely hear the Weyoun figure calling to me.) What we need is balance.
Of course, we cannot know what Nacelle and Paramount's plan moving forward is until they announce it. I, for one, hope that they can keep making the more obscure characters while introducing some of the main casts as well. Plus, the main cast doesn't need to be Kirk, Spock, and Picard right away.
It's also worth remembering that not all members of a "bridge crew" have been equally represented over time. There are far more Kirks, Spocks, Picards, and Datas than, say, McCoys, Geordis, B'Elannas, or Archers. Focusing on the sometimes-forgotten main characters—maybe in keeping with the versions already set in this first wave—could be refreshing.
We just have to wait for the new year's announcement from Nacelle. Ideally, I'd like it if it course-corrects without undermining the first wave. After all, I'd be much more inclined to buy a Captain Sulu figure if I knew that other Undiscovered Country characters are in the pipeline. Like I said, we need a balance in variety and focus, along with major and minor characters.