Playmates' 2009 Star Trek line review (Part 1)

I know it's been some time since the new Trek toys hit shelves but I have been swamped for the past two months and hadn't really had a chance to dig into these. This week I finally had a chance to start cracking all the toys open. I've been taking pictures of them and trying to figure out how the hell I'm going to display so many more aquisitions. On this first part of my review I will focus on the 3 3/4 inch line and the corresponding playsets.



I must admit that when I first saw the first images for these toys releassed by Playmates I wasn't really that excited about them. A lot of folks have also complained about multiple things online since the toys were first released. With so much negativity surrounding the line I was pleasantly surprised whrn I started opening these toys.



The pictures online haven't really done them any justice. The sculpts are pretty good looking even if the plastic is a bit flimsy. I would've preferred a harder material like the kind of plastic used for the G.I.JOE figures, but honestly that's a minor complaint. The toys look great and the paint job is awesome. These are a million times better than last summer's Indiana Jones line (which I'm also a big fan of, but suffered from shoddy paint jobs and terrible likenesses).





With the exception of Kirk all the figures capture the likeness of each respective actor.
The smaller size allows for more playability and the opportunity to produce more playsets.





The playsets themselves are awesome in my opinion. The boxes are kind of small , but when you put these toys together you end up with a lot of playability. The bridge looks huge once you roll out the mat and put all the bonus pieces together. Plus remember we are still missing about ten more pieces which will be included in wave 2.



The viewscreen on the bridge playset is much bigger than I imagined and the Narada image slides on so I''m hoping Playmates will release different images to slide onto the screen in the future, sort of like the Mego playset.



I'm a big fan of the old playmates TNG bridge playset. I always thought the beaming gag was one of the coolest action features ever. The new transporter has a very similar gag which makes the figure disappear. Plus you have the added feature of a removable chamber that you can place elsewhere to re-materialize your figure in a different environment.



The modular nature of the set is pretty cool too. You can add the 3 extra transporter pads in order to hold more figures, but by doing so the background must be removed and beaming functions can no longer be controlled from Scotty's station, which to me is the coolest feature. I really like these toys, they offer a lot of play value and are a ton of fun. The level of interactivity between the figures and the playsets is great, specially the ability to obtain more pieces to add to each playset by buying the figures. It's a great move from Playmates and I truly hope future releases continue this. I only wish the mats would've been made of a hard cardboard or plastic since the extra pieces and the figures tend to slide off the mat easily.
I'll be back next week with more of my thoughts on the rest of the new toy line including the 6 inch figures, 12 inch figures, and the role play toys.