Playmates Week (Day 4): Review Of New Star Trek USS Enteprise Vehicle Toy

The USS Enterprise is a Star Trek icon, and it gets a redesign in the new Star Trek feature film, so it is appropriate that Playmates first ST09 toy ship is for the big E. Today TrekMovie’s week-long coverage of the first wave of new toys from Playmates takes a look at this new electronic USS Enterprise with a review and also video and pictures..

 

 

PLAYMATES USS ENTERPRISE
The USS Enterprise toy features lights and sounds from the film, and it comes with a presentation base that attaches to the lower hull and allows you to actually change the ship’s position. It requires 3 AAA batteries (not included) and retails for around $35.

Packaging: (4.5 out of 5 stars)
If there was an award for the most enthusiastic toy packaging ever, the Enterprise would qualify. "DISPLAY STAND INCLUDED!" "WORKING LIGHTS!" "AUTHENTIC MOVIE SOUNDS!" "DETAILED REPLICA OF THE USS ENTERPRISE!" And that is just the front! The back of the packaging includes helpful images of the ship and its features, especially important for those who do not open their toys.


Packaging for Playmates USS Enteprise

To paraphrase Sarek in the new movie, "the question is" does the toy deserve this enthusiasm? Yes, in fact, it is perhaps the best item in the Playmates Toys line.


Playmates USS Enterprise on stand

The Toy Version of the USS Enterprise (5 out of 5 stars)
I have a confession. I have never paid much attention to the technology of Star Trek, as I have been more interested in the characters and narratives. It never mattered to me if they changed the Enterprise or not, although I recognize this is an important issue for many fans. Indeed, I admire those fellow fans who know the blueprint and specification details of every ship and the engineering requirements because that kind of trivia takes real work and intelligence to glean. So, when deciding what order to review the toys, the ship was last on the list because I cared more about the characters. How exciting could the toy ship be?




Playmates Star Trek USS Enterprise (side, top and bottom views)

I was wrong. The Playmates Enterprise is not only a nicely detailed toy version of the film’s Enterprise, it has some truly fun lighting and sound effects. When I showed the ship to my wife with all the lights, she, also being a serious fan, yet like myself one who isn’t that concerned with the technology, said it was "beautiful." I agree. The toy ship lights are bright and bold. The sound effects are linked perfectly to the lights and the quality of the sound is almost like listening to a home theater system. Photographs do not really show the beauty of these effects. Think "Tron" costumes when the characters are in the computer world and you get an idea of the stylism of the lighting.


Playmates USS Enterprise w/ lights on

Also cool is the delta insignia display stand which allows for the ship to be pivoted in many cool "poses." The Enterprise would look great on a desk or shelf. However, how fun is it as a toy? Well, our six year old son Nicky loves it, pressing buttons and using his imagination to command the Enterprise. That is what it is all about, isn’t it? The imagination and having fun.



Playmates Star Trek USS Enterprise (w/ lights on – various angles)

VIDEO: See and hear USS Enterprise in action
Here is a video showing off the new USS Enterprise with lights and sounds (not light dimmed in video to show off lights off the toy). This includes authentic dialog from the movie.


AVAILABILITY & PRE-ORDER
Playmates Enterprise Toys officially go on sale this Sunday, although some stores are selling Star Trek Playmates items already. They will be available at Toys R Us, Wal-mart and Target as well as other retailer. You can order the USS Enteprise and other toys now at Entertainment Earth:

Vehicle

Figures

Playsets

Role Play Toys:

Next up: 6" & 12" figures
Tomorrow TrekMovie finishes our coverage of Playmates new Star Trek movie toys, with a look the big action figures from the Warp Collection (6") and Command Collection (12").

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Wow – top heavy, man!

Excelent. Toys.

thats epic man!

Very cool. Anyone seen it in store yet?

Good Review. I’ve been waiting all week to pick this up and I was lucky to find one at my local wal-mart! The only problem I have experienced with the Enterprise is sometimes the button will get stuck. But besides that Im very happy with it.

It seems a bit odd that the glow would flicker with the alert or phaser sounds. Also, why do the backs of the nacelles glow?

Looks kinda dumb honestly, especially the saucer section on the edge looks more like the TOS enterprise than the one from the movie. Hopefully someone will make a model of it, no need for useless sound effects.

Top/bottom views of the E look nice. The side view it looks just plain awkward. Front view the nacelles looked pinched together.

Was Apollo around? No wait that was the saucer section he grabbed wasn’t it? LOL

I checked our walmart today. and we had 4 enterprise ships and an abundant of all 6 and 3.75 in figures.
Had no cash today so had to walk away.
Man i cant wait till PAYDAY!!

The figures look great, and the ship cool.
However the box was really really light.

Either way I can wait to get my hands on them.
The enterpise sells at our walmart for 29.99
here in Southern Colorado

Some people might be worried about the “thickness” of the saucer section. But I’ve always thought that if Franz Joseph was right, it would have to appear taller. I’ve always thought the shot of the Enterprise leaving space dock, with the guy waving, was disproportionate. The ship should be bigger. Also, I saw “Generations” tonight on HBO, and the sequence where the Enterprise-D’s saucer section crashes into the planet is way off… the D’s saucer section, supposedly almost 1200 feet wide, cuts through the bushes – not trees – like it was the Jupiter-II. You almost expect to see Riker shimmy through the hole in the bridge ceiling, take three steps and jump off the side of the ship.

Great review! I really love this toy. It’s great fun and the lights are amazing. I would have liked just sound effects and no dialogue and more then just one button to choose what effect you set off, but overall I was really happy with this one too.

I just bought my Big E tonight at the Toys “R” Us in Westminster, Colorado for $29.99. They have figures, phasers, tricorders and communicators also…

I want one…just because!

I am excited to get mine tomorrow (thank you FedEx tracking number), but I gotta say I really dislike the inclusion of dialog in these toys, all the way back through the Diamond Select ships and earlier Playmates ones. I like it when my ships just make ship sounds.

Wal Mart in Vegas has one… Hmmm might be worth the investment. I think I will wait to see her in the movie before in my hands though…

It is interesting that my nephew who is 10 called me from Wal Mart yesterday to let me know about it being there… He said and I quote “Oh my god you would not believe what I just saw at Wal Mart it was sooooooo cool!”

grr seems in the US all the stores have them already, but I havent found any here in Calgary yet :(

I like the dialog I wish they would make them so they could talk back and forth… The STII ship is so cool with the Kirk Khan banter… just imagine the two ships bantering back and forth so you could reenact scenes in order and such… Love the dialogue!!!

Does anybody know, when this toys will be available in Germany? I´d like to have the Enterprise and the Kirk/Spock/McCoy 12″ figures. They make the 3 3/4″ figures look like crap (well, actually they DO look like crap in my eyes)

time to move to the U.S. vice1986… J/K

:)

20 days for me!!!!!

Oh yeah our walmart
also had these BARBIE versions of characters.

Uhura looked ok i guess.
but spocked looked horrible.
Definately stay away from those.

Looking foward to seeing the 12in ones.

I have the old voyager, enterprise D and E ship

Im still surprised at how light the whole package was for the new Enterprise.

Does It Hold up to The old Ships?

Still getting it anyway LOL

How big is it?

when i saw it on the shelf in my store…i did not like that you couldnt see the actual item through the packaging. The front should be clear plastic…so that you can see the item…not just a picture of it.

right?!

come to think of it
i hope those barbie ones arent
the official 12 in set.

I agree to that the box wouldve been nice
with a clear view of it.
oh well just nit picking i guess.

Can one turn the lights without those (annoying) sound effects?

So when you open the package, are the logos, text, etc. already on the ship right out of the package or does it come with a sheet of stickers to apply to the ship? And if they’re already on the ship, are they just stickers or actually painted on?

When I was a kid I played with the Playmates ships and always dreaded having to attach the stickers in just the right spots, which were never positioned perfectly and peeled off later anyways.

I don’t like her. She looks in my Opinion Terrible. I’m too much used to the TOS Enterprise. This new Enterpris doesn’t fit in. At least to my Opinion.
Don’t throw Stones at me, it’s just my two Cents.

I still think the nacelles look like crap.

*cue the “Stop being an anal fan-boy and get over it!!!” responses*

Since the New Enterprise got a lot of bashing in other forums, I’ll forgo that for this one.

One thing I do like is that the impulse engines actually light up as we haven’t gotten to see that before. But does the ship have to be so blue? Is that how it is in the movie? I don’t think the bridge dome should light up either. But it is a good rendering of the movie ship. I don’t plan on buying this one though.

Let’s face it… What we REALLY want is a Reliant toy model with authentic sounds and lighting. ;) To go with the upcoming release of the Excelsior and Enterprise-B toy models.

Count me in on this new 1701 redesign, though. It’s taken a while to digest, but I’m onboard with the changes. It’ll fuel my memory between May 8th, 2009 to the arrival of the next movie. :)

Chris Pine’s Kirk voice sounds like trip from ST:ENT.

The ship is OK from top and bottom, but from the side is a nightmare.

Today, I saw the toys at Toys R’ US, but the only one I like was the Tricorder. They did not have the Ship in.

One thing that’s deceiving about the toy is that the Nacelles are actually positioned forward a little more than they are on the actually ship. From the top, bottom, or side it looks like they are damn near touching the saucer section. I hope they make a more accurate model later on. Man, I wish Art Asylum/DST had taken the job. According to them, Paramount offered it to them first, but they didn’t think they could meet Paramount’s production output requirements or something. Too bad. However, Playmates seems to have outdone themselves with this one. I have about 80% of the ships they made, and this is definitely miles ahead of those.

Just to answer a few questions that have come up:
Everything is painted on. No stickers (thank god!) I remember on the Ent-D from Generations that I got the darn sticker for 10-Forward would always peel off because it was on the side of the ship.

There’s no just-lights mode. I don’t know why they don’t do that. You’d think kids might want to play with just the lights on and not annoy parents with constant sound effects.

Meh, its a toy, too many screws on the underside to hold it together take away from the aesthetics. I would much rather wait for the Art Asylum version, a nice fully build, highly detailed accurate model, WITH NO SCREWS!

I don’t know if I agree, the technology is a big part for me, granted as I grew up I realized it’s a character driven show and how important that aspect is. The basis of the show is morality, it’s the waffle cone that is the basis, the foundation that holds everything together. The characters are the ice cream, all different flavors, and the technology, that was the hot chocolate sauce, whip cream, sprinkles and cherry. The characters may affect us, we may relate to them, but it was never the characters I would daydream about, it was the technology. I would day dream about being on a starship, traveling to other worlds, meeting new……..you get the picture.

Funny lol…..ah….only a trekkie…with regards to technology how we day dream and let our minds wonder off. One of my most memorable dreams belive it or not was one I was transported in. Either I was in the future or beaming technology was recently invented either way I experienced what it was like (or at least what my unconscious brain thinks it feels like) to be transported in star trek terms. The sparkling vision all around and literally the sensation of tingling all over, it was a wonderful feeling, not that creepy feeling of insects, then a moment of blackness before I rematerialized in a new location. I did it two or three times in that dream, it was an exhilarating experience to say the least. My brain gave every little detail with regards to sensation and the way the beaming process felt. Even as I was materializing I could already feel the temperature and humidity change from one place to the next. I mean my unconscious went all out on that one. I woke up and hade to take a minute there, awake I could still feel what it was like to be transported. Lol no I did not smoke or drink anything, just one of those random dreams that felt real.

It’s really cool, but there’s one thing I’d really like to change about these ships they’ve been making (I’ve got the Ent NX-01, Ent A and Ent TWOK). I remember on one of the Old Ent-D toys I had as a kid, they had four buttons down the spine of the ship. One for each noise. And it was functional noises only. Phasers, Photons, Warp and Impulse. If kids wanted to role play, this would be a bit more fun I think.
I agree there should be a lights only function too.

By far the most awkward of any of the ships because of those super-sized nacells and that slouching saucer with the beer gut underneath — but what the heck, lights are fuuunn.

Grr….friggin’ blue nacelle caps…stupid.

Star Trek was at firts about the Charakters and than about the technology. In Tos the Technology Like Beaming and the Warp Drive was only developed tho help the story telling. I think it should stay by that. I said this as a Treky who loves and knows all these Technical ditails. But i would prefer a slihgtly technology incorect Star trek film rather than a boring one.

Well i also think that the desing of the old new Enterprise is Ok, as longer i watch this ship as better it looks, but i really dislike the new Nacelles they just look starnge and unesthetic.
But all this design deatails will not hinder me to enjoy this Movie

Not for me at all, this Ugliprise!

the red alert sound sucks.

21

“How big is it?”

It is 14.75 inches long, and 3.5 inches tall. It is about the same size as the Bandai Ent-A. It’s a little big for a desk, but a little smaller than the AMT models.

Another thing- it is thick plastic, you can tell this was made for rough play. It takes 3 AAA batteries and the lights and sounds are very bright and loud.

awesome ship – makes the last one look like a petting zoo, wait….

I have it and love it, too. The lights are gorgeous.

But I also wish Playmates had gone with their earlier light/sound schemes and had the separate buttons for different effects. Perhaps just two: one for randomized sound and light effect and the other for a character phrase.

Where’s the model kit? I wanna model kit!!!

I just picked it yesterday at my local Wal Mart $29.97.

I have it on display next to my Playmates Classic Star Trek Enterprise way I got way back in 1994.

Loved the old E and love the new E!

Great all around.

-cs™

40

Could you do a size comparsion with a picture?

“[…] especially important for those who do not open their toys.”

[SHUDDER]

Valuable Cinema Lesson #2208: Unopened toys kept as “collector’s items” or “investments” become EVIL and get Kelsey Grammer’s voice.

Those who do not remember Toy Story 2 are doomed to repeat it.

#47: Sweet TARDIS.

Ignore what I said (post #45).

If you go to youtube, and search “Playmates Enterprise”, you’ll find more reviews of this great Starship. I’am NOT bashing trek movie’s review, but on youtube the best video review would probably be this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fN1jNFWRCg

It gives a size comparsion, which I wanted, and it’s great to get more views of this thing. Same goes for all videor eviews too.

It wouldn’t look so bad if the nacelles were situated under the saucer.