ToyFair 2018: McFarlane Reveals ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ Phaser And More

The annual ToyFair is happening this week in New York City, where toy makers show their upcoming products. McFarlane Toys is one of the Star Trek licensees there, and have a display of their first Star Trek products. The planned 2018 Trek items included the Star Trek: Discovery role play phaser as well as the soon-to-arrive Kirk and Picard figures. 

Discovery phaser

One of the most anticipated items for McFarlane is their role play Star Trek: Discovery phaser, which was on display for the first time. 

McFarlane Toys Star Trek: Discovery role play phaser

The phaser comes with lights and screen-accurate sounds. The rotating barrel sets the phaser for stun and kill, which is also indicated on a light on top as well as a lockable trigger safety. It comes with a removable hand phaser and battery clip with LED. I had a chance to play around with an unpainted prototype, which had impressive detailing and a nice amount of weight. It’s easy to see this becoming a very popular cosplay prop.

Discovery phaser packaging

McFarlane expects it to be available this fall, priced at $34.95.

Kirk and Picard figures coming soon

Also on display were McFarlane’s first Star Trek figures, one for Captain Kirk and one for Captain Picard.

McFarlane Kirk figure

McFarlane Picard figure

These 7-inch scale collectibles have the kind of sculpts you would expect for the highly-regarded McFarlane figures. Each comes with a number of accessories, with a Phaser, Communicator, and Phaser Rifle for Kirk, and a Phaser, interchangeable “Engage” hand, and Ressikan Flute for Picard. Each also comes with a stand.

Detail on Kirk phaser rifle accessory

The Kirk and Picard figures retail for $19.99 each and are due out in April. You can pre-order Kirk and pre-order Picard now at Entertainment Earth.

Discovery figures in 2019, and possibly more Trek too

McFarlane has previously announced plans to do Discovery figures, and Brand Manager Evin Dempsey told TrekMovie a Michael Burnham figure could be available in the first quarter of 2019, but they weren’t yet ready to confirm it. Last summer McFarlane had also announced plans to make a T’Kuvma figure, but that now appears unlikely.

Dempsey noted that the McFarlane license covered the entire franchise of TV and films, with the exception of the Kelvin-era movies. He spoke enthusiastically about how he and other brand managers were fans of the show, and said “we are going to do it right” with respect to Star Trek, adding, “we don’t make a line, we curate a line.” The initial wave of Kirk and Picard figures are just the beginning, and if those go well, he says they hope to make many more Trek figures going forward.

McFarlane’s 2018 line of Star Trek releases is just the beginning

More Toy Fair

TrekMovie will have more Toy Fair 2018 coverage coming up soon.

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I always want to see these things in person, but the pics look great. Kirk is pretty good and this may be the first Picard that actually looks like Sir Patrick. I also appreciate the price points. Good work, McFarlane.

Agreed. That Picard is much closer to capturing Sir Pat than the more expensive version that is out. I’d have to seem them side by side to see why.

The phaser looks very nice. Hopefully this will be along the caliber and quality of the role play items previously released by Diamond Select. I look forward to getting it. As far as the figures are concerned, I am very disappointed. For me, the 7-inch scale is just too big, and it becomes more of a ‘statue’ than an action figure. When compared to the 5-inch or 5.5-inch scale of figures, the 7-inch figures lose quite a few points of articulation, causing the their poseability to be reduced. Also, the 7-inch figures are released few and far between, whereas the 5-inch figures have generally been released in waves, giving a person 5-7 figures per wave. McFarlane had a great run with the 5-inch Walking Dead figures, giving us most, if not all, of the primary and secondary characters (and then some). Unfortunately, though, they have all but dropped the 5-inch scale of Walking Dead figures in lieu of the 7-inch scale. What makes this all the more unfortunate is that the attention to detail, character/actor likeness, and overall design of the 5-inch scale figures was just as good, if not better, than the 7-inch scale when comparing the same character in both sizes (e.g., Rick Grimes, among others, was released in 5-inch and 7-inch scale). Diamond Select released most of the characters from all previous Star Trek series several years ago in the 7-inch scale, so I was really hoping McFarlane would give us a fantastic 5-inch series of Star Trek figures. Oh well, it’s not the end of the world, just the ramblings of a Star Trek toy collector (going back to the 90’s Playmates days).

The Discovery Phaser looks great and is a nice start to the line. My issue is how few things McFarlane is starting with concerning Star Trek. CBS may want to reevaluate its licensing. Star Trek deserves more attention than a Phaser and 2 figure which aren’t even available yet. I thought we saw those Kirk, Picard figures last year in development? Discovery should have a figure and communicator in development at least. And wasn’t McFarlane licensed to do ships?

I don’t know how long these kind of deals last, but if they are planning on having only Kirk and Picard this year and Burnham and T’kuvma for next year they better have a deal for a couple of decades if they want to cover a fraction of all the license covers.

It says T’Kuvma isn’t likely. Far more likely we’d see Burnham and Saru.

I am hoping that these newest renditions of Kirk and Picard step things up notch as they have been in this scale or a similar one many times over by DST and to a lesser extent Mezco. (Side note: Mezco did not show any Trek this year and they are long over due on what they showed last year. They might have lost the license) Any each new offering always claim to have the best example to date. I have yet to see the epitome of a Kirk figure yet and I am not sure, but hope, Mcfarlane gets it right. Where I am skepitical: did they get the right color for his shirt? Mezco got this totally wrong using bright yellow. The gold braiding needs to be brighter than the shirt color and not vise versa. Can the phaser hang on kirks hip? Minus 10 points for Mcfarlane if it does not.(Plus so far the phaser looks to big.) Minus 5 points if shirt is the wrong color. On the plus side, the promised articulation looks good. We will just have to wait and see.

Now if we could get them to make Orville toys too.

Capt. Roykirk,

What? You think McFarlane was there just to whistle Discie?

I would LOVE some Orville stuff! McFarlane needs to do MacFarlane,lol! That STD phaser does look cool though,and so much cheaper than the Anovos one.

QMX versions of Spock and Bones were fantastic, but the Picard figure was a shocker, especially when you consider the big price tag

Agreed. But they are at 12 inches. I was commenting on the 6 to 7 inch affordable range.

Of the mentioned options, I’m only interested in T’Kuvma.

I’d also buy a scale T’Kuvmobile.

Does anyone know why the gold piece with the Delta insignia is sticking out on the phaser?
In pics I see of the phaser it is flush with the rest of the phaser. Does it go back flat or permanently stick out like that on the toy phaser?
I think it looks weird sticking up.

It’s a retractable sight.

Yep Rich is right. The TOS phaser had the same feature, you just didn’t see it used much. The wheel on the phaser 1 would raise/lower it.
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Thanks for answering my question my question Matt. I want to tell you I am really enjoying your comments in Shuttle Pod.

I’m a big TOS fan, and I dig the “making of” kind of stuff. So I’m always happy to share some nuggets of TOS trivia.

Also, thanks for nice words about the podcast :)

That’s good to hear. Sometimes I feel, as time goes on, more and more people didn’t grow up with TOS, haven’t been exposed to it, and when they do see it they look at it through 2018 production values and don’t appreciate it, and it’s fading. So I’m glad you are a keeper of the flame.

Holy… They actually used that?!?! How have I been a Trek fan for all 42 years of my life and not known that? Thank you! I always wondered why that existed on the toys and other replicas when it was never used. Wrong I was.

I MUST have one of those Discovery Phasers.

I love that packaging

Don’t care much for the phaser looks too much like the lasers from Star Trek episode The Cage. Not very 23rd century looking.

Since the first time I saw pics of the Discovery phaser I thought it was weird to have the starfleet delta on it. Makes the prop look very toy like.

I agree. Why didn’t the designers just engrave “Star Trek” on the top instead to really bring home that plastic toy look?. Plus,it looks upside down. Wouldn’t you want the arrow like logo pointing forward? However I do like the overall design. Very, “retro is new again”, with “The Cage” front nozel and all. I’ll wait to you all have this in hand to hear what you have to say about it before I buy it or not.