Next Spring, Star Trek joins the pantheon of franchises to get its own Scene It? Deluxe Edition DVD trivia game. This week the new Star Trek SceneIt? website went live and fans can enter a contest that awards cool prizes and a chance at having their questions included in the game itself.
Take the Final Frontier Challenge
SceneIt is the popular DVD Trivia game from Mattel that is getting its own Star Trek version in early 2009 (see TrekMovie preview). As with their other Star Trek game of 2009, 20Q (see previous Trekmovie.com story), Mattel is giving fans a chance to help shape the game. At the Star Trek Scene It? website (sceneitstartrek.com) fans can submit their own trivia questions in the ‘Final Frontier Challenge.’ The winning questions will be included in the game, and the name and hometown of the fans will appear on the trivia card–pretty cool. So for all those who thought the trivia questions were too easy, now is your time to stump the Trekkies.
As an added bonus, there are prizes to be won for 16 fans (USA only) who submit their trivia question online or by snail mail (click here for the official rules). The prizes are awarded after a random drawing of eligible entries. The Grand Prize is a DVD collection of all six television shows and the 10 motion pictures, a copy of the DVD game, and a Tyco R/C Flying Enterprise. Fifteen first prize winners get the DVD game and the Radio Controlled Enterprise.
Take the challenge, get in the game, win prizes
Trek joining Disney & Bond
The Scene It? game is good news for Star Trek, firstly because a big licensee such as Mattel is expressing interest in Star Trek, and secondly because Scene It? games are only from what are considered big franchises. For example, Star Trek will be joining James Bond, Disney, Marvel Comics, and Harry Potter. The Star Trek Scene It? Deluxe DVD game will feature questions from all versions of Star Trek (including non-video questions from the 2009 feature film).
The Scene It? game joins a growing list of ‘classic’ and movie tie-in Star Trek products to be available this Spring as the film nears its release. Besides 20Q and Scene It?, Mattel is releasing its Tyco Radio Controlled Star Trek ships and also a collectors Barbie set tied to the Star Trek feature film. In addition to Mattel, Playmates Toys will also have action figures and toys based on the film. The next year is a collector’s dream for Star Trek.
Mattel’s Star Trek SceneIt? trivia game
(click to enlarge)
Ah, Disney.
I can now say this about all the Trek stuff coming out:
“Look at this stuff. Isn’t it neat? Wouldn’t you think my collection’s complete?”
UNDA DA SEA!!
Sounds like a good idea, but I won’t end up playing it too much.
It’ll be like the James Bond Scene-It…too easy for me.
When you’re too much of a hard-core fan, these games can’t challenge for entertaining gameplay.
I submitted a couple.
Damn those American only competitions!
@4 LOL, I hear you brother!
“The Grand Prize is a DVD collection of all six television shows and the 10 motion pictures, a copy of the DVD game, and a Tyco R/C Flying Enterprise.”
That sounds like a great Grand Prize but I would like to point out that there have only been FIVE television series (TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT) not SIX. Hopefully there will be a sixth in the future but there isn’t one yet. Still that Grand Prize sounds excellent. The First Prize also sounds pretty good!
I’m looking forward to next year with all the new Trek items. 2009 is going to be a good year.
6 – Maybe referring to the animated series?
#6 you for got TAS
Loyal fan – You forget ST:TAS
So, there are six
CSM
#6
The TAS makes it SIX series.
“There…are…SIX…shows!!”
;-)
(With apologies to Captain Picard)
I submitted some.
Not sure if they want real simple questions, questions for casual fans, or hardcore questions.
“Mattel is giving fans a chance to help shape the game.”
A chance to help shape the game? The “winning” questions get included?
This is Tom Sawyer tricking his pal into painting the fence all over again.
#13
Yah so what. I mean, it’s actually going to be fun painting the fence.
I have some questions that usually stump hard core trek fans. Perhaps I’ll submit those.
Well I submitted 5 Questions on the Game and I Think I came up with a couple of good ones. Ill post them when the contest ends. This is going to be a great time for all trek fans. Cool!
I smell STTMP era again with a ‘hit’ movie and alot of merchandise left over for a few years they are coming out with to much stuff to many licenses to many companies. If this movie for some reason does not make it and make it big, it will not only be the end of the franchise but, the end of the marketing empire of Star Trek, havent these companies learned from getting screwed time and again with Trek Merchandise? Alot of these same companies held the licenses through the 1990’s and they dropped Trek like a hot potatoe at the end of the 1990’s Everyone from Playmates, Mattel, Galoob, etc. I never thought I would ever see the day again when this many companies were bringing out Trek stuff and with this kind of volume
17. Wes:
If one thing comes out of the merch, just one: I hope it’s a good computer game.
To your point, I think a lot of the stuff announced is retro-TOS. However, it IS risky. Speed Racer lasted 6 minutes in the cinema, and had all kinds of toy tie-ins which won’t even make it until Xmas.
Our heads have been spinning this summer with Iron Man, Hulk and Batman. The property-owners must make franchises endure in order to guarantee successful merch campaigns. Star Wars did it best.
Wow. That’s pretty cool.
Now that’s a little better. Sure beats that Pez crap from a few weeks ago. PEZ = YUCK!!!
#17 – The people who manufacture tie-in merchandise are gamblers, pure and simple; that’s always the nature of that business. Heck, many of the toy companies that took the “safe” bet on the Star Wars prequels took a major kick in the gut for it … piles and piles of clearance-bin merchandise languishing in the stores for their trouble (the only toy I bothered buying was the Jar-Jar Binks candy tongue, because there’s just something amazingly perverse about handing a child a plastic Jar-Jar head so he can open it and suck on Jar-Jar’s candy tongue).
Anyway, the point was meant to be: gamblers gamble; it’s what they do.
But neither the franchise nor the merchandizing for it will ever “end,” really, although it could certainly become fallow ground for a decade or so (no loss, though: prior to this film it was getting pretty Dust Bowl). There’s still Tarzan merchandizing, for Christ’s sake. These things never die; they just fade in and out.
Well, except maybe Popeye. When your own fried chicken franchise distances itself from you, that’s never a good sign :)
I went ahead and submitted 3 questions for the heck of it. I decided to do one easy-ish one, one moderately difficult one, and one reasonably difficult one. We’ll see if they take any of them, and if they do, which one….
I was considering making one of them, “What is the name of the species that sends a probe to Earth in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and attempts to communicate with the extinct Humpback whales?” I decided not to, because I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t go for trick questions.
And before any of you all taunt me about the question I didn’t ask, yes, it’s a pretty easy one… I just have an evil streak and like trick questions….
I’m with those who are kinda rolling their eyes, looking at all these “new” Star Trek items and envisioning them filling bargain-bins. Why? IMO, I think too much of this merchandise is designed for the wrong crowd. When we examine the Star Wars merchandising that went over tremendously during the reign of the original films, it was geared mostly at kids who went bonkers over the “Saturday matinee-style action adventure” of those films. Star Trek, on the other hand, has never been of that nature. Star Trek has always been more about drama than action and effects, whereas Star Wars was overflowing with action and effects, which is far more appealing to kids than drama. Star Trek merchandising seems to be aimed at the same sort of crowd that Star Wars went after, but Star Trek doesn’t have quite the same audience. I don’t mean to make a completely blanket statement without allowing for some exceptions, but, in general, I think if manufacturer’s are producing Trek merchandise they are hoping will be devoured by kids, I think they are barking up the wrong tree. This is why, IMO, Trek merchandise has usually failed to promote huge sales. Again, I’m not saying that there haven’t been kids who dig Trek-stuff, and I also acknowledge those adults who are serious collectors and go after everything Trek. Perhaps the SceneIt? game will catch on with the adult Trek crowd, and this type of product might be the best kind of format for Trek merchandise, rather than products that appeal to kids who prefer Iron Man action figures over Kirk or Spock figures.
#24
Thank you for the reply. Yet, we disagree. Looking at most Star Trek items, they are for mature fans. The Star Trek action figures are nearly $20 and are designed more as statues than toys. According to a Salon 1999 article, after looking at the accounting books of Viacom, they estimated that Star Trek earned $2.3 billion in TV revenues, $1 billion in movie box office, and $4 billion in merchandise sales. It is not the nearly 15 billion Star Wars has earned from merchandising (according to NPR), yet it is no failure. Every feature film toy eventually goes to the bargain bin at retail stores (Iron Man and Spiderman toys are there now). It is our hope that all types of Star Trek fans will be represented by the merchandise of Star Trek.
John, Mary Jo, and Nicky Tenuto
John:
You’re talking about $4B over the history of the franchise, including the golden years of syndication, the early films and TNG. The fleeting nature of even box office successes these days gives merchandise manufacturers a small window at best. And do Trek novels count as merchandise?
when are those PEZ dispensers coming out anyway??
Why does this ask for at least 3 answers when submitting a question? Isn’t this kind of silly? If your question were: “What was Picard’s original first name?” The only answer is “Julien”. So do you put the same answer 3 times?
“Yet, we disagree. Looking at most Star Trek items, they are for mature fans. The Star Trek action figures are nearly $20 and are designed more as statues than toys.”
John,
I will have to disagree here, most of the new Trek merchandise as you know, for the new movie is aimed at kids- Trek, fliers Playmates toys, etc. Since Diamond Select will still be making their stuff, they have their niche still. But, it is all this merchandising coming for the new movie aimed at kids, that I think everyone is speaking of.
.” Every feature film toy eventually goes to the bargain bin at retail stores (Iron Man and Spiderman toys are there now). It is our hope that all types of Star Trek fans will be represented by the merchandise of Star Trek.”
True, they do, but…It depends how much of it ends up there! As for all types of Star Trek fans being represented by the merchandise, who are they targeting with the Playmates stuff? Under 10 year olds? Think when Enterprise first came on these kids were three! They wont even know what ST is. And in addition to that if this movie has anything above PG Parents will not be taking their kids to see it. Unlike the era of TNG and TOS movie era when the whole family could sit and watch and enjoy it, that is why the merchandise flew off the shelves in 1992-1996.
28- presumably it will be asked as a multiple choice question, and they want the correct answer plus two wrong choices?
#29
I’ll refer you to these two previous articles I either wrote or helped with, and you’ll see we actually do not disagree.
https://trekmovie.com/2008/02/13/merchandising-for-new-star-trek-movie-beginning-to-take-shape/
https://trekmovie.com/2008/02/03/history-of-trek-movie-merchandising/
Also, this movie can only succeed if the “next generation” goes to the theaters. It is appropriate to merchandise to all kinds of fans with both the retro and feature film items.
#26
There never really has been a time when Star Trek was popular with the generic population except a brief time in the 1990s during the TNG era. Otherwise, it has always been a niche fan experience.
Thanks of the replies.
31:
“There never really has been a time when Star Trek was popular with the generic population except a brief time in the 1990s during the TNG era. Otherwise, it has always been a niche fan experience.”
John: Rewind a bit to 1986, when Nimoy as Spock was on the cover of TIME with the headline “The Enduring Power of Star Trek.” The first four movies brought Trek mainstream. Star Trek IV was the height of Trek’s popularity, whereas TNG brought it to the primetime male demographic prized at the time by TV broadcasters.
Heck, in the 1960s you can find Leonard Nimoy interviews in the dreamy-actor rags published for teenage girls …
#32
Nitpicky, I know, but that was a Newsweek cover, not Time. Time actually featured both Kirk and Picard on the cover during Generations.
No doubt the feature film Star Trek IV was popular and earned a respectable box office, with merely four films earning more. However, Star Trek TMP sold more tickets. Also, Star Trek IV had very little merchandise and while it did not hurt Star Trek, it did not do what you claim. It had about as much cultural influence as Crocodile Dundee which made more money, and Star Trek IV did not make Trekkies of the generic culture. Feature films usually have less or atleast fleeting cultural influence compared to television shows which are free.
TNG was actually a much more pervasive influence culturally during the 1990s (and I consider the Kirk era my favorite). TNG’s demographics were very good with most groups, often beating shows like 60 Minutes in some markets. The average number of viewers in 1990 to 1994 was about 10 million per week. I invite you to think rewind to the 1990s when Star Trek TNG merchandise was everywhere and TNG stars were on every show from talk shows to QVC. Star Trek IV never had that kind of cultural influence. Thank you for the reply.
Another Trek competition only open to US fans….
United Earth, my arse. Grrrr!
#28 — What’s the point of a multiple choice test if there are no wrong answers? You are asked first what the correct answer is, then you get to choose the three wrong answers, too. Why? Because the wrong answers should be close to the correct one, otherwise it’s too obvious what the correct one is, if the respondent is just guessing.
Example question (not one I’d actually ask):
Spock is of mixed parentage. Of what extraction are his parents?
1 – Vulcan father, Human mother
2 – Human father, Vulcan mother
3 – Vulcan father, Romulan mother
4 – Romulan father, Human mother
So, 1 is correct, 2 is wrong but closer to correct than 3 & 4, 3 is wrong but closer to correct than 4, and 4 is the furthest from the correct answer. In the actual Scene It game, you’d expect they’d jumble the answers up, so that the correct one is actually presented third and the least correct one is first and so on, but when you’re submitting the question and answers, you don’t have to worry about that.
25 – John
Perhaps we disagree a bit, but I appreciate the info, and certainly appreciate all that you do in the name of Star Trek. Fans of Star Trek — on that we will always agree! Peace.
#37
Thanks P. Technobabble for the reply and the kindness.
With no offence to my American neighbours to the south.
Yet another example of a contest only open to the USA. This totally flies up the a$$ of the universality of what Star Trek is suppose to represent.
May the producers of Scene-it all get their next French kiss from a diseased tribble.
I saw this at comic con, and they had some sample questions out, and they were pretty specific. Even for a die hard like myself I had to really think about the answers, a couple which I couldn’t for the life of me, remember.
I think I submitted about 10 questions. One was pretty specific and the rest were moderately difficult. Most die hard Trek fans will probably be able to answer all except one. I personally am looking forward to SceneIt!. The last trivia game I played was Trivial Persuit. Not Trek, but a lot of fun. I like games like that. So I can’t wait. As for the merchandising, some of it seems to be aimed toward kids, but for the most part, it is more adult in n ature. The tricorders, phasers, etc. are very detailed, accurate, and realistic. IMO not to be played with, but to be displayed. I have a 3 year old son who already knows who Kirk and Spock are. And a 20 month old daughter who recognizes the Enterprise and Kirk and Spock on the TV. I don’t know if that is a good thing or not, but I think it’s pretty cool.