Playmates’ Classic Star Trek Enterprise Toy: Unboxing And Review
Playmates has delivered the first ever Star Trek starship toy that both looks good and is durable enough to actually be played with by kids.
This article is more than 2 years old
Star Trek recently made the bold move to give Playmates a license to make Star Trek toys. In the past Star Trek toys have been something of a disaster, but Playmates aims to change that with their first starship toy: a big, beautiful, 18″ long replica of the classic original series Enterprise. The first Enterprise. NCC-1701. No A, B, C, D, or refit.
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About The Reviewer
Josh Tyler has worked as a professional reviewer for over twenty-years and is currently supposed to be busy as the CEO of Walk Big Media. Unfortunately, he’s such a huge Star Trek nerd he can’t seem to stop writing about starships. Josh has been watching, thinking about, and collecting Star Trek starship replicas his entire life, a habit which only seems to be getting worse. Now he’s trying to addict his kids and, when they aren’t busy with Minecraft, finding mid-level success.
Unboxing The Enterprise
Right from the start the packaging screams: hey you should definitely buy this. There’s even a way to test out some of the ship’s sound effects without opening it up…
Open it up and you’ll find your U.S.S. Enterprise in three pieces…
That might seem like a problem, since this particular re-replica isn’t marketed to build it yourself modelers, but it’s not. It’s only three pieces and they go together easily. The warp pylons easily snap securely into the side of the Enterprise’s engineering section and you’re good to go.
The batteries come pre-installed, so to get your Enterprise lighting up, flip the switch on the back from “Demo” to “On”. That switch is located on the engineering hull, right below the shuttle bay doors. It’s the ideal spot, since it means the switch is not easy to see from most angles…
The only thing left to do is put the ship on its optional stand, if you want to display it instead of play with it. I recommend playing with it, because that seems to be what this new Playmates Enterprise toy is actually built for.
If you do use the stand, you’re going to love it. The two visible screws in the sides are a bit unsightly, but functionally the stand is one of the best I’ve ever seen for an out of the box Enterprise replica model.
The toy’s stand is adjustable, so you can put the ship in all sorts of positions. It’s also sturdy, it firmly affixes to the bottom of the ship and doesn’t pop out of it’s docking port easily.
Most importantly, the stand actually works. Your Playmates Enterprise won’t suddenly fall over and go tumbling off the shelf you’ve put it on in the middle of the night (I’m looking at you Diamond Select).
The main thing you’re going to want to do at this point is start pressing the buttons, located on the top of the Enterprise saucer section behind the bridge…
Once you do, you’ll be mostly happy with the result. The Playmates Enterprise toy’s buttons activate various sounds, but also turn on the lights..
The lights aren’t exactly color accurate to the way the Enterprise looked on the show, but they’re close enough for the main purpose of this toy. That purpose is to have a toy your kids can actually play with without fear of breaking it.
If there’s one thing I’d do differently, it’s to have a button which lets the lights stay on longer. They blink off after only a few seconds.
For kids though, that timed turn-off makes sense. If you have a steady on switch, kids will leave it on, forget it’s on, and drain the batteries in a few minutes. Having the Playmates’ Enterprise toy turn off its lights automatically after a few seconds is a way to save parents battery changes.
Who Is The Playmates Classic Star Trek Enterprise For?
There are two ways you can judge Playmates’ new Classic Star Trek Enterprise: As a replica and as a toy. It should only be judged as as toy.
Playmates new classic Trek ship is clearly and specifically made to be a toy that children can play with. And that’s a great thing, because no one else has bothered to make anything like it in a long, long time. Any other modern Enterprise replica you might find available for purchase is delicate, breakable, and the kind of thing you should never let the fingers of a kid touch. The few that aren’t delicate and breakable tend to look terrible.
This is the first Star Trek ship product in years that manages to look pretty good while at the same time being durable.
The Playmates Classic Star Trek Enterprise is sturdy, strong, and the kind of thing you can woosh around in your bedroom firing off imaginary phaser blasts without breaking the neck of the saucer.
Given that their goal here was to make a playable, non-breakable toy, Playmates has made the best and most faithful Enterprise replica possible within those constraints.
You just can’t have a delicately made deflector dish hanging off the front unless you want to accept that it’ll break off with the mildest touch. So, Playmates made their deflector dish out of hard, hard plastic. It doesn’t look as good, but it will stand up to the pounding your kids might give it, even without raising shields.
Playmates Classic Star Trek Enterprise Is The Toy Trekkie Parents Have Been Waiting For
The Playmates Classic Star Trek Enterprise toy is something Star Trek fandom has needed for a long time: A starship replica they can give to their kids.
With Star Trek now making more of a concerted effort to bring in younger viewers using shows like Star Trek: Prodigy, it’s the perfect time to give Trekkie kids something they can play with. Here it is, make sure it ends up under your child’s Christmas tree.
