The Toys That Made Us (2017) s02e01 Episode Script
Star Trek
1 Pete, we're killing the Hamilton Invaders line.
From now on, we're making these.
They're yellow now? Yeah.
They're from that TV show, Star Track.
It's Star Trek.
And they don't wear helmets.
Duly noted.
Start slapping these labels on 'em.
And put these on the boxes.
Highly illogical.
[narrator.]
When you think about a legendary space franchise that sold billions of toys you think about Star Wars, of course.
Who wouldn't? You're only human.
But hang on, though.
Kevin, this is Scott.
[narrator.]
Its little ginger-haired cousin, Star Trek, actually had a ten-year head start.
I'm sure.
[narrator.]
No, it's true.
But while Star Trek boasts one of the most die-hard fan bases in pop culture, the story of Star Trek toys is filled with more ups and downs than Spock's eyebrows.
It's an almost comical adventure You could bite off the head of Captain Kirk.
[narrator.]
of a franchise desperately in search of a blockbuster toy line.
They had the Enterprise upside down.
I mean, come on.
[narrator.]
Only to be thrown around by dozens of toy companies.
What's been frustrating is the inconsistency of a lot of the product that's been out there.
[narrator.]
They made toys that sometimes had nothing to do with Star Trek Oh, my God.
With the light on the top? [laughs.]
[narrator.]
and others that we wish didn't.
[siren wailing.]
[imitates siren.]
[narrator.]
Join us as we find out how history's most resilient toy line held on by the seat of its plush pants.
These are The Toys that Made Us.
It's an eight-part documentary series About the toys that we all know Plastic creations That last for generations And we still cannot let go Little molded figures That gave us big dreams We'll go back in time And behind the scenes - It's The Toys that Made Us - Toys that Made Us The Toys that Made Us is here [narrator.]
Long before Trekkies trekked, and Klingons klung, there was a man by the name of Gene Roddenberry.
He'd flown World War II bombing missions, traveled the world as a Pan Am pilot [pilot.]
Gentlemen, please fasten your seat belts.
[narrator.]
and even survived a plane crash.
As a cop on the beat of the mean LA streets, Gene was looking for a career change.
My father's life experience, doing all of those things, traveling around the world, getting the perspectives on personalities, religions, ideas, and politics, really gave him this broad perspective of humanity.
[narrator.]
With this worldly perspective, Gene Roddenberry did what anyone would do.
Pitched a TV show set in space, of course.
There had been science fiction, but there hadn't been any science fiction really like that before.
Science fiction was treated like kid stuff.
It was for morons, you know? I mean, it was stupid.
This Star Trek idea was out there, and it was crazy.
A wagon train to the stars.
Zap guns instead of six-shooters.
Spaceships instead of horses.
[narrator.]
An action space Western.
What a great idea.
There was no doubt that that would sell a bunch of toys.
And it did twelve years later.
Sorry, but we will keep doing this.
Back in the real wild west, Hollywood, Star Trek was put into development by, of all people, Lucille Ball and her production company.
My father had a tough time getting the concept sold.
Lucille Ball was the one who was willing to take the risk.
[narrator.]
The risk was producing a television show that was only space Western on the surface, and, in actuality, a thoughtful exploration on the sociopolitical climate of mid-'60s America.
Free at last! Freed? Were we free to be men? [narrator.]
Albeit one anchored by the raw animal magnetism of William Shatner.
Kirk here.
[narrator.]
And the series was greenlit.
But, as for toys, well, as production began, that was the least of their problems.
Budget constraints were a very large factor.
They invented the transporter to get down to the planet.
[narrator.]
Cost-effective? Yes.
But what if the transporter broke? Just one moment.
[Russell Meyers.]
Sulu is freezing on a planet, and you have to wonder why they're not bringing him up with a shuttlecraft.
It's one of the first five episodes.
They didn't have a shuttlecraft yet.
[narrator.]
Beaming Roddenberry out of this pickle was a toy company known as Aluminum Model Toy Company.
They were a patterning company making model kits.
AMT had made the first deal to make toys based on Star Trek, hoping that the show would become big, and that there would be money in making toys based on it.
AMT said, "We'll build you the complete shuttlecraft for free for the rights for AM to put out the Enterprise.
" [narrator.]
Oh, how very enterprising.
Gene Winfield built the shuttle at the AMT speed shop, and it was one amazing-looking prop.
[narrator.]
For a low-budget production, Gene had set the bar high, but not the roof.
[Steve Dymszo.]
It was actually three-quarter size.
That was a way of cost savings because it's movie magic but they can't stand up inside of it.
[narrator.]
AMT were very hopeful that Star Trek would be a hit.
[Kirk.]
Space.
The final frontier.
[narrator.]
And when the first episode premiered in September 1966, reviews were, well, mixed.
When Star Trek first went on the air, it was not a toy phenomenon right away.
Not like [narrator.]
Yeah, yeah.
[Tate.]
Star Wars, that hit big.
[narrator.]
But that doesn't mean there weren't opportunistic toy companies eager to jump on this bandwagon to the stars.
Such as Remco, who, unlike AMT, weren't necessarily making authenticity a priority.
[Drexler.]
They were toys I wouldn't buy.
I mean, they had nothing to do with Star Trek.
I'm not stupid.
[laughs.]
They thought I was, I guess.
Yes, we're aware of that.
[Steven Kelley.]
Remco made tanks and trucks and trains.
They would take existing toys that they already had, and would re-make them into Star Trek, in this case.
[Maria Jose Tenuto.]
They had a line called Hamilton Invaders, and it was about these giant insects that were battling these small soldiers with alien technology.
So, they took the Hamilton Invaders line, and then they just put Star Trek stickers on those items, and then repackage it, and then put the word "astro" in front of it to make it space-worthy.
So, you had Astrocopter, Astrotank.
[laughs.]
It's, like, ridiculous.
But you had these little army figures that were supposed to be Kirk, Scotty, McCoy.
You have Scotty with a bazooka.
What's the matter with that thing? This was called "label slapping.
" Just pissed me off.
[Tate.]
Pretty soon, they were coming out with phasers that shot discs.
[John Tenuto.]
They released the gun in other formats.
It really does not look at all like a phaser.
To me, that was upsetting because I put a lot of time into learning all about the show, reading The Making of Star Trek.
I knew what the props really looked like.
But the model kit was pretty close.
[narrator.]
That's the AMT model kit.
It seemed like their gamble had paid off.
It was the best thing that we had.
[narrator.]
That model kit for the U.
S.
S.
Enterprise made a lot of budding Trekkies very happy indeed.
I still remember vividly opening it up, and being able to be intimate with all the little parts of the Enterprise.
The impulse engines, the intercoolers, you know, where the bridge was.
To actually be able to see these things, I was flipping out.
[narrator.]
And flip them, they did.
The Enterprise model sold over one million units in its first year.
Their success extended into other models, like the Klingon battle cruiser.
And of course, there was also a model of the three-quarter sized Galileo shuttlecraft.
The engineering department shrunk it down to make it into a scale model for a toy.
[narrator.]
Well, shrinking things down was AMT's specialty.
Just look what happened when they branched out to make the genuine U.
S.
S.
Enterprise Exploration Set.
AMT, for some bizarre reason, decided to make it in child-hand size, not in full-scale size.
[Drexler.]
You got the damn thing, and you were like, "What the hell is this?" [laughs.]
But I was still happy, because it was a toy, and you could finally play around with the show that I watched all the time.
[narrator.]
So, just to recap.
Regarding the toys, fans were - I was still happy.
- Yes.
- [narrator.]
Regarding the TV show - I watched all the time.
[narrator.]
But it wasn't enough for Lucille Ball.
The crushing costs of Star Trek's production had proven too much, and she sold her production company.
But with Star Trek's new owner, quality of the toys went backwards at warp speed.
The licensing situation at Paramount was a real mess.
They had no idea, so they licensed any old thing.
They licensed somebody to make a kiddy blackboard, and they had the Enterprise upside down, for God's sake.
[chuckles.]
They had licensed a comic book where the Enterprise could land on a planet.
I mean, come on.
If they'd thought of Klingon bubble bath, they'd have done it.
[chuckles.]
You're just supposed to sit here? Paramount didn't care.
This was a show that was only going to last maybe two, three seasons and then disappear entirely.
[narrator.]
And that is exactly what it did.
After three seasons, NBC canceled Star Trek in early 1969.
We're thinking, "God, this is just terrible.
" [narrator.]
But Star Trek did cling on, so to speak.
- Qapla'! - [narrator.]
And it was largely thanks to something quite unpredictable.
No one could've really predicted that Star Trek in syndication would've risen to the popularity that it did.
[narrator.]
Syndication, if you're wondering, is a fancy way for networks to say, "We're done with this.
Anyone else want to try their luck?" [Kelley.]
It was picked up by different TV stations that aired it in more time-friendly slots and that's when the demand for merchandise exploded.
And by '76, there were Star Trek toys everywhere.
[narrator.]
But the toy companies were up to their old tricks again.
Every conceivable company that produced something wanted to do some Star Trek piece.
If you walked in the door and said, "I want to produce this and put 'Star Trek' on it," they're like, "Great.
" [Dymszo.]
Gene did a lot of back-door deals letting people make things, and he really shouldn't have.
And so, you had Star Trek Freezicles.
Included an actual can of Heinz fruit concentrate.
You could lick Mr.
Spock's ears, I guess.
[Tate.]
A company called Azrak-Hamway came out with toys that were even further divorced from the show.
[John.]
There were the parachuting Kirk and Spock.
You would throw them up in the air, and there was a plastic parachute.
Although Kirk and Spock in the TV show never ever parachute anywhere.
Pull my chute! [narrator.]
He must not be familiar with the Kelvin timeline.
Trekkie stuff.
This is the Remco, 1976, Controlled Space Flight Enterprise.
It's got a fan built in underneath the saucer section.
A lot of toys were like that, where you had a metal rod attached to a helicopter, or in the case of Star Trek, to the Enterprise.
You controlled the Enterprise, you could move it up and down.
You'd power it up.
It lifts.
You pitch it forward.
Not exactly at warp speed, but it'll do for a kid in the '70s.
- [propeller squeaking.]
- [chuckles.]
[narrator.]
Whether you're a fan of toys with fans, or anything else from those good old days, there's one toy that really was the best of the worst.
Something so odd and strange, it's hard to put into words.
Um It's even hard to talk about.
Oh, my God.
With the light on the top? [laughs.]
It was really boldly going where no toy has ever gone before.
[narrator.]
Ladies and gentlemen, may we present [Tate.]
A helmet, for children, with the character Kirk or Spock's name across the forehead, and a siren on top.
[siren wailing.]
I'd love to see Spock wearing that! [laughs.]
- [narrator.]
That can be arranged.
- God, really? Easily the most hilarious Star Trek toy ever released.
Really? [siren wailing.]
[narrator.]
Let the siren continue because Star Trek toys required urgent assistance.
No, sorry.
- [narrator.]
Okay, turn it off.
- [siren stops.]
And help would come from the gritty, crime-filled streets of 1970s New York City.
From this seething pit of immoral un-Star Trek-ness, one toy company had become sick of stocking dime stores with cheap toys, and they were starting to shoot for the stars, literally.
Sports stars.
Pop stars.
TV stars.
But there was more.
Mego really had a brilliant idea, which was to start licensing TV and film franchises for the creation of action figures.
[The Fonz.]
Ay! [narrator.]
But if you thought Fonzie was the coolest man you've ever seen, meet Marty Abrams, toy man.
[narrator.]
This "toy man" was the self-proclaimed Coolest guy on the block.
[narrator.]
And rightly so.
He would go on to bring us the Nintendo Power Glove! Awesome! [announcer.]
Everything else is child's play.
Marty Abrams really is the father of the modern action figure.
This allows me to stay in touch with my feminine side.
[narrator.]
Marty heroically transformed his family business into a multi-million-dollar toy company.
And he revived the superhero toy genre.
[announcer on TV.]
Batman and Robin, the dynamic duo.
[Abrams.]
We made the whole range of DC characters.
Batman, the Joker, Robin.
My son was six or seven years old, he says to me, "Where's Spider-Man?" I said, "Aha!" [announcer on TV.]
Spider-Man, the weird wall-climber.
[Abrams.]
We went out, we got the Marvel license.
And that was really the launch of the superheroes.
And then we got the Fox license when we did Planet of the Apes.
[announcer on TV.]
The Planet of the Apes fortress with sun reflector.
So now we had the three major brands, and they were all rocking and rolling.
[narrator.]
But would Star Trek be rock-and-roll enough for Marty? It had been around for over eight years at this point.
However By 1974, Star Trek was seen as a viable property.
Now there were the conventions and the beginnings of Star Trek fandom.
[narrator.]
There was even a new Saturday morning cartoon, which meant a fresh new generation of kids to market products to.
I just realized that.
[narrator.]
So, where were the toys? It was almost nothing.
[narrator.]
So, it seemed like the stars were aligning for Marty and Star Trek.
Wow.
My key guy was Neal Cublin.
He said, "Marty, we're doing all this stuff.
We've got to go and get Star Trek.
" He comes back and says to me, "Here's the contract.
" I look at the contract, we bought Star Trek for an advance and guarantee of $5,000.
[laughs.]
We did over $50 million in Star Trek business, so you can imagine the joy that we had on that one.
[laughs.]
[announcer on TV.]
Mego presents the Star Trek action figures featuring the crew of the Enterprise.
Initially, they released five figures.
Kirk.
- [Kelley.]
Mr.
Spock.
- [Bellomo.]
Bones.
- [Kelley.]
Mr.
Scott.
- [Bellomo.]
And a Klingon.
They came out with a Lieutenant Uhura, because Barbies were popular.
So you went from what was known as the five-face card to the six-face card, which included Lieutenant Uhura.
Uhura became the perfect positioning for us to expand as well.
One, because she was a woman, and she was the only woman.
And two, because she was a black woman who represented power and strength.
You are away from your post, mister.
The face sculpts of the Mego Star Trek crew members were spectacular.
Kirk looked like Kirk.
Spock looked like Spock.
That's pretty revolutionary for the time period.
[John.]
Figures like the Romulan commander, who looks exactly like Mark Lenard, or the Andorian figure is phenomenally faithful.
Then there are some other figures that are not so faithful to the original designs.
[John.]
The Mugato looks like the Mugato from Star Trek, but a disco outfit on a creature that wears no outfit at all.
It's an ape.
We took some poetic license.
[narrator.]
A poetic license that showed no signs of expiring.
[John.]
The Gorn figure is probably the best example of Mego taking liberties with figures, but also innovative re-use of pre-existing molds and action figures.
In the original Star Trek episode, the Gorn is a green lizard, and he really does not resemble this figure in many ways at all.
The head is actually the Lizard action figure from the Marvel superhero line from Mego.
The body is the body of the General Ursus from Planet of the Apes.
And you see the hair there, of course, because it's an ape hand.
And the outfit is the outfit used by the Klingon action figures.
[narrator.]
And kids hoping for a more authentic Gorn figure had their dreams squashed.
Mego wasn't just crushing it on the action figure front, their Enterprise bridge playset was just as legendary.
[announcer on TV.]
Place Mr.
Spock into the transporter room.
Spin the control knob and press the button.
Mr.
Spock disappears.
Basically they took the idea of the old magician's trick.
You put a character in one place, it spun, and it would disappear.
The playability feature of that bridge playset, including a transporter, shows the innovation and the creativity of the people who worked for Mego.
[narrator.]
The transporter playset was quite a memorable magic trick, and the crowd was hungry for more.
So Marty pulled out of his hat an apple.
It was an interesting episode to choose as a playset.
[Ian Roumain.]
Crew goes down to a planet.
They meet a tribe of um apparently bodybuilders painted red who wear giant blond bouffants that worship a snake head carved out of stone that they call Vaal.
This is fascinating.
[narrator.]
And fun.
[announcer on TV.]
Spock, Bones, Scotty and I beamed down, not knowing what to expect.
We approached the idol.
[Bellomo.]
It was a really peculiar toy, from the idol to the four little plastic aliens that remind me of a barrel of monkeys game.
[announcer on TV.]
And you're the champ.
[Kelley.]
The aliens aren't to scale.
The aliens are these little plastic things that are about three inches tall, so that was a little odd.
And they added features to that playset that wasn't in the episode.
They added a trap door.
They added a glove, where you put your hand in the glove and then you could capture an action figure.
[announcer on TV.]
Mission to Gamma VI was a success.
[narrator.]
And when kids grew tired of letting their eight-inch crew members lead the missions, they could take matters into their own hands.
Kirk to Enterprise.
[Abrams.]
Every show, there was a communicator.
Every show, there was a tricorder.
I said "Aha!" [announcer on TV.]
It's the Star Trek tricorder, complete with a Star Trek cassette adventure.
The Mego versions of the phaser, tricorder, and communicator, were aimed at a child's sensibilities for play.
- I got the tape from Johnny.
- Get the tricorder.
The tricorder was an actual tape recorder.
You could record sound on it just like Captain Kirk recording his captain's log on the show.
The only drawback is it weighs a ton.
[chuckles.]
[announcer on TV.]
The Star Trek Super Phaser II Target Game.
[Kelley.]
Basically, what you got was a very earlier version of laser tag.
One phaser and one target.
- You missed! - [phaser beeps.]
[boy.]
I hit the target.
[Kelley.]
And basically, you were dead.
You got shot.
Or stunned, I'm sorry.
Which is actually a very cool toy for the time.
Kevin, this is Scott.
Kevin, this is Scott.
Do you hear me? Over and out.
The communicator was a walkie-talkie.
It has a passing resemblance to the prop used on the show, but it's not terribly accurate.
Has this incredibly long antenna.
It doesn't look much like a communicator that Captain Kirk would use.
- You'd turn it on, flip open the lid.
- [siren sounds.]
You'd get that horrible, horrible, red alert sound.
I still remember seeing that commercial with the kid.
[siren sounding.]
[shudders.]
[woman.]
Press the bottom button, it opens.
[siren sounding.]
Yeah.
[imitates siren.]
[narrator.]
By the late '70s, Marty and Mego were flying high.
Mego's Star Trek was through the roof.
Of course, any Star Trek collecting really begins and ends with Mego.
[narrator.]
Marty had revived Star Trek toys, made millions of dollars, and he did it all for a $5,000 investment.
That was a trip.
[narrator.]
But all trips come to an end.
Because a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away Hollywood 20th Century Fox had greenlit a sci-fi project that promised to be a Western set in space.
Sound familiar? Spaceships instead of horses.
[echoes.]
[narrator.]
And it was up to a man named Marc Pevers to cut a toy deal for this other wagon train to the stars, and the first person he called was Marty.
[Pevers.]
I called Marty because Fox had a good experience selling Planet of the Apes toys with Mego.
That was because there was a Planet of the Apes television series - that was very successful.
- [ape grunts.]
[narrator.]
So surely, making this deal would be a no-brainer.
Marty had his head in the sand to be blunt.
I mean, he wasn't even interested.
Just to clarify all the myths that went down about who turned it down Nobody turned down Star Wars.
That was totally false.
He was just interested in what's the latest Fox hit TV series.
He said, "I need another Six Million Dollar Man.
" I happen to have been in the Orient.
All these excuses came.
"I was in Hong Kong.
" "My secretary didn't give me your letter.
" Our lawyer said, "Marty's not here.
Come back, and I'm sure he'll want to do something with you.
" His attitude was rather arrogant.
I don't say abusive.
I mean, he didn't use any swear words, but it was very arrogant.
[muttering.]
[narrator.]
Mego was clearly a no-go.
And so, Marc went on to sell one of the most profitable toy lines in history to someone else.
It's Kenner! It's fun! [narrator.]
But Marty only has himself to blame.
I was the one who made the final decision on what brands we were gonna license.
Period.
Over and out.
[narrator.]
But really, who can blame him? Toys based on movies hadn't worked at all up until this point.
So, why would Star Wars suddenly be a direct hit? There was no film.
It wasn't like you had a trailer you were going to see.
There wasn't like, you know, Harrison Ford was the next greatest star there ever was and this was going to be the next boom, boom, boom.
It was just a couple of pictures that they had.
[narrator.]
Sadly, for Marty, it would become very much the next "boom, boom, boom.
" A "number one franchise of all time" type boom.
No one knew the phenomenon it would become.
It was a Hail Mary.
[narrator.]
The impact Star Wars toys would have on Star Trek toys and the Mego company was profound.
We at that time controlled 75% of the male action.
When that came out, we dropped to 30%.
[boy.]
The Force is with me! Our sales went from 150 million down to 50 million.
We did everything we could do.
We danced as fast as we could.
Star Wars put a dagger in the heart.
We just couldn't figure a way how to pull the dagger out and heal ourselves up fast enough.
[man.]
Tell me how you felt then.
You want me to go back and examine my feelings 40 years later? - You got a rope? - [both laugh.]
[sighs.]
[narrator.]
But it wasn't all doom and gloom.
Star Wars unfurled its sandy coat tails for all to grab on to.
[Bellomo.]
After Star Wars came out, almost every major toy company was snatching up sci-fi toy lines like crazy.
[narrator.]
And every major studio was desperate to cash in on sci-fi movies, too.
One day, the president of Paramount got a call from on high, literally on high, the chairman of Gulf and Western was in the corporate jet, and said, "This Star Wars thing is real big.
Don't we own something like that?" Merchandising department at Paramount finally woke up and realized maybe they had a gold mine here.
[narrator.]
Two years after Star Wars changed the world, Star Trek: The Motion Picture hit the screen.
And this time, Paramount and Roddenberry were keen to cash in on the toys.
They turned to the man with the toy license.
Marty Abrams, toy man.
[crowd cheering.]
[narrator.]
When the film hit the big screen, it performed light-years short of its projected potential.
And neither the box office nor the toys made by Mego got the windfall they'd hoped for.
Roddenberry had resisted the urge to learn from Star Wars, with its rag-tag bunch of unpolished misfits, chopping arms and shooting first.
Yes, I'll bet you have.
[narrator.]
It instead stuck to a polished, low-action script.
Oh, my God.
[narrator.]
With a leisurely-paced run time [slowly.]
of two hours and 25 minutes.
[echoes.]
[Abrams.]
They didn't know who their market was.
The adult Trekkie, or the kid going to the movies.
And they missed both targets.
[narrator.]
It was the final blow for Marty.
And times were getting desperate for the once giant of the business.
It's heart-wrenching.
Uh You know How do I put this in perspective? [narrator.]
Well, from the perspective of the company, Mego filed for bankruptcy.
And from the perspective of the district court of Manhattan, it looked like there'd been sketchy things going on behind closed doors at Mego.
We did a couple things that were not exactly over the line, but they were close.
[narrator.]
Unfortunately for Marty, the judge disagreed.
He was convicted of 15 counts of wire fraud, one count of obstruction of justice, and one count of false filing of federal income tax returns.
The company went under.
They owed quite a bit of money to quite a few people.
So, a very tragic end to one of the more remarkable and most powerful toy company of the 1970s.
Things happen.
[narrator.]
As the maestro of Mego set out on his minimum-security vacation, Star Trek was given a get-out-of-jail-free card in the form of a second movie.
But the big names kept falling.
Gene Roddenberry was pushed out of the sequel's production after being blamed for the first film's less-than-stellar reception.
With its highbrow creator out, could Star Trek finally be free to get down and dirty? And the answer was yes! Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan came flying into cinemas with every bit of phaser shooting Fire! [narrator.]
spaceship-destroying action it needed.
And finally, Star Trek had a hit.
I don't like to lose.
[narrator.]
And as for the toys, well, they didn't make any.
They were nervous about manufacturing any toys for The Wrath of Khan, so they didn't.
The movie comes out.
It's very well-received.
There are no action figures.
Khan! So, Ertl picked up the license based on the success of Wrath of Khan for Star Trek III.
[Roumain.]
While the movie was well-received, it wasn't as big a success as Star Trek II had been.
Son of a bitch.
No one buys the action figures.
[narrator.]
This see-sawing missing of the mark became the norm over the next few years as Paramount continued to make Star Trek movies.
It was kind of a strange cycle where they couldn't get it right.
They couldn't invest in the toys for the right movie at the right time.
[Kirk.]
Like a poor marksman, you keep missing the target.
[narrator.]
And there's something very odd about that.
Even number films are the popular films.
The odd number films are reviled.
Please, Captain.
Not in front of the Klingons.
[narrator.]
Reviled, odd, hits and misses.
Star Trek toys were kind of in a strange almost-limbo for a number of years.
[narrator.]
While the toy makers of the '80s were bending over backwards to try and crack the complex secret to Star Trek success, in 1987, something big was about to happen to Star Trek.
In fact It's the biggest thing to happen to sci-fi, ever! [narrator.]
Star Trek: The Next Generation was exactly what Star Trek needed to Engage.
[narrator.]
the next generation.
Hello, stranger.
[narrator.]
Many of whom are represented here in these spontaneous remarks.
- I love the characters.
- I love the aliens.
I love the special effects.
Captain Picard is my man.
Beverly.
[narrator.]
Well, Picard did get around.
Yes, Jean-Luc? [narrator.]
Star Trek: The Next Generation was the perfect balance of intellect, action, drama Venting drive plasma.
[narrator.]
and humor.
There was a young lady from Venus, - whose body was shaped like a - Captain to security, come in.
I don't understand their humor either.
[narrator.]
So, which toy company would Paramount choose to give this sophisticated science fiction the thoughtful care that the fans deserve? Enter Galoob and their cherished toy The Jolly Chimp.
[screeches.]
[narrator.]
Perfect.
But from the outset, Galoob made a blunder.
[David Galoob.]
We did not think Star Trek was a license for adults.
[narrator.]
He couldn't have been more wrong.
I love this show! We thought the Star Trek license would sell to kids.
[Tate.]
Galoob came out with figures in the Star Wars scale, with permanently-molded phasers in their hands.
You know, they really didn't do a very good job.
[John.]
Their Data figure had production errors.
There was a Data that looked like Data from the show.
Then there was a Data that had human-colored skin.
And then there was a Data that had a blue-speckled look to the face.
It just wasn't good product.
[narrator.]
So, surprise, surprise.
It just never really hit its stride at retail.
Never was anything like And, ultimately, we dropped it.
[narrator.]
Removing Galoob's monkey wrench from the works, Playmates was the next company to board the Enterprise.
They'd been around since the mid-'60s, and were known for producing Disney toys, a talking doll named Cricket I'll be talking to ya.
[narrator.]
and the cowabunga classic, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
But the toy makers here weren't exploring strange new worlds.
For them, Star Trek was like coming home.
[Steve Varner.]
Because I grew up with Star Trek characters, we were all happy because we knew we could do something a lot better with it.
[narrator.]
But talking big wasn't their only asset.
Energize.
[Karl Aaronian.]
Timing is everything.
So by the time we did Star Trek, the audience had really reached its maximum size and it was hungry for product.
Star Trek: The Next Generation on videocassette for $1.
95? I'll take it.
[Aaronian.]
So it really gave us a great opportunity, and it paid off.
It was the biggest and most successful Star Trek line ever.
[announcer.]
Star Trek: The Next Generation action figures from Playmates.
[narrator.]
Playmates did something that no other large company in the history of Star Trek toys had worked out how to do.
They found their target market.
From the beginning, we said, "Okay, listen.
We've got to appeal to those hardcore fans.
" Otherwise, you don't have anything.
- [device beeping.]
- Dr.
McCoy, this is Captain Kirk.
The frustration that I've had was that the toy companies never seemed to get it right.
[narrator.]
Who can forget this? - [siren sounding.]
- [imitates siren.]
With Star Trek, you have a fanatical following who notices every little detail.
[narrator.]
So, Playmates detailed a plan to make accurate toys for collectors, and kids, who would get details whether they wanted them or not.
[Kelley.]
They released the phaser.
This is the first time you could actually hold a screen-accurate phaser.
Fans went nuts.
[Tate.]
They came out with this model of the Galileo shuttlecraft from the original show.
And they've tried to strike a balance between a model of a spacecraft and a playable toy.
Captain Kirk can sit in his pilot seat.
They really seemed to preserve the play value.
Children would still be able to play with them.
Adults would be able to collect them.
And that's where the Star Trek collecting of toys phenomenon began.
[narrator.]
Playmates was sitting comfortably in the captain's chair, and with new series like Deep Space Nine and Voyager to build on, they set their phasers to stun.
Oops.
Wrong setting.
They decided to make characters from every single conceivable corner of the Borg ship-shaped universe.
There was really never a repeat of the same character in the same outfit.
If you got multiple Kirks, it was always a Kirk in a different outfit.
[narrator.]
They even made characters that were barely featured on screen.
A Vorgon alien that gets a walk-on part? A figure.
That episode where Tom Paris becomes a salamander? A figure, of course.
[Aaronian.]
Some of them may be really tertiary.
And if they're in one episode out of hundreds, yeah, they're not going to sell as well.
But you know what? You still have to offer that freshness in the line.
[narrator.]
But that push to create hundreds of figures, with the collector in mind, was about to cause completion issues.
Playmates began marketing more exclusively towards collectors.
They made limited editions, and store exclusives.
They had an idea to release, what was called the 1701 exclusive line.
These were three action figures that were going to be limited in number.
There were only going to be 1,701 of each of those produced.
[narrator.]
And if you're wondering why 1701? Well, it's the Enterprise's ship number.
Some of the Captain Picard figures had sold almost 100,000 figures.
So you have a huge portion of collectors who all of a sudden are not going to have a complete collection.
It also truly pissed the fans off.
Because if you're a completist and you weren't able to find one of those, you felt incomplete.
If they're not going to have a complete collection, they kind of stopped collecting.
The Playmates line, in essence, was a victim of its exclusivity idea.
They tried to make it up to collectors by bumping up the production numbers to 3,000.
That didn't really work.
By that time, the damage had been done.
Oh, shit.
[narrator.]
The team at Playmates were Trekkies, but they were also businessies.
They had to make money for their company.
So, after making more than 400 figures, Playmates wanted out, leaving Paramount with no one to make their Star Trek toys.
And after nearly 40 years, and almost as many toy makers, they'd finally realized that choosing the right toy maker was important for selling toys.
It's funny.
They kind of put us through the trenches in terms of our Star Trek knowledge.
They asked, "How many" "windows are on the Enterprise?" I don't know the answer.
[laughs.]
The sad part is I knew.
There are 3,237 windows.
Precisely.
[narrator.]
But, it's not just the intimate knowledge of windows that the Art Asylum team had.
Just look at this figure of Spock.
Art Asylum figures are much more accurately sculpted to resemble the characters, and are covered with rubber clothing in some cases, and accessories that are carefully modeled off of the items seen in the show.
[narrator.]
The Star Trek license had been through a lot of hands.
But, now, thanks to Art Asylum, who would later become Diamond Select, the toys literally have a lot of hands.
And heads, for that matter.
You know, you want to have those options, to swap out a head or a hand.
First things first.
I've got hurt Khan, Spock with radiation burns, the assimilation Picard.
I've got Kirk screaming Khan! "Khan!" I've got a lot of heads.
[narrator.]
Diamond Select have put so much care and craftsmanship into their toys that they could almost be considered works of art.
Yet, with their elite status in the Star Trek world, they boldly go where every other toy company has gone before.
- Here's a communicator.
- [communicator chirping.]
It even has a spinning moiré pattern here, just like the props did.
This is a Diamond Select Toys phaser.
[narrator.]
But that phaser was so good that it was actually used in an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise.
They said, "But don't worry about it, 'cause it's not going to get any close-up shots.
" And, of course, there's a scene where Archer's threatening this alien, and he goes like this.
A lot of people like to collect this because it technically is "a screen-used prop" now.
[narrator.]
Then, of course, the all-important ships.
[Jesus.]
We love some of the work that was done previous.
But we thought, "Wouldn't it be cool to up the level of detail?" [Dymszo.]
We went from these very rough, sort-of-looks-like-toys to almost model quality.
You can [recorded voice.]
Continue to fire all phasers.
[phasers firing.]
[narrator.]
And now, with the all-new Star Trek: Discovery having premiered, fans are ready to grab the next next-generation of characters and ships for their collections.
But with the bar raised higher than ever, they don't just want the highest quality, they expect it.
We have been waiting for someone worthy of our attention.
[narrator.]
Which is why newer licensees such as McFarlane and Eaglemoss have their work cut out for them.
Do we now need to make sure that we hit all the marks and get all the detail of everything? Yes, everything.
And that's not just the likeness, which to me, has to be there.
And if you miss even one little piece of that component [imitates slapping.]
they slap you and let you know.
[narrator.]
After over a half a century, Star Trek toys are finally in good hands.
Now, future generations can continue to enjoy plastic representations of Trek's biggest star.
Not Kirk.
Not Picard.
Not that boy who played Wesley.
Definitely not Salamander Tom Paris.
Star Trek's biggest star, and most iconic toy, has always been the mighty U.
S.
S.
Enterprise.
The Enterprise was just such a feeling of home, you know, of comfort.
Every time it would appear from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and even the old television show, it's like you heard the theme song.
You heard the music.
It was always this triumphant thing.
But the look of it was just so iconic and cool.
[McFarlane.]
It was staggering how far ahead of the curve it was, because everything looked like big, giant cigars with windows.
Impossibly, that big saucer should've been making it lean forward.
It was so odd, it was cool.
One morning, I decided to build one of these model Enterprises we had lying around.
I spray-painted it, and it was reflective silver.
And I gave it to my father.
And they actually used it on the set of Next Generation.
[Drexler.]
There are astronauts, scientists, who bought that AMT model kit as a kid, probably bought more than one, and painted that thing up, and hung it from their ceiling, and dreamed about going to the moon, Mars.
And they're doing it.
[narrator.]
From modern-day technical wonders to that original AMT model kit, the ship has faced the hardships of deep space with bravery and a fearless drive to allow everyone to dream Oh.
Oh.
Red alert.
[narrator.]
and destroy, if they so choose.
I destroyed the Enterprise.
What have I done? [narrator.]
The man who was responsible for it all, passed away in 1991.
Gene Roddenberry accomplished what every other artist, every other creator, just dreams about.
Create an idea and have it outlive your life.
[narrator.]
And that idea has gone on to change the lives of millions.
It's a very unique property, because it's a property created with a morality.
You had the first woman lead character.
You had the first black captain.
You had that first interracial kiss on national television.
Pretty breakthrough stuff.
[narrator.]
In many ways, the ideals that Gene Roddenberry had strived for when he created Star Trek back in the '60s are perfectly represented in this hodgepodge, diverse bunch of toys and toy makers.
Things happen.
[narrator.]
These toys require the acceptance, and the understanding that sometimes, things can be just a little bit different.
[siren wailing.]
[narrator.]
When it comes to Star Trek toys, we love them all just the way they are.
Level it off.
And set her down.
- [siren sounding.]
- [imitates siren.]
[narrator.]
Although, that one is pretty hard to like.
- [siren continues.]
- Shut off that damn noise! [narrator.]
Make it so.
[theme song playing.]
From now on, we're making these.
They're yellow now? Yeah.
They're from that TV show, Star Track.
It's Star Trek.
And they don't wear helmets.
Duly noted.
Start slapping these labels on 'em.
And put these on the boxes.
Highly illogical.
[narrator.]
When you think about a legendary space franchise that sold billions of toys you think about Star Wars, of course.
Who wouldn't? You're only human.
But hang on, though.
Kevin, this is Scott.
[narrator.]
Its little ginger-haired cousin, Star Trek, actually had a ten-year head start.
I'm sure.
[narrator.]
No, it's true.
But while Star Trek boasts one of the most die-hard fan bases in pop culture, the story of Star Trek toys is filled with more ups and downs than Spock's eyebrows.
It's an almost comical adventure You could bite off the head of Captain Kirk.
[narrator.]
of a franchise desperately in search of a blockbuster toy line.
They had the Enterprise upside down.
I mean, come on.
[narrator.]
Only to be thrown around by dozens of toy companies.
What's been frustrating is the inconsistency of a lot of the product that's been out there.
[narrator.]
They made toys that sometimes had nothing to do with Star Trek Oh, my God.
With the light on the top? [laughs.]
[narrator.]
and others that we wish didn't.
[siren wailing.]
[imitates siren.]
[narrator.]
Join us as we find out how history's most resilient toy line held on by the seat of its plush pants.
These are The Toys that Made Us.
It's an eight-part documentary series About the toys that we all know Plastic creations That last for generations And we still cannot let go Little molded figures That gave us big dreams We'll go back in time And behind the scenes - It's The Toys that Made Us - Toys that Made Us The Toys that Made Us is here [narrator.]
Long before Trekkies trekked, and Klingons klung, there was a man by the name of Gene Roddenberry.
He'd flown World War II bombing missions, traveled the world as a Pan Am pilot [pilot.]
Gentlemen, please fasten your seat belts.
[narrator.]
and even survived a plane crash.
As a cop on the beat of the mean LA streets, Gene was looking for a career change.
My father's life experience, doing all of those things, traveling around the world, getting the perspectives on personalities, religions, ideas, and politics, really gave him this broad perspective of humanity.
[narrator.]
With this worldly perspective, Gene Roddenberry did what anyone would do.
Pitched a TV show set in space, of course.
There had been science fiction, but there hadn't been any science fiction really like that before.
Science fiction was treated like kid stuff.
It was for morons, you know? I mean, it was stupid.
This Star Trek idea was out there, and it was crazy.
A wagon train to the stars.
Zap guns instead of six-shooters.
Spaceships instead of horses.
[narrator.]
An action space Western.
What a great idea.
There was no doubt that that would sell a bunch of toys.
And it did twelve years later.
Sorry, but we will keep doing this.
Back in the real wild west, Hollywood, Star Trek was put into development by, of all people, Lucille Ball and her production company.
My father had a tough time getting the concept sold.
Lucille Ball was the one who was willing to take the risk.
[narrator.]
The risk was producing a television show that was only space Western on the surface, and, in actuality, a thoughtful exploration on the sociopolitical climate of mid-'60s America.
Free at last! Freed? Were we free to be men? [narrator.]
Albeit one anchored by the raw animal magnetism of William Shatner.
Kirk here.
[narrator.]
And the series was greenlit.
But, as for toys, well, as production began, that was the least of their problems.
Budget constraints were a very large factor.
They invented the transporter to get down to the planet.
[narrator.]
Cost-effective? Yes.
But what if the transporter broke? Just one moment.
[Russell Meyers.]
Sulu is freezing on a planet, and you have to wonder why they're not bringing him up with a shuttlecraft.
It's one of the first five episodes.
They didn't have a shuttlecraft yet.
[narrator.]
Beaming Roddenberry out of this pickle was a toy company known as Aluminum Model Toy Company.
They were a patterning company making model kits.
AMT had made the first deal to make toys based on Star Trek, hoping that the show would become big, and that there would be money in making toys based on it.
AMT said, "We'll build you the complete shuttlecraft for free for the rights for AM to put out the Enterprise.
" [narrator.]
Oh, how very enterprising.
Gene Winfield built the shuttle at the AMT speed shop, and it was one amazing-looking prop.
[narrator.]
For a low-budget production, Gene had set the bar high, but not the roof.
[Steve Dymszo.]
It was actually three-quarter size.
That was a way of cost savings because it's movie magic but they can't stand up inside of it.
[narrator.]
AMT were very hopeful that Star Trek would be a hit.
[Kirk.]
Space.
The final frontier.
[narrator.]
And when the first episode premiered in September 1966, reviews were, well, mixed.
When Star Trek first went on the air, it was not a toy phenomenon right away.
Not like [narrator.]
Yeah, yeah.
[Tate.]
Star Wars, that hit big.
[narrator.]
But that doesn't mean there weren't opportunistic toy companies eager to jump on this bandwagon to the stars.
Such as Remco, who, unlike AMT, weren't necessarily making authenticity a priority.
[Drexler.]
They were toys I wouldn't buy.
I mean, they had nothing to do with Star Trek.
I'm not stupid.
[laughs.]
They thought I was, I guess.
Yes, we're aware of that.
[Steven Kelley.]
Remco made tanks and trucks and trains.
They would take existing toys that they already had, and would re-make them into Star Trek, in this case.
[Maria Jose Tenuto.]
They had a line called Hamilton Invaders, and it was about these giant insects that were battling these small soldiers with alien technology.
So, they took the Hamilton Invaders line, and then they just put Star Trek stickers on those items, and then repackage it, and then put the word "astro" in front of it to make it space-worthy.
So, you had Astrocopter, Astrotank.
[laughs.]
It's, like, ridiculous.
But you had these little army figures that were supposed to be Kirk, Scotty, McCoy.
You have Scotty with a bazooka.
What's the matter with that thing? This was called "label slapping.
" Just pissed me off.
[Tate.]
Pretty soon, they were coming out with phasers that shot discs.
[John Tenuto.]
They released the gun in other formats.
It really does not look at all like a phaser.
To me, that was upsetting because I put a lot of time into learning all about the show, reading The Making of Star Trek.
I knew what the props really looked like.
But the model kit was pretty close.
[narrator.]
That's the AMT model kit.
It seemed like their gamble had paid off.
It was the best thing that we had.
[narrator.]
That model kit for the U.
S.
S.
Enterprise made a lot of budding Trekkies very happy indeed.
I still remember vividly opening it up, and being able to be intimate with all the little parts of the Enterprise.
The impulse engines, the intercoolers, you know, where the bridge was.
To actually be able to see these things, I was flipping out.
[narrator.]
And flip them, they did.
The Enterprise model sold over one million units in its first year.
Their success extended into other models, like the Klingon battle cruiser.
And of course, there was also a model of the three-quarter sized Galileo shuttlecraft.
The engineering department shrunk it down to make it into a scale model for a toy.
[narrator.]
Well, shrinking things down was AMT's specialty.
Just look what happened when they branched out to make the genuine U.
S.
S.
Enterprise Exploration Set.
AMT, for some bizarre reason, decided to make it in child-hand size, not in full-scale size.
[Drexler.]
You got the damn thing, and you were like, "What the hell is this?" [laughs.]
But I was still happy, because it was a toy, and you could finally play around with the show that I watched all the time.
[narrator.]
So, just to recap.
Regarding the toys, fans were - I was still happy.
- Yes.
- [narrator.]
Regarding the TV show - I watched all the time.
[narrator.]
But it wasn't enough for Lucille Ball.
The crushing costs of Star Trek's production had proven too much, and she sold her production company.
But with Star Trek's new owner, quality of the toys went backwards at warp speed.
The licensing situation at Paramount was a real mess.
They had no idea, so they licensed any old thing.
They licensed somebody to make a kiddy blackboard, and they had the Enterprise upside down, for God's sake.
[chuckles.]
They had licensed a comic book where the Enterprise could land on a planet.
I mean, come on.
If they'd thought of Klingon bubble bath, they'd have done it.
[chuckles.]
You're just supposed to sit here? Paramount didn't care.
This was a show that was only going to last maybe two, three seasons and then disappear entirely.
[narrator.]
And that is exactly what it did.
After three seasons, NBC canceled Star Trek in early 1969.
We're thinking, "God, this is just terrible.
" [narrator.]
But Star Trek did cling on, so to speak.
- Qapla'! - [narrator.]
And it was largely thanks to something quite unpredictable.
No one could've really predicted that Star Trek in syndication would've risen to the popularity that it did.
[narrator.]
Syndication, if you're wondering, is a fancy way for networks to say, "We're done with this.
Anyone else want to try their luck?" [Kelley.]
It was picked up by different TV stations that aired it in more time-friendly slots and that's when the demand for merchandise exploded.
And by '76, there were Star Trek toys everywhere.
[narrator.]
But the toy companies were up to their old tricks again.
Every conceivable company that produced something wanted to do some Star Trek piece.
If you walked in the door and said, "I want to produce this and put 'Star Trek' on it," they're like, "Great.
" [Dymszo.]
Gene did a lot of back-door deals letting people make things, and he really shouldn't have.
And so, you had Star Trek Freezicles.
Included an actual can of Heinz fruit concentrate.
You could lick Mr.
Spock's ears, I guess.
[Tate.]
A company called Azrak-Hamway came out with toys that were even further divorced from the show.
[John.]
There were the parachuting Kirk and Spock.
You would throw them up in the air, and there was a plastic parachute.
Although Kirk and Spock in the TV show never ever parachute anywhere.
Pull my chute! [narrator.]
He must not be familiar with the Kelvin timeline.
Trekkie stuff.
This is the Remco, 1976, Controlled Space Flight Enterprise.
It's got a fan built in underneath the saucer section.
A lot of toys were like that, where you had a metal rod attached to a helicopter, or in the case of Star Trek, to the Enterprise.
You controlled the Enterprise, you could move it up and down.
You'd power it up.
It lifts.
You pitch it forward.
Not exactly at warp speed, but it'll do for a kid in the '70s.
- [propeller squeaking.]
- [chuckles.]
[narrator.]
Whether you're a fan of toys with fans, or anything else from those good old days, there's one toy that really was the best of the worst.
Something so odd and strange, it's hard to put into words.
Um It's even hard to talk about.
Oh, my God.
With the light on the top? [laughs.]
It was really boldly going where no toy has ever gone before.
[narrator.]
Ladies and gentlemen, may we present [Tate.]
A helmet, for children, with the character Kirk or Spock's name across the forehead, and a siren on top.
[siren wailing.]
I'd love to see Spock wearing that! [laughs.]
- [narrator.]
That can be arranged.
- God, really? Easily the most hilarious Star Trek toy ever released.
Really? [siren wailing.]
[narrator.]
Let the siren continue because Star Trek toys required urgent assistance.
No, sorry.
- [narrator.]
Okay, turn it off.
- [siren stops.]
And help would come from the gritty, crime-filled streets of 1970s New York City.
From this seething pit of immoral un-Star Trek-ness, one toy company had become sick of stocking dime stores with cheap toys, and they were starting to shoot for the stars, literally.
Sports stars.
Pop stars.
TV stars.
But there was more.
Mego really had a brilliant idea, which was to start licensing TV and film franchises for the creation of action figures.
[The Fonz.]
Ay! [narrator.]
But if you thought Fonzie was the coolest man you've ever seen, meet Marty Abrams, toy man.
[narrator.]
This "toy man" was the self-proclaimed Coolest guy on the block.
[narrator.]
And rightly so.
He would go on to bring us the Nintendo Power Glove! Awesome! [announcer.]
Everything else is child's play.
Marty Abrams really is the father of the modern action figure.
This allows me to stay in touch with my feminine side.
[narrator.]
Marty heroically transformed his family business into a multi-million-dollar toy company.
And he revived the superhero toy genre.
[announcer on TV.]
Batman and Robin, the dynamic duo.
[Abrams.]
We made the whole range of DC characters.
Batman, the Joker, Robin.
My son was six or seven years old, he says to me, "Where's Spider-Man?" I said, "Aha!" [announcer on TV.]
Spider-Man, the weird wall-climber.
[Abrams.]
We went out, we got the Marvel license.
And that was really the launch of the superheroes.
And then we got the Fox license when we did Planet of the Apes.
[announcer on TV.]
The Planet of the Apes fortress with sun reflector.
So now we had the three major brands, and they were all rocking and rolling.
[narrator.]
But would Star Trek be rock-and-roll enough for Marty? It had been around for over eight years at this point.
However By 1974, Star Trek was seen as a viable property.
Now there were the conventions and the beginnings of Star Trek fandom.
[narrator.]
There was even a new Saturday morning cartoon, which meant a fresh new generation of kids to market products to.
I just realized that.
[narrator.]
So, where were the toys? It was almost nothing.
[narrator.]
So, it seemed like the stars were aligning for Marty and Star Trek.
Wow.
My key guy was Neal Cublin.
He said, "Marty, we're doing all this stuff.
We've got to go and get Star Trek.
" He comes back and says to me, "Here's the contract.
" I look at the contract, we bought Star Trek for an advance and guarantee of $5,000.
[laughs.]
We did over $50 million in Star Trek business, so you can imagine the joy that we had on that one.
[laughs.]
[announcer on TV.]
Mego presents the Star Trek action figures featuring the crew of the Enterprise.
Initially, they released five figures.
Kirk.
- [Kelley.]
Mr.
Spock.
- [Bellomo.]
Bones.
- [Kelley.]
Mr.
Scott.
- [Bellomo.]
And a Klingon.
They came out with a Lieutenant Uhura, because Barbies were popular.
So you went from what was known as the five-face card to the six-face card, which included Lieutenant Uhura.
Uhura became the perfect positioning for us to expand as well.
One, because she was a woman, and she was the only woman.
And two, because she was a black woman who represented power and strength.
You are away from your post, mister.
The face sculpts of the Mego Star Trek crew members were spectacular.
Kirk looked like Kirk.
Spock looked like Spock.
That's pretty revolutionary for the time period.
[John.]
Figures like the Romulan commander, who looks exactly like Mark Lenard, or the Andorian figure is phenomenally faithful.
Then there are some other figures that are not so faithful to the original designs.
[John.]
The Mugato looks like the Mugato from Star Trek, but a disco outfit on a creature that wears no outfit at all.
It's an ape.
We took some poetic license.
[narrator.]
A poetic license that showed no signs of expiring.
[John.]
The Gorn figure is probably the best example of Mego taking liberties with figures, but also innovative re-use of pre-existing molds and action figures.
In the original Star Trek episode, the Gorn is a green lizard, and he really does not resemble this figure in many ways at all.
The head is actually the Lizard action figure from the Marvel superhero line from Mego.
The body is the body of the General Ursus from Planet of the Apes.
And you see the hair there, of course, because it's an ape hand.
And the outfit is the outfit used by the Klingon action figures.
[narrator.]
And kids hoping for a more authentic Gorn figure had their dreams squashed.
Mego wasn't just crushing it on the action figure front, their Enterprise bridge playset was just as legendary.
[announcer on TV.]
Place Mr.
Spock into the transporter room.
Spin the control knob and press the button.
Mr.
Spock disappears.
Basically they took the idea of the old magician's trick.
You put a character in one place, it spun, and it would disappear.
The playability feature of that bridge playset, including a transporter, shows the innovation and the creativity of the people who worked for Mego.
[narrator.]
The transporter playset was quite a memorable magic trick, and the crowd was hungry for more.
So Marty pulled out of his hat an apple.
It was an interesting episode to choose as a playset.
[Ian Roumain.]
Crew goes down to a planet.
They meet a tribe of um apparently bodybuilders painted red who wear giant blond bouffants that worship a snake head carved out of stone that they call Vaal.
This is fascinating.
[narrator.]
And fun.
[announcer on TV.]
Spock, Bones, Scotty and I beamed down, not knowing what to expect.
We approached the idol.
[Bellomo.]
It was a really peculiar toy, from the idol to the four little plastic aliens that remind me of a barrel of monkeys game.
[announcer on TV.]
And you're the champ.
[Kelley.]
The aliens aren't to scale.
The aliens are these little plastic things that are about three inches tall, so that was a little odd.
And they added features to that playset that wasn't in the episode.
They added a trap door.
They added a glove, where you put your hand in the glove and then you could capture an action figure.
[announcer on TV.]
Mission to Gamma VI was a success.
[narrator.]
And when kids grew tired of letting their eight-inch crew members lead the missions, they could take matters into their own hands.
Kirk to Enterprise.
[Abrams.]
Every show, there was a communicator.
Every show, there was a tricorder.
I said "Aha!" [announcer on TV.]
It's the Star Trek tricorder, complete with a Star Trek cassette adventure.
The Mego versions of the phaser, tricorder, and communicator, were aimed at a child's sensibilities for play.
- I got the tape from Johnny.
- Get the tricorder.
The tricorder was an actual tape recorder.
You could record sound on it just like Captain Kirk recording his captain's log on the show.
The only drawback is it weighs a ton.
[chuckles.]
[announcer on TV.]
The Star Trek Super Phaser II Target Game.
[Kelley.]
Basically, what you got was a very earlier version of laser tag.
One phaser and one target.
- You missed! - [phaser beeps.]
[boy.]
I hit the target.
[Kelley.]
And basically, you were dead.
You got shot.
Or stunned, I'm sorry.
Which is actually a very cool toy for the time.
Kevin, this is Scott.
Kevin, this is Scott.
Do you hear me? Over and out.
The communicator was a walkie-talkie.
It has a passing resemblance to the prop used on the show, but it's not terribly accurate.
Has this incredibly long antenna.
It doesn't look much like a communicator that Captain Kirk would use.
- You'd turn it on, flip open the lid.
- [siren sounds.]
You'd get that horrible, horrible, red alert sound.
I still remember seeing that commercial with the kid.
[siren sounding.]
[shudders.]
[woman.]
Press the bottom button, it opens.
[siren sounding.]
Yeah.
[imitates siren.]
[narrator.]
By the late '70s, Marty and Mego were flying high.
Mego's Star Trek was through the roof.
Of course, any Star Trek collecting really begins and ends with Mego.
[narrator.]
Marty had revived Star Trek toys, made millions of dollars, and he did it all for a $5,000 investment.
That was a trip.
[narrator.]
But all trips come to an end.
Because a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away Hollywood 20th Century Fox had greenlit a sci-fi project that promised to be a Western set in space.
Sound familiar? Spaceships instead of horses.
[echoes.]
[narrator.]
And it was up to a man named Marc Pevers to cut a toy deal for this other wagon train to the stars, and the first person he called was Marty.
[Pevers.]
I called Marty because Fox had a good experience selling Planet of the Apes toys with Mego.
That was because there was a Planet of the Apes television series - that was very successful.
- [ape grunts.]
[narrator.]
So surely, making this deal would be a no-brainer.
Marty had his head in the sand to be blunt.
I mean, he wasn't even interested.
Just to clarify all the myths that went down about who turned it down Nobody turned down Star Wars.
That was totally false.
He was just interested in what's the latest Fox hit TV series.
He said, "I need another Six Million Dollar Man.
" I happen to have been in the Orient.
All these excuses came.
"I was in Hong Kong.
" "My secretary didn't give me your letter.
" Our lawyer said, "Marty's not here.
Come back, and I'm sure he'll want to do something with you.
" His attitude was rather arrogant.
I don't say abusive.
I mean, he didn't use any swear words, but it was very arrogant.
[muttering.]
[narrator.]
Mego was clearly a no-go.
And so, Marc went on to sell one of the most profitable toy lines in history to someone else.
It's Kenner! It's fun! [narrator.]
But Marty only has himself to blame.
I was the one who made the final decision on what brands we were gonna license.
Period.
Over and out.
[narrator.]
But really, who can blame him? Toys based on movies hadn't worked at all up until this point.
So, why would Star Wars suddenly be a direct hit? There was no film.
It wasn't like you had a trailer you were going to see.
There wasn't like, you know, Harrison Ford was the next greatest star there ever was and this was going to be the next boom, boom, boom.
It was just a couple of pictures that they had.
[narrator.]
Sadly, for Marty, it would become very much the next "boom, boom, boom.
" A "number one franchise of all time" type boom.
No one knew the phenomenon it would become.
It was a Hail Mary.
[narrator.]
The impact Star Wars toys would have on Star Trek toys and the Mego company was profound.
We at that time controlled 75% of the male action.
When that came out, we dropped to 30%.
[boy.]
The Force is with me! Our sales went from 150 million down to 50 million.
We did everything we could do.
We danced as fast as we could.
Star Wars put a dagger in the heart.
We just couldn't figure a way how to pull the dagger out and heal ourselves up fast enough.
[man.]
Tell me how you felt then.
You want me to go back and examine my feelings 40 years later? - You got a rope? - [both laugh.]
[sighs.]
[narrator.]
But it wasn't all doom and gloom.
Star Wars unfurled its sandy coat tails for all to grab on to.
[Bellomo.]
After Star Wars came out, almost every major toy company was snatching up sci-fi toy lines like crazy.
[narrator.]
And every major studio was desperate to cash in on sci-fi movies, too.
One day, the president of Paramount got a call from on high, literally on high, the chairman of Gulf and Western was in the corporate jet, and said, "This Star Wars thing is real big.
Don't we own something like that?" Merchandising department at Paramount finally woke up and realized maybe they had a gold mine here.
[narrator.]
Two years after Star Wars changed the world, Star Trek: The Motion Picture hit the screen.
And this time, Paramount and Roddenberry were keen to cash in on the toys.
They turned to the man with the toy license.
Marty Abrams, toy man.
[crowd cheering.]
[narrator.]
When the film hit the big screen, it performed light-years short of its projected potential.
And neither the box office nor the toys made by Mego got the windfall they'd hoped for.
Roddenberry had resisted the urge to learn from Star Wars, with its rag-tag bunch of unpolished misfits, chopping arms and shooting first.
Yes, I'll bet you have.
[narrator.]
It instead stuck to a polished, low-action script.
Oh, my God.
[narrator.]
With a leisurely-paced run time [slowly.]
of two hours and 25 minutes.
[echoes.]
[Abrams.]
They didn't know who their market was.
The adult Trekkie, or the kid going to the movies.
And they missed both targets.
[narrator.]
It was the final blow for Marty.
And times were getting desperate for the once giant of the business.
It's heart-wrenching.
Uh You know How do I put this in perspective? [narrator.]
Well, from the perspective of the company, Mego filed for bankruptcy.
And from the perspective of the district court of Manhattan, it looked like there'd been sketchy things going on behind closed doors at Mego.
We did a couple things that were not exactly over the line, but they were close.
[narrator.]
Unfortunately for Marty, the judge disagreed.
He was convicted of 15 counts of wire fraud, one count of obstruction of justice, and one count of false filing of federal income tax returns.
The company went under.
They owed quite a bit of money to quite a few people.
So, a very tragic end to one of the more remarkable and most powerful toy company of the 1970s.
Things happen.
[narrator.]
As the maestro of Mego set out on his minimum-security vacation, Star Trek was given a get-out-of-jail-free card in the form of a second movie.
But the big names kept falling.
Gene Roddenberry was pushed out of the sequel's production after being blamed for the first film's less-than-stellar reception.
With its highbrow creator out, could Star Trek finally be free to get down and dirty? And the answer was yes! Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan came flying into cinemas with every bit of phaser shooting Fire! [narrator.]
spaceship-destroying action it needed.
And finally, Star Trek had a hit.
I don't like to lose.
[narrator.]
And as for the toys, well, they didn't make any.
They were nervous about manufacturing any toys for The Wrath of Khan, so they didn't.
The movie comes out.
It's very well-received.
There are no action figures.
Khan! So, Ertl picked up the license based on the success of Wrath of Khan for Star Trek III.
[Roumain.]
While the movie was well-received, it wasn't as big a success as Star Trek II had been.
Son of a bitch.
No one buys the action figures.
[narrator.]
This see-sawing missing of the mark became the norm over the next few years as Paramount continued to make Star Trek movies.
It was kind of a strange cycle where they couldn't get it right.
They couldn't invest in the toys for the right movie at the right time.
[Kirk.]
Like a poor marksman, you keep missing the target.
[narrator.]
And there's something very odd about that.
Even number films are the popular films.
The odd number films are reviled.
Please, Captain.
Not in front of the Klingons.
[narrator.]
Reviled, odd, hits and misses.
Star Trek toys were kind of in a strange almost-limbo for a number of years.
[narrator.]
While the toy makers of the '80s were bending over backwards to try and crack the complex secret to Star Trek success, in 1987, something big was about to happen to Star Trek.
In fact It's the biggest thing to happen to sci-fi, ever! [narrator.]
Star Trek: The Next Generation was exactly what Star Trek needed to Engage.
[narrator.]
the next generation.
Hello, stranger.
[narrator.]
Many of whom are represented here in these spontaneous remarks.
- I love the characters.
- I love the aliens.
I love the special effects.
Captain Picard is my man.
Beverly.
[narrator.]
Well, Picard did get around.
Yes, Jean-Luc? [narrator.]
Star Trek: The Next Generation was the perfect balance of intellect, action, drama Venting drive plasma.
[narrator.]
and humor.
There was a young lady from Venus, - whose body was shaped like a - Captain to security, come in.
I don't understand their humor either.
[narrator.]
So, which toy company would Paramount choose to give this sophisticated science fiction the thoughtful care that the fans deserve? Enter Galoob and their cherished toy The Jolly Chimp.
[screeches.]
[narrator.]
Perfect.
But from the outset, Galoob made a blunder.
[David Galoob.]
We did not think Star Trek was a license for adults.
[narrator.]
He couldn't have been more wrong.
I love this show! We thought the Star Trek license would sell to kids.
[Tate.]
Galoob came out with figures in the Star Wars scale, with permanently-molded phasers in their hands.
You know, they really didn't do a very good job.
[John.]
Their Data figure had production errors.
There was a Data that looked like Data from the show.
Then there was a Data that had human-colored skin.
And then there was a Data that had a blue-speckled look to the face.
It just wasn't good product.
[narrator.]
So, surprise, surprise.
It just never really hit its stride at retail.
Never was anything like And, ultimately, we dropped it.
[narrator.]
Removing Galoob's monkey wrench from the works, Playmates was the next company to board the Enterprise.
They'd been around since the mid-'60s, and were known for producing Disney toys, a talking doll named Cricket I'll be talking to ya.
[narrator.]
and the cowabunga classic, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
But the toy makers here weren't exploring strange new worlds.
For them, Star Trek was like coming home.
[Steve Varner.]
Because I grew up with Star Trek characters, we were all happy because we knew we could do something a lot better with it.
[narrator.]
But talking big wasn't their only asset.
Energize.
[Karl Aaronian.]
Timing is everything.
So by the time we did Star Trek, the audience had really reached its maximum size and it was hungry for product.
Star Trek: The Next Generation on videocassette for $1.
95? I'll take it.
[Aaronian.]
So it really gave us a great opportunity, and it paid off.
It was the biggest and most successful Star Trek line ever.
[announcer.]
Star Trek: The Next Generation action figures from Playmates.
[narrator.]
Playmates did something that no other large company in the history of Star Trek toys had worked out how to do.
They found their target market.
From the beginning, we said, "Okay, listen.
We've got to appeal to those hardcore fans.
" Otherwise, you don't have anything.
- [device beeping.]
- Dr.
McCoy, this is Captain Kirk.
The frustration that I've had was that the toy companies never seemed to get it right.
[narrator.]
Who can forget this? - [siren sounding.]
- [imitates siren.]
With Star Trek, you have a fanatical following who notices every little detail.
[narrator.]
So, Playmates detailed a plan to make accurate toys for collectors, and kids, who would get details whether they wanted them or not.
[Kelley.]
They released the phaser.
This is the first time you could actually hold a screen-accurate phaser.
Fans went nuts.
[Tate.]
They came out with this model of the Galileo shuttlecraft from the original show.
And they've tried to strike a balance between a model of a spacecraft and a playable toy.
Captain Kirk can sit in his pilot seat.
They really seemed to preserve the play value.
Children would still be able to play with them.
Adults would be able to collect them.
And that's where the Star Trek collecting of toys phenomenon began.
[narrator.]
Playmates was sitting comfortably in the captain's chair, and with new series like Deep Space Nine and Voyager to build on, they set their phasers to stun.
Oops.
Wrong setting.
They decided to make characters from every single conceivable corner of the Borg ship-shaped universe.
There was really never a repeat of the same character in the same outfit.
If you got multiple Kirks, it was always a Kirk in a different outfit.
[narrator.]
They even made characters that were barely featured on screen.
A Vorgon alien that gets a walk-on part? A figure.
That episode where Tom Paris becomes a salamander? A figure, of course.
[Aaronian.]
Some of them may be really tertiary.
And if they're in one episode out of hundreds, yeah, they're not going to sell as well.
But you know what? You still have to offer that freshness in the line.
[narrator.]
But that push to create hundreds of figures, with the collector in mind, was about to cause completion issues.
Playmates began marketing more exclusively towards collectors.
They made limited editions, and store exclusives.
They had an idea to release, what was called the 1701 exclusive line.
These were three action figures that were going to be limited in number.
There were only going to be 1,701 of each of those produced.
[narrator.]
And if you're wondering why 1701? Well, it's the Enterprise's ship number.
Some of the Captain Picard figures had sold almost 100,000 figures.
So you have a huge portion of collectors who all of a sudden are not going to have a complete collection.
It also truly pissed the fans off.
Because if you're a completist and you weren't able to find one of those, you felt incomplete.
If they're not going to have a complete collection, they kind of stopped collecting.
The Playmates line, in essence, was a victim of its exclusivity idea.
They tried to make it up to collectors by bumping up the production numbers to 3,000.
That didn't really work.
By that time, the damage had been done.
Oh, shit.
[narrator.]
The team at Playmates were Trekkies, but they were also businessies.
They had to make money for their company.
So, after making more than 400 figures, Playmates wanted out, leaving Paramount with no one to make their Star Trek toys.
And after nearly 40 years, and almost as many toy makers, they'd finally realized that choosing the right toy maker was important for selling toys.
It's funny.
They kind of put us through the trenches in terms of our Star Trek knowledge.
They asked, "How many" "windows are on the Enterprise?" I don't know the answer.
[laughs.]
The sad part is I knew.
There are 3,237 windows.
Precisely.
[narrator.]
But, it's not just the intimate knowledge of windows that the Art Asylum team had.
Just look at this figure of Spock.
Art Asylum figures are much more accurately sculpted to resemble the characters, and are covered with rubber clothing in some cases, and accessories that are carefully modeled off of the items seen in the show.
[narrator.]
The Star Trek license had been through a lot of hands.
But, now, thanks to Art Asylum, who would later become Diamond Select, the toys literally have a lot of hands.
And heads, for that matter.
You know, you want to have those options, to swap out a head or a hand.
First things first.
I've got hurt Khan, Spock with radiation burns, the assimilation Picard.
I've got Kirk screaming Khan! "Khan!" I've got a lot of heads.
[narrator.]
Diamond Select have put so much care and craftsmanship into their toys that they could almost be considered works of art.
Yet, with their elite status in the Star Trek world, they boldly go where every other toy company has gone before.
- Here's a communicator.
- [communicator chirping.]
It even has a spinning moiré pattern here, just like the props did.
This is a Diamond Select Toys phaser.
[narrator.]
But that phaser was so good that it was actually used in an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise.
They said, "But don't worry about it, 'cause it's not going to get any close-up shots.
" And, of course, there's a scene where Archer's threatening this alien, and he goes like this.
A lot of people like to collect this because it technically is "a screen-used prop" now.
[narrator.]
Then, of course, the all-important ships.
[Jesus.]
We love some of the work that was done previous.
But we thought, "Wouldn't it be cool to up the level of detail?" [Dymszo.]
We went from these very rough, sort-of-looks-like-toys to almost model quality.
You can [recorded voice.]
Continue to fire all phasers.
[phasers firing.]
[narrator.]
And now, with the all-new Star Trek: Discovery having premiered, fans are ready to grab the next next-generation of characters and ships for their collections.
But with the bar raised higher than ever, they don't just want the highest quality, they expect it.
We have been waiting for someone worthy of our attention.
[narrator.]
Which is why newer licensees such as McFarlane and Eaglemoss have their work cut out for them.
Do we now need to make sure that we hit all the marks and get all the detail of everything? Yes, everything.
And that's not just the likeness, which to me, has to be there.
And if you miss even one little piece of that component [imitates slapping.]
they slap you and let you know.
[narrator.]
After over a half a century, Star Trek toys are finally in good hands.
Now, future generations can continue to enjoy plastic representations of Trek's biggest star.
Not Kirk.
Not Picard.
Not that boy who played Wesley.
Definitely not Salamander Tom Paris.
Star Trek's biggest star, and most iconic toy, has always been the mighty U.
S.
S.
Enterprise.
The Enterprise was just such a feeling of home, you know, of comfort.
Every time it would appear from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and even the old television show, it's like you heard the theme song.
You heard the music.
It was always this triumphant thing.
But the look of it was just so iconic and cool.
[McFarlane.]
It was staggering how far ahead of the curve it was, because everything looked like big, giant cigars with windows.
Impossibly, that big saucer should've been making it lean forward.
It was so odd, it was cool.
One morning, I decided to build one of these model Enterprises we had lying around.
I spray-painted it, and it was reflective silver.
And I gave it to my father.
And they actually used it on the set of Next Generation.
[Drexler.]
There are astronauts, scientists, who bought that AMT model kit as a kid, probably bought more than one, and painted that thing up, and hung it from their ceiling, and dreamed about going to the moon, Mars.
And they're doing it.
[narrator.]
From modern-day technical wonders to that original AMT model kit, the ship has faced the hardships of deep space with bravery and a fearless drive to allow everyone to dream Oh.
Oh.
Red alert.
[narrator.]
and destroy, if they so choose.
I destroyed the Enterprise.
What have I done? [narrator.]
The man who was responsible for it all, passed away in 1991.
Gene Roddenberry accomplished what every other artist, every other creator, just dreams about.
Create an idea and have it outlive your life.
[narrator.]
And that idea has gone on to change the lives of millions.
It's a very unique property, because it's a property created with a morality.
You had the first woman lead character.
You had the first black captain.
You had that first interracial kiss on national television.
Pretty breakthrough stuff.
[narrator.]
In many ways, the ideals that Gene Roddenberry had strived for when he created Star Trek back in the '60s are perfectly represented in this hodgepodge, diverse bunch of toys and toy makers.
Things happen.
[narrator.]
These toys require the acceptance, and the understanding that sometimes, things can be just a little bit different.
[siren wailing.]
[narrator.]
When it comes to Star Trek toys, we love them all just the way they are.
Level it off.
And set her down.
- [siren sounding.]
- [imitates siren.]
[narrator.]
Although, that one is pretty hard to like.
- [siren continues.]
- Shut off that damn noise! [narrator.]
Make it so.
[theme song playing.]