Playmates: A Force to Be Reckoned With (Collecting Toys - August 1994)

When I posted the Gang of Five article from the August 1994 issue of Collecting Toys, I mentioned I was actually scanning something else when I stumbled across that story. This is what I'd initially planned to post back then. It's about the toy company Playmates, best known for its Star Trek and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) action figures. I've shown a few of the toys in posts about the Star Trek Generations Enterprise and TMNT merchandise. As you'll see in the article, TMNT is the property that turned Playmates into a major player in the toy industry. Along with TMNT and Star Trek, it also had toy lines based on Exo Squad and seaQuest DSV in the '90s, and it began publishing video games in 1994, such as Earthworm Jim. Playmates Toys Limited is still in business today and just this week announced that its TMNT licensing agreement with Viacom will not be renewed when it expires at the end of 2026. It had also returned to Star Trek action figures in 2022, but due to poor sales, it ended production of those in 2023.

The 1997 International Toy Fair (ToyFare Spring Special Edition 1997)

Toy Fair New York 2022 was originally going to be held this weekend, however, it was canceled. I scanned this article when I was putting together the Spider-Man post last month as it is from the same issue of ToyFare magazine. It wasn't until I went to post this that I realized this year's show had been canceled which had been announced back on January 11th. That's unfortunate but there is no reason not to still post these 13 pages that have feature many photos of action figures which is what ToyFare focused on.

[YouTube] Star Trek Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments

An ornaments post may be unusual for a blog about video games and toys but the ornaments feature a great license and although not toys, they are very nice to display and similar to figurines. Back in 2017 I actually did a two part Star Wars ornaments post with videos. This will be similar with the only difference being I'm sticking to one post instead of two. Hallmark's Star Trek series began in 1991, five years before Star Wars, with only a single release each year until 1995 and new ornaments continue to be released annually. My collection consists of only ornaments from the '90s and covers classic Trek, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager. As I did with Star Wars, the video features those that have lights and or sound effects. In this case, that means none of the characters are in the video, and only two of the ships plus a stand have sound effects. When doing some research I came across a blog solely about this topic so here is a link to that if you want to get more details on the complete series: Hallmark Star Trek Ornaments.

https://youtu.be/xbH54gQyWCs

I'm listing them in order of release rather than grouping them by series. With Star Wars I photographed each one next to its box but this time I decided to do front and back box scans, then photograph the ornaments separately. The scales vary between them and the three-ship set consists of miniatures about an inch in length. 

Shuttlecraft Galileo (1992)

U.S.S. Enterprise NC-1701-D (1993)

Klingon Bird of Prey (1994)

The Ships of Star Trek (1995)

Romulan Warbird (1995)

Captain Jean-Luc Picard (1995)

Captain James T. Kirk (1995)

Star Trek 30 Years (1996)

Commander William T. Riker (1996)

Mr. Spock (1996)

U.S.S. Defiant (1997)

Dr. Leonard H. McCoy (1997)

Commander Data (1997)

Captain Kathryn Janeway (1998)

Runabout U.S.S. Rio Grande (1999)

Group Photos