Playmates is almost certainly the most prolific maker of Star Trek action figures. Diamond Select Toys has recently been producing a wide variety of figures from the original series, but Playmates produced original (and other) series figures for years before that.
This figure is from the "Movie Series." It seems that this was the first line of original series action figures Playmates produced. Now, this series included characters from Star Trek I - VI, so I can't help but wonder who decided that the Enterprise crew figures, instead of being produced in the professional looking uniforms of Star Trek II - VI, should be produced in the unattractive, uncomfortable-looking (and, according to William Shatner, truly uncomfortable) uniforms of The Motion Picture. I can think of only two plausible explanations: One, perhaps Playmates hoped to subsequently release figures in the red uniforms, and thus make more sales, or, two, perhaps they were afraid that having all the characters in the same uniform would be too repetitive for children. Speaking for myself, I know that when I was a kid I absolutely would have preferred to have my figures in the uniforms from the movies I liked, rather than the one I didn't. Come to think of it, I still would.
Notice that the "movie series" features the original television Enterprise on the front of the package, and a picture of the "tablet" that was often used in the television series on the back.
Now it may sound like I don't like this action figure, but that's not the case -- I'm just puzzled by some of the design. The details on the figure are good, the accessories are not bad. Each Motion Picture crew member came with a piece of the V'Ger probe, which could be assembled once you had them all (Playmates is using this concept again with their figures for Star Trek XI).
- View memory-alpha.org's article on Playmates Star Trek toys/action figures (memory-alpha.org is essentially wikipedia for Star Trek, but due to a lot of sidebar advertisements, it takes a long time to load, so I don't link to it often)
Next week on Zach Trek: Please join me next Thursday (Thanksgiving) in cautiously welcoming a potentially dangerous alien.
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