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Before its acquisition, Galoob held three separate ''[[Star Trek]]'' licenses. It produced the first action figures and toys based on {{s|3}} in 1988, created a line of figures for {{film|5}} in 1989, and released a series of ''Star Trek'' "Micro Machines" [[Star Trek starship miniatures|starship miniatures]] from 1993 until 1997. |
Before its acquisition, Galoob held three separate ''[[Star Trek]]'' licenses. It produced the first action figures and toys based on {{s|3}} in 1988, created a line of figures for {{film|5}} in 1989, and released a series of ''Star Trek'' "Micro Machines" [[Star Trek starship miniatures|starship miniatures]] from 1993 until 1997. |
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− | The history and development of the Galoob line was featured in the "''Star Trek''" episode of ''[[The Toys That Made Us]]'' |
+ | The history and development of the Galoob line was featured in the {{y|2018}} "''Star Trek''" episode of the [[Netflix]] series ''[[The Toys That Made Us]]''. In the documentary, former Galoob CEO David Galoob conceded that his company had from the outset made an assessment error when they took on the ''Star trek'' license, "''We did not think ''Star Trek'' was a license for adults. We thought the ''Star Trek'' license would sell to the kids,''" thereby underestimating the vast adult collector's fanbase who desired accuracy, instead taking their cue from the ''[[Star Wars]]'' toys as released by Kenner Toys. Consequently their action figure lines were not only small, but not particularly accurate either, with many production errors to boot. "''It just never really hit its stride at retail,''" Galoob further admitted, "''Never was anything like ''Star Wars'', and ultimately we dropped it.''" |
== ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'' releases == |
== ''Star Trek: The Next Generation'' releases == |
Revision as of 10:49, 25 September 2018
(written from a Production point of view)
Galoob was founded as Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc. in 1954 in San Francisco, California and was reported to be the third-largest toy maker in the US at the time of its acquisition by toy giant Hasbro in 1998. [1] Since then, Galoob's logo has continued to appear on the packaging of a number of toys produced by Hasbro.
The Star Trek license
Before its acquisition, Galoob held three separate Star Trek licenses. It produced the first action figures and toys based on I AM ERROR in 1988, created a line of figures for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier in 1989, and released a series of Star Trek "Micro Machines" starship miniatures from 1993 until 1997.
The history and development of the Galoob line was featured in the 2018 "Star Trek" episode of the Netflix series The Toys That Made Us. In the documentary, former Galoob CEO David Galoob conceded that his company had from the outset made an assessment error when they took on the Star trek license, "We did not think Star Trek was a license for adults. We thought the Star Trek license would sell to the kids," thereby underestimating the vast adult collector's fanbase who desired accuracy, instead taking their cue from the Star Wars toys as released by Kenner Toys. Consequently their action figure lines were not only small, but not particularly accurate either, with many production errors to boot. "It just never really hit its stride at retail," Galoob further admitted, "Never was anything like Star Wars, and ultimately we dropped it."
Star Trek: The Next Generation releases
3-3/4" action figures
- Series One
- Captain Jean-Luc Picard
- Commander William T. Riker
- Lieutenant Commander Data*
- Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge
- Lieutenant Natasha Yar
- Lieutenant Worf
- Series Two
- Vehicles
- Ferengi Fighter
- Shuttlecraft Galileo
Other toys
- Die-cast USS Enterprise Starship (with detachable saucer section)
- Phaser Weapon
- Die-cast Ferengi Battleship*
General Mills releases
Galoob also provided Star Trek starship toys for a number of General Mills breakfast cereals in the US and Canada, as promotion for its TNG line.
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier releases
Action figures
- Captain James T. Kirk: "Captain of the USS Enterprise"
- Spock: "Science Officer of the USS Enterprise"
- Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy: "Chief Medical Officer of the USS Enterprise"
- Sybok: "Mysterious rebel leader of Nimbus III"
- Klaa: "Klingon captain in search of battle"
Micro Machines
Star Trek Micro Machines were plastic miniatures produced by Galoob from 1993 to 1997 as an extension to their preexisting and wildly popular Micro Machines toy line. Most of these models were less than three inches long, were pre-painted, and all came with transparent display stands.
The first releases were three-packs packaged in transparent bubbles attached to printed cardboard cards, known as blister packs. In size, the miniatures were comparable to the – pewter – gaming miniatures (usually in the stated scale of 1:3900) made by FASA and Task Force Games. And indeed, a pewter colored collector's series, no. 66072, was also issued in 1995 to reinforce the kinship between the two product lines. In total, 52 unique molds were created for the Micro Machines Star Trek line and 93 deco variants were released.
Galoob produced vessels from The Original Series, the movies, I AM ERROR, I AM ERROR and I AM ERROR. The first two editions featured ships and stations from TOS, the movies, TNG, and DS9. When the third edition ships were launched in 1994, some new ships were packaged anew with ships from the first editions. The third and fourth editions featured more ships from TOS, the movies, TNG, DS9, and early seasons of Voyager and were mounted on restyled cards.
There were also special ships made, available only as part of three 16-piece "Collector's Edition" box sets, in which all the models were available. They were ships from "All Good Things...", the USS Enterprise-A and the USS Enterprise-E. Other collector sets featuring silvered and bronzed versions were also issued. Five vessels were individually released in 1995 as part of a promotional action for the fourth edition re-release of the three-pack series, and were simultaneously released in mainland Europe.
Mainland Europe saw the official release of the Micro Machines in 1994 (all mounted on a DS9-style card), tied in with the three-pack third edition, and apart from the tri-lingual text on the packaging differed form the US packaging in that it was sub-licensed to Ideal, whose logo was also printed on the front of the packaging. Unlike the third edition, the fourth was in packaging, save for some minor language imprints and the lack of the numbering on the front, virtual identical to the US version. All European editions merely stated Star Trek on the bottom on the front of the packaging as opposed to the US versions that specified which series was applicable.
Micro Machine Collections
Set | Item No. | Issue | Notes | Photo |
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3-pack Collection, Series 65825, first edition | ||||
#1 I AM ERROR | 65801 | 1993 |
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#2 Star Trek The Movies | 65802 |
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#3 I AM ERROR | 65803 | |||
3-pack Collection, Series 65825, second edition | ||||
#1 Star Trek: The Original Series | 65881 | 1993 |
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#2 Star Trek The Movies | 65882 |
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#3 Star Trek: The Next Generation | 65883 |
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#4 Star Trek: The Next Generation | 65884 |
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#5 I AM ERROR | 65885 | |||
3-pack Collection, Series 65825 (96-606 Europe), third edition | ||||
1. The Original Star Trek | 66100 | 1994 |
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n/a (Europe) | ||||
2. The Original Star Trek | 66101 |
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n/a (Europe) | ||||
3. Star Trek The Movies | 66102 |
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n/a (Europe) | ||||
4. Star Trek The Movies | 66103 |
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n/a (Europe) | ||||
5. Star Trek: The Next Generation | 66104 |
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n/a (Europe) | ||||
6. Star Trek: The Next Generation | 66105 |
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n/a (Europe) | ||||
7. Star Trek: The Next Generation | 66106 |
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n/a (Europe) | ||||
8. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine | 66107 |
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n/a (Europe) | ||||
3-pack Collection, Series 65825 (96-606 Europe), fourth edition | ||||
I. The Original Star Trek | 66100 | 1995 |
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II. The Original Star Trek | 66101 |
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1996 reissue | ||||
III. Star Trek The Movies | 66102 | 1995 |
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IV. Star Trek The Movies | 66103 |
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1996 reissue | ||||
V. Star Trek: The Next Generation | 66104 | 1995 |
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VI. Star Trek: The Next Generation | 66105 |
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VII. Star Trek: The Next Generation | 66106 |
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1996 reissue | ||||
VIII. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine | 66107 | 1996 reissue |
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IX. Star Trek The Movies | 65846 | 1995 |
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1996 reissue | ||||
X. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine | 66125 | 1995 | ||
XI. Star Trek The Movies | 66126 |
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1996 reissue | ||||
XII. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine | 66127 | 1995 | ||
1996 reissue | ||||
XIII. I AM ERROR | 66128 | 1995 | ||
1996 reissue | ||||
XIV. Star Trek: Voyager | 66129 | 1995 |
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1996 reissue | ||||
XV. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine | 66130 | 1996 |
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XVI. Star Trek: Voyager | 66131 | |||
3-pack one-shot | ||||
Star Trek Generations | 65846 | 1994 |
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Individual releases "Single Edition", Series 65961 (96-855 Europe) | ||||
USS Enterprise | n/a | 1995 | ||
USS Enterprise-D | n/a | |||
n/a (European) | ||||
USS Stargazer | n/a | |||
n/a (European) | ||||
Klingon Bird-of-Prey | n/a | |||
n/a (European) | ||||
Romulan Warbird | n/a | |||
n/a (European) | ||||
Limited Edition Collector's Sets (6-9 pieces) | ||||
Star Trek Super Pack | 65594 | 1993 |
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Star Trek Collector's Set | 65827 |
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Star Trek: The Next Generation | 96-426 | 1994 | Europe-only variant
Bonus Ship: |
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Star Trek The Movies | 66073 | 1995 | Pewter series no. 66072 | |
Star Trek Television Series I | 66074 | |||
Star Trek Television Series II | 66075 | |||
Star Trek I | 66124 | Bronze collection | ||
Star Trek II | 66125 | |||
Limited Edition Collector's Sets (16 pieces) | ||||
I | 65301 | 1993 |
Bonus ship:
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II | 65946 | 1995 |
Bonus ships from "All Good Things...":
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III | 65940 | 1996 |
Bonus ship: |
Additional European Micro Machine 3-pack variants
Differences between the second and third 3-pack editions
- The Enterprise (NCC-1701) was in Set #1.
- The first Klingon Bird-of-Prey, the Excelsior and the Reliant were in Set #2.
- The Klingon Attack Cruiser, the Borg Cube and the Romulan Warbird were in Set #3. Later, the Borg cube was replaced by the Enterprise-D.
- The Ferengi Marauder, the Borg Cube and the Shuttlecraft were in Set #4.
- The Galor-class, Deep Space 9 and the Runabout were in Set #5.
Differences between the third and fourth 3-pack editions
There were no differences between the third (eight issues) and the fourth (sixteen issues) edition as far as contents were concerned, with the exception of the packaging, as the first nine sets are re-packaged items from previously released issues. The fourth edition sported a roman numeral numbering on the front and the models are mounted on the standard-style card used for the entire run. Unlike the first three editions, the fourth appeared to have enjoyed a smaller production run, both in the US and Europe, as especially the last seven items (despite having had two issues for the large part) can fetch high prices on the secondary market.Trivia
- The USS Excelsior miniature was released with a NCC-2000 registry and also was printed with a NX-2000 registry. The latter is rarer.
- The yellow-painted USS Stargazer model, first released in 1994 in three-pack set 66106, is actually not that of the starship but is based on Captain Jean-Luc Picard's ready room display model (NCC-7100), though it has the correct registry number.
- Likewise, the Kazon fighter of set 66128 is that of the studio model as it was originally delivered to Paramount Pictures and before it was decided to have it modified into its ultimate onscreen configuration.
- Some silver colored Micro Machines of the Starfleet ships, most likely from the pewter series, were used as part of the San Francisco Presidio Starfleet Headquarters maquette building, first seen in DS9: "Homefront" and used several other times throughout DS9 and VOY.
- On the packaging for Collector Set Two, the descriptions for the USS Farragut and USS Defiant refer to the TOS ships bearing those names, rather than the ship models in the set.
- In the TNG Season 6 DVD-special feature, "Dan Curry Profile", it was revealed that Star Trek Visual Effects Producer Dan Curry, an Original Series fan, collected Star Trek Micro Machines.
- In 2013, former Galoob art department employees Jim Fong and Robert DiGiacomo provided extensive details and archival photographs from the development of the Next Generation toy line to TrekCore.com. Numerous cancelled products and previously unseen prototype designs were covered in these three articles. [4]
See also
External links
- Galoob at Wikipedia
- Micro Machines at Wikipedia
- Micro Machine Museum Star Trek Micro Machines page
- Galoob 25: The First Generation of TNG Toys article at TrekCore