Playmates Toys returns to Star Trek with universe-spanning releases starting in 2022

Playmates Toys are returning to Star Trek! The company that has twice before produced extensive range of Star Trek toys are back on board thanks to to Star Trek Prodigy opening Trek up younger audiences. Playmates will start producing toys for that series alongside Discovery, Picard, Lower Decks, and the rest of Trek TV and movies, from next year. 

As announced on StarTrek.com, their license spans "action figures, vehicles and ships, role play and other toy categories for all Star Trek properties". The announcement also promises "Playmates will bring to the Star Trek Universe are its attention to brand detail, authentic portrait sculpting, and new product innovations it plans to introduce to its forthcoming Star Trek collections."

There's also this teaser images, which with a little enhancement gives us the first glimpse of six action figures on the way. Continue below to have a look!

Seen here we have TNG-era Data (which could also be a dream-sequence Picard branded release), 23rd century uniform Burnham, Picard-era Picard, Discovery/SNW Captain Pike, 23rd century uniform Saru, and Disco season 2 black-outfit Spock. To me these look like smaller-scale figures, maybe 3¾, 4½, or 6 inch scale.

Playmates Toys went to town when they held the Trek license through the nineties, releasing an enormous range of action figures, predominantly at the 4½ scale, but also 6, 9, and 12 ranges! These spanned a huge assortment of characters from across the franchise of the time, and numerous character variants. They also released in-scale playsets and shuttlecraft, an extensive assortment of electronic starship models, role-play props, microscale figures and playsets, plus a handful of figurine sculptures.

They returned to Trek to release a tie-in range to the first Kelvin timeline movie in 2009, and also went big, with a ship, props, and lots of action figures at 3¾ (with playsets), 6, and 12 inch scales. There ambition was not met with success though, and that range's planned second wave was scrapped. Mattel took on the license instead when Into Darkness came along, and after another flop for toy sales, no one bothered with a big toy assortment for Beyond... 

With a flourishing multi-pronged active franchise today, including most crucially a series aimed at children to draw in people who actually play with toys, not only the adult collector market, perhaps now is finally the right moment to go big once more on Trek toys. If Playmate approach this with the scale of ambition they have before, we should be heading towards a lot of Trek toys now!

To check out some of Playmates previous releases, and some behind the scenes artwork from those, check out previous articles via my Playmates tag. For Star Trek toys news in general, see my toys tag, or click the "Models, Toys, and Games" button on my 2021 schedule page.