Review: Playmates USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Here it is! The first commercially available replica of the Enterprise from the new Star Trek movie. This toy is also notable as it marks the return of Playmates to the Star Trek merchandising arena. This company held the license through the halcyon days of The Next Generation through Voyager, but has been edged out for a number of years by new comer Art Asylum, which has put up nicely done ship toys such as the Enterprise A and Enterprise E. So, how does this effort stack up with those?

Overall, the ship's shape and proportions look spot-on to those of the on-screen ship. The saucer edges and warp nacelle pylons are a bit thick, but that is a common compromise on toys such as this, for durability's sake. For size, this new Playmates ship is more or less the same as the offerings from Art Asylum. Discussions on the scale of the ship aside, this would allow for an interesting side-by-side comparison of the old and new designs for the ship. The new toy is very neatly painted in several contrasting shades of grey with a few black highlights. The lettering is also clearly printed and straight, matching the somewhat simpler decoration of its on-screen counterpart. In the decorating area, I would in fact say that the new Playmates offering surpasses Art Asylum's ships in some ways, as their ships sometimes suffer from paint bleed over and sloppily applied lettering/highlighting. Where the Playmates toy falls short is that its paint job does not have as many intricate details included in it (again, this is partly due to the subject).

Detailing, by the way, is generally crisp on the toy, although there are some that are missing from the movie. For example, there is no attempt to simulate the "azteck" pattern of alternating panels on the ship's hull. Also, the toy makes no attempt to simulate the rings along the saucer rim, which I always thought was really neat and would have liked to have seen captured. Finally, many of the windows on the toy are simple outlines, and are not filled in our highlighted in any way. I think the toy could greatly benefit from this in particular, since it is such a noticeable part of the ship on screen.  There are a few issues with the finish of the toy as well. First, there are numerous screw heads visible on the underside of the ship. Art Asylum always went to great lengths to cover these up with glue-on panels, so they seem especially glaring here. The condition is aggravated by the fact that Playmates had to resort to using two battery compartments since there was no room for 3 AAA batteries in one spot. Also, the ship's display stand connects via a ball joint that snaps into a socket on the toy. As a result, there is a large opening on the underside of the ship in the battery compartment cover. Art Asylum stands generally attach the same way, but include a separate, optional, cover so that the ship can be played with without having the large opening in it. Unfortunately, no such cover is supplied with the Playmates toy.

As a toy, the ship also features a number of sound and light effects. These are activated, as is customary, by pressing the bridge dome on top of the saucer. The effects on the toy are pretty well done, and include voices and genuine sound effects from the movie. However, there are only a handful of sound bites that get old pretty fast, and there is no option for activating the engine and weapons effects without dialog. Overall, the selection of sound effects compares very unfavorably with Art Asylum's toys.

Overall, the Playmates USS Enterprise is a sturdy toy that nicely captures the look of the on-screen ship. It is not as nicely detailed or as fully featured as Art Asylum's toys, it is true. However, at about $20-25 it also costs almost half of what the Art Asylum ships tend to. It is nice to see Playmates back in the Star Trek toy arena, and this ship is definitely worthwhile! Check out some more pics below:

By Andy Rucker