When ENTERPRISE launched last year it was in the unique position of being the first STAR TREK series since the original 1966 show that didn't really have any merchandise to sell. For several years Playmates Toys had action figures, role playing accessories and spaceship toys, while AMT/ERTL made a handsome profit selling model kits of everything from the original 1966 starship Enterprise to the Klingon Bird of Prey from STAR TREK III: THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK. But AMT/ERTL and Playmates both gave up their licenses several years ago and no one has picked it up since.
Until now. Art Asylum became the first toy company to nab the STAR TREK license for a major line since Playmates, and the New York-based firm immediately set out to distance itself from prior TREK licensors. First Art Asylum launched a series of 7" ENTERPRISE action figures with laser-sculpted faces, teeny tiny accessories and replaceable hands, designed to fit into display stands that recreate sections of the NX-01 bridge. Now the company has released their first in a proposed line of Trek Tek sets that duplicate props from the show, specifically ENTERPRISE's prototypical phase pistols and communicators.
ENTERPRISE faced a unique challenge in the design department from the moment it was conceived: props, sets and spaceships on the show had to look like something futuristic to 21st century audiences and at the same time had to look like something that might develop into technology seen on the original STAR TREK made over 35 years ago. To my mind the show has not been a success in this area. While you can believe many of the show's sets in this context, ENTERPRISE's props and spaceships don't resemble anything that might predate Jim Kirk's era. Case in point: the phase pistol, which looks remarkably like a STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION "cricket" hand phaser with a pistol grip under it (it also shares elements of the black "Colt .45" phaser from STAR TREK V: THE FINAL FRONTIER). Maybe it was too much to ask that ENTERPRISE's hand weapons look like primitive versions of early STAR TREK's tube-shaped laser pistols (as seen in the pilot episodes "The Cage" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before"), but do they have to look so much like NEXT GENERATION technology?
That's not to say that the phase pistols don't look coolthey do, so I'm glad to have Art Asylum's toy versions. For play value and functionality (not to mention price), it's hard to beat this thing. The two-tone gray and silver paint job is impressive and the working features are stellar, from the stun-and-kill slide setting and glowing emitter (which admittedly ruins the "real prop" effect with its orange tipbut you can always paint over that) to the incredibly neato power pack feature, which allows you to crack open the gun and slide in a power cell that glows red as it hits the contact inside the weapon. Just one problem with this feature: a teeny tiny spring-loaded tab is supposed to hold the gun closed when you snap it shut, but at least on my copy this feature does not work. So any movement of the closed gun in your hand snaps the front-heavy forward portion open again, which could be a major problem when facing down an angry Klingon.
Both the phase pistol and communicator feature accurate sound effects from the show. The communicator is an effective rethink of the '60s flip-top model which has now been made both prescient and obsolete by today's cel phone technology. I'm not certain it was absolutely necessary to make the hard-edged ENTERPRISE communicators smaller than their '60s counterpartsthis prop is almost small enough to defeat the purpose of miniaturization. It seems like something that would be very easily dropped or misplaced (which come to think of it is the plot of an upcoming ENTERPRISE episode). Instead of flicking your wrist to whip open the flip-top grid antenna, the new "old" communicator has a spring-loaded antenna flipped open when you press a large button on the side. The chirping sound effect is derived from the old show's effect just like the one on TNG, but again... it just sounds more like TNG. A second sound has Captain Archer asking the boarding party for a report, which is neat if you enjoy getting orders from Scott Bakula.
Since decent prop replicas normally run anywhere from $50-$500, being able to buy a good-looking phase pistol and communicator for under $20 is a great deal. I do wish some of the moving-part functions on these toys were better engineered, but at the same time I can't wait to see what Art Asylum comes up with next year for their Classic Trek Trek Tek set.
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