Gene Roddenberry Star Trek figure

[samurainoir]

Star Trek Guest Blog: A Collector's Trek #1

[samurainoir]

Original Kirk sculpt...


Shatner approved final...

[Mikey]

With a little tweaking that Gene would make a decent 70's era Leslie Neilson custom.

[MEMEGO]

Is that set ever coming out? it was listed to be released like 4 or yrs ago and it never showed up. So is it back on?

[toys2cool]

i've seen the prototype on ebay for like $5k or something like that

[johnmiic]

If I recall this was suppossed to be released asa 2-pack after Playmates stopped making ST toys & figures. Then Art Asylum stepped in and got the rights to all Star Trek figures and prevented this from getting made. I remember the ads in Toyfare. So this is at least 10 years old.

[samurainoir]

click on the link to read about it folks!

“Well, we sent in a beautiful Shatner head sculpt. It looked like a strapping young Kirk from Star Trek’s inaugural season. Shatner’s people reviewed it and requested changes to the piece, delaying us a TON. The final result was sort of an amalgamation of young Shatner and early-movie Shatner. This contributed to us missing the contractual deadline we had. It wasn’t the only reason the piece did not make the deadline, but it was definitely a contributing factor.”

The next obstacle facing the set wasn’t quite as easy to overcome as the likeness approval issues. Since Playmates product had saturated the market in previous years, many large retailers were reluctant to take another chance on Trek. Every major retailer turned the set down. Some smaller retailers wanted to buy the 2-pack, but without the support of the larger chains, Palisades couldn’t justify the cost of production.

[sprytel]

To me, those sculpts look great... even the "new" Shatner (although I think the original is way better)... but I'm not overly impressed with the finished prototype.