DST interview

[samurainoir]

Is he referring to the 7" line or the ReMego? Or is this indicative of what can be done to produce lower runs of figures as Mego format when the tooling of 7" is too cost prohibitive based on orders?

Any chance of a few more aliens from TOS - I’d love to see the Horta from ‘Devil in the Dark’, Balok’s alter ego , Yarnek from ‘The Savage Curtain’ and -MOST OF ALL- the NOMAD robot from ‘The Changeling’ (on a perspex transparent stand possibly with Spock Mind Melding…..) And how about some aliens on the same scale as the Trek figures from the best USA series the Original 1960’s Outer Limits series. There simply isnt enough merchandise from this marvellous classic sci fi show…..

DSTChuck: John, honesty I just don’t know, we were pretty disappointed in the pre-orders for the Salt Vampire when we tried it. Now I know that was a different time then now and other variables might have changed but the lack of retailer interest in the Borg line and Vampire caused us to rethink the direction we had been taking Trek so we’ll have to see where we go in the future.

[Brown Bear]

Sounds like remego to me.......that sucks.

[Mego-Amigo]

I am pretty sure he is referring to the 7 inch line and not the Re-Mego line. I collect both but it seems Diamond feels no one is interested in 7 inch Star Trek figures anymore.

[jwyblejr]

Gotta agree. If it was the Re-Mego stuff,wouldn't Captain Pike be lumped in with the Salt Vampire?

[johnmiic]

I love how nearly all the characters asked about are not humanform. Nomad is a rectangle. The Horta=a blob, Yarnek, if I recall is a lump of turd-like rocks with 2 arms and pincers. Only Balok's puppet is even human-like.

[Mikey]

Speaking for myself, I was never a big fan of The Man Trap so the Salt Vampire never interested me.

I think i'm not alone because no company ever made the Salt Vampire in the past.

To insure the line they need to make fan favorites ...

Example --- they still never even made a proper Klingon ...

Captain Pike don't fit in with the line and mostly only hard core trekkers like him.

ReMego Treks are a great line but imo they need to start choosing better characters.

Sorry to be so blunt but the whole blame is on the characters they've been choosing lately.

[palitoy]

Speaking for myself, the Salt Vampire was on my top ten most wanted.

[NewForce]

this was directed toward the 7" regular line...

our preorders for the borg wave were very strong, but apparently our customers' enthusiasm was not shared by others... there was a time where our orders (New Force) could single handedly make or break a line, but those days are gone, I am afraid...we did 10 DST exclusives (I think we did 10) and we had 3 playmates ST exclusives, but the dynamic of the market has changed so dramatically over the past 12 years, that I find it hard to muster sales equaling even 10% of days past...hence, the line is destined to stay "dead" for the time being....

[Brown Bear]

I'd have to agree with Mikey on this one.....while Salt Vampire turned out amazing, he was nowhere on my top twenty want list.

I'd rather see Trelaine, Kor, Kang, Sarek, Ruk the android, Harry Mudd, etc.....etc

[drmego]

He was talking about the 7 inch line. Chris Schaff at DST showed me a beautiful
Salt Vampire 7 inch prototype that never made it to production.

HOWEVER - New Force is right that nothing in the collector market is selling
anywhere near it was in better times. This is why pre-orders are so important.
They tell the retailers if it's worth placing an order - which tells the manufacturer
if it's worth going into production.

[Mego-Amigo]

You are right about that 7 inch Salt Vampire being beautiful Paul. There was also an incredibly beautiful 7 inch Rand and Chapel that never made it to production. Fortunately the awesome 7 inch Romulan finally did make it to production and I think was the last all original figure they released. This line has some really nice sculpts and is my 2nd favorite Star Trek line right behind the Re-Megos. Too bad they are not selling enough to see more product produced.

[johnmiic]

Speaking for myself, I was never a big fan of The Man Trap so the Salt Vampire never interested me.

I think i'm not alone because no company ever made the Salt Vampire in the past.

Mike, There is the Capt. Dunsel factor to consider here. After the core characters, the Enterprise Bridge crew, were done in 7" DST/Art Asylum went after classic characters James Brady did. James did classic Khan, DTS/AA does Khan. Brady did Kor and Kang DTS/AA does so as well. Brady did the Gorn, lo and behold, DST/AA also does.

It seems quite a strange co-incidence they kept doing characters James sculpted. Why didn't they do the same classic characters Playmates did? Playmates did Koloth, the Andorian, the Talosian. Seems to me someone over there was paying close attention to what was being done in Re-Mego form.

[drmego]

The guys at Diamond Select are mego fans - which is why they were receptive
to our pitch.

But in all fairness, anyone who watches the classic series will come up with
a very similiar list of cool characters. Now if DST had done Gary Seven and
Roberta Lincoln - I would say you have the smoking gun!

[samurainoir]

2009 solicitation
Art Asylum Blog May Previews Solicitations

This actually sound like a positive step for the Mego format if they can't get the numbers to tool up the 7" salt vampire and Borg, then getting them in the 8" mego format is a big win for us.

I know most hate variants,but there will be inevitable army building, perhaps there can be runs of slightly altered costuming for those that wouldn't mind variety in their Borg army? I don't doubt that multiple pj arcs and Borg will be instantly mashed up into locutus

How about Borg customizing kits like the zombie kit doc? Or at least a small kit with extra nozels, arm attachments, etc.