Collectiblog

The recent opening of the new Star Trek movie sent my mind reeling, doing cartwheels remembering the opening of the one that started it all: Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

I admit it. I've always been some kind of a Trekkie. Yes, a Trekkie and NOT a Trekker. There is a difference. Trekkers can go ahead and scoff, though my personal fandom started long before there was even such a distinction. Star Trek was the first TV show I ever saw in color, and I will never forget that horrible Salt Vampire and its horrible little suction-cupped fingers, which I glimpsed when I boarded the Star Ship Enterprise for the very first time.

Not long after my introduction to the world of living color and the final frontier, I saw a toy phaser for sale at a local variety store. Though I'd gaze at it longingly each time my mother brought me into Woodburry's 5 and 10 to shop for her sundries, I never quite developed the courage to ask for it. By then, Star Trek was off the air, and it was, after all a boy toy. It would have been wrong for me to want to play with the little plastic pistol that shot neon disks that could probably be set to stun (especially if you got someone in the eye with one of the discs.)

It wasn't until a few years later that I was initiated into the active word of Trek Toys. By the time I was in 6th grade, I was reading books like The Making of Star Trek and watching the show daily in reruns. I must have worn my love of Trek on my sleeve. Because for my 12th birthday, a friend bought me a Klingon Battle Cruiser model kit. Though I was woefully inept at assembling it (and had NO clue how to paint the black plastic kit grey like it was supposed to be) I proudly displayed it in my bedroom at a time when, if I were like most girls, I would have been swooning over David Cassidy. Around that time, I also ordered a genuine Tribble from the back of the Star Trek Fan Club Newsletter.

A few years later, Trek mania had grown to unprecedented proportions. A cartoon series helped quell the desire for new Trek adventures, and an endless stream of novels was published. The Mego company released a set of dolls and a matching Enterprise play set, but at this point I was far too self-conscious to pay with a Spock doll... no matter how much I wanted it. I merely settled for gazing at my Star Trek calendar and studying my Star Fleet Academy Handbook.

News of a proposed Star Trek movie was long discussed in these newsletters. At the time, it seemed like a fantasy since it had never been done before. Not only was the idea of a movie based on a TV show absurd, but adapting it from a failed one was even more preposterous. The anticipation was beyond measure as it became a reality. A small group of us, including a few alums from our junior high Star Trek Club, waited in a long line on opening night. One (not me, I swear!) made a Tribble costume out of a pink toilet seat cover and bathmat she stole from her parents.

Around the time the movie was released, so were McDonald's Star Trek Happy Meals. The girl who dressed like a Tribble and I started going to McDonald's daily to collect all the box variations and toys that came with them. There were so many types of rings, wristbands, games and stickers we never came close to completing a set -- though we saved a giant stack of boxes in her bedroom that went halfway from the floor to the ceiling.

Besides Happy Meals, there were merely a few items made to merchandise Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The pinball machine was the grandest, and a semi-plush Spock doll was perhaps the most sublime. There were dolls of Ilea, the bald crewmate played beautifully by the late Persis Khambatta and I believe a doll representing Commander Decker, played by Seventh Heaven's Stephen Collins. There was a new Enterprise model kit and a Star Trek: The Motion Picture lunch box. There were also tons of comic books, coloring books and posters. It was pretty amazing and the start of a major franchise. Even though the movie itself was somewhat of a cinematic disappointment, the merch seemed to fly off the shelves as the box office tally topped out at over $80 million.

I haven't seen the new movie yet, but I will. I'm a little saddened that there will be no Happy Meal to go with it, though I know there will be tons of new merchandise to consider. No doubt, there is more to come as the franchise will live long and prosper.