Thursday, August 6, 2009

Mego Spotlight- U.S.S. Enterprise Bridge
(3&3/4" 'The Motion Picture' Playset)



Item Name: U.S.S. Enterprise Bridge
Manufacturer: Mego Toys Corp.



The bridge playset was released as part of Mego's 3&3/4" Star Trek The Motion Picture line.



The Rundown: I love playsets! A Trek figure display looks so much better when you have some place for all your crew to hang out. We've only had a few Bridge playsets over the years, so I really appreciate each one of them, regardless of flaws. This Mego version may have some inaccuracies, but it's still a ton of fun.



The set is made of a thin, vacu-formed plastic and is VERY fragile! It kinda feels like a slightly thicker version of the plastic used to house hostess cupcakes (mmmm... orange cupcakes). It's almost impossible to find a nice loose one since they didn't really hold up to play all that well. In fact, I had to buy a boxed version just to get a nice loose one, and I always take great care around it due to it's fragility.



The playset comes in pieces that you have to assemble using small double-sided sticky pads. Since this toy is like 30 years old now, the adhesive doesn't hold all that well, and I had to supplement my sticky pads with some double-sided tape. So if you get one of these, don't be surprised if it pops apart on you frequently.



The playset really shines when it comes to the decals! I love the look of the panel stickers you use to decorate the ship with. They may not be entirely accurate, but they 'feel' like Star Trek.



The viewscreen is my favorite decal of the bunch. There's a ton of detail in that little pic...



There's a total of 6 seats to house your figures on the bridge: the captain's chair, the 2 main console seats, and 3 different station seats. All of the consoles are held on by that same sticky tape, so you may need to find better ways to attach them. Oh, and the console decals are great!



So it's nowhere near screen-accurate, but there's also a fun little 'airlock' feature so that you reenact Spock's arrival on the Enterprise. It's a neat idea, but it doesn't work all that well since the turning of the airlock door is dependent on the set staying together tightly, which it sometimes has trouble doing based on the tape.

While Mego did take a bunch of liberties on this one, it's still a really fun playset and a great way to display your Mego 3&3/4" Trek crew. They can be pricey sometimes though, so I'd only recommend this one to hardcore fans of the Mego TMP line.

-James

9 comments:

  1. What a coincidence I found this blog entry today. I spent yesterday revamping my old Geocities site ready for a move to Blogger. (Geocities vanishes forever at the end of October.)

    The current top story is my Mego 3.75" Andorian customizing project, and the first pic of her shows her near the TMP playset.

    The playset is vacu-formed plastic. When the huge box arrived in the post after my eBay win, I thought it was empty! One day I plan to add some paint to it.

    http://andorfiles.blogspot.com/2009/09/it-figures-female-andorian.html

    I never sit my figures in the chairs, but they do look great standing beside them!

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  2. Very nicely done, and I love your photography! I see this discussed a lot in Mego circles, but haven't ever been able to appreciate one first-hand. Your review fills that nicely!

    An excellent toy. Mego planned a similar Cygnus Bridge for their Black Hole figures. Too bad it never made it to retail!

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  3. I wonder if they used the Phase II bridge design as their primary inspiration, rather than the revamped TMP designs.

    I recall at least one color pic from Phase II and the consoles were white, not the gray used in TMP, and at one point there was a huge bubble/indent of some sort near Chekov's station, which may account for the playset's "airlock."

    Just spit-ballin' here (still, a cool toy).

    ReplyDelete
  4. I had one of these, and wish I still did. It may not have been screen accurate, but I thought it captured the feel of the set pretty well, and it was a very cool display piece.

    I hope I can find one again at a decent price.

    Dep1701

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  5. BTW, I too love me some orange Hostess Cupcakes.

    Dep1701

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  6. I have one for sale.
    http://www.ebay.com/itm/300944737209?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

    ReplyDelete


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