Star Trek 'Potpourri' Spotlight- The Glommer!

Item Name: The Glommer
Manufacturer: Tribbletoys.com



The Rundown: Hide your tribbles... because the Glommer is in town! Don't know what a Glommer is? Well shame on you. Somebody needs to bone up on their Star Trek cartoons. For now though, here's a pic of him and a description from Tribbletoys.com:



The Glommer is a genetically designed tribble predator created by the Klingon empire as a way to protect themselves against a particularly malicious Federation tactic called "The Scottish Engineer." The Glommer is a spiky, four-legged orange animal with two eye-stalks rising from the center of its beanbag-like body. It can eat as many as three tribbles a day, or it can live off its stored fat for several weeks, going dormant during times when food is scarce. Glommers can be found in every ecological niche on the tribble homeworld, wherever there are tribbles, but it prefers the savannahs because food is plentiful.

Got that? Good. I have wanted a plush Glommer for a LONG time... since way back in my childhood when I spied one in an old Trek collectible book. Well, thanks to David Gerrold (the creator of all things tribble) and his site Tribbletoys, I finally own one! What's he like? Let's take a look!



This is what the Glommer looks like when he arrives. I almost didn't notice before I tore him out of the bag, but they actually printed a Glommer warning on the bag! Pretty nifty!



When you purchase the Glommer, you not only get him in all his roughly 15" tall glory, but you also get a free small "genetically altered" tribble! What else are you going to feed him?



The "genetically altered" tribble is a great tribute to their look in the animated show. I think this guy would look great flopped down in the DST captain's chair! Why are animated series tribbles pink? Fun fact: Director Hal Sutherland was color blind, so to him pink was gray!



The Glommer is also pretty much a dead-ringer for his animated counterpart. The, um, "torso" is made of soft plush with four tusks encircling it.



Two eye stalks protrude from the top of the body. The eyes themselves are small stiched-on patches and the stalks are fabric wrapped around a wire insert. I love the fact that you can move the eyes around and pose them. Gives him a lot of personality for a plush...



Mr. Glommer rests upon four spindly legs. The legs feature the same inner wire construction as the eye-stalks. I haven't figured out a way to get him to stand without any kind of support, but he looks great resting over the back of my couch. Loving those little toes.



And now the coolest part- When I first opened him, I noticed that the body was a bit floppy on the Glommer. I thought perhaps mine just didn't get stuffed enough... but then I noticed some velcro along the base of the body:



Yep! You can actually open him up and stuff the little tribble inside! This is a GREAT feature that I was really surprised to see. Oh, and once the tribble is inside, the Glommer really fills out...



As a BIG fan of tribbles, this guy gets really high marks from me. The size and "eating" feature are great, the construction looks sharp, and you get a free pink tribble! At only $18, I really feel like he offers a lot of bang for your buck.



Head over to Tribbletoys.com and order him up! I will probably be heading back their myself soon, as both my boys have been eyeing my Glommer...

-James

AA/ DST Spotlight- Tribbles!

Item Name: Tribbles
Manufacturer: Diamond Select Toys



The Rundown: Not sure if you guys know this or not, but I really, REALLY like tribbles. If I spot a tribble, I'll buy it. I have big ones, little ones, homemade ones, and even one used on the episode "The Trouble With Tribbles". Tribbles are awesome. If I had a gerbil, I'd name it Tribblesaurus Rex. So when DST announced they'd be producing electronic tribbles, I was happy as tribble in a storage compartment full of space wheat.



The DST Tribble is available in 3 color varieties; There's the gray version, the tan version,...



...and this brown version. The fur looks closer to the "Deep Space Nine" style tribbles as opposed to the classic tribbles, which have a very distinct type of fur. I would have preferred something closer to TOS, but a tribble is a tribble, so I'll take what I can get. One thing I do really like is the size- As you can tell by the size of Kirk standing beside it, these tribbles are pretty beefy.



My biggest complaint on these is the velcro material used to keep the electronics housing inside it's, um, "belly"? The velcro isn't all that strong and the tribble has a tendency to open up, which looks a little strange. I do love the electronics though, so I guess it's worth dealing with the "split-belly" feature.

Oh, you want to know more about the electronics? Well, it's a good thing I made these videos then!



There are 2 settings for your tribble, which basically equate to happy or agitated. You'd use the happy setting in a situation like the one above where the tribble gets to meet a swell guy like Jim Kirk.



The second setting is for when the tribble enters a high stress situation, like running into one of those dastardly klingons. Tribbles hate klingons.

As evidenced in the videos, it takes a bit of a shake to get the features up and running. My tribbles were incredibly sensitive at first, and would start freaking out over the slightest jostle in the room. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending on your point of view), the batteries drained pretty quickly and their sensitivity to shakes decreased.



So overall, these tribbles are pretty cool. I like the electronic features and the size is nice. The original price point of $29.99 was way too steep for them, but after a few months of release DST dropped that to a much more reasonable MSRP of $14.99. Sure, that stung those of us who paid full price, but if you don't have these yet, they are definitely worth snagging at $15 bucks. The only better price than that would be free...



Oh, you want a free one? Well you are in luck because I just so happen to have an extra tribble that needs a home. Shoot me an e-mail with your name and zip code to potacontests@live.com and in about or week or so I'll draw a name and send this fuzzy ball of fun your way!

-James