Hiya is generally pretty shit at promo and relations.
It's pricey, extravagant, and an overall pain in the ass; but I've stumbled on bashing ye olde 2009 PlayMates Uhura's skirt with TVC Morgan Elsbeth's arms, pelvis+legs, and neck into a decent-looking Starfleet woman buck if I don't say so myself. I've got parts for about six more than the Vulcan Lt I'rina I've done. I was thinking to do SNW Chapel next (and SNW M'benga with my extra Bones) but may hold off now Hiya's doing SNW. M'benga should be a lock now they've done the SNW male buck.
But it'd be nice to see some confirmation they're gonna do any of the women at all.
And aside from the singing Klingons I'm not sure I need any of the SNW bad guys. I'd take those guys in a box set dio 3pack, easy.
This new interview with Brian Volk-Weis was on YouTube last night. At 13:30 he is asked about action figures for the new Star Trek shows and he drops a few hints about this mystery company, I’m not really sure who the clues point to as far as which company this is. I don’t really think that it’s Hiya Toys so I’m really wondering about who this third mystery company could possibly be and in which scale this is if not Hiya, Playmates or DST. Thinking about it though, I would not mind if this turns out to be Jakks-Pacific. Their Simpsons action figures go almost seamlessly alongside Playmates World of Springfield line and their Jakks Sega figures are what Playmates 2022 figures should have been for Star Trek! I guess we will find out at New York International Toy Fair 2025 in March!
The mystery company could be Jakks, McFarlane, or Diamond Select. They all put out product (at times) which exceed their pricepoints. I'm not interested in NuTrek in general, so I don't really care about who makes the stuff. Other than just my overall interest in toys and Star Trek as well.
The reason I think Jakks-Pacific would be the best fit is that that would best allow Paramount Licensing to cover all bases where Star Trek products are concerned. Nacelle has 6” collectors covered, Hiya has 1:18th collectors covered, EXO-6 has 12” covered. FanHome has model collectors covered but interactive role-play, inexpensive ships, action figures and play-sets are devoid of any product placement in the absence of Playmates involvement. They certainly didn’t bring their A Game in either 2009 or 2022 and I have no doubt that the big change over in Paramount’s ownership is leading to fresh ideas and strategies to reignite the viability of the Star Trek to consumers.
I think it’s really interesting that none of the license holders, most notably Nacelle have mentioned that licenses couldn’t be renegotiated to include every other aspect of the Star Trek Legacy. I don’t really envision Nacelle or Hiya doing figures for Lower Decks or Prodigy but I could easily see Jakks jumping right in on that!
Ehhh. I’m putting my bet on he was referring to Hiya and at the time of the interview recording the SNW Pike wasn’t announced yet and/or he just doesn’t realize it’s been announced. I know he’s a GI Joe fan(his comment he owns a few of the mystery companies figures)and Hiya obviously has a line of those. Also price point comment wise….I can see him taking that stance over the exquisite mini’s being only $25.00. But again as my previous comment…I’d love to know if licensing is scale specific? Price point specific? Exo-6 and Hiya at this point both concurrently have access to NuTrek…?
Licensing is typically scale specific, but I suppose companies could be limited to pricepoint. I think license holders may be moving away from exclusive licenses as well. But multiple companies having the same license could be something more prevalent for eastern companies (Bandai and Medicom making similar size Marvel and Star Wars product).
@ashtalon thank you for replying with that info! Makes me still think Hiya though…because they also do those 6inch figures so I’m sure that’s covered in their license too.
I still have a hunch that Paramount has their eye on making kid-focused inexpensive toys similar to the way Hasbro is doing for Star Wars and Marvel with their rebranded Epic Heroes/ Epic World of Action figures. Shortly before Playmates dropped the ball on Star Trek for the third time some photos were shared from a licensing show of some Star Trek: Prodigy mockups of some figures and two starships that folded open to reveal a bridge-set within. The company name wasn’t shown on the packaging but it did mention that the toys were all interactive or (Trek Tech Enabled). It was kinda hinted at that these were not from a Playmates presentation. Seems like Jakks, Jazwares, Spin Master or some other similar company might be tasked with doing what Playmates has failed yet again to do. I don’t think Nacelle or Hiya’s focus will be on a lineup of products seen as entry-level for young children that are just getting into Star Trek. Us older collectors are going to eat that higher end product up but we still need something to throw our kids and grandkids’s way. If it’s fun toys we’ll probably add that as a guilty impulse buy too! I know I did for the Epic Heroes N-1 for Mando and that newly released $20 Mando Speeder Bike with Mando!
I’d love to know if licensing is scale specific? Price point specific? Exo-6 and Hiya at this point both concurrently have access to NuTrek…?
There's not a lot of restrictions on how contracts are written, outside of I guess the Federal Trade Commission or who-not's general authority over the legality of contracts here in America. Toy licensing contracts can be written to give a toy maker as much latitude as Kenner and Hasbro had over SW in the 80s-0s, making essentially every single toy product imaginable; or written so narrowly it's a contract for a single product like a lot of those high-end statues can be. Toy contracts can require certain play styles (action figures versus roleplay gear), certain appearances (this uniform instead of that one, this scene's wounds and battle damage instead of that scenes, etc), and any other facet an attorney can verbalize based on what the licensor wants.
What I've gathered:
Hiya's license seems to be "present day/recent TV Trek" dating back to the 2009 film trilogy; in the 1/18 & 1/12 scales (no information regarding 1/6 scale).
Nacelle has disclosed they have a 1/12 license for everything up through Enterprise (2005).
EXO seems to have a license for 1/6 that spans everything. This includes Strange New Worlds, which Hiya has the 1/18 license for (so EXO could has the 1/6 license for the 2009 films, as well - hard to tell as there is no sub-section on their website as of yet).
EXO-6 does have Kelvin timeline. The owner, Nanjin, has talked on Facebook about doing figures for KTL. It seems EXO-6 has a good relationship with Paramount and can probably do whatever they want in 1/6". They've commented about their license expanding to cover new shows a couple of times over the years.
Interesting this from a trekcore.com blog from 2023:
“A representative from Hiya Toys told our team that they are planning a second wave of six-inch figures (with fabric costumes) as well as an Enterprise starship with lights and sound; the company told us that they have a worldwide license to all of the live-action Star Trek properties - so there is great potential for additional releases.”
Does ALL OF THE LIVE-ACTION STAR TREK PROPERTIES cover from 1966-Present? That was more or less what was stated in 2023 with the Hiya announcements at SDCC and the Las Vegas Star Trek Convention. There were other articles at the time which stated basically the same, but I no longer have the links.
Hiya probably had some translation difficulties when they suggested they have every live action series.
Regarding their 4" Strange New Worlds figure - Pike - planned for 2026, I am of two minds about it.
Really, I'd like to wait for Hiya to eventually drop the Strange New Worlds license so that Nacelle may get an opportunity to pick it up. Nacelle has not sown any doubt about the quality or professionalism of Hiya; I simply like how enthusiastic Nacelle is with their Next Generation / Enterprise (etc) plans, and would like to support Nacelle if they are allowed to expand into the modern Trek shows.
But on the other hand, waiting for that possibility to come around in several years would be tedious - who knows what the world will even look like then! - so I may end up getting Hiya's 4" Pike anyway. Galls me a bit to do so because Hiya's price is nearly as much as Nacelle's for a figure that is relatively tiny. And of course I'd want the whole SNW crew, so that's a couple hundred bucks that I'd much rather send Nacelle's way.
I really don’t think that it’s the Hiya license that is what is holding up Nacelle from getting the rights for the newer properties. What Hiya’s doing is completely different from what Nacelle is bringing to the table. I’m more in line thinking it would be someone like DST or NECA or maybe even Jakks.
AKSHULLY, now that I've properly dis-assembled Kirk to get a look at his innards I'm thinking the reason for Uhura's absence is that they're having difficulty adapting this articulation rig to Ms Saldana's much thinner frame, skirt overlay or not.
I had recommended pulling the Treks apart at the ball waist; but now I see they're engineered such that pulling the head and arms out then sliding the tunic up and off is the best way to get the belt onto the shirt.
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