I was first introduced to Star Trek through my older sister, who forced me to watch the reruns on CFTO every Saturday morning because of her crush on William Shatner. She was going to marry him, she never lived that down.
To me, Star Trek was a cool saturday morning show, it was a great follow up from Land of the Lost, which was on earlier in the day, the rocks looked to be the same sort of styrofoam. I still like it on that level, it's a fun show.
When I spied the Mego figures pictured above at a dominion playworld circa 1975, that was all this five year old could take. I still have my bridge crew and I wish I could remember all the adventures I had.
What's interesting is the back story of these toys, while Remco was the first to merchandise Trek in the 60's, they kind of phoned it in by placing the trek logo on existing space toys.
It wasn't until 1974 when Neal Kublan convinced his bosses at Mego to make toys based on a show that had been cancelled 4 years previously, that things really kicked off.
Neal's hunch was right and the resulting wave of "Me too' products that followed were a result of the big splash Mego made with their Trek line.
If I were a rich man, I'd fill a room full of the stuff I'm going to feature this week, when Star Trek was cool.....
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