Collectible of the Week: Starship Enterprise Glider (Playmates; 1993)

Star Trek: The Next Generationpremiered twenty-five years ago this week and tomorrow I’ll be celebrating TNG's anniversary with episode reviews and other posts. 

But to kick us off a little early today, I thought I would feature a collectible from the heyday of the series.

It’s a weird, but cool one, to be certain.  

It’s Playmates’ “Starship Enterprise Glider” from 1993, a “Detailed Flying Replica of the Federation’s Flagship.”   This particular toy is intended for kids four and up and the box is careful to note that “Some Consumer [is] Assembly Required.”

Basically, the toy consists of four large hunks of white Styrofoam.  The first is the NCC - 1701-D saucer section, replete with a heavy plastic fin on the underside, placed there to enhance aerodynamic flight, I suppose.  The other pieces are the two warp engine nacelles, and the engineering hull or “battle section.” 

As the instructions note, you “attach saucer module to battle section with warp engine nacelles as shown.”  Then “holding launch grip, throw forward and release the Enterprise glider.”  You can “watch the vessel blast off into space as it soars up to 40 feet.”

I must confess, I really had little interest in this toy until my son came along.  I thought it was kind of weird to have an Enterprise glider -- I’m a sucker for accuracy -- so the Playmates toy remained mint in box from 1993 until last fall. 

But then one Saturday afternoon, Joel and I were left to our own devices for a few hours while my wife, Kathryn raked the front yard.  Well, we cracked open the glider, and put it together.  Joel applied the decals, and we let her rip.

And boy did she fly. 

There is truth in advertising here.  This ship can fly forty feet…easy.  We have a pretty large front yard, and the Enterprise D traversed it with incredible speed and grace.  Joel loved it!  We played with it all day, but then we inadvertently re-created a scene from Star Trek: Generations (1994) when the noble ship crashed on our cement driveway. 

A piece of the Styrofoam saucer chipped off, but the thing still flies.  Every now and then when we get a good, blustery day – and the wind is at our backs – we take the old ship out of mothballs for another spin around the Muir galaxy.