The Good: Pretty excellent sculpt, Cool sounds, Light effects are neat
The Bad: No stand, Unsophisticated lighting effects, Use of decal
The Basics: Perfectly average, the Romulan Warbird toy is a crapshoot for collectors, children and display-piece enthusiasts.
When Playmates Toys picked up the license for Star Trek: The Next Generation toys, they quickly established themselves in the toy market as a powerhouse. Flooding the market with figures that were more poseable, recognizable and collectible than any prior Star Trek figures, Playmates found a niche, tapped that niche, then exploited it beyond any ability to be profitable. With the Star Trek line, the first wave was impressively divided between 4.5" action figures and a series of starship toys with lights and sound (soon followed by the 8" doll line). In releasing the starship toys, Playmates hoped to create display pieces that would appeal to adult collectors as well as toys for play for children. They more or less succeeded with this, though now - over fifteen years later - some of the earliest endeavors illustrate some of the limitations of the time.
From the first wave of starship toys, collectors were given the chance to pick up the Romulan Warbird. At the climax of the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, the Romulans returned to prominence with the episode "The Neutral Zone" (reviewed here!). The episode, arguably a dud, comes with the impressive appearance of the Romulan Warbird, a sophisticated starship that clearly establishes a new direction for Romulan starship design that would continue through Star Trek: Nemesis (reviewed here!) and would be used by the revisionists who created Star Trek: Enterprise. Olive green, huge and menacing, the Romulan Warbird made an immediate impression; if only Playmates had lived up to that!
Basics
Playmates toys released the Romulan Warbird at the same time as it released a starship toy of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D and the Klingon Battlecruiser (Vor'cha Class). These toys were designed to appeal to the niche of collectors who liked models, but were not married to the building of models. As a result, the Romulan Warbird is just over fourteen inches long, ten inches wide and just under four and a half inches tall.
The Romulan Warbird has a double hull design, connected by a beak-like bridge section and recessed nacelles and an aft drive section. As a result, the ship looks like a bird with its innards torn out or a skate that has been inflated and popped and frozen in such an exploded way. This is actually one of the more intriguing designs for a ship in the Star Trek universe and the frequency of the ships' appearance on Star Trek: The Next Generation and subsequent spin-offs, makes for a reasonable first wave ship.
The hull of the Warbird is detailed such that above and below there are ridges that provide a subtle wing design, giving the ship its name. Instead of the brightly painted bird on the underside - as was done in the original Star Trek - the ship is structured with lines and baffling plates that create the detailing and insinuation of being a bird. The Playmates Warbird captures much of this detailing with precision and an excellent amount of care. This is clearly a Romulan Warbird and anyone who has seen the series will easily recognize it from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
It is somewhat baffling, then, that with such attention to detail for the sculptural lines and indentations, Playmates would resort to a decal for the Romulan symbol on the forward section of the starship, as opposed to painting it on or making it part of the actual sculpt. This is nitpicky, to be sure, and at least Playmates does the work of applying the decal. There is a small black Romulan Empire symbol right above the bridge section on the beak and it is accurate, if not the most flattering aspect of this toy.
What is harder to appreciate now, years later, is the lack of sophistication with the light effects. To do a Romulan Warbird right, there ought to have been many pinprick holes with green light coming from them, or at least the one light source between the double hulls that illuminates the middle section. Instead, only the very forward-most part of the nacelles lights up and it is a blue light which is not entirely accurate for the ship.
Accessories
Also disappointing is the lack of a stand. As collectors became more sophisticated with future releases and made it clear to Playmates that they wanted to be able to display the starships, Playmates began to include stands that the starships would rest upon. Alas, the Romulan Warbird has no stand and as a result, those who want to display it must either hang it from the ceiling, let it rest on a display surface or make their own stand.
The toy is outfitted with four buttons on the top of the aft quarter of the ship which generates sounds from a sound chip. When pressed, the toy emits sounds of: Romulan disruptors, the ship decloaking, the ship's shields taking a hit and a general space battle. The best sound - and most recognizable - is easily the decloaking sound. The sound effects are easily more memorable than the light effects and they make for an interesting selling point and conversation piece.
For fans of the starships, there is also a rather unsophisticated blueprint of the Romulan Warbird included in the box.
Playability
The Romulan Warbird is a starship toy, so it does not open up (save the battery slot) and does not naturally interact with the 4.5 (or any other) action figure line. It comes out of the box completely assembled and the battery life may easily be extended by flipping a little button in the battery pack that disengages the light effects.
This is a toy that - outside lighting up and making noise - does nothing. As a result, it is a good toy for children who have an imagination. They interact with other children to create space battles or just soar through the galaxy until they are tired out or whatever kids do.
Honestly, this is a toy created with the intent of selling to adults who are into collectible toys. That purpose was mostly met and the Romulan Warbird is not a bad display piece, despite the somewhat unsophisticated nature of some elements of the detailing (and the lack of a stand).
Collectibility
The most severe limitation to the collectibility of the Romulan Warbird as a collectible comes in its selling point as a toy; because the toy comes with batteries and browsers are encouraged by the box to test the sounds, collectors are left with a real dilemma. As most collectors know, almost everything that is collectible is made more valuable by being Mint In Box. The potential consequence of leaving the Romulan Warbird truly mint in box is that the batteries, well after they are dead will leak and eat apart the starship and packaging.
As a result, many collectors - even those who do not display the ship because they want to keep it mint in package - opened the package to remove the batteries. It is difficult to assess the effect this has on the collectibility because these near mint in box ships might well be in better condition than a truly mint in box one which might reasonably have suffered serious damage from battery degradation by this point (especially in more humid climes).
That said, Playmates made the Romulan Warbird more collectible by including a limited edition number on the box to each toy. Then again, they made it less collectible by producing the toy in the volume that they did. My toy is numbered #008041 and so with at least 8042 of these out in the world, it's hard to consider it especially limited. Moreover, many collectors purchased these and stockpiled them when they were first released, though the market does seem to have gone up on them lately.
Overview
I loved my Romulan Warbird when it was first released back in 1993. As time has passed and I have grown up some, I keep the Romulan Warbird because it is a cool ship. Unfortunately, I keep it behind the shelves where the rest of my starships are displayed because there is no natural, easy way to display it. Moreover, the light effects - especially - no longer impress me and it is a battery hog, so I almost never put batteries in and listen to it anymore.
It's an average toy and I ultimately leaned toward the "not" recommend for the simple reason that it's good, but it could be better and buyers who are looking to buy one need to be exceptionally careful about what they are buying. If the seller has left the toy truly mint in box, be sure to have some form of guarantee that if you open it and discover the batteries have bled, you'll be able to get your money back!
And that extra level of attention on the buyer's part just makes it a little too much hassle for the toy.
For other Star Trek starship toys, please check out:
Playmates Klingon Bird Of Prey
Playmates U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701
Corgi 40th Anniversary Klingon Bird Of Prey
5/10
For other toy reviews, please be sure to visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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