The Good: Decent light effects, Good sounds, Generally cool sculpt
The Bad: Scale issues, Front windows
The Basics: A bulky toy that might be good for children for play, the Shuttlecraft Goddard is disappointing for adult collectors.
When Playmates owned the Star Trek toy line, they immediately set about to figuring out who their market actually was. For the most part, they figured out that it was actually adults who were buying their Star Trek toys. But with the first wave of Star Trek: The Next Generation figures and toys they released, they were still figuring it out. This is especially evident with the Shuttlecraft Goddard toy.
Like the Runabout Orinoco toy, the Shuttlecraft Goddard was released as a toy primarily to be played with. It fit action figures inside and was grossly out of scale with the rest of the toy line (both the 4.5" action figures and the 15" starships Playmates released). With its clean lines and shiny surface, the Shuttlecraft Goddard is like the sports car of the Star Trek universe. Sure, it looks like a lunchbox with feet, but it's the landing craft from Star Trek: The Next Generation and it gives kids something to play with.
Basics
Shuttlecraft are landing ships in Star Trek introduced first in Star Trek and then updated for Star Trek: The Next Generation. The Shuttlecraft Goddard toy is the Star Trek: The Next Generation incarnation of the shuttlecraft. The toy, however, has a problem; it is far too large to fit in the same scale as the full-sized starships (see links below), but far too small to be properly in proportion to the 4.5" action figures that Playmates released. This would not be such an issue if it were not for the fact that this toy has seating for action figures.
In general, the Shuttlecraft Goddard is clearly a Star Trek: The Next Generation shuttlecraft vehicle. Playmates deserves some credit for getting the look of the ship right. This toy was designed to appeal to the niche of collectors who liked models, but were not married to the building of models. Unfortunately, it was far more popular with children (and adults) who actually took the toys out to play with them because of how it opened up and seated up to three figures. The bulky Shuttlecraft Goddard is just over fourteen inches long, eleven inches inches wide and just under six inches tall.
The Shuttlecraft Goddard is a standard Federation design for a shuttlecraft-type vehicle. It is basically a race car in space. The mid-aft section has warp nacelles suspended below each side of the starship. Reflecting the Star Trek: The Next Generation sensibility of Federation starships, it is a light gray. Despite how infrequently the shuttlecraft were used, this makes sense for a toy because it allows kids to move the action figures from one place to another in a way that makes sense (whatwith there being no transporters yet).
The hull of the Shuttlecraft Goddard is smooth and glossy, which might seem unrealistic for a landing craft, but it is accurate for the ship it represents. On the toy, the windows are all represented by black plastic, which is disappointing given that the rest of the sculpt looks and is colored well. At the same time, the lack of transparent windows - the main one being the front cockpit hatch - would reveal the problems with the scale of the toy as the forward window on the canopy would look into a section that fits only a single figure as opposed to the four crew members that usually occupy the cockpit. Despite that, the sculpt is a decent one for this starship.
All of the Federation logos and call signs are decals and the directions are clear enough as to where everything goes. Those who open the toy have several decals to apply for the outside and none of them are especially problematic. There are an annoying number of stickers for the consoles on the inside of the ship and they are a bit harder to apply. It is irksome that Playmates did not do this for the consumers.
The light effects are decent, contained as they are to the warp nacelles, which are accurate and good. Considering the lack of transparent windows, there are no other appropriate places to be lit on this little vehicle. When either of the two buttons on the top of the vehicle are depressed, the blue nacelles light up and that effect is pretty decent.
Accessories
The toy is outfitted with two buttons on the top and center of the ship which generates sounds from a sound chip. When pressed, the toy emits sounds of: the ship firing its phasers and that of the shuttlecraft at impulse speeds. The sound of the impulse engines is a good one - surprisingly long - and it fits perfectly with what the shuttlecraft does, as they are the ships that ease through space when they aren't busy crashing.
There is also a ridiculous plastic "probe" that slides into the back of the shuttlecraft. This is not emblematic of anything seen on the series and so it seems a bit ridiculous to me.
For fans of the starships, there is also a rather unsophisticated blueprint of the shuttlecraft included in the box.
Playability
The Shuttlecraft Goddard is a starship toy, but it has two openings to act as a playset for the 4.5" action figures. It comes out of the box completely assembled and includes batteries. The front canopy is opened by simply pulling it up, like a garage door. The front cockpit holds a single figure and comes with a seat - with seatbelt - that fits one of the 4.5" figures.
There is also an aft compartment which simply rotates open like a portable ramp from a tractor trailer by folding it down from the top. There are two benches in the back which allow figures to be placed in facing one another, though this works far better in theory than in practice. This allows children who play with the toy to send three people on missions and that's a cool enough idea.
As well, there are little wheels discretely placed in the warp nacelles and under the nose of the vessel to allow children to play with the shuttlecraft on flat surfaces. They can shove the vehicle from a stopped position and make it go to warp and send it sailing a pretty good distance.
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 Shuttlecraft Goddard is a good display piece, despite being horribly out of proportion with every other Playmates toy.
Collectibility
The most severe limitation to the collectibility of the Shuttlecraft Goddard as a collectible comes in one of its selling points 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 Shuttlecraft Goddard 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 Shuttlecraft Goddard 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 #102005 and so with at least 102,006 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, and the market has never gone up on them.
Overview
When I had to move and thin out my collection some, the Shuttlecraft Goddard made an easy choice to edit out. It takes up a lot of space and works better as a toy for play as opposed to a display piece. Was it fun for a while? Sure, but a kid will enjoy it far more than adults who are into toys as collectibles.
For other Playmates Star Trek toys, please be sure to check out my reviews of:
Space Station Deep Space Nine
Romulan Warbird
Klingon Bird Of Prey
5/10
For other toy reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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