Tricorder Fun

This is a Tricorder toy from the Playmates Star Trek series that proudly takes up space in the Eclectorama Collection Archives. It is a lot smaller than the props used in the show, but what it lacks in size it makes up for in lights and sounds. I picked this up when Star Trek was all the rage, they had just released the Phaser and the Communicator so I had to get the Tricorder to complete the set, right? This is another one of those toys that takes me back to the days of the "build your own" Star Trek accessories.

When you think about all the stuff Star Trek predicted I'm amazed that the Tricorder is not as popular as say the iPod. Communicators gave us cell phones, diskettes (even though their outdated now) were featured several times on the show before they existed, what about mini skirts... oh wait they had those at the time the show was filmed, but women in the military that was a concept explored by the show, and not just nurses but in command positions. All before there time.

So where's the Tricorder? According to this article some were made, but I don't think anyone took the company too seriously and it went out of business. either that or Star Fleet bought all 10, 000 of the production run. It's too bad that someone doesn't pick up where these guys left off and really develop a device that can scan and register different atmospheric and physical events for research for your home use.

When you think about it, all a tricorder is, is every type of scanner you could imagine rolled up into a nice little package. Who wouldn't want one? " Oh yeah the Tricorder says here your fuel mixture is to rich." or "Looks like you need a new liver, well according to the Tricorder anyway." how about "Are you sure you can eat that, the Tricorder is giving me some very strange readings?" Funny thing is while they were making the real world equivalent to the Tricorder, Playmates Toys was making a fake version of the same device that I passed off as a "plumbing scanner" when my sister was telling me about her kitchen sink one time " Ah, there's your problem, it's the P trap, seems to be clogged, according to my readings you'll have to replace the whole fixture."

See there's a need.