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Friday, April 6, 2007

Set Phasers to Stun

I've been wanting to get one of these for a little while now and if I was writing a review I would recommend getting one of these toys if you were into Star Trek. This is the Classic Phaser from Art Asylum. These guys are known for outstanding detail in their toys and it shows with this one. For example, every switch and button works on this thing, it's great, you can even set the phaser to overload like in the series and it will make the sound F/X and light up. This will come in handy if you want to sabotage an enemy vessel by setting it to overload and then tossing it into an exhaust port. I really would not suggest throwing this around, being made of plastic it might get damaged and it probably would not be good for the electronics.
What really makes this toy over the top is that it separates from the type two phaser into the much smaller type one phaser just like the show. Plus like the show the base of the type two will not function without the type one in place. Another great feature is that you can set the beam intensity and scroll through several different phaser settings each with a different sound F/X. Man what I would have given to have had one of these when I was a kid.

Before this little jewel there was a type two phaser made by Playmates Toys in the 90's. This phaser could not separate and only made a couple of sounds, but it was still a solid little toy that looked authentic enough. I have one of these as well and maybe in a future post I'll put up a little side by side shot.

Going even further back to when I was just a little "Trekkie" the only way to get a phaser that was close to the show was to build it yourself with one of the AMT Star Trek Explorer Set model kits that were out at the time. These could be found pretty much until the early 70's, I myself went through several of these kits as each of my previous ones would get damaged in some off planet adventure. One time a group of my buddies and myself decided it would be a great idea to go as Star Trek characters for Halloween. A buddy of mine called Bo Bo went as Kirk and another friend went as Spock (ears and all) and I was my favorite red shirt Scotty. We all went out and picked up the model kit, built our equipment, Moms were recruited for costumes, and we were off. The cool thing about these costumes were that you could go down to your local dime store and purchase an official Trek shirt in any one of the three colors, so it was just pants and boots that were needed after that.

Years later I found my shirt still in good order packed away and my son went as a red shirt for Halloween that year. True to form he had to have a phaser and communicator to go with it, but the models were no longer around and Playmates had not released their toys for the Classic series yet. So it was off to the garage to make some props from scratch. I cobbled a rough phaser and communicator together, slapped some paint on it and we were off to trick or treat. Maybe a Halloween Costume Party is in order this year, I doubt the shirt still fits me though. Well with that thought I'm off to drive my wife crazy and chase the bassets around the place. Beam me up Scotty!

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