Star Trek The Next Generation 1988
After ERTL’s failed attempt at Star Trek Figures with The Search for Spock movie, the licensing rights to Star Trek were up for grabs. Enter the Galoob Toy Company. They released a small line based on the brand new show, The Next Generation. The line consisted of ten figures in total, along with two vehicles, a die-cast USS Enterprise and a roleplay phaser. More items were planned for the line, but Galoob ceased production in 1989.
For more information about Galoob’s Star Trek: The Next Generation products, see bottom of page for a complete summary.
Star Trek The Next Generation (1988): Basic Figures – Series 1
Galoob released six action figures for the first series of the Next Generation line. These figures were very generic looking with little articulation. All Series One figures came with the same phaser and Tricorder accessories.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Market Value:
Carded $15 – $25
Loose $7 – $10
Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Accessories: Phaser, Tricorder
Years Released: 1988
Scarcity Factor: Easily found on secondary market
Notes: Captain Jean-Luc Picard was portrayed by Patrick Stewart in the Next Generation television series, and was of course, the Commanding Officer of the Enterprise. The likeness on the figure was pretty generic looking, and like all figures in this line, not very articulable. Picard comes with his phaser and Tricorder.
Commander William Riker
Market Value:
Carded $12 – $20
Loose $7 – $10
Commander William Riker
Accessories: Phaser, Tricorder
Years Released: 1988
Scarcity Factor: Easily found on secondary market
Notes: Commander William Riker was portrayed by Jonathan Frakes in the Next Generation television series, and was the second in command of the Enterprise. The likeness on the figure was pretty generic looking, and like all figures in this line, not very articulable. Riker comes with his phaser and Tricorder.
Lieutenant Commander Data
Market Value:
Carded $30 – $40
Loose $10 – $15
Lieutenant Commander Data
Accessories: Phaser, Tricorder
Years Released: 1988
Scarcity Factor: Easily found on secondary market
Notes: Lieutenant Commander Data was portrayed by Brent Spiner in the Next Generation television series, and served as the Second Officer of the Enterprise. The likeness on the figure was fairly awful and came with several different color variations. Data comes with his phaser and Tricorder.
Lieutenant Geordi LaForge
Market Value:
Carded $12 – $20
Loose $7 – $10
Lieutenant Geordi LaForge
Accessories: Phaser, Tricorder
Years Released: 1988
Scarcity Factor: Easily found on secondary market
Notes: Lieutenant Geordi LaForge was portrayed by LeVar Burton in the Next Generation television series, and served as the Chief Engineer of the Enterprise. The likeness on the figure was not great and the visor was not removable. Geordi comes with his phaser and Tricorder.
Lieutenant Tasha Yar
Market Value:
Carded $12 – $20
Loose $7 – $10
Lieutenant Tasha Yar
Accessories: Phaser, Tricorder
Years Released: 1988
Scarcity Factor: Easily found on secondary market
Notes: Lieutenant Tasha Yar was portrayed by Denise Crosby in the Next Generation television series, and served as the Security Chief of the Enterprise until her death at the end of Season One. The likeness on the figure was decent and Tasha comes with her phaser and Tricorder.
Lieutenant Worf
Market Value:
Carded $12 – $20
Loose $7 – $10
Lieutenant Worf
Accessories: Phaser, Tricorder
Years Released: 1988
Scarcity Factor: Easily found on secondary market
Notes: Lieutenant Worf was portrayed by Michael Dorn in the Next Generation television series, and served as a Bridge Officer, then Security Chief aboard the Enterprise. The likeness on the figure was passable for a Klingon and the sash was not removable. Worf comes with his phaser and Tricorder.
Star Trek The Next Generation (1988): Basic Figures – Series 2
For their second wave of Next Generations action figures, Galoob released four alien figures to the line. These figures were definitely better sculpted than the human characters in Series One, but had the same limited articulation. It should be noted the only Series Two figure that came with an accessory was the Ferengi.
Antican
Market Value:
Carded $50 – $70
Loose $12 – $20
Antican
Accessories: None
Years Released: 1988
Scarcity Factor: Not hard to find, but getting tougher each year
Notes: The Antican’s are a race of dog looking aliens that are allies of the United Federation of Planets. They were seen several times as background characters throughout the Next Generation series, but were also featured characters in a couple of episodes. The Antican figure came with no accessories.
Ferengi
Market Value:
Carded $50 – $70
Loose $12 – $20
Ferengi
Accessories: Ferengi Weapon
Years Released: 1988
Scarcity Factor: Not hard to find, but getting tougher each year
Notes: The Ferengi are a race of troll looking aliens who were the main antagonists of the United Federation of Planets early in the series. Eventually they were replaced by the Romulans and Borg. Afterwards, they were usually only used for comedic relief. The Ferengi figure came with the Ferengi Weapon.
Q
Market Value:
Carded $50 – $70
Loose $12 – $20
Q
Accessories: None
Years Released: 1988
Scarcity Factor: Not hard to find, but getting tougher each year
Notes: Q was portrayed by John De Lancie in the Next Generation series, and was the scene stealing member of the Q Continuum. The likeness on the figure was not terrible, and he came dressed in his signature outfit worn during his first appearances on the show. The Q figure came with no accessories.
Selay
Market Value:
Carded $40 – $60
Loose $12 – $20
Selay
Accessories: None
Years Released: 1988
Scarcity Factor: Not hard to find, but getting tougher each year
Notes: The Selay are a race of reptile looking aliens that are allies of the United Federation of Planets. They were seen several times as background characters throughout the Next Generation series. The Selay figure came with no accessories.
Star Trek The Next Generation (1988): Unproduced Prototypes
Galoob had much bigger plans for their Next Generation action figure line, and there are rumors of multiple other figures and accessories being planned. The two figures pictured below actually made it to the prototype phase, but were never mass produced. There are rumored to be about a dozen or so prototypes of each of these figures in existence, making them extremely rare.
Romulan Unproduced Prototype
Wesley Crusher Unproduced Prototype
Star Trek The Next Generation (1988): Accessories
No accessories were produced to be used for the 3.75 Inch Star Trek line, but Galoob did produce a die-cast version of the U.S.S Enterprise, as well as a roleplay Phaser Weapon. A die-cast Ferengi Battleship was included in Galoob’s 1989 product catalog, but was never produced.
Phaser Weapon
Market Value:
Carded $40 – $60
Loose $10 – $15
Phaser Weapon
Accessories: None
Years Released: 1988
Scarcity Factor: Easily found on the secondary market
Notes: The phaser in Next Generation was drastically different than the ones used in the original series and movies. It had a futuristic remote control sort of look to it, and the roleplay version by Galoob certainly captured the likeness of the re-designed weapon very well.
U.S.S. Enterprise Starship (Die-Cast)
Market Value:
Carded $35 – $50
Loose $10 – $15
U.S.S. Enterprise Starship (Die-Cast)
Accessories: None
Years Released: 1988
Scarcity Factor: Easily found on the secondary market
Notes: Die-Cast ships of various Star Trek spaceships had certainly been done before by Corgi, Dinky and ERTL, but this was Galoob’s first venture into the world of Star Trek. The Enterprise was, of course, the one of the main stars of the Star Trek universe, and this version was actually nicely done.
Star Trek The Next Generation (1988) : Playsets
Although several were proposed, Galoob did not release any playsets for their Star Trek The Next Generation action figure line in 1988.
Star Trek The Next Generation (1988) : Vehicles
Galoob released two new vehicles that were designed for the 3.75 Inch Next Generation line, with the Ferengi Fighter and Shuttlecraft Galileo.
Ferengi Fighter
Market Value:
Boxed $75 – $90
Loose $18 – $25
Ferengi Fighter
Accessories: Opening Canopy, Phaser Weapons, Wing Phaser Weapons, Decals
Years Released: 1988
Scarcity Factor: Not hard to find, but getting tougher each year
Notes: The Ferengi were the main antagonist to the Federation when the Next Generation first began, but were eventually replaced with the Romulans and Borg. The main fighter craft for the Ferengi were the Ferengi Fighters. They were a small two pilot craft that resemble an orange ice scraper. Seriously though, these ships were pretty cool looking and getting tougher to find mint in box.
Shuttlecraft Galileo
Market Value:
Boxed $85 – $100
Loose $18 – $25
Shuttlecraft Galileo
Accessories: Opening Hatches, Pop-Up Sensor Unit, Phaser Cannons, Decals
Years Released: 1988
Scarcity Factor: Tough to find on the secondary market
Notes: The Shuttlecraft Galileo is on the more iconic and recognizable space crafts from the Star Trek Universe and has been around since the original series. This version of it by Galoob had to be shrunk down in size due to making it more economical to produce. It featured opening side hatches and ramps, along with phaser cannons. The shuttle could fit up to six figures inside if you used the back hatch space.
By the time Star Trek Next Generation was hitting the airwaves in 1988, Star Trek toys had not had the best track record since Mego’s glory days in the early to mid 1970’s. After Mego’s failed attempt at marketing toys based on Star Trek The Motion Picture in 1979, and ERTL’s failed attempt with Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, the Star Trek toy brand was considered to be a bit toxic. After a very successful string of movies (Star Trek II, Star Trek III and Star Trek IV) it seemed that it was about time someone took a gamble on Star Trek once again……Enter the Galoob toy company. Galoob had been around since 1957, and had been already making several other smaller action figure lines with the most notable being the A-Team and Blackstar. Galoob decided to take a chance on the newest Star Trek television series, mostly because the toy licensing rights came at a friendly price. Mego had great success with their original Star Trek 8 Inch line, and Galoob was hoping to get a piece of that action. The Next Generation television series was a success from the very beginning, but it gained mega status as the show went on. Despite the show’s big ratings and success, Galoob’s toy line struggled with poor sales. This was due to many reasons, but it was mostly due to the figure’s poor design and lack of articulation. Most of the figures from Series 1 went through multiple variations throughout its run and they just felt rushed with very little playability factor.
The Star Trek The Next Generation toy line was a fairly small one with only two series of ten 3.75 Inch action figures in total. The first series consisted of Captain Jean-Luc Picard, the captain of the Enterprise; Commander Will Riker, Picard’s right hand man and best friend; Lieutenant Commander Data, the second officer; Geordi LaForge, the Chief Engineer of the Enterprise; Lieutenant Worf, the Klingon Bridge Officer/Security Chief; and Tasha Yar, who was the original Security Chief before being killed off. Series Two consisted of four different aliens, Antican, Ferengi, Selay and the iconic character, Q. Galoob produced two vehicles to be used with the figures, the Shuttlecraft Galileo and Ferengi Fighter, along with a die-cast version of the Enterprise. A roleplay phaser weapon was also released in Series One. The head sculpts for the figures were pretty bad and they had next to no articulation. Galoob admitted to making several mistakes with the line, with the biggest one being marketing the line towards children and not including adult collectors. Many more figures and accessories were planned for the Next Generation line, but sadly, Galoob ceased production on their 1989 line halfway through the development process.
The packaging for the 3.75 Inch line of Star Trek The Next Generation figures was actually very attractive with a nice shelf appeal. It featured the classic Star Trek Next Generation logo across the top of the card in big bold letters. The figure was positioned at the bottom left of the card in a classic blister pack format. To the right of the card was the new version of the Enterprise flying just above the head portraits of each character. The basic color scheme of the series was an attractive dark blue, which really popped. The card backs featured photos of each character, as well all the figures together. All offered items by Galoob were also featured on the card back. Overall, this was a solid effort by Galoob to make a new Star Trek action figure line. It will never be considered iconic or game-changing but it was a fun line and fondly remembered by collectors.
Series 1 Card Back
Series 2 Card Back
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