Gisby's Gaming Blog

In the mid-to-late 1970’s Heritage produced a set of role-playing rules for Star Trek, and a series of figures to go with them. At the time, they were limited to The Original Series and The Animated Series. This meant that they had the races from the original show, plus a few from the cartoon (That I had never heard of at the time)

The Bridge Crew. Where’s Bones?

Most packs had six figures – Character packs had fewer. The Federation, Klingons, and Romulans had one female, one seated figure, and four figures in two poses.

When I heard that Classic Miniatures had finally added them to their catalogue, I had to have some more. So I ordered a bunch. Then I dug out my old figures to strip them.

Imagine my surprise, to find out that I already had a lot of them – Far more than I would ever need for a game. But I stripped them all, and painted the lot when they came in.

If you are familiar with Heritage, they are typical. The poses are nothing special, the faces are very soft in detail, and overall the sculpting is OK. For 1975. The character figures are surprisingly good, and somehow resemble their real world counterparts.

The two male figures look like clones of each other, and have their phasers out. The poses can be bent for variety, or you can use characters as crewmen. (Of course they didn’t make a lot of crew, they were just there to die for dramatic effect)

There are three female figures (plus one, sorta): Uhura, Yeoman, and female crewman. The yeoman has a slung tricorder, the others have no equipment. All are just standing there.

Bones is here, second from the right

Painting was… interesting. For the most part, they are easy to paint. Not much detail or equipment. But some collars were poorly sculpted, some features indistinct.

Despite my indifferent review, I did enjoy these very much. Whatever they may lack, they are pure nostalgia. I kept the originals for fifty years, and I still wanted more.

Andorian, Orian, Nurse, Annoying Teen

I did nothing clever or creative with these figures, but there was some influence from Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds – I made an Andorian and an Orian crew member, and a Nurse inspired by Nurse Chapel.

There is an unreleased figure, of a Caitian(?) female crew, but with a tail and a cat face, from the cartoon. I bought one, and replaced her head with another crew head, and removing the tail. She is perfect for an all-too-clever teen yeoman.

Robots – not strictly Star Trek

Classic Miniatures also had a robot from the same era, sculpted in the same style – Not really Star Trek, but useful as Aliens.