As many of you out there may know, this year marks the 50th Anniversary of the enduring Star Trek franchise. Gene Roddenberry’s original series premiered its first episode on NBC—titled “The Man Trap,” on September 8th, 1966—after which nerd culture was forever changed. As part of the big celebration, there will be a special 50th anniversary convention in New York City later this year, as well as product tie-ins like commemorative stamps, Mega-Bloks, and even a MAC cosmetics line.
Now we’ved learned, via an announcement on Entertainment Weekly, that Star Trek rights holder CBS has teamed up with toy company Mattel to produce a line of Barbie dolls based on the original series. The three initial offerings are based on William Shatner’s Captain James T. Kirk, Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock, and Nicelle Nichols as Lt. Uhura. It’s not yet known if there will be other dolls in the line featuring the other four principal crew members of the starship Enterprise.
This isn’t the first time there have been Barbie dolls based on Star Trek — back in 1996, a special Barbie and Ken set was produced by Mattel for the series’ 30th anniversary, with both dolls wearing classic Starfleet uniforms inspired by the original show. However, both of those doll’s faces were classic Barbie and Ken faces, and weren’t meant to evoke the show’s actors (although Barbie looked an awful lot like Yeoman Rand from the original series). Then in 2009, Mattel produced a series of Barbie dolls in conjunction with Paramount based on JJ Abrams’ reboot film.
Priced at $35 each, the 50th-anniversary Star Trek Barbie dolls are due to arrive in stores later this month. You can check out individual pics of each doll in our gallery below.
And since we’re here talkin’ Trek, here’s what J.J. had to say about his movies:
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What do you think of the out of this world Barbie dolls? Should Mattel produce dolls based on the rest of the crew? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Images: CBS Consumer Products/Mattel
