![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.megomuseum.com\/startrek\/images\/EnterprisePrototype.jpg\" "\\"Prototype")
<\/p>\nMego had experienced tremendous success in the marketing of same-scaled vehicles and environments for their World’ Greatest Super-Heroes line and their Planet of the Apes series.\u00a0 Almost immediately, “Trek” proved itself a runaway hit on the toy aisle.\u00a0 In quick order, Mego decided to provide ancillary products for the “Star Trek” figures, in much the same vein as those afforded to the WGSH and Apes.\u00a0 “Trek” proved a unique challenge, however.\u00a0 Mego was used to designing cars, helicopters, motorcycles, vinyl playsets and the like in the eight-inch scale which they pioneered.\u00a0 The first question the designers inevitably asked was this:<\/p>\n
“How do you make a Starship in the eight-inch scale?”<\/p>\n
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Mego’s solution to this issue was inspired, and, in many ways, simply couldn’t be done today, with the current generation brought up on the prerequisite of ultra-realism in their toys.\u00a0 Forgoing accuracy and instead focusing on play-value and bright, eye-catching colors, Mego unveiled the U.S.S. Enterprise Playset in 1975.\u00a0 It was a tremendous success, as evidenced by the vast number of Enterprise Playsets that still turn up today; it seems that every boy in the mid-‘Seventies had one of these playsets.\u00a0 This playcase is laughable by today’s toy craftsmanship standards, but its charm and innocence are hard to ignore.\u00a0 Mego focused on the bridge of the Enterprise for its layout, but included a wing on each side of the playset devoted to two more key areas of the Enterprise.\u00a0 On the right was a small room that was, at least ostensibly, the Engine Room (really nothing but a non-descript corner in which to stick your Scottie figure), and on the left was the real star of the toy, the Transporter Room.<\/p>\n
The Transporter mechanism was an engineering feat even Scottie would be proud of.\u00a0 To simulate the effect of “beaming,” you would put a figure in one side of a vertical tumbler, and spin the knob.\u00a0 Brightly-colored labels would flash by as the cylinder spun, giving a rather art-deco interpretation to the act of Transporting.\u00a0 By pressing one of two buttons on the top of the playset, you could stop the mechanism–on a dime!–in either the “beamed in” or “beamed out” position.\u00a0 A secret door, not unlike those found on the cabinets of shifty illusionists, was present at the rear of the mechanism, allowing the child to remove the figure without the rest of the crew noticing!\u00a0 Sneaky…<\/p>\n
![\""Jane!](\"http:\/\/www.megomuseum.com\/startrek\/images\/TransFrame1.gif\")
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