That’s it. That’s the blog.
Star Trek has always had a bit of a questionable history with merchandise. I mean, these days we get great collectibles, but when the shows were actually airing, it was kind of hard to make shows more about moral arguments and people sciencing things in space-boardrooms into action figures and toys (except for those rad Micro Machines models in the ‘90s). No one wanted a Deep Space Nine Bajoran Vedek action figure. No one.
Almost as if to prove that point, one of the earliest Star Trek toys ever made was…well, a random helmet that had nothing to do with Star Trek. Infamously produced by Remco Toys in 1976, the Star Trek Space Fun Helmet—literally that was it, no attempt at making a vaguely exciting name—was what Remco came up with, having seemingly run out of ideas to capitalise on Star Trek’s syndication boom and the then-upcoming The Motion Picture. Having released an electronic Phaser toy and Starfleet utility belt the year prior, that’s pretty much all the role-play style toys you could wean out of Star Trek. And so…the Helmet:
It’s got a siren. And a sticker sheet to put the name of your favourite Trek hero on the top—although Spock was the most famous, because it was his name emblazoned on the helmet seen in the packaging shots. Which is why the official Star Trek website got the young Spock of Discovery himself, Ethan Peck, to unbox one and don it in all its gleefully undersized glory.
Maybe it was to help soothe his brain after it got stolen in season three? Who can say. But god bless its absurd existence nonetheless.
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