10 Star Trek Toys That Sucked
7. Star Trek Tracer Gun
In 1966, Grand Toys came along with the Tracer Gun, a Star Trek licenced product that was one of the earliest pieces of licenced Trek merchandise. As this was so early in the franchise's history, it's easier to give this one a bit of a pass. Kids had something with the logo on it that they could play with - happy days!
Think, then, of the dawning realisation of what they had. It was a gun.
No, no. Not a phaser. Not even one of those swishy water pistols that came a bit later. This was a gun that fired out penny-sized discs, ready to lodge up the nose of the nearest unsuspecting toddler.
Star Trek has certainly featured guns many times. Even early episodes like Tomorrow Is Yesterday and A Piece Of The Action featured versions of the instrument, but neither occasion, nor many of those that followed, had kids firing wee discs at each other.
In a time where the audience had next to nothing of Trek to call their own, one can certainly imagine the rush to get these out there. One can also imagine the inevitable Doctors' fees for the disc removals that followed.