In 1994, it was clear that Star Trek: The Next Generation was on its way to syndication heaven, as the series was due to be retired and promoted to movie duty. Playmates had diversified its line of Star Trek figures in anticipation of this, branching out to create ranges of Deep Space Nine and Classic Trek figures. But Playmates wasn’t about to quit trying to cash in on Next Generation’s success just yet.
Once again, reissues in slightly different costumes were predominant – it’s always an easy way to create “new” figures from supplies of existing body and head molds. Data was reissued in dress uniform and in a red uniform (as seen in Redemption II), while Picard was now issued with a standard, jacket-less uniform, and Tom Riker in a yellow uniform from Second Chances. A new “Gowron in Ceremonial Attire” figure was created by coupling the wave one Gowron head with a wave two Worf-in-Klingon-gear body. Worf himself was reissued in the black skintight suit seen in Chain of Command part I.
But to give Playmates some credit, they didn’t cheap out on all of the main character reissues. Picard and Data were re-sculpted with Romulan features and clothes from Unification I, while a new Riker figure was introduced to reflect his costume and facial alterations from First Contact (the episode, not the yet-to-be-made film). A new figure was created to represent Geordi in his mutated state from Identity Crisis as well. And most impressively, Counselor Troi was completely resculpted and clothed in standard uniform, finally replacing the silly caricature of Troi from the first wave with a decent likeness.
New figures introduced in wave four included Hugh (from I, Borg), Lt. Barclay, and Wesley in standard uniform.
