Class of Bootleg	Class 3 - Concept Bootleg
Class Notes:	Similar in Concept to the Space War ships.
Bootleg Source:	Paramount's Star Trek Enterprise-D
Bootleg Rating:	(Three out of five stars)
Sightings:	Australia
Vintage:	Winter 1997

Space Machines are a new bootleg line that I aquired from a source in Austraillia. The line features mini-ship playsets much like Playmates Toy's Innerspace line, and concequently much linke its bootleg line, Space War. I have two different ship playsets, and there may be more.

Each playset is on an individually-designed card. The priting is on only one side, but the front art-work is high quality; including both new art and good-quality photos of the actual product. There is no manufacturer info on the packaging, except that there are copyrights pending in the US, China (where the toy was made) and the UK.

Each ship comes with a mini-ship playset, two micro-figures, and a command chair that is based off the Enterprise-D!

Click on the images for a (somewhat) larger view!

1. Metallic Green Sacuer Section / Metallic Blue Base and Gun
2. Metallic Blue Sacuer Section / Metallic Green Base and Gun The chair itself is enough to classify the Space Machine line as Concept bootlegs of Star Trek. But there's more.....at least on one of the ships!

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   Space Bomber Playset

   The first of the two ships I have to review is the Space Bomber Playset.

   As you can see from the product shot in the lower right of the cart art (left), it is based off of a US Stealth Bomber plane. It is molded in silver and gold plastic with red weapons.

   The mini figures are cast in red and white plastic, wich matches the color scheme of the playset.

   The Enterprise-Chair is the Blue-Saucer version.

   The lower left of the blister has a neon-colored sticker attached. It shows an Alien-looking creature with the text "Galaxy Monster"

   Other than the Enterpeise-Chair this toy could pass for a brand-new toy, albeit based off of the military.

   

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   Space Falcon Playset

   The more interesting of the two Space Machine playsets is the Space Falcon Playset.

   When I first heard the name of this playset, I was sure it was going to be another dual cockpit Millennium Falcon. I was pleasantly suprised to find that it was in fact a bootleg of the Romulan Warbird and Klingon Bird of Prey ships!

   The toy itself is cast in green and gold plastic, with red weapons.

   The mini figures are cast in tan and green, again matching the color-scheme of their ship.

   The Enterprise-Chair is the Green-Saucer version.

   The bootleg nature of the mini-ship comes in two parts. For clarity's sake, here's a detail of the card art showing the ship in both ship and playset modes:

   

   The top photo shows a "head" to the vehicle that very closely resembles the Romulan Warbird. The painting details (in yellow) disguise this a bit, but if remove the windshield looking top band, and replace the lower yellow blob with the Romulan emblem, you will quickly see the similarity.

   More striking, though, are the similarities to the Klingon Bird of Prey. A quick look at the Space War Klingon bootleg will show that the basic configuration of the ship, as well as the layout of the Playset mode, exactly resemble the Playmates Innerspace ship. The only diffrences are the modified head and the addition of a support strut extending backwards from the wings. The wings even have the same "feather" pattern carved into them.

   Finally, you can see a sticker on the lower left of the blister. On this ship, the sticker is a neon "Roswell" Alien with the words "UFO Contact" written under it.

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   Overall this is a keen bootleg. Star Trek boots are hard enough to find, so it qualfies as a keeper for that alone. The Enterprise-Chair, though, makes this line stand out as a truly innovative Concept Bootleg.