An essential piece of landing party equipment is the Starfleet Communicator. After the
unimpressive wrist Communicators from Star Trek the Motion Picture director Nicholas Meyer went back to basics with the familiar flip grid Communicator; albeit a very bulky one. There is even a light up effect during the voice playback just like in the movie.
The Star Trek Wrath of Khan Communicator is the latest release from Diamond Select. The Communicator follows the popular Wrath of Khan Phaser and is the same high quality. The problem with the Communicator isn’t the prop replica itself but the original design. This Communicator is big and bulky and will not fit in your pants pocket, unless you are wearing cargo pants on your landing party. It is far from a sleek design.
The flip grid can be manually raised or it can be flipped open on its own with a little bit of work. Once opened there are 3 settings inside. The first setting gives you the phrases when you push the button on the back:
William Shatner saying “Kirk to Enterprise with Leonard Nimoy responding, “Spock here”
Nichelle Nichols saying, “Space Station Regula One do you read?”
Nimoy saying “Admiral this is Spock”
Shatner saying “Khan you bloodsucker you are going to have to do your own dirty work now. Do you hear me? DO YOU!” And “Khan you’ve got Genesis but you don’t have me. You were going to kill me Khan, you are going to have to come down here. You are going to have to come down here!”
Ricardo Montalbán as Khan saying, “I have done far worse than kill you, I’ve hurt you; and I wish to go on hurting you.”
And finally Shatner saying, “Uhura patch me in” and Nichols responding “Aye sir. You’re on Admiral.
On the second setting when you push the button, you get William Shatner yelling, “KHAN! KHAN!”
The third and final setting works by closing the lid to get the Communicator to beep at you.
When you reopen the lid you hear two separate dialogs between Nimoy and Shatner: “Admiral this is Spock.” “Yes Spock?” “Engineering reports that auxiliary power has been restored. We can proceed on impulse power.” “Best speed to Regula One.” And finally “Kirk to Spock it’s two hours are you ready?” Right on schedule Admiral, just give us your coordinates and we can beam you aboard.” “Alright!”
What bothered me was not with the toy but with the packaging. On the package, Genesis is spelled “Genessis” you would think that someone along the line would have done spell check. If Diamond would like someone to spell check products I offer my services. Another thing that bothered me is a bit nitpicky but the Enterprise shown on the box is that of the original series Enterprise as opposed to the refit which was in the movie. Kirk is depicted on the box in his movie uniform so the Enterprise should have followed suit.
This is the first time there has been a prop replica of this Communicator and personally I have been waiting for one since the first time I saw Wrath of Khan. This is another quality product from Diamond select and retails for 39.99 and is available at comic and specialty shops. You can also check out Diamond’s website here.
