star trek marshmallow

Marshmallow dispenser

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A "marshmelon" dispenser (2287)

A marshmallow dispenser was an item that was used to store and carry marshmallows during the 23rd century .

In 2287 , Captain Spock brought a marshmallow dispenser with him while camping at Yosemite National Park with Captain James T. Kirk and Dr. Leonard McCoy , so he could roast a "marshmelon" - as he called it - over a fire with a stick. ( Star Trek V: The Final Frontier )

Kraft's replica marshmallow dispenser

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Star Trek Marshmallow Dispenser

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Marshmallow

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Spock roasts a marshmallow while camping on Earth .

Marshmallows are a sweet confection originating on Earth , consisting of sugar , syrup and water . They are normally white in color and cylindrical in shape. They are often used as a garnish for other desserts, or to complement hot, flavored beverages .

A popular way of preparing marshmallows is to lightly roast them over an open flame. Captain Spock supplied marshmallows (which he erroneously referred to as "marsh melons") for roasting during a visit to Yosemite National Park with Captain James T. Kirk and Dr. Leonard McCoy . ( TOS movie : The Final Frontier ) Members of the crew of the USS da Vinci also roasted marshmallows while camping on the planet Vemlar . ( SCE eBook : The Art of the Deal )

Esperanza Piñiero claimed to have wanted to roast marshmallows over the flames of her Starfleet dress uniform , which she burned following her resignation. It was pointed out to her, though, that the burning uniform material would have given the marshmallows a bad taste. ( ST novel : Articles of the Federation )

A popular dessert called "s'mores" is a sandwich of marshmallow and melted chocolate between Graham crackers . Marshmallow spread can also mixed with peanut butter to make "Fluffernutter". ( ST reference : Star Trek Cookbook )

Connections [ ]

• Marshmallow article at Memory Alpha , the wiki for canon Star Trek .
• Marshmallow article at Wikipedia , the free encyclopedia.
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Thursday, June 10, 2010

Star trek 'potpourri' spotlight- marshmallow dispenser, 4 comments:.

Maybe the fork and spoon were included because the movie device could dispense other foods as well? Like sausages?

Good thought Frederick! It would seem pointless to make a small replicator that only dispensed marshmallows...

I have this piece as well and even recently looking at it and thought "what was I thinking" when I ordered it. It is an odd collectible.

This marshmallow dispenser looks like a cross between a photon torpedo tube and a shuttlecraft nacelle.

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Published Feb 2, 2021

Set Phasers for Strange: 9 of the Most Unexpected Star Trek Collectables

"Weird is part of the job!" - Capt. Kathryn Janeway

StarTrek.com

Since its debut all the way back in the fall of 1966, the Star Trek franchise has enjoyed a near constant landslide of tie-in merchandise. However, for every MEGO Mr. Spock or Playmates Phaser, there have also been a strange selection of oddities that have made fans scowl and ask 'Why?'

From the Ahi Star Trek Sky Diving Parachutists of the late 70s to the Knickerbocker plush Kirk and Spock dolls, there have been some real head scratchers mass produced over the last few decades — this thanks in no small part to the likes of label slapping and a fair bit of poetic licensing. And, while Starfleet has always been the sort of place to encourage its members to embrace the strange and new, one has to wonder how certain pieces were ever approved for distribution.

What follows now is a list of nine truly strange items that have been privileged enough to carry the Star Trek name. And while they're all pretty wacky, there is no denying the fact that these crazy collectibles radiate enough oddball charm to make them more desirable than a bottle of Romulan Ale...2283 vintage, of course!

#1 - Star Trek Light Up Helmet

You had to know this bizarre 1967 release from Remco was going to make the list! Looking more like something that belongs at an intergalactic police academy, this oddity resembles absolutely nothing ever worn by anyone in the history of Starfleet. With its open face, stick-on lettering, flashing red light and piercing sonic sound, this thing is just absolutely ridiculous and is a perfect example of just how weird the Star Trek merchandise game has been over the last 55 years. And yet, thanks to the first season of Star Trek: Lower Decks , Remco's Light Up Helmet has gone on to become an actual piece of official Star Trek canon!

If you're looking for one of your own, it may take some searching beyond the likes of Amazon and eBay to acquire. They're more than a little rare, so be sure to also search out sites like Hakes, where they've been known to pop up from time to time. Just know that if you do find one, it's not going to be cheap! The last time I saw one of these actually sell, it was over $2,000.00 without the box.

Unboxing The Official Star Trek Helmet with Ethan Peck

#2 - Star Trek Astrotank

Another Remco oddity from the era of "Let's Slap A Label On It" is the Astrotank! Nothing more than a rebranded piece from their once popular Hamilton Invaders line, the vehicle comes to you in bright yellow plastic and includes a team of space explorers that were actually just repainted army men figurines! Other strange sets in this series include the Astrocruiser and Astrocopter, all of which were just repainted and rebranded Hamilton Invaders vehicles. However, the Astrotank earns a spot on this list due to the simple fact that, in a show focusing on a galaxy at peace, Remco thought it was a good idea to market a tank! Clearly, authenticity wasn't a top priority back in the late 60s.

Unsurprisingly, these are not the easiest pieces to come by. While they do pop up on Amazon and eBay once in a blue moon, your best bet is to search beyond those on sites like Hakes and iCollector if you really want to get your hands on one. Expect to fork over some serious cash depending on condition! Back in 2013, I watched a gently used one go for $1,300.00 at auction without the box.

#3 - Star Trek Astro-Helmet

This helmet happens to be yet another unfortunate victim of late 60s label slapping! Another rebranded piece from the Hamilton Invaders line, it once again resembles absolutely nothing seen on Star Trek ! Besides, with that open mouth, it would be worse than useless out in space or on a planet without a breathable atmosphere! And, kids knew it!

Want one? Again these are rare, but check the likes of eBay, Hakes and iCollector. They're not going to be cheap! I saw one of these sell at a toy show back in 2015 for over $1,000.00!

#4 - Star Trek Marshmallow Dispenser

Remco isn't the only company responsible for some weird Star Trek merchandise. In 1989, Kraft released the Star Trek Marshmallow Dispenser in collaboration with the theatrical release of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier . As a mail away promotion for Jet Puffed Marshmallows, the replica also came with some oversized utensils and is capable of holding several of the beloved confectioneries within. It's kind of neat and, for a few proofs of purchase and a $1.99 back when it was initially released, how can you complain? But, there is no denying this is one weird piece of Star Trek merchandise — even if it does allow you to recreate at least a part of that famed camping scene in The Final Frontier . Pass the marshmelons, will ya?

If you'd like one of these, they pop up frequently on Amazon and eBay. Heck, I've even seen these at garage sales and swap meets quite a few times over the years. $40 - $50 should buy you a real nice one!

#5 - Star Trek Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

In the early 1990's, Playmates was sitting pretty with two very successful toylines in both Star Trek and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles respectively. So, what was the next logical step? Why, merge them together of course! Enter the Star Trek Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles , a spinoff line that hit store shelves in 1994 and transformed the Heroes In A Half Shell into the intrepid crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise ! As collectibles go, they're pretty unique. However, there is no denying these four radical reptiles represent one of the most bizarre Trek tie-ins of the last five decades.

If they happen to be just what you're looking for, you can find them on Amazon and eBay every so often. I've also seen them for sale at numerous toy and comic conventions over the years. $20 - $30 will get you out of package versions, while you'll have to spend upwards of $60 for mint on card examples.

#6 - Star Trek Barbie & Ken Giftset

From Beauty And The Beast to The Wizard Of Oz , Barbie knows a thing or two about executing a successful crossover. And in 1996, she and boyfriend Ken boldly went where no doll had gone before! The Star Trek Barbie & Ken Giftset was released by Mattel to celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Original Series , and saw the world's most famous doll trading in her sundress and stilettos for an iconic Starfleet uniform and phaser. Add to that some collector friendly packaging and matching anniversary badging, and you've got a piece that represents one of the quirkiest franchise crossovers the world of Star Trek has ever seen!

If you'd like to add this set to your Star Trek collection, it shouldn't be too hard to track down. They're out there, and they're waiting for you. While I've seen some sell on eBay for $25 over the years, they more commonly fetch upwards of $40 - $75 depending on condition nowadays.

#7 - Star Trek Mr. Potato Heads

Like Barbie, this sensational spud has enjoyed his fair share of crossover fun! He was Boba Fett. He was Iron Man. And, thanks to PPW Toys, he was also Captain James T. Kirk. Available individually and in gift boxed sets of two, the Star Trek Mr. Potato Heads are highly detailed and include a variety of different components to mix and match! Perfect for play or display, these sets have been marketed as every fan’s dream. And while there is no doubt that they certainly offer plenty of novelty charm, there is no denying that these plastic potatoes represent one of the oddest pieces of Star Trek merchandise in the known universe.

If you'd like to grab a few of these Trek Taters, they're pretty plentiful on your regular handful of online auction sites. I've also seen them at numerous toy shows, garage sales, and thrift stores more than a few times, so keep your eyes open! $70 should net you a really nice box set.

#8 - Star Trek Model Trains

Anyone remember that classic episode of Star Trek where Mr. Spock took the train to work? Can't say I do. And yet thanks to the fine folks at Lionel, we live in a world where Star Trek branded model locomotives are a real thing! Offering an out of this world selection of iconic O Gauge trains brandished with beautiful Star Trek imagery, the Lionel line is guaranteed to let your true Trek heart live long and prosper in a very unique way. And while they may not be the cheapest collectibles around, each is certain to serve as an oddly charming centerpiece to any Star Trek collection!

If you want a few of these, look no further than the official Lionel online store. You can purchase a full set for $499.99, while individual cars can be yours for between $75 - $80.

#9 - Star Trek Sushi Set

This one straddles the line between slick and strange! Released by ThinkGeek, the Star Trek U.S.S. Enterprise Sushi Set is a full set of sushi-ware shaped like the beloved starship from the original Star Trek TV series. The wooden display base is a sushi plate, while the removable top of the saucer section doubles as a little dish for your soy sauce! Not enough? Well, if you slide out the warp effect from the nacelles, you'll even have a pair of chopsticks! The full set measures over 14" long and is just the thing guaranteed to launch sushi into the final frontier. No matter how weird the whole concept happens to be!

At one time, everyone from Big Bad Toy Store to Entertainment Earth had these available. Now, you'll have to track one down over on the likes of Amazon and eBay. While I've seen them go for $60 - $70 in recent years, boxed examples are now fetching over $150.

John DeQuadros is a writer and toy photographer based in Ontario, Canada. You can find a portfolio of his work on Instagram & Twitter right now @RipRocketPix

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The Dissolve

August 20, 2014 features / Adventures In Licensing

A dubious Star Trek V scene inspired a dubious product tie-in

By noel murray.

Adventures In Licensing is a monthly column about the ancillary products of major motion pictures: the toys, games, books, comics, soundtracks, junk food, and anything else studios have used, past or present, to sell a movie.

Twenty minutes into Star Trek V: The Final Frontier , three crew members of the Starship Enterprise —Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), his first officer Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and the ship’s doctor, Leonard “Bones” McCoy (DeForest Kelley)—are sitting around a campfire on Earth, in Yosemite National Park. This is essentially all they’ve been doing in the movie up to this point. Elsewhere in the universe, on “the planet of galactic peace,” Nimbus III, Spock’s half-brother Sybok is contriving a hostage situation to get the United Federation Of Planets to send a starship he can hijack and pilot to the legendary planet of Sha Ke Ree, at the center of the galaxy, beyond The Great Barrier. Periodically, Star Trek V cuts back to Nimbus III to track the progress of Sybok’s plot. But most of the film’s first 20 minutes is spent in Yosemite, with the Enterprise crew on shore leave—rock-climbing, hiking, and eating Bones’ special bourbon-laced beans. Twenty minutes. In a movie with a 106-minute running time.

In addition to being one of the most notorious scenes in the Star Trek franchise’s history, the campout in The Final Frontier —which ends with Kirk, Spock, and McCoy attempting to sing “Row Row Row Your Boat”—inspired one of the damnedest pieces of cross-promotion. Right before Kirk and company start to sing, bombed on bourbon-beans, Spock pulls out a futuristic device to dispense what he calls “marsh melons,” to be roasted over the fire, just as he’s seen in his computer records about camping. When Star Trek V came out, Kraft offered a plastic replica of Spock’s dispenser, for any Trekkie who mailed in a proof-of-purchase from a bag of Jet-Puffed marshmallows.

What’s there to say about the Star Trek V: The Final Frontier Kraft Marshmallow Dispenser? It’s a cheap piece of crap, for one thing—which likely won’t surprise anyone. It comes with a little loop attachment, on which hangs an utterly useless plastic fork and a spoon that could neither roast nor convey a marshmallow. The center of the dispenser is a hollow tube, big enough to hold three marshmallows, which can then be slid up the tube, Pez-style, via a spring-loaded lever. But the lever only slides halfway, which means that while the first two marshmallows pop out relatively neatly, the third has to be flung at whomever might want it.

Let’s be honest, though: The point of the Star Trek V: The Final Frontier Kraft Marshmallow Dispenser isn’t to dispense marshmallows. It’s a collectible, made at the time for people obsessed with the ephemera of their favorite science-fiction franchise—and bought today off auction sites by people who think said ephemera is hilariously dumb. The dispenser was undoubtedly the result of someone in Paramount Pictures’ product-placement division thinking, “There are so few brand names in the Star Trek universe. How can we make some extra money from this film? Call Kraft!”

But there’s something else about the Star Trek V: The Final Frontier Kraft Marshmallow Dispenser—something so obvious that it either has to be intentional, or it’s an unconscious steal from a pervasive piece of popular culture. The dispenser looks like a Star Wars lightsaber. It’s an unlit lightsaber, sure, but any kid (or grown-up) holding this device could easily imagine a laser-blade jutting out of it, making that crackling “wom-wom” sound familiar to Star Wars fans.

Star Trek the TV series predated the first Star Wars movie by a full decade, which means Star Trek beat Star Wars to the punch on ways to spin merchandise off from science-fiction adventures. Star Trek had the toys, the books, and the read-along records long before Star Wars . But Star Wars had more of all of it, and better models. By the time Star Trek: The Motion Picture came along in 1979—green-lit in large part because the culture had been gripped by Star Wars mania—the Star Trek franchise seemed to be in catch-up mode, both in terms of how to make space operas cinematic, and how sell ancillary goodies to fans.

The Star Trek fan base had always been different from fans of other fantasy TV shows and movies: more dedicated, and more philosophical. ( Not , in other words, inclined to buy toy ray-guns.) Star Trek: The Motion Picture tried to honor the TV show’s braininess while taking advantage of the advances in special-effects technology that 2001: A Space Odyssey had introduced while Star Trek was still on the air, and that Star Wars then made commonplace. The result was a film that was both expensive and inert—though profitable enough that Paramount commissioned a sequel, at roughly one-fourth the budget of its predecessor.

Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan , released in 1982, made less money worldwide than Star Trek: The Motion Picture , but was more warmly received, because it wasn’t trying to be Star Wars , or 2001 . The second Star Trek movie understood one of the big reasons why the three modestly rated seasons of the original TV series had become favorites in syndication. Beyond the thoughtful plotting and the refusal to succumb to camp, Star Trek episodes had great replay value because the cast of characters are pleasant to be around, in ways that even the cast of Star Wars isn’t. The crew of the Enterprise has a believable camaraderie, cut with just enough friction to bring some dimensionality to their relationships. They’re the kind of folks a fan could imagine sharing a marsh melon with.

So this is how we ended up with Star Trek V : due to the overconfidence of the movie’s writers and producers that Star Trek fans feel enough affection toward these characters to want to spend 20 minutes watching them loaf around Yosemite, singing “Row Row Row Your Boat.”

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier was directed by Shatner, who also came up with the basic story of a Vulcan’s quest for God, beyond a literal “final frontier.” By contract, Shatner had to be offered the opportunity to direct a Star Trek movie because Nimoy had directed Star Trek III and Star Trek IV . But even Shatner later admitted he was in over his head, blaming a budget crunch and a writers’ strike for keeping him from realizing his cosmic vision for the film.

Shatner may have had a point on the budget. Star Trek V reportedly cost more than any of the previous three films, but it was still a relatively lean production, with the producers cutting costs by ditching Industrial Light And Magic as the special-effects team, going instead with a company called Associates And Ferren. The resulting effects are absolutely awful—as though motion-picture technology had suddenly regressed to 1966. During Kirk’s fall from a Yosemite cliff, the green-screen is laughably obvious. The jet-boots Spock uses a couple of times in the film make it look as though someone is bobbing a cardboard cutout of Leonard Nimoy in front of the camera. But it isn’t just the flashy visual effects like laser-bolts and warp-jumps that look cheap in The Final Frontier . Even something as simple as Kirk pushing a button so he can sit on a bench that slides out of the wall—or Scotty breaking out of a cell by blowing a suspiciously clean hole in the door—comes across like the kind of prop-building and practical effects of a community theater. (Or like something fans could order by mail from the good people at Kraft.)

Effects have never really been what Star Trek is about, any more than it’s been about marshmallow dispensers. The core of the Star Trek franchise has always been the characters, and when the movies or TV series get them right, it’s easier to forgive a lot of other lapses. (The two entries in the recently rebooted Star Trek film series both feature characters who are so much fun to be around that only in retrospect is it apparent that the films themselves don’t make a lot of sense.) But in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier , the cart drives the horse to an absurd degree. What happens in this movie is what happens in a lot of TV shows that run on too long: The actors and creators coast on shtick. In the case of The Final Frontier , that means a lot of scenes of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy acting like cute, bickering old-timers.

In fact, Star Trek V ’s plot depends on the characters not changing. One way Sybok bends people to his will is by mind-melding with them and getting them to confront and overcome any bad memories that they’ve carried with them for most of their lives. Kirk, though, refuses to play along, saying, “I need my pain,” and adding that everybody needs some baggage to make them who they are. This goes along with what Kirk says at the start of the film, when he sighs that career Federation types aren’t meant to have lives and families apart from of their colleagues. This whole movie is like a meta-commentary on what the creators think Star Trek fans want from Star Trek . Don’t go beyond the barrier at the heart of the galaxy, crew of the Enterprise . Bones, stay xenophobic. Spock, stay aloof. Kirk, stay hotheaded. Enterprise , keep breaking down.

So in a way, it makes sense that one of the few remaining souvenirs of maybe the least-beloved of the Star Trek films is a pointless, barely functioning prop from a a scene that cynically reduces the entire franchise to its three most popular characters just sitting around, demanding to be adored for existing. The Star Trek V: The Final Frontier Kraft Marshmallow Dispenser is a physical manifestation of what Bones says to Spock after their disastrous attempt at a campfire singalong: “It’s a song, you green-blooded Vulcan. You sing it. The words aren’t important.”

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