The Star Trek action figure license has changed hands many times over the years. In the early 1970's Mego held the license for 8" action figures. They maintained that license through the very first movie, Star Trek The Motion Picture when they produced a series of 12" figures and an accompanying 3 3/4" line.

After Mego's bancruptcy in 1982, the Star Trek action figure license lay dormant until Ertl took a chance in 1984 with Star Trek III: the Search for Spock action figures. Ertl was known mostly for diecast vehicles, but released 4 action figures. Of course, they also created a number of spaceships, and while the movie was moderately successful, the action figure line never gained any traction and ended as quickly as it began.

Next came Galoob when Star Trek The Next Generation premiered in 1987. Galoob's attempt was more robust with a total of 10 action figures. Unfortunately, the line appeared rushed and suffered from poor design with quality issues. Also, Galoob focused their Star Trek line on the kids market not taking into account the vast number of adult collectors. These collectors were much more interested in sculpted accuracy so the figures actually looked like the actors who portrayed them.

After Galoob dropped the line in 1989, Playmates picked it up during the height of Star Trek Next Generation's popularity in 1992. After incredible success with their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line, Playmates felt with the right marketing and increasing the size to 4 1/2" for more accurate character likenesses they could catch lightning in a bottle again. Playmates saw great success with their Star Trek action figures that lasted 8 years into the late 1990's. In 1999 the Playmates Star Trek line came to an end with Star Trek Voyager.

From 2001 to 2010 Art Asylum and Diamond Select held the Star Trek license. Their lines returned to the larger size action figures in a highly detailed 7" format with screen accurate accessories.

In 2009 Playmates returned to Star Trek with the J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie (Kelvin Universe - rebooted timeline). This line included 3 3/4", 6", and 12" action figures. Unfortunately, this release met with modest success, so Playmates decided to pause future waves due to soft retail performance. Then, in 2022 Playmates announced a return to Star Trek by relaunching the "Universe" assortment with action figures reminiscent of their popular 1990's releases. The toys would include all the Star Trek characters from the Star Trek original series to the newer animated Star Trek Prodigy show (originally broadcasted on Paramount+ and then Netflix). However, even with the best of intentions, Playmates appeared to have misjudged the Star Trek action figure buying market. Despite figures being available through big box retailers such as Target and Walmart the end product was "lacking". Over the years collectors saw what could be done with modern action figure design that included uncanny likenesses to the actors portraying them or greater articulation and posability. This line ended up feeling cheap and archaic by comparison. By the end of 2023 Playmates discontinued the Star Trek action figure line.

In 2017, McFarlane Toys acquired the Star Trek Discovery and Star Trek Prime Timeline license, but only produced two figures (Capt. Kirk and Capt. Picard) before abandoning the line. Issues with state and federal government regulations on a proposed phaser toy appeared to have completely derailed the entire line up of toys.

Then, in a full circle moment, Mego resurrected itself in 2018 and started producing Star Trek action figures again just like the ones they made in the 1970's. This time, however, they expanded the line to include missing characters from the original 1960's cast (not originally released in the 1970's) and subsequent spin offs (Next Generation, Deep Space 9, Voyager, Discovery, and Strange New Worlds).

The most recent company to acquire the Star Trek license is the Nacelle Company. Headed by director, film and television producer, and Star Trek superfan, Brian Volk-Weiss the Nacelle Company debuted a line up of lesser-known Star Trek characters or character variations that had never been produced before. With amazing detail and a wealth of accessories these action figures have become immensely popular and plans continue to produce an even greater array of characters.