the fact that this is the worst-merchandised franchise in the world is incredibly annoying
I can't agree with this more. It's insane the disparity between ST merch and Star Wars merch. It's like Trek stuff is always the "Wish version" of what the people behind Star Wars are putting out. Lego is a good example, they've put out hundreds of Star Wars sets over decades while Star Trek is relegated to the shitty knockoff Lego-clone companies who think they can charge as much as Lego for what they offer.
On merchandising, I'm also annoyed how low quality the printing of official Tees us, especially considering that some of them are actually fun designs.
Honestly, it's tempting just to buy fanart tees instead - there's an awesome one of Shaxs doing his usual pottery with his iconic "Fighting Fascism is a Full Time Job" as the caption on TeePublic. I kind of want to message the person and ask if they could sell a sticker as well.
It’s absurd. Our kids ended up playing Star Trek with Playmobil’s space and ‘Future Planet’ planetary exploration lines. (I doubt these even still exist.)
When the Star Trek line finally arrived it was only TOS.