To start with the worst item, Michael Dorn remembered a specific lunch box. Evidently, a clever lunch box manufacturer thought to make a 3D model of Worf’s face that could be loaded with food. When being carried, a child was merely toting a Klingon cranium. It must have looked grim. Dorn said:
“It looked like you were carrying around a person’s chopped-off head by the hair. I think that’s the only time that I went, ‘Guys, that is the worst idea I’ve ever seen.'”
The lunch box was rejected, but some Trekkies may recall the Klingon Great Hall playset. It wasn’t Worf’s head, but in the 1990s, children could purchase a plastic head that, when cracked open, revealed a Polly Pocket-like diorama inside. It came with miniature action figures. As of this writing, the bulk of Worf merch online consists mostly of clothing bearing Worf’s face, costume, or dialogue. Also, throw pillows where Worf is a cat.
Dorn may have been startled by the lunch box but did recall two pieces of Worf merch that made his heart beat fast. He said:
“When I grew up, I had a G.I. Joe and so that was the moment when I kind of went, ‘Oh my god…?’ Well, there’s two moments: when I got my first action figure, I thought it was really cool. When I knew that I’d arrived, we had Pez dispensers and there was a Worf Pez dispenser. […] That to me was like, ‘Okay, I’m an icon now.'”
No one is anyone unless their head on a Pez dispenser. Who hasn’t wanted to eat miniature bricks of sucrose directly from the throat of a Klingon warrior? Buy any two Pez machines, and get Riker free.