Gene Rodenberry was in pre-production in the mid-1970s with a new Star Trek TV saga called Phase II.  Then George Lucas' Star Wars hit big, and suddenly there was money from Paramount for a Star Trek movie.  A starship model plus some sets and props already built were mostly scrapped in favor of bigger and better concepts for Star Trek - The Motion Picture.  Included in those abandoned props were communicators based on the classic 1960s Wah Chang comm, of which a reported ten were made by "Jim Kirk," a fan and modeler who famously legally changed his name.  Below (left) is one of them, plus another (right) was auctioned by Profiles in History:

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Communicator plans labeled "Phase II" were drawn up later in 1985 by fan Darryl Zuppardo, 17"x 22" copies of which occasionally come up for sale on eBay.  As he told us, "I created those blueprints in response to the inaccuracies of the S.T. Technical Manual  and after buying cheap free-hand pencil drawings via the mail.  My purpose was to supply fans with as much accuracy as was available for the time.... My sources were photos of the original props gained by paperback books such as 'The Making of Star Trek' and 'The World of Star Trek.'  I also used images from the photo novels like 'Day of the Dove.'  I had at the time two communicators:  one purchased from Star Fleet Fabrications and the other was a Phase II made by JK for the potential series.  I used a combination of the best features of both of these to make the plans true to the S.T. communicator in theory (aesthetically pleasing while maintaining the prop's integrity)..."

Due to its similarity, it is possible that the Playmates communicator toy used these plans as reference material.  Each image below is a 150 dpi scan kept at the original size straight off the sheet:

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