Johnny Lightning, the makers of small, fun and inexpensive plastic toys has more Star Trek ships on the way for the 2008 holiday season. Trekmovie.com brings you exclusive hi resolution photos of the latest waves of the Johnny Lightning "Legends of Star Trek" ships line. Plus we take a look at the past offerings in this excellent collection.
Over each of the last four years Johnny Lighting have issued new set (or ‘wave’) of Star Trek ships toys. This autumn, we get a treat with two waves of Johnny Lightning ships headed your way. Both are available for preorder now, which is a good idea because these tend to sell out quickly.
The Wave 5 includes the Enterprise NX-01, a Klingon D7 Battlecruiser with explosion detailing, the self-destructed version of the Enterprise from Star Trek III The Search for Spock, and the Shuttlecraft Galileo II. Wave 5 of the Johnny Lighting ships are now available for pre-order online and should be in stores soon.
Wave 5 of Johnny Lightning ships (click to enlarge)
This October, Wave 6 includes the Borg Cube with explosions and phasers, a Romulan D7 Battlecruiser (based on the TAS design), the USS Yamato (from TNG episode "Contagion" and others), and the USS Excalibur (TOS episodes "Court Martial" and "The Ultimate Computer"). The originally planned USS Voyager with Borg detailing has been delayed (and was replaced by the TAS Romulan Battlecruiser).
Wave 6of Johnny Lightning ships (click to enlarge)
[NOTE: Romulan Battlecruiser shown with Klingon base, not final product]
Both waves will again feature the "White Lightning" editions, which are limited variant versions of the ships. Interestingly, Johnny Lightning’s new packaging retains its unique design yet incorporates some of the features of the unified packaging.
Packaging for White Lightning version
As usual for Johnny Lighting, these ships are very cool and perfect for display at about four inches long. Johnny Lightning is famous in the world of metal car collecting, offering quality replicas of famous automobile models. They also make some of the best Star Trek collectibles in recent years, both because of the variety and affordable price. The Johnny Lightning plastic Star Trek ships are inexpensive (about $6-7 each or packaged together for around $20 for all four in a wave). Yet, the ships are of good quality and detailing, with fun features such as "cloaked" and "battle damaged" versions. Especially impressive is that JL has released ships that have received little attention from previous licensees, such as the USS Yamato or the NX-01. The White Lightning versions are fun and these limited edition ships tend to go for four times their price at online auctions. Johnny Lightning promises more ships in 2009 for Star Trek fans.
You can order these items online from New Force Comics (www.newforcecomics.com) and other retailers.
Four years of fun little ships
Johnny Lightning has been making these ships from 2004, with this year being the first that fans are getting two waves. Trekmovie.com provides you with a checklist of all the JL ships, noting White Lightnings when available. (Please be aware that these ships have been so popular that waves one to four are available mostly at online auctions now as retailers have sold out.)
Wave One (2004)
Each of these toys included a sticker appropriate to the ship’s affiliation. Each ship was also available in the "White Lightning" variation.
- NX-01 Enterprise
- USS Enterprise NCC 1701
- Shuttlecraft Galileo (from TV era)
- USS Reliant
- Romulan Bird of Prey (TV era)
- Klingon D7 Battlecruiser
Wave Two (2005)
Each of these toys included a communication badge patch. Each ship was also available in the "White Lightning" variation.
- NX-01 Enterprise (battle damaged)
- USS Enterprise NCC 1701 (battle damaged)
- USS Enterprise NCC 1701 (TMP and TWOK edition)
- USS Enterprise NCC 1701 (TWOK battle damaged)
- USS Reliant (battle damaged)
- Klingon D7 Battlecruiser (cloaked, meaning it is clear plastic)
Wave Three (2006)
The "White Lightnings" in this wave included cloaked versions of the Enterprise D and ISS NX-01 Enterprise. The cloaked Romulan Bird of Prey White Lightning had the insignia visible on the clear plastic, as if the ship was in the middle of activating the cloak. The Borg White Lightning was an entirely green color, befitting the color associated with the aliens starting with First Contact and Voyager.
- ISS NX-01 Enterprise (Mirror Universe)
- Romulan Bird of Prey (cloaked)
- USS Enterprise NCC 1701 D
- USS Enterprise NCC 1701 D (All Good Things edition)
- USS Voyager NCC 74656 Borg Cube
Wave Four (2007)
This wave had no known "White Lightning" versions, although it continued the trend of featuring a variety of ships from a variety of feature films and television episodes. It also features the only DS9 ship (USS Miranda) yet available.
- USS Defiant NCC-1764 (from the episode "The Tholian Web")
- USS Enterprise NCC 1701 A
- USS Enterprise NCC 1701 D (feature film era version)
- USS Majestic NCC 31060 (from "Sacrifice of Angels" DS9 episode)
- USS Voyager NCC 74656 (with gear for planets)
- Borg Cube (First Contact edition)
All of the 2004-2007 Johnny Lighting ships (click to enlarge)
These look great!
THIS is what I love. Bring on the cool, cheap ships! My cubicle armada will defeat the evil oversupervisors of the officeverse.
I like. I like! The cloaked Romulan is outrageous! But really I want the Galileo shuttle.
Where can i get these ships, besides having to bid for them on Ebay?
JL ships are cool. They have really nice detailing for being so small and inexpensive.
The one thing that doesn’t appeal to me is the “phaser effects” and “explosions” detailing that some of the variants offer. The phasers tend to look odd. It reminds of the ship vomiting. And the explosions look like someone’s little brother glopped orange marmalade on them. That self destructing Enterprise looks rather nice, I’ll have to say. It’s just great the attention that JL pays to all eras of Trek, though they could give DS9 a bit more love.
HOORAY SHIPS!
Looks nice, but can we please have these available in stores?!
– Jeyl
Is it just me, or are all of the new ‘waves’ simply slightly altered versions of models released in previous waves? I guess that would cut down on R&D costs. Though I’m sure they still cost just as much to the consumer.
#4 and #6
JL’s corporate info says that they are available in 25,000 retail outlets located across North America. If you are outside the US or Canada you could try New Force Comics. There is a link in the above article. Please don’t hesitate to buy online as JL and New Force’s quality control is rather high.
Rick at New Force should give me a great deal for my unpaid customer service.
The windows on the Galileo shuttlecraft are set too low, aren’t they?
“self-destructed version of the Enterprise A from Star Trek III The Search for Spock,”
John, I hate to be a rabid fan but it was the 1701 no A
I wish my name was “Johnny Lightning.”
I really like these. Wish the scale was a little more consistent, at least as far as the TOS ships go. The Romulan Bird of Prey is huuuuuuge compared to the Enterprise and the D-7.
#11
Understandable, given your current handle.
Those are very cool.
Thread drift: When, if at all, will DST/Art Asylum be releasing a D-7 Klingon Battlecruiser? I’d love to get one of those.
I love the Johnny Lightning ships. My only gripe is the fact they they have switched up the stands. The ships look much nicer with standardized display bases. The metal silver bases from the first set are my fav, I wish they had continued with those, the look just a tad classier. Can’t wait to add teh Trek 3 battle damaged E o the set.
#12
My complaint as well. The ships look great but you do not get the size relationships between them all. Example, comparing the size of 1701 to 1701-E. I think there was a gold special edition that had the scales right. I don’t mind if the smaller ships have to scaled smaller but it would be great to sit all the Enterprise ships in a row and see how they grew with time.
#14
I wrote to Art Asylum about a similiar question regarding BSG ships. The reply I got was that they didn’t think the market was there to pursue making BSG ships in the $40 to $50 range, especially if they were to add light and sound features. Odd to me that they produce BSG ship statues for $150, but then again production costs probably are lower for resin statues.
My whiole round-a-bout point being that we should all go onto Art Asylum’s website, enter the Q and A section, and start making a lot of noise about what they should be making. If enough voices sound, they might be inspired to give that ship or tek a shot at production.
My gripe with the Johnny Lightning ships is that they keep re-hashing the same models in different versions. That’s fine but there are still other ship designs out there that they haven’t touched including the Excelsior class, Enterprise B, C, and E for crying out loud (and I am).
I agree totally with the above poster – I love the JL ships, but it seems like each wave only has one new design (if that) and the rest are repaints.
Plus they are DAMN hard to find at retail. Over the years I think I’ve bought maybe six of these because that’s all I could find, and I refuse to pay scalper prices on eBay.
Oh and the NCC-1701A was NOT the ship that was destroyed in Star Trek III, that would have been the far superior NCC-1701 – no bloody A, B, C or D.
Cool but not to scale (LOL) maybe the are going off the Next Gennie scale where Miranda and Oberth class were roughly the same size as a Galaxy class. (Ugh) Kidding aside though pretty sweet!! Not as sweet as the paintable Starfleet Battles snap together minatures (Constitution and Dreadnaught f-ing rule!!)
I prefer the Furuta ships much much more.
Their designs are more accurate than JL’s (ship for ship).
Plus Furuta has some ships that exist almost nowhere else (like the Defiant, Ambassador, Prometheus).
#22
And the Furuta ships are less expensive, I believe. Although they are smaller than JL I think. But I don’t quibble over 1 or 2 bucks.
#19
Try the link for New Force Comics in the article. No scalper prices.
“self-destructed version of the Enterprise A”
No bloody A, B, C or D!!
Wait! That packaging art doesn’t match the newly established uniform packaging design!!!!!! What the hell are they thinking?! THIS IS A DISASTER!!!!!
I don’t know if they still stock them but in the UK I have bought the previous series of Johnny Lightning Legends of Star Trek ships from http://www.scifistudio.com
…Gah, I can remember when I was a kid and Aurora came up with Johnny Lightning as a way to compete with Mattel for the Hot Wheels allowance money. There was no comparison, as Hot Wheels were then made of sturdy metals and JL cars were totally plastic with the closest things metal being the chrome on the body. Four decades later, take any of the old HWs and they’ll still move as fast as the current versions, while you’ll be lucky to find an original issue JL car that survived more than two loop-de-loops!
Hot Wheels Star Trek ships have never looked very good to me.
We need an Excelsior, and Ambassador, and a Defiant! I mean, seriously!
I LOVE the Enterprise D… it is by far my favourite Enterprise design. It’s ABSOLUTELY gorgeous and every time I see it, it catches me off guard a bit because my minds-eye never quite captures it.
Where’s my Doomsday Machine-ravaged USS Constellation? Better yet, where’s my Daedalus-class USS Lovell?
(Trick question. The Lovell can be found in the Star Trek: Vanguard series of novels. Check ’em out, yo!)
But I loves me some JL ships. And a TAS-inspired Rommie D-7? Hoohah! (I’m assuming the “Klingon” title on the base is just for the protptype).
Thanks for the tip, Anthony!
:)
Kevin
your welcome except you are thanking the wrong guy
if it is about toys, it is all about John Tenuto
I have a couple of the Furuta ships and the paint on them is really sloppy. Big turn off for me.
#32
Toys!? Toys are for kids! These are collectibles. Even if I go around the house with them while making Whoosh!! Whoosh!! Shew-shew-shew!! sounds.
I enjoy collecting the Star Trek ships, both from DST and Johnny Lightning. They look great and are great for display.
These look really quite cool! Though I do wish the Excalibur bore the registry NCC-1705, rather than 1664. A small thing, perhaps, but even still…
Meanwhile, I’d love to see the Lovell, not to mention Vanguard Station, the Sagittarius, and the Titan among future waves! And I agree with I’m dead, Jim that it’d be really great for them to add in Excelsior and Enterprise-B, -C, and -E to the mix, too. :)
36, I agree that JL should make the rest of the Enterprise’s. It’s likely they won’t do anything based on books alone but maybe they should do Spacedock One (seen in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock), Excelsior, Romulan D’Deridex Warbird, Klingon Negh’Var, Dominion ships, other Klingon and Romulan ships, Cardassian ships, etc. These would fill up multiple waves and would be well worth. I’m looking forward to the Romulan D-7 in Wave 6.
Eum…. They have the USS Majestic but why not the USS Defiant (NX-74205) ?!?!?!
What? No Nebula Class? :(
I like the JL ships (a lot), but like AMT I have to ask just how hard is it to replicate an accurate shuttlecraft. It’s not like there are limited drawings, photos and blueprints available yet no one seems to be able to get it right.
That said the JL collectibles are a good value for the price, and easy to display since they take so little space.
I belive that the windows are low on the JL Shuttlecraft because they used the CGI model and plans developed by Four Mad Men over on the TrekBBS/HobbyTalk forums a year or two ago. His version was an attempt to reconcile the miniature, the full-scale studio model, and the studio interior (as much as possible, given the shuttlecraft’s Tardis-like interior).
In order to actually be able to see out of the window (as indicated by the interior set), it required that they be lowered as viewed from the outside.
It was an interesting thread for shuttlecraft afficianados, not sure if its still available. Four Mad Men went to excrutiating pains to reconcile the irreconcilable.
These are cool. The only thing I’ve never ever understood why anyone would want one is this business with ‘freeze frame’ explosions and phaser fire. I prefer the ships to look like the ships…period. If I wanna be a big kid and play with them, I’d rather use my imagination…something toy manufacturers seem to forget we all have.
“I prefer the ships to look like the ships…period.”
Well the lovely thing is, you can buy them exactly that way because everything that they’ve repackaged and repurposed with “explosions” and “phasers” or whatever was first released without them. As for why anyone would sell them that way, its just a way to move more product and freshen up the line without having to pay for much in the way of expensive tooling for all new ships.
Love the E-A with the chunk blown out of it.
They’re really covering all bases.
Nice.
Ooo are we gonna get a detroyed version of the Excalibur from “The Ultimate Computer?”
wat of Doomsday Machine
Well if JL wants to pump the “battle-damaged” thing for all its worth, then I got a real zinger for everybody: a “ramming speed” Enterprise-E from NEM.ESIS. Complete with smashed in saucer!
While I’m on it, JL should just give us a plain Enterprise-E. No smashed saucer, no battle damage, no AWFUL plastic phaser fire thingy. Just a nice, prisitne Sovereign Class starship.
A Scimitar would be great (to recreate the scene). A warbird Valdore
be awesome.
And for what it’s worth, it’s high time we got a good ‘ol Klingon BOP. With MOVABLE wings! Hey, they did movable for Voyager’s pylons, right?
Personally, I’m just so sick of repaints already. What they need is new ships.
The JL ship are WAYYYY more detailed and accurate than those crappy FURUTA ships…seriously, compare them! Furuta doesn’t even use the correcdt fonts…the saucer sections are way to thick…yuck! I’ll take my JL’s any day!
I just wish that they weren’t so hard to find in stores.
I don’t know if this has been said, but the 2007 wave did have “White Lightnings”, actually they were Silver. I know because I have both versions of the Voyager (Regular and Silver) ……