More Details (and images) On Star Trek Movie Props On Display At CES

Last week TrekMovie.com was the first to reveal the props from the new Star Trek movie being displayed at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. That article raised some questions about the props and, as promised, TrekMovie now has a follow-up with more details, and more images.

 

The props were on display by Lenovo as part of a larger area showing off their laptops, in from the of the AquaKnox restaurant at the Venetian Hotel in Vegas. Below TrekMovie has details on the three props on display, plus more.

Star Trek 2009 Starfleet medical tricorder (w/ scanner)
TrekMovie has confirmed that (as suspected) the prop on display at CES labled “Mc Coy’s Medical Tricorder” is just the scanner for the medical tricorder. The actual tricorder is said to be ‘reminiscent’ of the Original Series tricorder, but smaller. Like the TOS tricorder it has doors that spring open to reveal the display. Some have wondered if the tricorder was made from a ‘found object’ (possibly a Vic Firth Pepper grinder), however TrekMovie is told that the props were built from scratch. That being said, the prop’s design may have been influenced by a real world device, possibly those grinders.


Star Trek 2009 scanner for Medical Tricorder (click to enlarge)


TOS Medical tricorder and scanner as seen in "The Man Trap"

Star Trek 2009 Starfleet communicator
According to sources the communicator for the new Star Trek movie does open up much like the TOS communicator. The black cover part pivots at the top and you can actually see the hinge in the photo below (side angle). The clear round window is in the same position as original version’s ‘moiré’ disk, but in this case is it is not hidden by the cover. Some have speculated that this window is some kind of holo-projector (ala Star Wars), but TrekMovie is told that is not the case, however it does ‘light up.’ Sources also say that this is not the only communicator in the film.


Star Trek 2009 communicator


ST09 communicator as seen in "Star Trek" trailer


TOS communicator as seen in "Day of the Dove"

Star Trek 2009 Starfleet communications earpiece
There is nothing much to report regarding Uhura’s communication earpiece. This is pretty much unchanged in both look and functionality from the TOS version.


Star Trek 2009 communications earpiece


ST09 communications earpiece as seen in "Star Trek" trailer


TOS communications earpiece as seen in "The Corbomite Maneuver"

Star Trek 2009 Starfleet Phaser
Another prop not on display in Las Vegas is the new Starfleet phaser. You can catch a quick glimpse of the phaser in the trailer, but not a very good look. As noted in our trailer analysis, the weapon Kirk is seen wielding towards the end of the trailer, is not a Starfleet phaser. As we have reported before, the new Star Trek phaser retains the ‘gun’ shape of the TOS TV and movie era phasers, but with a ‘rotating nozzle’ which flips back and forth for stun and kill. No word yet on if or when this prop will be revealed, with the first look possibly coming from the Playmates toys.


ST09 Starfleet phaser as seen in "Star Trek" trailer

More prop images from Vegas
After we put up our first set of photos last week, some former employees of Star Trek The Experience (and friends of the site), went down to CES to get even more shots (some of which are used above). Here are more of those shots, featuring former STTE cast member Lisa Blake acting as model, and also helping to get a sense of scale for the new Star Trek props.




Official TrekMovie.com demonstration model Lisa Blake showing off the new Star Trek props (click to enlarge)

Playmates toys available for pre-order – pictures coming soon
Along with their action figures, Playmates is also releasing role playing toys for the Star Trek movie. All have lights and sounds from the movie. You can pre-order these toys now at Entertainment Earth

Playmates is likely to be revealing these toys for the first time at the New York Toy Fair in mid February. Playmates Star Trek line will definitely be featured on the cover and inside the March issue of Wizard’s ToyFare magazine. You can pre-order ToyFare #141 now at TFAW.com for $3.99.

(Images by Darren Benjamin, Mike Cornwell and Vernon Wilmer)

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Still think the scanner looks like a dilbo.

Uhura’s earpiece looks perfect and as long as the Communicator makes the trademark ‘opening’ noise I’ll be happy.

The scanner does look a bit like a pepper grinder. I really like all the props, and really starting to like the communicator.

I think the medical scanner looks silly, but it’s not exactly the most important prop in the movie.

The new scanner may look like a pepper grinder but the TOS version looked like a salt shaker, so it’s all good!

1. wtf are you talking about

#1 Well, why don’t you put it in your bee hind and let us know if it’s adequate for that use. (ugh)

As far as I’m concerned, I’ll take the cute redshirt. You can have your toys!

I hope that wire-cluster thingy in the medical scanner spins. But I just generally like it when things spin.

Lisa Blake = Adorable, btw.

Yes Lisa is adorable, I’ve met her, very sweet.

# 8

I concur. Wholeheartedly.

Lisa should be in the movie! Maybe the sequel… :D

I went to see the props they looked pretty cool. They didn’t look like hero props or versions made to light up, we will have to wait for the movie for the effects but still looked great. The medical scanner was put together with a waterproof switch at the front and the end was just a simple lock with a key in it very homegrown I liked the look, made even better with Lisa modeling.

Wait, I’m confused.This article is supposed to be about ST props. But I didn’t see any photos of props in this article. Just Lisa.

Vic Firth has a pepper grinder? He’s in the gourmet food business now? Wow. Who knew. I literally use his drumsticks in class everyday.

(I need to diversify like Vic)

And I think his grinder looks sleeker and nicer than the prop. I don’t think we should be seeing wires and things inside. Less is more if they’re going that route.

a lock and key ???
why would a medical scanner need a lock and key ?

Did anyone notice that the cute little redshirt Lt. has a science section insignia instead of the engineering badge that redshirts wear? Was ST the experience that sloppy with its canon? Not that I was looking at her chest or anything.

Can’t help it – love the saltshakers, stone knives and bearskins from way back when. I’ll probably always be able to imagine they’re devices from another world, from the future. (No, I’m not living with my parents anymore…)

Those new props just look like, well, like props.

#16: The Experience was not sloppy with canon. Who cares about Lisa’s insignia, her uniform was store-bought and looks just fine. And dream on, nerd.

1: A “dilbo”-? Is that a sex toy for hobbits?

Don’t mind the props. Gimme some more photos of the “Official TrekMovie.com demonstration model” :)

Glad to hear there is more to the tricorder & communicator.

I think a survey on the number of unmarried / never married males who visit this site would turn up the answer everyone suspects. Makes me glad I have a lonstanding wife who likes Trek too. Where are those new Trek movie uniforms to be sold?

Love the old-school earpiece. :)

I was thinking about the medical scanner, it looks like there’s a buch of smaller things wrapped up inside the larger cylinder. Maybe the top comes off and it unpacks into some kind of field kit?

And Lisa is super-cute. ;) I hope she’s careful, though — we all know what wearing red means in Trek… (dun dun dun!)

Zoe is wearing the earpiece at the wrong angle. This alone with jerk most of the aidience right out of the movie.

I will get the communicator,it will fit well in my collection right beside the original one.

wow….you just know that the communictator is gonna be marketed as a cell phone…..how phony is that?

23/fred:

LOL!

I have to say I have my doubts about the communicator. I know they’re revamping the classic props so they don’t look dated, but it seems…strange. I think I’d like it better if the Enterprise chevron wasn’t on the cover. But I can see why they’d do that. If it belongs to the Enterprise, it stops other Federation ships taking it. But at the same time, shouldn’t technology be fairly free to be moved around the ships of the fleet?
It does look fairly cool though with the moire/glass thing visible from the outside.

25:

About as phony as assuming things about the marketing in advance, and then dissing the marketers for something they haven’t done yet.

Lisa, are you single?

I’m sorry, but your sheer cuteness and that fact that you can give the Vulcan salute at the same time makes me cry since I just broke up with someone (not over ST, thankfully)

No matter how many times I see this re-designed ‘communicator’, I STILL prefer the gold and black look of the original, rather than the strangely ‘contemporary mobile phone’, ‘magnifying glass’ look of this new one. It’s not the ‘shock of the new’, it’s just the ‘shock of the new choices for production design that have been chosen, in general’….

Oh well, at least I really like the ‘earpiece’ which wasn’t meddled with too much…

29.

Not in front of the Klingons…

The problem with the communicator is how on earth are you supposed to carry out the iconic kirk “flip” Hand a TOS communicator replica to any fan and the first thing they try is flipping it open with a snap of the wrist. Of course that is always followed by a huge ear to ear smile.

The classic flip is just very cool and loses it’s apeal once you have to open it with two hands Unlike the original design,the antenna on this new prop prohibits that wonderful one handed activation because the top now covers the entire piece. When you hold it, your holding it shut. That kinda sucks. I also prefer the original black, accented in gold…seemed a little more classy than plastic white and gray.

But hey, I love the exposed glass screen.

And as far as the pepper grinder goes…I sure hope they used it as part of the scanner….that would be an awesome testament to the knowledge of these Trek prop makers and a wonderful tip of the hat to the “salt shakers” of old.

I still think the scanner is a lightsaber prop. I looked at a collection of lightsabers used in the SW films, and THIS would fit perfectly into the pile.

Why couldn’t the communicator just be the COMMUNICATOR?! The original was distinct; THIS looks just like any other flip-open cell phone. (Good job on the cross marketing, I guess. Whoever’s making the tie-in cell phone is going to be happy.)

Actually, it looks more like a Fisher-Price baby monitor than anything. (I can just imagine the “sleep long and prosper” TV ads for it!)

Now, I’ve been on the side of “wait and see what Abrams & Co. do,” but I’m reaching a tipping point toward the other direction. It’s all the “little” changes that are starting to add up to one big “uh-oh” to me. Aside from Uhura’s earpiece and the red/blue/yellow uniforms, everything else seems to be throwing out most of the other recognizable and distinct designs.

Okay, so the big E’s corridors look like something from SW and the ship was built on the ground. Okay, so Kirk’s history is different so he’s a snot-nosed rebel with a crummy uncle. Okay, so the bridge is JUST GODAWFUL EVERY TIME I LOOK AT IT (including the damned barcode scanners). And Chekov’s on the ship WAY too early (regardless of Khan, he’s just too young there yet!), and Pike is Kirk’s mentor, and….

When you whittle away at something with tons of “insignificant” changes, the overall change is QUITE significant. All these “cosmetic” differences combined with Kirk’s altered background…it’s just starting to make me worry like I haven’t since they announced the new movie being made.

#33-
Agreed. I can’t figure out how they are going to explain that Chekov –who said he was 22 when Kirk was 34 in “Who Mourns For Adonais”? If Kirk is 20 something in this movie, then Chekov should be 12 something.
And the whole ship design from stem to stern is just right. The exterior, nuff said. The Bridge with it’s window and clutter mess of controls ( and that funny playstation like control stand) are simply not done well.

Eh, I’m just being old and cranky I suppose.

A lightsaber prop? It’s a sonic screwdriver!

Wow, what a bunch of nervous nellies.

Chekov was brought to TOS to get young girls on board. He had a Beatles mop-top and Davy Jones sex-appeal.

In the new Trek, they’re retconning Chekov as a contemporary of Kirk’s. The character is necessary to the film, and this is the only way to do it, I suppose.

They could have made Chekov 12, and then the Wes Crusher Hate Police would have come for a visit.

omg…narf… the little basketball-emblem thingy on her insignia is 3mm too far to one side! narrrrrfff!

***sheesh***

And who’s to say that there is no division of Star Fleet that deals with Applied Science in Engineering… or maybe she’s a security officer in a research dept, pulling double duty. Uhura was a comm officer apparently in command school for a while… what insignia did she have on?

#35- Okay, I’ll admit the similarity to a sonic screwdriver, too. Of course, the sonic scanner looks (to me) like a knock-off of McCoy’s old hyposprayer. (Which I’m betting it is: combo of scanner and sprayer in one tool.)

Let’s call it a sonic-light screwsaber, and call it a draw. ;)

Paul B #33– I have been (being an “old-schooler” myself VERY ACCEPTING of this altered timeline and so-called “subtle changes”. BUT after reading your post — its like (to quote Gary Mitchell), “being blind all of your life and suddendly being given eye sight”. You really hit the nail on the button. Yes the so-called “insignificant changes are SIGNIFICANT ..
1-SW like Corridors (in this universe Obi Wan is an interior designer)
2-Chekov (he’s 12 in this movie a gifted child-protege)
3-Ibridge (Starfleet commissioned Steve Jobs to design it)
4-Kirk as “Rebel Yell” James Dean –No answer on that
5-Pike as Kirk’s mentor — well that TOTALLY defies the “history” as we have known it for the past 40+ years, STILL waiting for an explanation on that one.
6-I guess for “this version of Pike”, there does not exist, Number One, Dr. Boyce (who obviously was a close confident and friend), No Talos IV, No Vina, etc.
7-No Carol Marcus, Gary Mitchell, Finnegan, Garrovick, Dr. Piper, Lee Kelso, Tarsus IV etc.
8-Sulu was not them helmsman in WNMHB, he was I believe an “Astro-physicist”
9-Just for nitpicking sake, how is it conceiveable (even in an “altered timeline” — that Chekov, Sulu, Uhura report to Pike.
You said it PERFECTLY everything adds up to SIGNIFICANT CHANGES!
Again — regardless of all of the “bells & whistles” that this movie will feature Abrams and company are taking a huge risk. I am also concerned that Paramount gave them way too much creative license. Yes we have to trust that they are smart people and professionals. But now, especially after reading post #33 — I can’t help but be concerned again. “Change for the sake of change”, does not work!!!

39 – “6-I guess for “this version of Pike”, there does not exist, Number One, Dr. Boyce (who obviously was a close confident and friend), No Talos IV, No Vina, etc.
7-No Carol Marcus, Gary Mitchell, Finnegan, Garrovick, Dr. Piper, Lee Kelso, Tarsus IV etc.”

THOSE are the kinds of changes that bother me most! It sounds like in the rush to revamp Spock and Kirk, Abrams & Co. might have wiped out huge swaths of Trek that many of us care about.

I’m NOT against all change! I was a cheerleader for TNG when most fans were whining that “You can’t do Trek without Spock!” and “You can’t have a Klingon on the bridge!” I was all for the recasting of these iconic roles because it’s the only way we’ll ever see them again.

I’m still very hopeful that we’ll be blown away by the new movie. I WANT it to be great, I want to feel like I did as a 9-year-old back in 1979 when I saw TMP for the first time; I fear I will end up feeling like I did after watching David Lynch’s mockery of “DUNE” in 1984.

Either way, at least the new Bones has a groovy Sonic Screwsaber and Kirk has a baby monitor with the ship’s insignia. (And poor Uhura has the rankless and sleeveless miniskirt and the prop they didn’t care to upgrade…hehe…)

#39 Jane, you…
1-The Enterprise is not April’s Enterprise. April’s “Prime Universe Enterprise” is called Constitution, because George Kirk died on the Kelvin and wasn’t there to suggest Enterprise. This “Punk Universe Enterprise” is a special project under Fleet Captain Pike to be vigilant to respond to the threat Nero poses.
2-Chekov isn’t on the Enterprise in the Iowa sequence, he’s later. D C Fontana herself argues there are two Chekovs. Not sure exactly how that works, but if it’s good enough for D C…
3-iBridge is fine for the Punk Enterprise. April’s Constitution looks just like the 1701 we were used to… except it’s still NCC-1700.
4-Punk Kirk has been explained thoroughly. He’s still Jim Kirk, but not quite as we know him.
5-Prime Kirk met Pike when he was appointed Fleet Captain of the Prime Enterprise about 12 years before Menagerie. And then again when he assumed command. And I’m sure many times in between. The punk timeline and prime timelines are much the same. Talos IV and Vina still can happen (as long as Pike isn’t killed in STXI… perhaps in this punk universe he’s brain-dead after getting delta radiation from saving Chekov when a baffle plate explodes.)
6-Number One, Dr. Boyce are still there, just not in the movie.
7-Carol, Gary, Garrovick, etc. are there for future sequels. Tarsus is still there… Finnegan… you’ll be glad.. I better shut up on that.
8-Sulu did a rotation in astrophysics. There are many pilots and astronauts who have degrees in physics. Big whoop. You seriously think Sulu first touched a helm on Enterprise? His previous postings we know nothing of.
9-Because Pike is Fleet Captain, and about to be promoted to Commodore in both universes.

25 cents, please.

Is it just me or did Bob Orci mention here that there won’t be hand held communicators in this movie?

37

Actually, if you look closely in the scenes in Sickbay in “The Lights of Zetar,” Scotty is wearing a sciences patch. If it’s good enough for Scotty…

I would like my next cellphone to look exactly like that communicator.

#41 Daoud, I have to borrow a phrasing from you because it clarifies my worries. You said, “He’s still Jim Kirk, but not quite as we know him.” It’s that “not quite” part that worries me.

He’s “not quite” the Kirk we know. The ship is “not quite” the Enterprise we knew. Etc, etc….

But too many “not quites” can add up to “not quite enough.” THAT is my fear. I like the idea of rebooting through a canon-based gimmick, but not if the result is “not quite” Star Trek.

I know nothing will ever be exactly the same as TOS, and I embrace that. But I worry that this movie might be not quite enough Star Trek to still be Star Trek.

Shutting up for a while….need coffee.

#41 — They are all significant changes. Oh there will be no Talos IV incident because Captain Pike will GET KILLED in this movie.
Nice try though…

I think the uniform nedds to be taken in a bit..otherwise very nice.
Oh, and the props too!

Not sure they would market the communicator as a cell phone… when you look at the iphone and blackberries… this looks like it would be a step backwards for cell phones. No.. I feel they won’t market this as a cell phone.

So, does it light up or does it “light up?”

MCcoy’s Medical Tricorder look like a lightsaber
Kirk’s communication looks like a camera phone
Uhura’s ear pieces still the same but the both look cool