Trek Spring Collection Preview: Vandor Metal Gift Items

Today TrekMovie continues our preview of the Star Trek collectibles coming this Spring with a look at gift items from a new licensee, Vandor, makers of various collectible metal products. Vandor has a number of new Original Series-themed items headed your way, including metal signs, magnets, business card holders and more. See below for exclusive details and high resolution images.

 

Star Trek goes metal
Star Trek fans may know the name Vandor as the system visited by the USS Enterprise 1701 D in "We’ll Always Have Paris" but collectors know it as a world famous company famous for their cookie jars and tins. Started in 1957, Vandor, LLC produces nostalgia items for licensees including I Love Lucy, Elvis, John Wayne, and Marilyn Monroe. Obviously, Star Trek is in good company, here.

Vandor will develop a wide range of Trek gift items including cookie jars, salt and pepper sets, mugs, clocks, magnets, lights and more. And Vandor have already announced their first wave (due out in April) and have provided us with details and high resolution images.

click all images to enlarge
[click prices to pre-order at Entertainment Earth]

Tin Signs:
Vandor tin signs are colorful and fun, and include two sizes (10"x15" and mini-sized 4"x7")


Large tin sign (10"x15") – [$9.99]


Small tin sign (4"x7") – [$7.99]
 

Magnets
Star Trek magnets will be in a set of four, and measure about 2"x2". Perfect for klinging-on.


Magnets (set of 4) – [$11.99]
 

Business Card Holder
Spock’s image adorns the business card holder. These are excellent items because they are both practical and fun, adding some personality to business interactions.


Business Card holder – [$12.99]
 

Tin box & tote
One of the famous lines from Vandor is their tin boxes and totes, which conjure images of the era of metal lunchboxes. Star Trek is getting both a large lunnch-box shaped tote (around 7" tall and 10" long) and a mini round tin box (2"x2"x.75").


Large sized tote/lunchbox – [$14.99]


Small tin box (2" x 0.75") – [$5.99]

Playing Cards w/ tin box
An exciting product featuring images of the 1960s crew, the Vandor playing cards have something for both tin and card collectors, and this is an everyday use item, also.


Playing cards in tin box – [$15.99]

What is great is that besides being affordable quality items, is that Vandor’s collectibles are both decorative (sings) and functional (boxes, totes, holders).  These items will be available in April at nostalgia shops, retail stores, book stores, and comic stores. All the Vandor items can be pre-ordered at Entertainment Earth (see EE Vandor Page for full line).

 

Next Spring Collection Preview – Mattel games
The next item we will preview this week will be the new Star Trek games coming from Mattel (20Q and SceneIt).  

 

49 Comments
oldest
newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Oh man I love all the new schwag, my wallet is getting lighter and lighter.

Totally getting the tin box.

Ah, good old lunchboxes – love that retro attitude!

And I like Kirk’s not-as-determined-as-usual facial expression on the tin sign…;)

Sweet stuff.

WOW, THIS STUFF IS GREAT! The Lunchbox is my favorite!

Its the parade of Star Trek Junk.

I feel like they are puting the Star Trek name on any piece of Junk they can find.

First the big headed Star Trek Items now this.

I did not know that the Ferengi were back in town.

I can use that lunch box for work.

sweet fizbin deck!

Talk about scraping the bottom of the barrel…

ebay will be flooded with Star Trek stuff for years!!!

Sadly… all this stuff surely won’t make it to europe and germany… definitly want all that stuff!

Sweeeeeeeeet

I gotta get me a lunch box

Glad there is still going to be Classic Trek merchandise available in addition to New Trek stuff.

I want to be 9 again… or at least for people to stop looking at me funny because I act that way.

#10

Selor, try the below site for delivery within Germany. They offer most stuff from the US. You should be prepared for some delay though, but at least you’ll have a chance to get hold of Trek goodies without paying a fortune for p&p. Got my Kirk and Spock Amok Time package yesterday. Pretty late, but nevertheless beautiful…:)

http://www.starbase8.de/

overexposure……

I love the lunchbox… and I’m going to have to get the Beam Me Up sign for my best friend for sure.

Paramount is pushing this thing..

The delay…and over publicizing it..

I think they have a bomb on their hands, and not in a good way.

wow those are cheesy looking. Would have been nice to see a true retro-look to that packaging…

#17

For your information, these products have nothing to do with Paramount. This is a CBS license (they license all TV show products).

I’m diggin’ the lunch box and business card holder!

Oh My! I hope they didn’t forget Sulu…maybe Shatner had something to do with that…

Nice lunch box. Too bad they didn’t use the cast photo from the bridge that includes Sulu and Nurse Chapel. Good photo from “I, Mudd,” nonetheless.

That’s a great original cast photo on the lunchbox! But where’s Sulu? Did Shatner have him excommunicated? : )

I just saw a large Easter Chocolate thing in the shape of the Defiant with that darker Star Trek branding on the box (Kirk Spock n Bones in the lower left corner I believe)… It was in a local drug store… I couldn’t believe it, I almost took a pic with my cel to send to trekmovie.com but I didn’t want to look like I had a serious star trek/chocolate problem. :P

#22

There was a metal lunchbox from four years ago with that image. Probably why they didn’t utilize that idea.

These are great! I didn’t like the other weird TOS merchandise…those seemed like mockeries more than anything else. But these look fantastic – I’ve gotta get something from this list!!

Hmm, so we go from very little merchandising to a bit more and that’s “pushing it”, “over exposure” and such. Geez, I’m glad you handful of negative nellys aren’t in charge.

Look it’s simple. The more merchandising there is the more healthy a property is. This is reminding me of the hey day of the 70’s. Bring me more!

(And for the record, there will always be stuff ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime the more merch there is. But that is just the way it goes.)

Okey, so they are plastering Star trek on everything. But… Then again…. Isn’t that orlando bloom from Pirates of the Caribian I see on EVERYTHING, or Yoda from star wars I see on EVERYTHING, or neo from matrix i see on EVERYTHING. It’s what they always do. The fact that star trek is getting this attention and that they are willing to plaster it on all the junk is fantastic too me. How much did NEMESIS get plastered on or INSURECTION or WRATH OF KHAN for that matter (not much) So… PLaster away

For all you communists out there:

Merchandising is a capitalistic venture. And we here in the U.S. are a bunch of suffering capitalistic pigs. In this economy we will sell anything if someone buys it.

Of course like a true American boob I am completely ignorant as to whether or not Vandor is an American company.

Why do fellow fans insist on labeling these as “junk”? Have you ever seen the quality of Vandor items? Since when are magnets or playing cards junk?

John:

As a parent of an 8 year old and a 6 year old, who has to wade constantly through a sea of Pokemon games, cards, action figures, books, lunchboxes, numerous webkins and Hot Wheels, etc., I can happily say that all this stuff is “junk.”

It’s no swipe at the quality, but it’s clutter, clear and simple, that takes up space.

Also, at a time when we are all pinching pennies, it seems odd that CBS has gone on a licensing frenzy during the worst downturn in retail sales since 1997. It’s a huge risk, and assuming the US economy is still fragile come the summer, the stakeholders in these Trek “nostalgia” products are taking a huge risk. It could be another crappy Christmas, too.

To clarify, JT, I don’t think they’re junk. I think they are yet another item that those who are in the business of selling would like the consuming public to buy. I’m not particularly in to these products but as mini mates, QUOGS, bobble heads, and Galactic Heroes prove, it ‘aint up to me what get’s bought.

Vive le Trek products!

i always find it strange how there is an anti-stuff contingent of trek fans. I think it is pretty amazing that Trek again is moving into the cultural mainstream to warrant getting the full Star Wars treatment with both nostalgic items and new movie items. I personally don’t collect, but i can appreciate that it is good for Trek.

And as editor it is important for us to keep fans informed about what is going on, and collectors as well.

For those who have made their ‘i hate products’ comments clear in our recent threads, I really don’t see the need to let us know every time, there are more ‘spring collection’ articles planned and I think we can take your previous anti-product comments as a given.

#31

Thank you for the reply. My wife and I too have a six year old son. I am glad there are some toys and products for him to play with from Star Trek because consider the alternatives, I prefer the (usually) family friendly Star Trek.

If people are using “junk” in the “tchotchke” sense, fine. However, Vandor isn’t “junk” in that it is cheaply manufactured. It is not true. My wife has some of the Vandor Marilyn Monroe and Wonder Woman items and they are all very good quality.

Also, should CBS and other companies not have products because of the economy? In fact, hobby purchases have not been effected too much because of the economy because people are spending what little extra income on their hobby interests and not on more expensive endeavors. In fact, I think it is great that if economic times are tough for some fans, yet they wish to buy a friend a Trek present, there are all kinds of items available from Vandor and other companies that are good quality, yet affordable. Thank you for your opinion and your reply. It is always nice to hear from fellow fans.

33. Anthony Pascale- They’re called curmudgeons. And I have no idea what makes them tick either.

Ok. My big complaint is that there is no Fisbin.Also wheres the Terran Empire. Im so disapointed. I love everything else though. Lots of great stuff.

I have a 1968 round-top lunchbox in mint condition, courtesy of my grandmother.
I’ll just go with that.
(Cool kids carried their lunch in paper bags, so I never used it!)

Does anyone know if the lunchbox is designed for actual use or is it one of those cheap display models with the really thin metal, weak hinges and latch?

Oh Man! That lunch box is MINE!!! =D

…Wait, are metal lunch boxes legal anymore? ISTR some communities outlawing them to keep the smaller kids from beating the school bullies to death with them.

[remembers breaking four teeth out of the 6th grade bully when I was in 3rd grade, realizing that the lunch box I used now has a collector’s value greater than the stupid bastard’s teeth repair bill :-(]

I wish they had some items with just the simple UFP logo on them. I don’t really collect this kind of stuff, but the things I do like to pick up are items that exist in that fictional universe (like, say, those ‘Vulcan Academy of Science’ t-shirts, ‘Property of the USS Enterprise’ whatevers, and suchlike. I’d totally get a set of dishes or glasses with the UFP logo on them.)

I’d love to see two ‘tiers’ of collectibles; one with images of the characters, etc, and one with a bit more, for lack of a better word, ‘taste.’ Items a Herbert might enjoy, lol. A business card holder with Spock on it? Reminds me of the credit card ad where the guy takes out a card with a comic book character on it to pay for a business lunch and the German folks he is meeting with describe it as ‘kindergarten.”

A business card case in dark metal with an image of the IDIC symbol, tastefully rendered in complimentary shades… now THAT I would keep my cards in.

Myself, I had a Partridge Family lunchbox. I would totally purchase a lunchbox that had the Way to Eden folks on it, of course with an image of the Spock jam on one of the sides.

nice business card holder, of course I need to get a job first! ARRGGGHHH
Unemployment sucks.

I like the “Warp Speed” poster… Heh, like I need any more on my bedroom wall.

New TOS goodies… awesome! This is truly a good day to buy.

This is great stuff. I’m getting the playing cards, and maybe the lunchbox.
I’ll get the lunchbox if I’m FIRST!

Well, since my computer said I could be the first to comment, and it turns out I’m in the 40’s, I should not get the lunchbox.
But I still want the lunchbox. Maybe I should get it anyway.

Thise complaining about mechandising should just be happy that our beloved original series is so much in the spotlight again. It couldn’t happen to a nicer series.

I like it :-)