VegasCon 07 – Visit With StarTrekProperties.com (& Mike Okuda)

The latest licensed Trek product allows you to get your own diplomas or land deeds from within the Star Trek universe – all designed by Denise and Mike Okuda. I visited the StarTrekProperties.com booth to check it out. (there is a very funny moment with Mike)

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Niiiiiice. Me like!

Why does Picard’s Academy Diploma say he graduated with the class of 2364??? :-P

http://www.startrekproperties.com/twdshop/store/comersus_viewItem.asp?idProduct=16

WHAT PRICE dude ??????

Cool site. They might want to change the Enterprise depicted on the Kobayashi Maru certificate. If Bill and Leonard are signing it, shouldn’t the ship be the original cast movie Enterprise? The Enterprise D, which is featured on the document, wont even be around for another 100 years.

Certainly, the Okudas have made amazing and wonderful contributions to the Star Trek Universe… and I would never fault them for picking up some pocket change as a result of their long time association with the franchise… and I am a big believer in entrepreneurial endeavors… but c’mon! I mean, really?!?

Well, live and let live… To each his own, i suppose… I think I’d rather invest in Sub-Prime Hedge Funds. :)

Please don’t get me wrong, I have every respect for the Okuda’s. One of the Trek-highlights of my teenage years was when I got the chance to talk to Mike Okuda on the telephone. I don’t reven recall how it came about -think we were both on AOL and I mentioned somewhere how ‘cool’ it would be for me to talk to him…

Like I said, I think Mr. Okuda is a real stand-up guy, but somehow this just feels horribly wrong, in a Cheez-Whiz sort of way.

Please, Mr. Okuda… say it ain’t so!

LOL, I never heard anyone use the word “canonista” before. :D

I have to agree with the sentiments of others so far, though. The Okudas have made a great contribution to Trek, but this seems like a kind of tacky way to make money from it. Still, no one’s forcing anyone to buy one, and a graduation certificate from Starfleet Academy is probably quite fun to have behind your desk. Especially if you’re a doctor. :-p

its websites like this that make the rest of the world wonder about people like us!

Off topic…

“Hi Def format” watchers still in a dilema over the approaching DVD / HD-DVD combi release of ST:TOS Remastered should read the latest informed article on today’s http://www.thedigitalbits.com lead story…

This has been a public service announcement. Thankyou.

I don’t begrudge the Okudas hopping on the Star Trek gravy train. And I’m sure their product is far from the tackiest thing to ever have the words “Star Trek” emblazoned on it.

¡Viva capitalism!

I’m going to be DIPLOMA-tic and say “yeesh!”. Let’s sing all together now, “give me land, lot’s of land…”

The Digital Bits went into another rhetorical anti HD-DVD rant.

Now I know I MUST get thisTrek HD-DVD set for sure.

-RW

I just bought property on Vulcan. That’s going to look great in my office.

If anyone gets the chance please ask the Okudas if they’re making another edition of the Star Trek Chronology, PLEASE! Thank You!

I’m surprised they didn’t sell the Golden Gate Bridge next to Star Fleet Academy. I get the feeling if you try to build on any of these site, you’ll need Samuel Cogley to fight the resulting lawsuits.

well frankly i’m shocked that Okuda is involved, very tacky

its a cool idea, but really there a bit over priced ,i mean just a basic diploma seems to cost a bit to much . i mean all you get is a starfleet diploma and letter of apectance, i would want a student i.d. starfleet sweatshirt , class pictures , a grade card ………..lol the list goes on , oh well i guess us star trek fans will pay anyway. cause i know i want one

In looking at the website, it appears that this is an outfit that does this same kind of thing for other genre entertainment properties. And they hired the Okuda’s to help create the materials. I was not under the impression that the Okuda’s were in it for more then that.

Tough call on which is more pathetic; the folks selling NOTHING or the folks buying NOTHING.

Don’t have an opinion on this website, but would still love to see another Okuda ST Encyclopedia updated through Enterprise!

“Tough call on which is more pathetic; the folks selling NOTHING or the folks buying NOTHING.”

Wow, what a sore headed old crank. Its just a bit of fun. Lighten up.

Or you could whip something together on photoshop yourself, print it on a decent colour printer and then stick it in a photoframe.
The final effect is similar – expect that CBS doesn’t get wads of cash from you for the latter.

Money for old rope…

#14 and #20 – Pocket Books has previously stated that they will not be revisiting these titles at this point, given their cost-to-profit ratio (i.e., they’ve not been that successful financially for Pocket).

Sorry, but I doubt you will be seeing anything. At this point, even an Enterprise companion seems quite doubtful.

Rob+

“Wow, what a sore headed old crank. Its just a bit of fun. Lighten up.”

A LOT of fun for your fellow office workers laughing behind your back at your Vulcan property purchase.

You’re assuming he isn’t the boss.

I never imagined Starfleet Academy was just a diploma mill.

I don’t understand the disapproval in this thread. If there’s a market for this kind of thing then the Okudas are the proper people to be involved. They personify Star Trek graphic design and anybody else doing it would be as worthless as downloading some Star Trek fonts and making your own “documents”. Trek is a commercial enterprise and always has been. If I could make decent money designing a bunch of Star Trek documents I’d do it and so would anybody here. It sounds a lot more fun than most jobs.

“Tough call on which is more pathetic; the folks selling NOTHING or the folks buying NOTHING.”

No contest here…..the folks who’re buying nothing. These are the same people that bought the Pet Rock. Someone once said people would buy a pile of shit if it came in a nicely designed package. And looks like P.T. Barnum continues to be right.

This needs to be repeated: You can make this stuff on your own!!! EASILY!

“This needs to be repeated: You can make this stuff on your own!!! EASILY!”

I can also make a hamburger myself but that doesn’t stop me from going out to a restaurant and buying one. Why should I waste my time making a diploma when I can afford to pay someone to do it for me? That’s what capitalism is all about. I guess after wasting an evening downloading fonts and scanning pictures and symbols and spending money on cardstock and ink and designing and compiling and printing and reprinting, I’m supposed to forge William Shatner or Mike Okuda or Leonard Nimoy’s signatures for that extra touch of authenticity? You may have that kind of spare time, Lensman, but I bill at $130 an hour, so *believe me*, its cheaper for me to buy one than make one. And I think I’ll do just that. Maybe two, just for fun.

Love the ALL CAPS and the exclamation points though. Really conveys the OUTRAGE and the ENVY!!! :-)

Anything to milk a buck out of the fans. Sheesh, like that stuff isn’t something you could throw thogether in photoshop..

Smae.

I arrived on Thursday for the Creation Las Vegas Star Trek Convention and heard Denise and Mike Okuda speak on Friday at about 6:40 p.m.. They mostly spoke of their association with TNG and designing graphics. Then they spoke briefly about the Star Trek: Remastered series and showed a special effects “reel” of the series! New effects from what look to from the future telecast of “Galileo 7”!!! New city landscapes!!! Oh, it went by so fast. They reemphasized that the HD-DVD’s coming out will be hybrid, i.e., on one side HD-DVD with the Remastered series and on the other side with the Remastered series in standard definition. Like the Star Trek official panel earlier in the day, they said that for the time, there is no Blu-Ray version to be sold. At 1:20 p.m. today, they and others will speak further about the Remastered series HD-DVDs and the work in getting it done. Oooo, I hope they show the effects reel again (without the projector problems of yesterday). I’ll be there, listening to every detail.

Just got back from the Trek Convention right now (5 p.m.).

I wrote:

> Like the Star Trek official panel earlier in the day, they said that for
> the time, there is no Blu-Ray version to be sold.

Today one of the CBS producers (I forget which one but I have the list of names) said that they are in talks for Blu-Ray.

> At 1:20 p.m. today, they and others will speak further about the
> Remastered series HD-DVDs and the work in getting it done.

Have not gone through all my e-notes, but the producers say the street pricing of the HD-DVDs should be in the $150-175 range. They showed a promo of what is going to be on the HD-DVDs. The original series is restored frame-by-frame (nice!). They showed a tech removing spots on a frame of video. The HD-DVDs will be in 4:3, not 16:9 (Mike Okuda was strongly against any tampering with the directors’ framing of shots). Billy Blackburn was on the panel today, and they showed some of his Super 8 from the HD-DVDs… what a treat to see candid footage of the episode, Arena! Also the enhanced special effects of Remastered episodes will not be redone to incorporate any of the newer (better) effects rendered later in the season, e.g., shots of the spaceships done early in the season will not be replaced with later, better-rendered shots. Mike Okuda said that what you saw on t.v. for the Remastered series is what you will get (well, I suppose without the station edits). They are all hard at work in getting season 2 going for Remastered TOS.

> Oooo, I hope they show the effects reel again (without the projector
> problems of yesterday).

Unfortunately, no, they did not show the effects reel again. However, like yesterday, they were raffling off new, in-the-box Toshiba HD-DVD players (darn, didn’t win) and giving away posters and Captain’s Chair DVDs.

$150-$175….. SHEESH! I’ll stick with my current set of DVD’s. I waited years, to get them at a decent price, looks like I’m going to waiting some time for these. Waw! Talk about milking something over and over and over……

We are Paraborg, we will assimilate your bank acount.

“A LOT of fun for your fellow office workers laughing behind your back at your Vulcan property purchase.”

Well, how about this, Quatlo – I promise that any of my employees who laugh at my Vulcan deed will have to go to Vulcanian Sensitivity Training. Feel better now?

EASY ON THE OKUDAS.

Before some of you start mouthing off about how the Okudas sold out – I just got back from the Vegas convention and saw the deeds/diplomas first hand. You cannot imagine the work and detail that went into these things (YOU CANNOT MAKE THESE YOURSELF). The Okudas work is better than advertised. There are cool holographic foils and embossing (that you can’t see on the net). They also spent 10 minutes answering questions from me for free, signed my Christie’s catalog for free, and posed for a photo with me for free. They’re the only free things I got in 4 days at the convention.

So my friends, I too bought a Vulcan deed and a Kobayashi Maru certificate. I’m also getting a Starfleet Diploma online (they only offered “Master of Space Science” degree and I wanted something else) to hang next to my real degrees.

Yes, I know that I really don’t own land on Vulcan. And I know that I really didn’t graduate from Starfleet Academy . But I’ve really enjoyed looking at my stock certificate from the Green Bay Packers that I bought a decade ago, and my wife really still loves the star certificate that she received from the star that I named after her. Having this stuff signed by the Okudas (my Vulcan deed is also signed by Nimoy) is just fun for me, and I see no reason to pick on the Okudas for making it. In fact, I think the opposite is true.

To #4 JonBoc – FYI – I had the same question about the Maru certificate when I first saw the site. When I was at the show, I hit the Okudas with the question. To my surprise (or not), the Okudas pointed out that they changed the Maru certificate to add the original Enterprise after Shatner and Nimoy agreed to sign them (which is why I bought it). The web site shows the original version created using the Enterprise-D, but the ones signed by Shatner and Nimoy have the original enterprise on them.

You CANNOT make these with photoshop. They are embossed, they have foil holograms and they are signed (authentically) by the Okudas, and/or Nimoy, Shatner and Takei. The ones that you can get on ebay for $7.99 are made with photoshop. These are original signatures with blue sharpy.
On a second note- the Okudas are two of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet and to suggest that they are “jumping on the star trek gravy train” is utterly ridiculous. They put their hearts and souls into designing these pieces for the fans. They spent significant amounts of time with every star trek fan that wanted to speak with them even if they DID NOT make a purchase. Nice of you to be so quick to judge…

#32 Robert Bernardo

Thanks for finally confirming that we will NOT be getting the ‘improved’ Enterprise shots to replace the earliest work…this is what a lot here feared, and as one of them, I am very disappointed by this fact…