The history of Trek collectibles goes back over 40 years and with a new movie on the way, the amount and variety of Trek merchandise is only increasing. To help both newbies and hard core collectors, a new guidebook and magazine dedicated to Trek collectibles are on their way, and TrekMovie.com has an exclusive first look at both.
The Guidebook – Star Trek The Collectibles
"Star Trek: The Collectibles," written by uber-collector Steve Kelly, brings fans over 250 pages detailing nearly every classic Star Trek collectible. The guidebook focuses on items based on the TOS era TV series and films (through to Star Trek Generations), including items released after Generations (It was decided that there were too many items for a single volume to cover items from all Trek shows, but if sales warrant, a future book or books will cover the the rest). There has not been a Star Trek toy guidebook available since 2000, and even that book was limited only to items from the Playmates Toys line. "Star Trek The Collectibles" has chapters covering 32 different categories with over 1,200 color photos and the book also provides estimated price guides for each Trek item (in two condition categories: mint/near mint w/ packaging and mint/near mint w/o packaging).
Sample pages: Star Trek The Collectibles covers much more than just figures and toys (click to enlarge)
The book is unique in that it will present a historical look at each licensee through the various eras of the original Star Trek. Author Kelley tells Trekmovie.com that about half of the book is dedicated to the late 1960s and 1970s because of the incredible amount of collectibles that came onto the market after the show was cancelled. "Ironically when Star Trek is not on television or at the movies, there tends to be much more merchandise available for fans" comments Kelley.
Sample pages: The 70s, era of the belt buckle
(click to enlarge)
Kelley himself owns an impressive collection of Trek items which make up most of the items photographed for the book. Yet, unlike some previous guides, Star Trek: The Collectibles isn’t merely lists or pictures. Kelley conducted two years of research to give the real story behind the collectibles.
I wanted the book to me more than a list. I wanted people to be able to pick up the book and learn about the history of Star Trek collectibles. For example, the book offers a history of the MEGO line of toys. Many people may not know there have been five versions of the card that featured the Kirk action figure, or that the famous Remco Star Trek utility belt is the same belt used for The Hulk or Superman belts from the same company. The Hulk radiation detector is merely the Star Trek communicator painted green.
Sample pages: Get behind the scenes on Star Trek collectibles
(click to enlarge)
Of interest to regular Trekmovie. com readers, friend-of-the-site Chris Doohan writes the forward to the guidebook. Star Trek: The Collectibles hits book stores the last week of October and is available now for preorder at Amazon.com.
Star Trek The Collectibles is available for pre-order at Amazon for $16.49
(Ships Oct. 24)
The Magazine – Unofficial Guide To Star Trek Collectibles
This November 17th, Krause Publishing and Kelley are also releasing "The Unofficial Guide to Star Trek Collectibles" magazine. The premier issue features articles about the history of MEGO toys, including art work not seen in decades and a look at the Hallmark 2008 Christmas Ornaments. According to Kelley, the focus of the magazine will be strictly new and vintage toys and collectibles (and their makers). The magazine will also feature profiles of many Star Trek collectors themselves.
Although Trek collectibles have been covered in Star Trek Magazine, Wizard’s ToyFare and Star Trek Communicator, there has never been a magazine dedicated solely to Star Trek collectibles. However, because of the incredible amount of both past and future Star Trek items, this should be a valuable resource for fans.
New collectibles magazine coming in November
Steve Kelley – a collector’s collector
The new book and magazine grow out of a life-long passion with collecting Star Trek. In the video interview below, Kelley shows off his massive Trek collection.
First? I’m jealous. This guy might have a bigger collection than me. I can’t wait to ge the book to see all I’m missing.
Very cool.
Cool…
did that news guy say dr. Spock?
Ahhhh…I love those Mego Star Trek figures.
What are “vinate” toys?
OH! “Vintage” must be what was meant! Sorry! The typo is in the description of the magazine.
I shall now brag:
I have a round-top 1969 Trek lunchbox, with thermos, in MINT condition.
Case closed.
Eh, I have autographs of all the main casts from all four series including Captains. Beat that.
Wow, point me toward the pre-order. I’m intrigued by the stuff on the ’70s era collectibles, when no one knew the meaning of the word “licensing”.
Watch the news reporter’s intro into the segmant…”It’s been more than 40 years since Dr. Spock…” WTF? Dr. Spock? What kind of news reporters do they have in New Hampshire? Obviously ones that don’t watch Star Trek!
8 and 9 … good stuff! Would love to read in this thread about everyone’s prized collectibles.
Me? I have a phaser collection 20 strong, but my number one collectible would be winning an on-line charity auction and actually appearing as an extra on the bridge (in Enterprise’s “Awakening”). I put the ship on red alert and fired the phasers. Best day of my life.
Wow! That rocks.
And how awesome that you got to be in one of the good episodes from the best season of the show :-)
“nearly every Star Trek item available from the 1960s TV era through the 1994 film Generations. ”
Why just through Generations? That pisses me off! There were thousands of trek items after that, if I just wanted through Generations I would go back and look at my old trek collectors book that was the most complete I have ever seen, printed in 1995
I have almost every Trek Item ever made! Seriously! (except the round domed lunch box, but, I know where to get one! ……)
40 years of “Dr Spock”. idiot.
Dr Spock? That’s that baby guy isn’t he? lol
Re-read the article. The book is focusing on TOS-related collectibles, which means shows and movies featuring the TOS characters, who last appeared in Generations. If you look at the sample pages, you’ll see TOS collectibles from 2002. If the TOS book is successful, the author wants to do more books focusing on the other shows.
Ah….yes…Dr. Spock. One of my favorite characters on Star Trak.
Dr. McCoy must be mad.
Turns out Spock’s doctorate is in music theory. Who’d a thunk it?
40 years since Dr Spock…….. delivered a baby?
However, great book at a great price.
#4 not doctor spock!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(again, LOL)
AW What! I want to find out about Dow Websters’ friend but now Ill never know!
wow if i ever own that book, i chose the wrong path in life lol..
1. krikzil
At this moment I am not sure if I will be there for Vegas in 2009 but was wondering if we can meet up at 2010 vegas con? I will find out in a few months if I can make next years or not.
Anyway about the collection, there are some cool stuff to have there but my problem is that I am running out of space in my bedroom.
Does anyone like the old 1988 TNG action figures, they were pretty lacking in quality but fun for retro bility?
I know they have done the Gorn correct for the mego recreations and it looks cool, the old one looked bad.
Really want a belt buckle
I better keep my fingers off of this book. Otherwise I’ll want to have everything pictured in there and will spend hundreds of hours on eBay and billions of bucks!!
I have a cut away, promotional poster, of the Enterprise, in it’s origional mailing tube handed out during season 2 of TOS.
Back when my collection took up all the shelves in my walk-in closet, you’d need all of Capt. Tracy’s reserve packs for a phaser set on ‘dust.’ I notice they interviewed the collector dude’s father but not his mother, wife, girlfriend, sister, or any female on Earth.
Mind you, I’m taking cheap shots because I’m totally jealous.
I do have the Enterprise brass belt buckle shown in the upper left of that page. I notice it’s appreciated in value from $15-$35 in just 30 years. Now I can retire. Actually, I still wear it. And when you pull my Shatneresque paunch out of the way, you can still see it.
Should I stop hoping that my Starfleet Technical Manuel signed by James Doohan & Nichelle Nichols will ever be worth enough to put my kids through college?
Looking forward to both the book and the magazine. I mainly collect the books now, but I have fond memories of a lot of the other stuff that’s come out over the years.
Curious about the magazine, though — what kind of distribution will it have? How often will it be published? How much will it cost? And is there really enough interest to support an ongoing magazine?
captain_neill — if I’m still among the living, I’ll be at the con next year and the following. Why break with tradition now? Of course who knows where Creation will hold the con come 2010 what with the closing of STTE.
>.Anyway about the collection, there are some cool stuff to have there but my problem is that I am running out of space in my bedroom.
Heh heh. That’s why I bought a house with an extra bedroom. My Star Trek museum!
Wes (#15),
The article clearly states that there are too many Trek collectibles to cover in a single book volume, so they used Generations as a cut-off line. If sales of the book warrant, future volumes will proceed from that point forward and likely cover the other Trek series and films.
It pays to read something in its entirety. It would have saved you the trouble of getting miffed for no reason at all.
Regarding the book: It sounds very comprehensive. It’ll be fun to go through it and remember all the Trek goodies from my childhood. I’m looking forward to learning about items I probably never knew about when I was growing up. I’ll definitely be checking this out.
Another must have. Gotta get the book, and the magazine.
Had I known about this collection, I would’ve stopped by when I was in New Hampshire a few years ago!
I want one of those starfleet belt buckles from the movies. Where the hell do I get one?
What a horribly-designed book. And those covers! Ee-yuck!
Try Roddenberry.com
Hi everyone. Thanks for all the great compliments on my upcoming book and magazine. Yes, the channel 9 guy said Dr. Spock. I couldn’t believe it myself and said “Oh no, not again!” like I’m sure hundreds of others said at the same time as well. At any rate they did do a very nice interview and got some great footage of at least a small part of my collection. When I watched it myself on TV I quickly discovered two things. One, I had gained a lot of weight (due to a back injury sustained many months before) and two, I should have sat on my hands. Geeze, I waved my hands all over the place LOL The book was originally going to be made up of all of the collectibles but we quickly discovered that there was just waaay to much stuff to get it all in one book and not have the cost be prohibitive and it weighing 100 lbs or more. So, we decided to do the TOS stuff in the “first” volume and since the last movie that more than one character of the major original cast were seen in was Generations that became our cut off. If sales do well we will then proceed with the TNG collectibles in book two. Since Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise don’t have as much memorabilia created as TOS and TNG, I can see those series memorabilia probably being combined into one volume, but of course that is still a few years away best case so we shall see. The book is made up entirely from my own collection. We did this as it just made it easier getting the images we wanted and because my collection was complete enough there was no need or reason to seek out getting images of any pieces from anyone or anyplace else. The book changed a lot from once my original content of images and text was submitted to the publisher. During the editing and layout process it gained a lot, but it also lost some too. There always has to be sacrifices made and I am sure that there will be some collectors like myself who would have liked to have seen certain pieces pictured and included that sadly didn’t make it in the final cut of the book. Of course the reality is that you just can’t include everything. I am so proud to have had the forward of my book written by Chris Doohan. His father is one of my all time favorites both as a TOS character and as a fan favorite at conventions so to have Chris write the forward, especially in such a personal way, was a real honor and a total thrill for me. Thanks again Chris. You rock! The release date for the book is actually next month in September. The October date was created by places like Amazon many months ago when the book was first announced only to make sure that if there were any unforseen delays that they wouldn’t get hammered with complaints by people who had ordered the book upset that it didn’t come out when they said. So they gave themselves a cushion to cover themselves I guess. You can pre-order the book from just about any place that sells books, be it your favorite book store of online including Amazon. In fact it has been available for pre-order for months now actually. The Star Trek Collectors magazine cover you see pictured is just a very early preliminary mock up created for layout and legal purposes only. You got to see it here first just like the high res images of the book pages. The actual final cover however will be quite different and hopefully feature a cover of one of the new Playmates movie toys with a feature article inside about Playmates past and present with Trek and the new movie toys. We are still working that as a possibility, but with CBS/Paramount keeping a locked lid on anything Trek movie related so far and the movie still being many months away from release we may not be able to get the permission from CBS/Paramount that we need to get enough from Playmates to make it worth doing the article at this time. The book was a blast to do. I went from being a Star Trek fan and collector who would look forward to the next book coming out by someone else to being the one actually making the next book. That was a thrill all on it’s own and I will have those memories along with the book to keep me smiling for many years to come. I do hope the book does well enough so we can do the TNG one next. I… Read more »
Hi Mr. Kelley. Nice to see you posting here. I have a large Trek collection myself and can’t wait to get your book to see what OTHER things I’m missing! Enjoyed seeing your collection in that clip.
The 1974 Mego packaging for my dads figure had a error, which some say makes it more valuable. Do you know what the error is.
#39
You’re welcome, Steve. It was my pleasure. Chris
Chris Doohan (#41),
If this is a trivia question, I think I have the answer. The name Scotty was spelled incorrectly. I believe they spelled it “Scottie.”
What do I win if I’m right? ;-)
By the way, I just wanted to mention that I had the opportunity to meet your father at a few Trek conventions (way back when Creation still held them here in Pittsburgh, PA). He was warm, generous, outgoing, and funny. It was a true pleasure to make his acquaintance. The time he spent just chatting with fans (including me) beyond his time on stage was a real pleasure. I have very fond memories of speaking with him, and everyone in attendance enjoyed their time with him.
41. It lists him as Scottie… ?
#9 (Nice… but..) Ha! I have a Richard Coyle one-of-a-kind phaser signed by James Doohan at his second-last con. (AND a huge phaser collection, too.)
And- a set of combadges signed by the entire Voyager cast (among countless others, of course.)
And a blue Galoob Data…. and… well, lots of stuff.
What a vast and impressive collection. Has more stuff than museums I’ve been ta’…
Oh, CmdrR- I could get “The Black Virgin of Vladimir”; it’s a russian icon painted on wood… it’s worth aboot 2.3 million pounds… wanna trade yer’ belt buckle?
Arrrrrrr…
#43 Correct!!!!! and thanks.
#4 and #24
It’s funny hearing people say Dr Spock and not MISTER Spock! One day they’ll learn…maybe…
Whats the point of having all that stuff and keeping it in boxs? You never actually enjoy it? These people think that in some distant future it’ll be worth something but actually it wont unless you wait 200 years but by then…
Just enjoy it now, you cant take it with you.
I’m not a collector, and I don’t have stuff in boxes, but I do have a couple of items.
I do collect soundtracks, so I can easily understand collecting and keeping things MIB (Mint In Box).