This week it was announced that CBS had granted a license for Star Trek replicas to eFX Collectibles, who also announced their first product will be a Mark IX TNG era Tricorder. TrekMovie spoke exclusively to eFX President Bryan Ono to get more details on that Tricorder and to find out what they have planned next.
eFX takes on Trek
eFX is a new Los Angeles-based company that was founded in 2007, however the team are not new to the business of replicas. Bryan Ono explains that he worked for Master Replicas since they its inception in 2001. As the Strategic Business Leader at MR, Ono oversaw both the Star Wars and Star Trek lines for much of this decade. In 2007 when Master Replicas lost the Star Wars license, Ono left with some others from MR to form eFX, which picked up the Star Wars license and has since been making Stormtrooper helmets, light sabers and more from that galaxy far, far away. Since then, they have also picked up the license for Disney and original series Battlestar Galactica.
eFX Star Wars X-Wing & Stormtrooper helmet
And now that Master Replicas no longer has the Star Trek license, eFX has picked that up as well. The eFX license covers all prop and vehicle replicas for all versions of Star Trek up to the new JJ Abrams Star Trek movie (as we have reported before, the movie license is with Quantum Mechanix).
First thing for eFX – Finishing the Mark IX
The final Star Trek product from Master Replicas was Mark IX TNG movie era Tricorder. TrekMovie had an early review of that item last November and Master Replicas shipped a few out in early 2009, before the company ceased operations, never fulfilling all their back-orders. Ono actually worked on the project before leaving Master Replicas, but felt that the final version "still need tweaking." He decided to make this their first product to "get it right" and to "make sure all those who wanted one can get it." Ono says there are a number of improvements with the eFX version, including matching the color better and making the lights more diffused so the LEDs are not so obvious.
Another big difference is that each Tricorder will come with a plaque signed by the Commander Data himself, Brent Spiner. Another piece of good news is that the price $349, which is lower than the final MR price of $399. The tricorder will come with a stand, however eFX will charge around $29 for an acrylic cover if you want to add that. eFX will start taking pre-orders on September 29th with orders being delivered in late October or Early November. Ono says that one of the goals of his company is to "make collectibles collectible again" and so they are committed to doing no more than 1,000 pieces in a limited run. They will be requiring a deposit of around $75, but there is a money back guarantee. You will be able to order from eFXcollectibles.com as well as Brians Toys, and Toynk.com and other retailers.
Next up – Ships and more props for 2010
But finishing where Master Replicas left of is only the beginning for eFX. According to Ono, he wants to do one new replica each quarter, meaning he is hoping to get four out in 2010. They are currently in development on designs for a number of props and ships including a Wrath of Khan phaser, a TOS era Phaser, and a large scale (28") Klingon Vor’cha Battlecruiser from DS9. Ono notes that these plans are not final and they haven’t got sign offs yet from CBS. No pricing as of yet, but Ono says he hopes to keep the items affordable, and they will also have a payment plan.
According to Ono, eFX works closely with many of the original designers for the ships and props, such as John Eaves, and have access to original source material as well as all the sound files. The goal in the short term is to develop items that were not done by Master Replicas, but they will also do some that MR did if they feel improvements can be made (such as the case of the TOS era phaser).
Klingon Battlecruiser & TWOK Phaser – two items high eFX’s replica to-do list
In addition to the studio scale ship replicas, eFX will also be working on smaller ‘Precision Cast’ replicas of around 10-12", which will be more affordable. Ono says they hope to have two of these smaller ships out in 2010, with the first being the original TOS Enterprise (NCC-1701). They will then move on to other ships in the series, Ono noting "we want to do all the Enterprises, eventually." These will probably coast around $250 and include lights, but no sounds.
More eFX coverage to come at TrekMovie
As eFX finalize plans, TrekMovie will bring more details. We will also be doing a review of the upcoming Mark IX Tricorder.
Nice, but unfortunately $350 is not really “affordable” to me.
That is so sweet looking. A tad bit spendy.
Looking at how lackluster eFX’s Star Wars releases have been, I’m not excited about the new Star Trek partnership. So far, it doesn’t seem like they’ve developed a single original item that wasn’t already designed at Master Replicas (with exception to the Ahsoka saber – but how hard is it to take 3D rendering files and produce physical items). Not only that, their X-Wing’s are said to be defective and inaccurate, look at the forum at rebelscum.com and the RPF. Now, they’re debut product for Star Trek is something that’s already been released, the Tricorder. ::cough:: Stormtrooper helmet repeat ::cough:: – how about growing a pair and releasing something new?
It doesn’t seem like they can get their grasp fully on the Star Wars license, let along 3 (Disney was just added). Here’s a company that claims to be different from Master Replicas, yet they’re ending up with all the same licenses and doing nothing but defending their actions and trying very hard to set themselves apart. Still looks like the same company, with all the signs of the same problems. Maybe they can design a ship that doesn’t have sticky nacelles and a crappy paint job this time, after all – they were made by the “same” people, whether or not they claim to be apart.
They still have a lot to prove, but I doubt they’ll be coming out with anything truly mind-blowing any time soon. Keep an eye on QMX, their ideas for production seem almost revolutionary in comparison to what’s already been done in this business.
RE: Plastic Tricorder with LED lights
This would’ve been nice when I was 13 or so, back in the 1990s.
Now I’m a grownup. I’ve gone through 4 iPhones already.. this stuff no longer excites me. Zzz
Yeah, I agree with #4. When will we get a communicator style mobile phone? Why do some cool and innovative things with the Star Trek license rather than plastic toys.
Oh yeah, while I’m at it, why are Star Trek toys such pap, especially when compared to the Star Wars toys?
#5: Cuz people buy ’em anyway.
You know, I’m almost lazy enough to pay $250 for a nice NX-01. It can live with my ERTL 1701 I glued together when I was 10.
For that amount of money, I want a tricorder that actually works!
#35
yeah, but they could put in something simple like a barometer, or a clock. A little LED screen……anything! It is too much money for a peice of moulded plastic goddamit.
Lego Star Trek, that would be cool.
#8 re/Lego Star Trek
I could be wrong but I think MegaBloks has the Trek license and just never did anything with it. I can recall seeing a MegaBloks 1701-D (with little Picard figure) for ages @ TRU.
Yup; confirmed:
http://www.amazon.com/Mega-Bloks-Star-Trek-Enterprise/dp/B0000E3BTX
This looks good, but sorry, I prefer affordable Art Asylum stuff.
I have the Megabloks Ent D….still in the box 4 years later….that’s the only thing they ended up producing….maybe one day I’ll take it out and build it
I own quite a few Master Replicas props from both Star Wars and Star Trek and my experiences with their products were uniformly positive. When they were on their game I found their products to be very well made and quite imaginative. The Art Asylum toys are nice (and I own a few myself) but there’s no comparing them to MR’s past releases.
If eFX can approach the quality of MR’s better replicas I’ll definitely pick up a some of their items; the TWOK phaser in particular would be a no brainer for me. I also wouldn’t mind seeing a replica of the TOS Klingon Ship or the K’Tinga from ST:TMP.
As to the prices listed, those are MSRP; I don’t think I ever paid list for an MR replica; a little digging around and I was always able to save a few bucks.
I’m still waiting for the D7 battle cruiser from TOS, I’ll buy that one. Everyone keeps skipping that over and remaking the same ships.
I don’t think this is worth much. These people are people who left Master Replicas before it sank, and I’m not seeing much improvement. MR’s final replicas were lackluster at best, such as the “Build your own” FX lightsaber that consisted of plastic parts, a Yoda-sized blade, and generally was held together in about the same fashion as the hasbro toys.
Now, while what I saw of the MR Tricorder looked nice, the Assault Phaser was far more intriguing, and from what I understand, it was half-assed like nobody’s business. This doesn’t inspire confidence, no.
What ever happened to the Blue Tooth TOS Communicator for my phone?
I like the ST:TMP Klingon Battle-cruiser It would fit in nice with the TNG Enterprise hanging above my desk at home with a DSN Space station in the corner of the room. Both were built by a friend who now builds models for NASA. My brother who works for Lockheed Martian doing electrical for the Orion Launcher (namely the command capsule) talked to him last month. He is a big Trekkie also and really liked the new movie, but NASA only wants him doing NASA stuff at work and at home.
If the Klingon D7 is at a good price I’ll by him one also, have a Klingon raiding the NASA stuff will look cool. It would be great if he could sneak the ship in the background of NASA photos.
My brother also said that NASA uses old cameras for preview pics and the hi-rez digital for final in house pictures. Guess the already digital pics are easy to merge into the papers they design for the printer guys to use to give the government.
Wonder if they will blue tooth the TNG COM badges to hook to your cell phones.
Those COM badges look so much better to use than dragging out the ever smaller growing cell phones. One day the phone might get as small as the COM badges. But the power sources need to shrink also or every hour you’ll be swapping battery cells.
Now if the tricorder actually worked (ability to scan things, etc.) then $350 would be worth it. I still have the playmates toy from ages ago that does the same thing this one does so I’ll pass.
$350 is too expensive, I doubt everyone who wants one will be able to get one at that price. It’d be a nice collector piece, but i’m not paying $350 for a Tricorder to sit on my shelf.
Seems to me, if they are intent on doing a large 28″ Klingon ship replica, it should be the TOS Klingon cruiser rather than the TNG ship. While the TNG design is cool, the classic TOS Klingon ship would clearly sell better. Not to mention it would be a great companion piece to the MR TOS Enterprise that many collectors already own. The decision to bypass the original design and go straight to the newer, less popular, design is a bit puzzling.
On a personal note, I hope they do the aluminum phasers from the new Trek movie. I’d be all over that!
For me, (while I never got one), the biggest ommission with the MR Mark IX Tricorder was functionality. The clicking sound was nice as well as the lights and sound, but it seemed to me to be the ONLY MR replica that you couldn’t interact with on some level (that wasn’t a ship). Every other replica from phasers to communicators to tricorders had some sort of button-like functionality which made it slightly more interactive and prop-like.
While the argument could be made that the props on the show only had the lights and absolutely NO interactivity, I think we’re all in agreement here that for what we’re expected to pay, we’d like to have more than a hunk a plastic with light and sound (which generally, DST issues for much less money somewhere down the line).
@19 – I have to agree. I’m a big TNG fan but the original Klingon battlecruiser design is a CLASSIC and should come before the 24th century version. I would actually prefer the detailed TMP version which has to be one of my favorite ship designs.
I look forward to the smaller ship verisons. I’m less interested in dishing out that much money for props, even if they are well done.
I am curious about the “Precision Cast” replicas” that were mentioned. It would be interesting to see how much of the lighting effects from the TOS Enterprise make it to a smaller version that would cost nearly $1,000 less. I have always thought there would be a market for something that was between the MR $1,200 ship and AA/DST’s $40 job. And I like AA/DST’s ships. For what they cost, they are pretty decent. But they just don’t compare to the high end replicas.
I would love a tricorder that is merged with an I-touch kind of thing so it can record and display video, pics, audio, MP3, etc. It would also be cool to have some actual instruments like barometers, thermmometer, etc.
I have seen some homemade versions like these, and I know one was released like 15 years ago that had some actual sensors on it, but IDK.
Nice to hear. MR was such a let down with this. It was such a headache, now finally a good chance at a quality replica. Can’t wait to pre-order!
The funny thing is an iPhone or most other modern smartphones now look more high-tech than this…
That new Mark IX tri-corder best work better than tha’ last one I had!
I wuz’ workin’ in a nuclear sub at tha’ time and relied on me previous tri-corder ta’ show me ra-diation levels as I scrubbed oot’ tha’ reactor room… Bloody thing kept sayin’ like “All readings are normal.” and “Mego Rules.”
It wuz’ a liar! Readin’s were oof tha’ charrrrts! And Mego stinks!
Grew me a third arm becuz’ o’ unwanted atomic exposure… and not a big, full one either…
Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…
26
Ha ha, agreed. This now looks about as old and clunky as the TOS tricorder. All those flashing LEDs used to be cool and kind of magical; now they look like the meaningless lights they really are.
It doesn’t even come CLOSE to the awesome interactive touchscreen today’s devices have.
Why can’t they do an 18″ gold-colored desktop model of the Stargazer?
I’m pretty sure the models used in television only cost about $20.
I had no idea Master Replicas went belly up?!
I own the TOS Klingon Disruptor, Enterprise, Comm./Phaser/Tric.
My Phaser pistol has begun to get flakey on it’s trigger enaging sound/lighted tip. Maybe a battery issue, but phaser II unit works fine.
Why the later TNG/DS9 Klingon ship, and not the battlecruiser or BOP?
The TNG Tricorder 350.00+ the added cost of the acrylic case? WTF?
I know to steer clear of this company!
The TOS tricorder is stil da bomb! A beauty.
I wish I could afford the Mark IX Tricorder, I am a big fan of the TNG era Tricorders
I’d really like to see a Bluetooth TOS Communicator. Partner that with my bluetooth phone and I’d be styln’ Trek!
These replicas are nice, but I prefer the models I can put together myself.
They’re not 100% perfect, but they feel more like they’re mine when they’re done, if that makes any sense. :)
Since when does affordable require a payment plan?
Yes, I too don’t understand why a cell phone that looks like TOS communicator is still unavailable. The moire could be animated on the display screen and like some of the new Blackberry phones, it could have a slide out qwerty keyboard from behind. This is hardly 23rd century technology.
I must agree with the cobcept of workable props. Ex. A cell ph. That looks like commnicter. A tricorder as a coice recorder. If they are going tocharge an arm & leg make it funtional
I have emailing with Mr Ono and he stated the Tricorder will be made out of die cast no news if it comes with different sounds. I have one of the MR Tricorders talk about heavy. If you want a true Tricorder try Roddenberry.com. Now that’s pricy $800 for a science tricorder and $1000 for a medical so this isn’t so bad..
What I really want is a studdio scale TMP Enterprise. I hope these guys are the ones that can deliver it.
I have the MR Enterprise from the latest production which I like, but the refit Enterprise has always been the one I’m really after. We’ll have to wait and see.
TMP Klingon Cruiser would be nice too.
Oh that tricorder sucks !
i found this one youtube last week and it’s the best dam thing i’ve seen for a Playmates tricorder upgrade yet !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSwGxN-0rYw
Check out all his Tricorder videos & HELP me figure out what mp4 device he’s useing !
– OOP
#41
O freaking hell yes!! I am buying one of these now! To heck with all those other tricorders. This one looks like it ROCKS!!
So much disinformation from the uninformed…just to cover a few ‘misconceptions’ stated here by posters.
1. The tricorder was never fully released by MR. VERY few made it out. EFX is doing this run because a lot of people were really looking forward to it and MR dropped the ball. I for one am glad to see EFX doing this for those that lost out on MRs inability to deliver.
2. Its not plastic. The tricorder is metal (for good or bad) and incorporates several improvements over the MR release.
3. Price. Wow. $350. Head over to Rodenberry.com and fork out a grand for a prebuilt tricorder with less features.
4. The Assault Phaser. Probably one of the MOST accurate releases ever done but shot down by ignorant people who complained about features such as the ‘dusty finish’ which WAS on the originals ( I know as I owned one).
And back to price. Im so tired of people whining and downing things because they cant afford them. Thats called sour grapes. Id love to own a sports car but I drive a Mazda Protege because I cant afford a 50K sports car. Do I go around grumbling about how sports cars suck because I cant afford them? No. Thats why these are COLLECTIBLES and not TOYS and YES a payment plan DOES make something afforadble to a lot of people. Some of you folks dumbfound me. EFX is offering a collectible that a LOT of people wanted but got screwed out of by MR for $50 cheaper WITH Brent Spiners autograph and an improved FX package and you still bitch and moan. Tell you what…Toys R Us is still open so why dont you hop on your bicycles and head on over there…..
Me third arm fell oof…
That bleedin’ tri-corder didda not warn me!!!
Why tha’ frangy hell be it called a “tri-corder?” Cute 60’s name?
Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…
@44: Because “recorder” is a flute, and “bi-corder” would just give people naughty ideas…
Oh… I see…
Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…
32
Agreed. I love it.
And while we’re on the subject of making props I’ll roll out my stock question on this topic….where’s that servo prop?
I got a servo prop….
Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…
Just ordered my tricorder. First 250 to order get a free tricorder holster to go with it. They still havent hit the 250 mark as of moments ago because the website is all sorts of wonky so I called and ordered by phone.
Well… I got mine!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdlcBK48STw
Here is a link to a video of the Tricorder, it doesnt seem to play on the eFX website.