Campaign Launched To Restore Star Trek Wax Figures For Part Of New Exhibition

A new campaign has been launched to bring the Movieland Star Trek wax figures back to life, plus we have a couple of celebrated Trek vets giving video tours of some Star Trek-related exhibitions.

Drexler Tours Star Trek exhibits for Sci-Fi Museum – Tour starts late 2017

Back in 2012 and 2013, Star Trek fan and collector Huston Huddleston launched a crowdfunding campaign to restore a replica of the bridge set of the USS Enterprise D from Star Trek: The Next Generation. He had recovered all the components of the set which had been discarded by the defunct “Star Trek: The Experience” Las Vegas attraction and a separate touring Star Trek exhibition. The plan was to raise $250,000 to bring a complete set back up to show condition and to display it for fans to enjoy. The campaign came up short, bringing in just $68,000, but Huston pressed on, seeking corporate and foundation donations as well as expanding the project into what has become the planned Hollywood Science Fiction Museum. The HSFM will have original props, models and replicas from Star Trek, Star Wars, Alien, Blade Runner and much more. The goal is to have a permanent museum open by 2022.

Restored Enterprise D set replica to go on tour with Hollywood Science Fiction Museum exhibition

For this bigger effort, the HSFM has been set up as a non-profit, and also brought on board a number of Star Trek vets including Dan Curry, Doug Drexler, David Gerrold, Ronald D. Moore and Andrew Probert to sit on the board. In the past few years, work on restoring the bridge has continued and components have been shown at various conventions including the Star Trek Las Vegas convention and San Diego Comic Con. Huddleston tells TrekMovie the Enterprise D bridge will be fully restored and ready to be part of an exhibition tour of props and replicas from the planned museum, which begins at the end of the year and will run for a number of years. There will actually be two tours, one in North America (starting in Los Angeles) and one internationally (starting in Germany). The museum recently released a video of Doug Drexler showing off just a few of the other original Star Trek: The Next Generation props and model pieces that will be part of the planned tour and museum:

Campaign to fund restoring the Star Trek Movieland Wax Figures

Also planned as part of the museum and upcoming tour will be a replica of the original series Star Trek bridge that was displayed at the Movieland Wax Museum in Buena Park, CA, until it closed in 2005. The set and the wax figures were recently donated to HSFM. While they have been held in climate-controlled storage and are in pretty good condition, they could use some restoring, especially regarding the makeup and hair. This work will be overseen by Emmy-winning makeup designer Greg Nicotero, best know for his work on The Walking Dead. Nicotero is a big Trek fan and a board member of the HSFM. In order to get the figures ready for the tour, they are launching a new crowdfunding campaign at Kickstarter, hoping to raise $14,200. There are various rewards, ranging from things like T-shirts and to a party. The video below goes into more detail on the figures and the campaign:

Part of the Movieland bridge as well as the Spock wax figure will be on display at the Wondercon in Anaheim, which kicks off at the end of this month. For more about the museum and tour visit hollywoodscifi.org or their page on Facebook.

Michael Westmore tours his ‘Lifeforms’ Exhibit at UCSB

Also of interest to Star Trek fans is the Art, Design & Architecture Museum at UC Santa Barbara, which has recently opened a special exhibit of items from Emmy-winning makeup artist and Star Trek legend Michael Westmore, titled “Lifeforms: The Makeup Art of Michael Westmore.” The exhibit features sketches, masks and prosthetics from Westmore’s career with Star Trek and beyond. Our friend Larry “Dr. Trek” Nemecek got Westmore to give a video tour of the exhibition for his Trekland site, which you can view right here:

The Westmore exhibit will run through April 30th. On April 22nd, Michael Westmore will be holding an event to sign his recent memoir “Makeup Man: From Rocky to Star Trek The Amazing Creations of Hollywood’s Michael Westmore.” More information about the exhibit and events at museum.ucsb.edu.