Last week we reported on two San Diego Comic Con 2017 Star Trek exclusives: The Diamond Select “Final Flight” U.S.S. Enterprise and a Bif Bang Pow! U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D Monitor Mate. This week we have news on two more SDCC exclusives: another one from Bif Bang Pow! plus an ornament from Hallmark. We also have news of a new replica from QMx, the Star Trek Adventures RPG going on pre-order, and the latest Star Trek items to show up at Think Geek and Entertainment Earth.
Bif Bang Pow! Talking Spock Bobble Head SDCC exclusive announced
Bif Bang Pow! have yet another Star Trek bobblehead as a Comic Con exclusive this year, and it talks. The limited edition Star Trek: TOS Talking Spock Bobble Head is 6 1/4-inches tall and includes six classic phrases from Leonard Nimoy’s original Spock. It is priced at $24.99 and will be first sold at San Diego Comic-Con 2017 at the Entertainment Earth Booth #2343. You can also pre-order one from Entertainment Earth and if supplies remain after the show, your order will be filled and shipped to you in August.
Hallmark SDCC (and STLV) battle-damaged Enterprise-C exclusive
Another SDCC Star Trek excluisve is the U.S.S. Enterprise™ NCC-1701-C Keepsake Ornament from Hallmark. This ornament comes straight out of the classic Star Trek: The Next Generation episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise” and depicts the iconic starship with a battle-damage paint scheme as it appeared on screen. This repaint of a 2015 Keepsake Ornament has a total production run of 3,325 and sales will be limited to 225 per day during SDCC. In a first for Hallmark, they will also be selling the ornament at the Official 2017 Star Trek Convention, scheduled Aug. 2-6 at the Rio Suites Hotel in Las Vegas, with 100 available each day.
QMx Captain Kirk chair announced
Also announced this week is a 1:6 Scale Captain’s Chair FX Replica from Quantum Mechanix. Based on the iconic chair from the U.S.S. Enterprise from the original Star Trek, the captain’s chair is designed for the QMx line of 1:6 scale collectible figures in mind. It features multiple light and sound configurations, and a swivel base just like the full-size prop. It measures 8 inches in height and retails for $129.95. It should be out by the third quarter of 2017 and you can pre-order it now at Entertainment Earth.
Star Trek Shop Pride shirts available now
Just in time for Pride Month, the official Star Trek Shop has three new rainbow-themed tees available in various colors and sizes. They are available now and priced at $24.95.
Star Trek Adventures RPG available for pre-order
Exciting news for fans of role playing games: the highly-anticipated “Star Trek Adventures” game is set to launch in August. UK-based game-maker Modiphius is now taking pre-orders for the various components including th rulebook, Star Trek-themed dice, screens, maps and of course various figures. There is even a limited edition box set shaped like a Borg cube. More details can be found at modiphius.netink.
New at ThinkGeek: Klingon polo
The fine folks at ThinkGeek have a new Star Trek item that is ideal for the casual warrior: the Klingon polo shirt. This 100% cotton 3-button pique knit shirt comes an a range of sizes and any color you want as long as it is black. (Convenient for hiding bloodwine stains, according to ThinkGeek.) Of course it comes emblazoned with the Klingon insignia to let the world know who you are all about. Available now at ThinkGeek for $29.99.
New at Entertainment Earth: Coop Star Trek notebooks
If you want to add some fun to your note-taking, then check out this new new Star Trek School Folder Notebook from Coop. The 8 1/2 by 11-inch notebooks have 200 pages and are available now for $14.99. (And check out Riker in his anbo-jyutsu outfit!)
Also available now is the Coop Star Trek Uniforms and Equipment Hardcover Notebook, also priced at Entertainment Earth for $14.99.
Keep up with all the Star Trek merchandise news at TrekMovie.
The Hallmark item is not a con EXCLUSIVE,it’s also available at NYCC in October by the way. And I’ve said it elsewhere online numerous times,the second they are available outside of the con,and I don’t include ebay scalping here,they are NOT con exclusives anymore. Logic dictates that a con exclusive is something ONLY available at the con. Plain and simple really. It’s a cool item though and I might even get it while at the con.
The Hallmark ornaments are a convention exclusive, as they’ve only announced it being available at SDCC, NYCC, and STLV, which are all conventions. In previous years, I’ve never seen Hallmark convention exclusives available anywhere besides conventions.
They’re not con exclusives when Hallmark offer them online after the con,like they did last year. They’re cool con items though,but in no way,shape,or form exclusives. Had they been ONLY available at the three cons THEN they’d be exclusives. And it’s not just Hallmark doing this these days,a lot of companies let you pre-order online or have them for sale online after the con. So no,not exclusives,just con items.
I bought one of the Trek Pride shirts (the black TOS one), and people who are considering purchasing it should know that the colors in the Starfleet arrowhead are nowhere near as bright and saturated as they look in the picture. I’d still rather have the shirt than not have it, but the colors are kinda faded and washed out, and that’s NOT what I thought I was buying.
Still, it’s the message that counts, right?
The message is contained in the rainbow colors … which aren’t as visible as the promo pictures make them seem. So it’s all tied together. ;-)
What’s it with that “blue” in the paint job of those models, anyway? That always bothered me, even 20 years ago, as it looks nothing like the originals in the shows/movies :-(
Prior to sculpting the original pattern for the Enterprise-C Hallmark ornament, I received numerous photographs from CBS/Paramount of the studio model that was constructed for filming “Yesterday’s Enterprise.” Graphic patterns on the primary hull and warp engines were indeed painted pale blue. The on-screen images were rather darkly lighted and I agree that the blue coloration was not apparent when viewed on TV or DVD recordings. Check out the photograph of the filming model that was sold in the Christie’s auction (2006) and you’ll see the very prominent blue colorations. The engine support pylons had been shortened and it was marked as the USS Yamaguchi NCC-26510 for subsequent TNG episodes but it’s still an Ambassador Class starship and the colors are identical to the original model.
This has been one of my pet-peeves for a while as well. Models and reproductions often feature the paint job of the filming models rather than what is depicted in the films. Actors wear makeup and lighting is controlled to give a particular look on screen, so too filming miniatures are given paint jobs that are required so that they photograph the way they are supposed to appear. Even in settings where these ships are shown in full light (say, in space dock) they do not show the color and contrast of the filming models.
That means that models that reproduce the filming miniature color scheme are reproductions of the filming models rather than models of the ships depicted on screen.
That’s always kind of a double-edged sword, though. Unless someone were to ask the designer and ship builder directly, we’ll never know if the paint scheme on the model was the artist’s true vision, or if he actually oversaturated hoping it would come out less pronounced on the screen.
We definitely do know that there are details that were included on many ship designs that never came through on-screen, not due to the artist trying to oversaturate a model, but rather due to the limitations of the filming and transfer processes used at the time. For example, look at the images of DS9 from the original broadcasts (what you would see on the DVDs or Netflix)compared to the beautifully restored images we are lucky enough to have for the few episodes where DS9 appeared in TNG. There are wonderful coloring details, including prominent yellow striping, that appear on the restored images that really enhance the station that were not visible (or barely visible) in the original broadcast. In this case, we can assume that the model builders wanted those details visible, but limitations in filming at the time washed them out.
So, we’ll never know for sure what the artistic vision was, unless Probert or Sternbach happen to stop by this site…
I hear you. While they were still accessible, the licensor often sent Hallmark PMS color selections from the actual filming-models to use as guides for rendering ornament prototypes. The models were quite large and it was always a contentious subject because (as all scale modelers know) one has to add white pigment to all colors to make them appear correct on a model that’s smaller than the original. The smaller the scale, the more white pigment has to be added. That’s little consolation for this conversation but in my experience, images and color chips taken from the filming-models were always presented by the licensor as the standard of comparison for ornament development.
Mr.Norton-you do amazing work! I have a lot of the orny’s you’ve worked on and absolutely love them! The Hallmark booth at Comic-Con and NYCC is always fun and I love seeing my friend Kevin again. Kurt is cool too. I hope you keep making orny’s for many years to come. Keep up the excellent work that you do,and keep Trekkin’!