Gentle Giant’s booth at San Diego Comic-Con shows off the remarkable craftsmanship of their upcoming Star Trek: Discovery products.
Saru SDCC exclusive bust
First up is a bust of Discovery’s first officer, Saru. Hand-cast and hand-painted, the 1/6 scale bust is a limited edition, hand-numbered Comic Con exclusive, and comes with a certificate of authenticity.
New reveal: Burnham and Torchbearer statues
Next are the Michael Burnham and Torchbearer statues, which depict the battle seen in Discovery‘s premiere. They are cast with resin and built to 1/4 scale. No word yet on price, but they should be available in early 2019. The impressively detailed Torchbearer was also shown at last year’s Comic-Con.
New reveal: Klingon torchbearer knife replica
A resin-cast, full-sized replica of the Torchbearer’s boot knife (which can also be seen on the statue above) will be arriving in 2019. Price TBD.
New reveal: Discovery bookends
There are also Federation/Klingon bookends, which are cast from poly resin and will also be coming in early 2019. Pricing hasn’t been locked in yet, but they’re likely to be $59.99-$64.99 each.
TrekMovie at SDCC
SDCC is just getting started. We have more news from preview night coming, plus coverage of all the exciting Star Trek-related events and panels.
Previous SDCC 2018 articles:
Ten-Forward Vodka Launches, Inspired By ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’
Anovos Shows Off $9000 ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ USS Enterprise Replica And More
Diamond Select Unveils Enterprise C Ship, Kelvin Kirk And Spock ‘Star Trek’ Figures
First Wave Of 2018 Mego Star Trek Figures Revealed
Diamond Select Unveils Enterprise C Ship And Kelvin ‘Star Trek’ Kirk And Spock Figures
Stay tuned for more Star Trek merchandise and more news from San Diego Comic-Con, and a bit of The Orville news too.
I really can’t help but wonder… who actually BUYS this rubbish?
they look pretty good actually, what rubbish>
I have no idea.
I’ll start by saying that people can spend their money however they want to. When I was young I kind of envied this kind of collecting, but priorities change, and I just can’t see it anymore as an adult. In the 1990s, I’d page through the old Another Universe catalog, admiring all the goofy “limited edition, die-cast/resin yada-yada-yada with certificate of authenticity” things for sale. I can’t imagine anyone picking up a Saru bust or the kind of silly looking Klingon knife, even if they were under 20 dollars (which I can’t imagine they would be).
It would be an incredibly expensive hobby to collect stuff you’ll probably have to putout of sight for most of the time, unless you devoted a large amount of room to put this stuff on display in your house or apartment.
I have a small bookcase in my “man cave” that has a bunch of random geeky things from my childhood (AMT 1701 cutaway model, old 90s computer game boxes stacked artistically). Even that is a bit… much even for me these days.
I guess it’s not all that different than seeing grandma’s tacky plate collection on her wall that you hope isn’t going to be for you in her Will.
Re: grandma’s tacky plate collection: it’s exactly the same psychology. What people are starting to learn is: buy stuff that you enjoy, but don’t delude yourself that your own kids will share your interest, or that it will make a good investment vehicle. The existence of eBay increases the demand (relative to your kids or an old-fangled garage sale), but it also increases supply, and there are only so many museums looking to build collections.
(OTOH, if we ever reach a robot-powered prosperity-for-all future, maybe we’ll all need to occupy our days with curating obscure collectibles and travelling to admire them. Gee, maybe that’s what most of Earth’s 24cen non-Starfleet population does.)
Lots of people actually. And that’s not me being snarky, just giving an actual answer…
There’s been a recent trend in bust-type merchandise for SF characters (Transformers, Trek) that I don’t understand. I can understand the appeal of a statuette of the full character; or an articulated figure that you can pose; but a partial character, on a garish base?
“Who buys it?” and “Who makes it?” might make an interesting anthropology thesis. How many people gravitate towards a character vs. a generic subject (everything pig-related) vs. a certain style (painted plates, chibi miniatures, head-mugs, etc.)? Who are the commercial artists? This is just the latest manifestation of Royal Doulton figurines, Franklin Mint, and a gotta-catch-’em-all mindset.
Finally, I can relive the magic of THE VULCAN BONJOUR without having to load Chinese Netflix.
I understand making things look good for HD video, but Disco ships and armor strike me as things an engineer or warrior would reject as way too complicated and fragile.
I would offer that overall, the ships look pretty terrible in any format, imo. One of the big disappointments for me thus far.