Today Hero Collector released the fifth in its series of illustrated Star Trek Shipyards series. This first of two volumes primarily featuring ships from Star Trek: Voyager takes a deep dive into the Delta Quadrant, with a particularly close look at the Borg. And we have a preview
From Akritirian to Krenim
In addition to their popular line of die-cast model ships, Eaglemoss Hero Collector has made it their goal to catalog every ship that has ever appeared in Star Trek in book form. According to Eaglemoss chief Ben Robinson, moving the Shipyards series into the Star Trek: Voyager era means there are more ships to catalog because this is also the era of CG. “This is the point in Trek’s history where ships stop being a rarity and instead you get a new one every other week. There were so many ships that we had to split it into two volumes. This is the beginning of the golden age for ships, and it shows. There are so many really inventive designs,” says Robinson.
Sample pages from Star Trek Shipyards: The Borg and the Delta Quadrant Vol. 1
Robinson also explains how they keep each Shipyards book visually rich: “If we’re talking about what makes this series of books special, then it’s got to be how visually rich they are. Hero Collector’s Shipyards books have detailed pictures of all the ships, and almost all the time we’re using the original VFX files, so you can see exactly what appeared on screen in unprecedented detail. It’s one of those things you absolutely think should have existed before.”
Written by veteran Star Trek authors Marcus Riley, Ian Chaddock, and Mark Wright, this encyclopedia of Delta Quadrant vessels kicks off with the Borg, including the Borg Cube and Sphere, the Borg Queen’s Ship, the Renegade Borg Vessel and the Borg Tactical Cube.
Sample pages from Star Trek Shipyards: The Borg and the Delta Quadrant Vol. 1
Beyond the Borg vessels, the book offers detailed views of 35-plus ships operated by the various species Captain Janeway and the U.S.S. Voyager crew encountered during their adventures in the Delta Quadrant, spanning from A (the Akritirian patrol ship) to K (the Krenim warship). According to Robinson, there are lots of details they reveal that were easy to miss when you watch the show. For example, the Hierarchy and the Caatati had two different ship designs, even though they look quite similar on screen.
Sample pages from Star Trek Shipyards: The Borg and the Delta Quadrant Vol. 1
Robinson pointed to the Hirogen ships as a personal highlight and example of how they put these books together, explaining, “I’d forgotten how many of them there are. One of the most interesting things is seeing how ships got adapted and reused for different races. You can see exactly what was done to make them different. One of the big things about doing this book was that we had to make a spreadsheet that listed every ship ever — which is actually what we at Hero Collector called the document — and work out if it was CG or a practical model. Then we had to make sure we had the assets so we could produce all those renders. That’s quite a mind-bending exercise, but it is a VERY useful document for us to have.”
Sample pages from Star Trek Shipyards: The Borg and the Delta Quadrant Vol. 1
Volume 1 Available today, Volume 2 in July
Star Trek Shipyards: The Borg and the Delta Quadrant Vol. 1 was released today in hardcover. You can pick it up discounted at Amazon for $28.46.
Star Trek Shipyards: The Delta Quadrant Vol. 2 – Ledosian to Zahl will be released on July 6th. You can pre-order it from Amazon. Highlights from this volume inlclude Species 8472 and the Voth and the Vaaduar.
Keep up with all the Star Trek books and merchandise news and reviews at TrekMovie.com.
I have a feeling we are going to be seeing some of these ships (and species) again when Prodigy shows up this year! Can’t wait!! :)
And great point about CGI ships and why we saw so many new ones. I’m rewatching TNG right now and recently finished the first two seasons. One of the things rewatching it is that there were NO new ships in either season when you don’t count the E-D and (I think) the Stargazer model. But all the ships they showed were from the TOS movies. For some reason I always thought there were at least a few new ships. But practically everything is recycled, at least the early seasons.
But yes thinking about Voyager, they had tons of new ships every week including other Starfleet ships like the Dauntless or Prometheus. We even got a ton of new Borg ships as the book obviously shows. Star Trek would probably feel a lot smaller like it did in TOS or the early TNG days if it wasn’t for CGI. That’s how we got all those big battle scenes in DS9. That’s clearly when CGI was coming into it’s own on television.
All I can think of in early TNG was the Ferengi and the Romulan warbird.
True, forgot about the Ferengi and Romulan ships, thank you!
You both missed a few; most of them were one-off aliens or generic freighters, but the Borg cube was introduced in season 2.
1×05 The Last Outpost – Ferengi Marauder
1×08 Justice – the Edo god-ship
1×09 The Battle – Constellation-class U.S.S. Stargazer
1×11 Haven – Tarellian ship (blue with shimmery orb)
1×19 Coming of Age – Type 7 shuttlecraft (the rounded one)
1×22 Symbiosis – Delos System (Ornara-Brekka) felicium freighter “Sanction”
1×26 The Neutral Zone – Romulan D’Deridex-class warbird
2×04 The Outrageous Okona – redress of the Delos freighter
2×16 Q Who – Borg cube
2×17 Samaritan Snare – triangular Pakled ship
The Hirogen are hunters. They look for prey to hunt. Because they are hunters.
Ben Robinson continuing to milk his customers with these low effort information ports. Looking forward to his “Borg and the Delta Quadrant Part 2” in a few months time.
EDIT: Wow. I didn’t even read the full story, he already DID split it up into two parts, haha, brilliant. You can’t make it up.
I’m just looking forward to the Galaxy Quest book coming in June……but of course,that’s not Ben,lol.
i really must needs say, when i first see the borg on st:tng here in estonia, i am very scare, i get so frighten!
how horrendous for picard to go through such strange, bizarre, terrible and unnatural transformation into locutus
being turn into a borg still make me have horror thoughts!