Ho, ho, ho, honor for all, when Klingon Santa makes his call

Rura Penthe, the real home of Santa?

Deck your tree with your Hallmark starships, and don your Santa-Spock hat, for there is a new Star Trek Christmas product on the way, and it's got to be one of the strangest sounding Star Trek books there has ever been. Here's the blurb for, A Very Klingon Khristmas:

A hilarious, illustrated holiday gift book that celebrates the rich Klingon Christmas traditions—perfect for Star Trek fans everywhere.

A Very Klingon Khristmas recounts, in rhyming verse, the treasured children’s story of the birth of revered warrior Kahless and celebrates the rich Klingon Christmas traditions originating on Qo'noS and spreading across the Star Trek universe.

This hilarious parody from acclaimed book packager becker&mayer! firmly plants Klingons at the center of the Christmas story—where they rightly should be—and includes everything from a Santa equipped with retractable claws, Tribbles in the stockings of naughty Klingon boys and girls, and the warmth of a hot cup of mulled blood wine. Illustrated in a nostalgiac Norman Rockwell–inspired style, A Very Klingon Khristmas is the perfect holiday gift for every Star Trek fan.

Pre-order: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es, Amazon.it, Amazon.co.jp.

Sounds fun! This comes from Paul Ruditis, author of, among other things, the recent Star Trek: The Visual Dictionary. The illustrations come from Patrick Faricy, who seems to have quite a realistic classic style; you can get a feel for his work on his website, or browsing the look-inside previews of his books on Amazon.

Thanks to UnrealitySF's Jens Deffner, who pointed this one out to me. That book is coming from Simon and Schuster's Gallery Books, although it was put together by Becker and Mayer, who's brought us many of the more creative recent Trek books (everything from Stuck on Star Trek to Federation: The First 150 Years)

The following comes from another quirky publisher, Chronicle Books (who's most recent Trek book was another curious take on the Klingons, How to Speak Klingon). Their next Trek outing is the amusingly named Spock in a Box. Alas it's not Spock ready to spring out at you, but a small bust, with an accompanying book of Spockness. Here's the cover and blurb for this one:

In the Star Trek universe, the U.S.S. Enterprise's chief science officer Mr. Spock personifies taking a logical approach to life's problems. This one-of-a-kind set encourages fans to tap into their inner Vulcan and take inspiration from Spock's cool, calm demeanor. Including a unique hand painted bust, a display stand, and a booklet filled with philosophical quotes and images of Spock in action, this set is ready to be displayed at the office, on the mantle, on a starship bridge, or anywhere else rational thought and tidings of prosperity might come in handy.

Pre-order: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es, Amazon.it, Amazon.co.jp, Forbidden Planet.

Both A Very Klingon Khristmas, and Spock in a Box are expected in October.

Details of new Star Trek bobble-heads

At the Toy Fair in February, Bif Bang Pow had a mock-up on display of their planned TNG bridge crew bobble head series. Now Entertainment Earth had added listings, still using mock-up images, giving us the first details of this collection. Here's their description, which details how the entire bridge will be delivered over several months:

This very special series of 8 Star Trek Build-a-Bridge Deluxe Bobble Heads connect together to form the bridge of the USS Enterprise! Made of resin, each stands about 7-inches tall, including the base piece, and bears a remarkable likeness to the actor who played the part in the Next Generation TV show. A new bobble in the series will be introduced by Bif Bang Pow! each month for eight months. Don't miss a single one!

The first in the series, Wesley Crusher, will apparently be an Entertainment Earth/Comic Convention exclusive. That's due in July, followed by Riker, LaForge, and Worf. There aren't listings up yet for the rest, but they will of course be Picard, Data, Troi, and Crusher.

Also listed on Entertainment Earth are three TOS bobble heads, Kirk, Spock, and Khan, all based on The Wrath of Khan, are all expected in August.

New Into Darkness trailer and print

TrekMovie has released another TV trailer for Star Trek Into Darkness, including yet more new footage. Have a watch:



Meanwhile, IMAX have launched a new loyalty scheme, FANFIX, which will reward viewers of the earliest screenings of new IMAX films with exclusive prints. They're kicking it off with a Star Trek Into Darkness print from Mark Englert. If you attend the first IMAX screenings of Into Darkness, you'll get this (high-res version via TrekMovie):

Redemption bluray details

StarTrek.com have announced the details of the stand-alone bluray release of the TNG two-parter Redemption. Like TNG season three and The Best of Bother Worlds, this release will come alongside season four, and offers some unique extra features on top of the feature-length edit of the episode. Those extras will include:

...audio commentaries from writer-producer Ronald D. Moore and visual effects artists Mike and Denise Okuda, as well as an exclusive documentary called “Survive and Succeed: An Empire at War.” In it, all-new interviews with Moore, Michael Dorn, Robert O’Reilly and Gwynyth Walsh shed light on the Klingons and their evolution/mythology as explored on TNG.

Season four and Redemption are out in July, here is the cover for the latter:

Harrison drops a subtle massive hint about who he is in new Into Darkness clip

Paramount have released a third clip from Star Trek Into Darkness (see previous two here, and here). This time we are treated to a chat between Harrison and Kirk, while the former is in the Enterprise's brig:



I was rather hoping it wouldn't be the case, but unless we're being misdirected again, the number seventy-two has a significance that would seem to tell us something about Harrison's background. StarTrek.com's datafile on a certain ship will tell you what could be a massive spoiler.

Latest little ships

Amazon have updated their listing for Running Press' second Star Trek mini kit, model and book release (following from their phaser book and model, which has just come out). The Light-Up Starship Enterprise will be out in September, and looks like this:

In other little ship news, Eaglemoss have emailed early subscribers to Star Trek: The Official Starship Collection, to let them know a new factory has been found to make the model ships for this new part-work magazine. So after several months delay, the magazine will be launching in August. Advanced subscribers will be getting an extra A4 poster when the series gets going again. For more on this, see my previous articles: here, here, here, and here.

If the above ships aren't little enough for you, then perhaps Neca's latest Star Trek miniatures game is more your thing. Coming in August is Attack Wing, and Neca have now announced details of the eight ships that will be released in the first wave of expansions. Those will be:

• Federation: USS Enterprise
• Federation: USS Reliant
• Klingon: Gr’oth
• Klingon: Negh’var
• Romulan: Valdore 
• Romulan: Apnex
• Dominion: Kraxon
• Dominion: Gor Portas

Expanded Best of Both Worlds soundtrack on the way

GNP Crescendo have announced their latest Star Trek expanded soundtrack release; coming mid-May will be a new release of Ron Jones' music from The Best of Both Worlds, timed as a companion to the new bluray release of the episodes maybe. They posted this cover artwork on Facebook:

The Best of Both Worlds is the only TNG episode other than Encounter at Farpoint to already have a stand-alone soundtrack release. A few more tracks from the two-parter were also released as part of The Ron Jones Project, a fourteen disc mammoth of a soundtrack collection dedicated to the composer. It will be interesting to see what this new collection offers in addition to those previous releases, but there are no details just yet.

Starfleet HR interviews Into Darkness cast

The cast of Star Trek Into Darkness (and J.J. Abrams) are currently busy touring the world to attend the various premieres of the film, and doing all the associated interviews, TV appearances and such, to promote it. If you sought out all these appearances things might start to get a little tedious, as the same sort of questions inevitably generate the same well practised replies. So it's nice when someone comes in and does something a bit different: That someone in this instance is the German actor/comedian Daniele Rizzo who interviewed the cast in the guise of Spocko, from Starfleet HR. Watch below for lots of funny stuff; especially enjoyable when the cast play along:



In other Into Darkness news, Russian site, Kinopoisk, has put up a gallery of stills from the film, including these new shots:

More Trek Minimates, and the latest packaging from DST

Star Trek Minimates are back this year, with the release of at least three versions of the Minimates USS Enterprise ship next month, and a new series of two-packs, Star Trek Legacy Series One, coming later in the year. In addition to the four two packs in the standard Legacy range, there will be four more sets coming exclusively to Toys'r'us, and Action Figure Insider have released the first decent images of all the figures in that range.

We have Kirk and Khan, TOS style:

Picard and Hugh the Borg:

Sisko and Dukat:

And Janeway and Seven of Nine:

They also posted images of the packaging for these:

Also relaunching this year is DST's larger Star Trek action figure range, reborn in the form of Star Trek Select; where each semi-posable figure (or figures) come with diorama base, and interchangeable parts to create different actions. DST have released photos of the packaging for the first figure in the range, Spock and the Horta:

Kirk and Khan will be following shortly after Spock, with Picard and a Borg coming later in the year.

Into Darkness round-up: More posters, trailers, adverts, and more!

Paramount have released another batch of Star Trek Into Darkness character posters. Here are Carol Marcus, a rather wet McCoy, Sulu, Scotty, and Chekov (Image sources: TrekMovie, Cambio, and Cambio):

 

 

Continue after the jump for the latest trailer, behind the scenes featurette, advert, and more!

First look at TNG Season Four blurays

With the screenings of The Best of Both Worlds tonight, and the release of that feature-length story alongside the TNG Season Three boxset imminent, CBS Home Entertainment are ready to starting drumming up interesting in the next chapter, and so have released this trailer for TNG Season Four on bluray:



TrekCore have also released the cover art for the set, which they expect to be released in July:

Additionally TrekCore report there will be a standalone feature-length release of the end of season cliffhanger, Redemption, in a similar style to The Best of Both Worlds.

In other home video news: A little while ago, I reported that the prime timeline films were being reissued in a new boxset in Germany called the Stardate Collection. It now appears that reissue is coming to the UK as well, although the UK version is on bluray, while the German is on DVD. The UK version uses the same basic artwork, but in blue and white colours, rather than red and black:

 

Back in German, Amazon.de have recently added listings for even more re-issues, this time in the form of half-season DVD boxsets for TOS, TNG, and Enterprise. All are expected in June.

Who let the Ferengi into the Star Trek licensing department?

I sense extra-terrestrial influence of the larger eared variety in some of the latest Star Trek stuff. Checks in the Mail have announced a new range of novelty Star Trek checks, check-book holders, and address labels. They have four different series, based on TOS, Captains, ships, and some lovely bright QUOGs designs:

The address labels and covers aren't offered for the TOS designs, but the other three series all get them:

Meanwhile, a Ferengi embassy would appear to have opened in North Carolina, where you can now play a new Star Trek scratch card lottery, with a card design fro each prime series, letting you win cash and tickets to a Star trek convention.

Star Trek gambling is online too! With the nuTrek game, Against All Odds, which includes three different types of game play, a slot-mahcine style round, an arcade game like battle between the Enterprise and the Narada, and then, quite innovatively, the use of the Enterprise's deflector as a spinning game! Here's a video showing all three:

Concept art and mind meld video from Star Trek: The Video Game

The LA Times has released a video from Star Trek: The Video Game (which is out now!), in which Spock mind melds with a Gorn:

Concept artist Fernando Acosta has also posted loads more art from the game on his website. Here are some character designs, including Kirk's cool forcefield wingsuit:

 

 

Lots more scenery and equipment after the jump:

Harrison peers into the mind of Spock in latest trailer

Yahoo have released a second viral style trailer for Star Trek Into Darkness. Like the first, it features John Harrison's dark and creepy narration; this time dissecting Spock's character:



Elsewhere promoting the film, check out this huge billboard version of the domestic poster:

You can see a few more variations of this poster on the Daily Billboard Blog.

New footage in Japanese trailers, plus new posters

TrekMovie have released a new Japanese trailer for Star Trek Into Darkness, which has several new shots to enjoy: Including Admiral Marcus getting all vengeful, the Enterprise and the Vengeance flying about, and a load of Klingons. Have a watch:



Here are some screencaps of new bits:

Enterprise going to warp

Lots of Klingons, standing around

The Vengeance chasing the Enterprise

The Enterprise starting to burn up

A couple more poster have also turned up. The German Star Trek Facebook page posted Scotty from the international character posters series. After most of the other characters got the same treatment yesterday, there's just poor Chekov left out now!

The Japanese Star Trek Facebook meanwhile posted this version of the International poster variant:

First look at Star Trek Fighter Pods

Listings for Star Trek Fighter Pods toys have started to appear on Amazon, giving us the first clear looks at the game and some of the new figurines. Each of the sets so far listed comes with this general description:

Prepare for an incredible journey through the deepest reaches of the known universe with the heroic crew of the Starship Enterprise. Captain Kirk leads his crew of intrepid explorers on dangerous, Galaxy-spanning adventures. Facing off against menacing aliens, unknown threats from the distant past and the unknown future, and diabolical villains who lurk around every corner, Captain Kirk, Spock and the others protect the United Federation of Planets from evils great and small.The Star Trek universe is getting even bigger with the debut of Star Trek Fighter Pods. These small figures bring big attitude and incredible action to your space-faring adventures. Collect them all and let the battle begin.

There will apparently be thirty-six figurines in the first series. The idea is to collect the figures, and play with them, using them as both targets and ammunition for the launching and rolling toys in the series. So far three "attach pod launchers" have become available. Each comes with an "attack pod", which in some novelty way launches one of the four figurines in each pack.

Here is the bright orange "Blade Blaster", which has a "photon ram" as its way of attacking. This comes with caricatured versions of: Spock, in a silver uniform possibly the new Starfleet wetsuit from Into Darkness; an Orion, that I presume to be Gaila, in her underwear; a Gorn, from Star Trek: The Video Game; and the multi-faced alien Quocch, from the deleted scenes of the first film, and the Nero comic series.

 

Next there's the "Phantom Striker", which attacks with "Pop-out combat fins". The figures in this pack are:Kirk and Sulu, both in grey uniforms which again look like the new wetsuits (but are darker than Spock's silver one above); a Klingon; and Keenser.

 

Finally, for now, is the "Ninja Star", with burst to life with the use of "snap-out battle blades". This one comes with: Two redshirts, which I guess might be Scotty and Chekov; a Klingon (same one as the above set); and Nero.

 

There will also be a fourth attack pod, called the "Star Surger". In addition to these, there will be a larger USS Enterprise set, which houses an addition attack pod in the engineering section, while the bridge opens to reveal a playset for the figurines. Amazon does have a listing for the Enterprise, but no images yet. On top of that there will be smaller sets with figurines, and the eponymous fighter pod balls that the game is based around. You can get an idea of the rest of the range from my previous coverage of the Toy Fair displays.