Eaglemoss have launched a new website
Hero Collector, a science fiction and super hero news site which will also serve to promote their various part-work collections, including of course
Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection. In
the first article on the Starships Collection, the series manager, Ben Robinson, has released images of the models for issues forty to forty-eight, and issue fifty-two as well, giving us a better look at several models we've seen before, and the first images of the USS Enterprise-C, Centaur class, Intrepid, armoured Voyager, Negh'Var, and Malon Export Vessel! Continue below to check them all out, as well as more of the latest news from the
Starships Collection.
Looking furthest ahead, we have the lovely Excelsior kitbash design the USS Centaur, which is due out as issue fifty-two of the collection - Expected first in the UK, this August, and as ever following behind in other markets as the series progresses with local releases.
Skipping back a few issues we also have the first look at the Endgame ablative hull armored USS Voyager, coming as issue forty-eight, at the end of June in the UK.
One of the best known Klingon designs is issue forty-seven, the Negh'Var. Ben reconfirmed with
this new post on Hero Collector, that the version Eaglemoss are producing is based on the original appearance in
The Way of the Warrior, the design was tweaked a couple of times in later appearances.
Probably the most highly anticipated of this particular batch, the forty-sixth issue is the Ambassador class USS Enterprise-C. And this will be a good time of year for Enterprise collectors, as the original USS Enterprise is following only four issues later (see
previous report for images of that model).
We're off the polluted regions of the Delta Quadrant for issue forty-five, the
Malon Export Vessel. This issue, and the one below, are the two most recently solicited, so other images are also now turning up on online retailers as pre-orders come up. The solicitation image of the Malon Export Vessel model is almost, but not quite, identical the the Hero Collector preview, but thanks to
1-Up Collectables, we can see more details as it's higher resolution.
The covers for these two issues have also been revealed, via
Man of Action Toys:
Issue forty-four is the Enterprise-era NX-variant,
the Intrepid, and the solicitation photo for this one is a completely different angle to the Hero Collector preview. As you might notice, the colours are also completely different between the two images - It's often the case that previews for the Eaglemoss ships have inaccurate colour casts, so I wouldn't get to concerned with the Intrepid, or any of these preview images, being spot on what the final product will look like, colour-wise.
The next few ships we have seen previews of before, but Hero Collector has provided some new images for us to study while we await the releases. Issue forty-three is the
Species 8472 bioship.
Before which we have issue forty-two, the
Olympic class USS Pasteur.
The
Klingon Raptor is issue forty-one.
And just a few weeks away from UK release, another Enterprise, the
Excelsior refit, USS Enterprise-B.
And there's more news from
The Collection from elsewhere.
Posting on The Collection's Facebook page recent, Ben also shared some behind the scenes imagery he's been collating for the forthcoming fourth special issue, the
Klingon patrol ship form
Into Darkness:
Finally, it looks like the Borg Cube advertised to Japanese subscribers is indeed different to that offered in other parts of the world, as demonstrated by this image of alternate design posted by
Twitter user Hikari. Hoping to bring this cube to other markets, another fan of The Collection, Paul Brown, has
set up an online petition, so feel free to add your name if that appeals - That said, I do believe another Borg Cube is on the cards for
The Collection anyway, indeed I think Ben has mentioned maybe even doing it as a special issue, so he can go to town on the detailing.
But while we're talking petitions, don't forget
our efforts to get the USS Titan included in The Collection. We've had a steady stream of support which is bringing us close to three-thousand names now, but that still means we need to find more than two-thousand more Titan fans to have enough people to spur Eaglemoss into producing a special extra issue. So please do
sign up and share the petition.
For a listing of all the ships in the
Starships Collection, including links to all my previous previews and reviews, see
my index page.
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7 comments:
So much for "using actual studio models": The Centaur isn't the correct model at all, but is based on an incorrect picture from Star Trek: The magazin. The Constitution-class bridge and many details on the pylons are missing among other things.
http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/articles/ds9tm.htm
It's really starting to annoy me that some ships will apparently only be available in certain geographic locales. Why does Germany get shuttlecrafts and Japan gets a detailed cube? From the link in the previous comment, it would appear EM is scraping the bottom of the barrel for models, any model that appeared onscreen, no matter how fleeting or how ragged the original was. Meanwhile well-known ships that were in more than one episode of various Trek series are being rerouted overseas or to smaller markets (you can't tell me German sales will match up to the combined US/UK/CA markets).
This is BS, and I expect that if someone from Eaglemoss reads this, they'll ignore replying, as usual.
mcarp555, I don't think it's as simple as Eaglemoss snubbing one market over another. I would imagine the exact same reason they didn't launch in all countries at the same time constrains their ability to offer other things in other markets too. They either have some limitations in manufacturing or distribution which has meant they've had to gradually ramp up to launch the collection in more markets so not to over stretch themselves.
They probably hadn't even thought of offering the shuttle like this until recently (certainly Ben has commented something to the effect of regretting not finding a way to include the shuttles before). So when they launched in a new market it gave them a new opportunity to try this out. I wouldn't be too surprised if all subsequent markets also had this offer, and in time, maybe they'll go back and launch it where The Collection is already going, or find some other way to offer the shuttles to the deluge of fans demanding them already. Or maybe they never will, and that's the price we pay for getting the series earlier, a less mature product.
The Borg Cube is a bit weirder, because it seems like that wasn't a case of an incremental upgrade, as the less good Cube is still the one going to other new markets. But we might all end up with an even better Borg Cube later if it does come out as a bigger special issue as has been suggested. So I'm disinclined to really care about that!
And the ship selection is Eaglemoss maintaining their market. They have to mix really popular ships with more obscure ones. If they just put all the really in demand ones at the start of the series then the more casual buyers would drop out as soon as the series then switched over to only obscure ships, and subsequently the series would probably end a lot earlier than it will now, and numerous ships that have never been available would never have even got a shot.
I understand the need to stagger release schedules around the various markets in order to keep production at constant levels. As I'm in the UK, I'm first in line anyway. But it sounds like the current plan is to not offer the variant models (shuttlecraft, more detailed Borg cube) outside their current markets (Germany & Japan). I don't mind waiting, but I'd like some assurance that if I hang on, I'll get *everything* without having to chase these oddball releases down on eBay years later for inflated prices. It's the people like me who made the UK launch a success (and people in the US/CA markets as well), so we should not be stiffed for making it possible to even expand into the German and Japanese markets.
As I've suggested before, EM should make the shuttles a package special issue deal for us.
And I don't mind mixing the well-known ships with lesser known. But some of these upcoming models (like the Centaur) seem so obscure, I can't imagine how many Trekkers would even think to include it on their list of ships to have. I just don't want to lose better-known models for too obscure ones.
I think my biggest whinge is the 'build quality' of some of the models I have received. Some arrived in bits (but packaging intact) and others are poorly put together, nacelles glued on unevenly etc. I have mentioned this to EM who just send another without comment.
Model size is also a concern with me; NCC2000 & NCC1701E are tiny by comparison to many of the other ships in the collection and I wonder why such models as the USS Grissom are so big when Enterprise E is half it's size.
As for shuttles and the Japanese Borg cube, can't EM at least offer subscribers the chance to purchase these as additional items as they did with the special binder which was NOT included as part of my subscription.
I tend to agree with mcarp555 regarding some of the models, the Klingon ships now number five with one special pending for example - too many?
Some of the models issued so far are obscure, and yet more sort after models such as Cochrane's 'Phoenix', Shinzon's 'Scimitar' or Lore's renegade Borg ship featured in TNG 'Decent' do not look like ever being included at all but are available from Japan (not EM).
I have purchased many, they are on a similar scale and go well with the EM models.
It also seems that special editions are only coming from the rebooted movies (except DS9) and neglecting the TV shows completely, which is a shame, some battle damaged ships might have been suggested instead, Enterprise B or Khan's USS Reliant for example.
I'm totally with you on the scale thing Baldrick! It is somewhat maddening that ships like the Excelsior and the Surok class are miniscule because they are long and thin, which the Oberth and Xindi Insectoid end up huge because they're footprint fits well into the maximum width and length, but they are tall. I really wish Eaglemoss had used volume to determine how big each model should be, so the long ones would stop being so tiny!
The Phoenix and Lore's Borg ship have both been confirmed for the series already, just don't have issue numbers yet. And the Scimitar was on the earliest preliminary list, so it's definitely on Eaglemoss' radar (I'm hoping for a special with the wings open!). The other miniatures ranges you refer to offers far fewer ships than Eaglemoss has already released, and this series could go on for a long time yet (I'd be very surprised if they don't announce it will extend beyond the current plan for 90). The only other model ship ranges that even come close to what Eaglemoss have done are the much smaller scale Micromachines, and the current Attack Wing game.
Looks like the Borg Cube petition also reached its goal. :)
Now for Ben...
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