Star Trek stamps coming from the USPS in 2016

The United States Postal Service has announced its stamp designs for 2016, which includes a set of four Star Trek designs to mark the fiftieth anniversary. Designed by Heads of State under the art direction of Antonio Alcalá, the punchy graphic designs have bold colours inspired by the TOS uniforms (all three department colours, plus Kirkian green), and feature representations of some of the icons of the series: All but one features the Enterprise, combined with the Starfleet delta, planets, and the live long and prosper Vulcan hand, plus the fourth design with is a crewperson being transported. Continue below to check them all out (preview images via Star Trek.com):

Starships Collection issues 71-76 revealed

Eaglemoss' Hero Collector site has posted details of six new ships for the magazine and model series, Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection. Continue below for details of what will be issues seventy-one to seventy-six, coming from April through to July next year in the UK, and following in other regions later.

#71: Goroth's Klingon Transport

The first of the new reveals is probably the most surprising (in so far as we've had hints that all the others were in the works), although it has been suggested we will get every Klingon design ever at some point, so it was only a matter of time before we got this briefly seen and unusual Klingon design from the Enterprise episode Bounty. This horseshoe crab-eqsue design is more saucer shaped than most Klingon ships; almost like the head section alone of the more familiar Klingon configurations. For being so odd it's one I've been looking forward to, and of course being rather obscure this will be the first ever model of the design.

The Roddenberry Vault opens in 2016

Roddenberry Entertainment has announced their own year long celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Star Trek, with the opening of the Roddenberry Vault. Throughout the year the Roddenberry Facebook page, will be making posts, including "rare photos, memos, script pages, documents, and the like".

To wet our appetites, Entertainment Weekly has posted three advanced extra excerpts from the Vault, which give a good representation of the variety of things we have to look forward to. First up, a storyboard image from The Motion Picture, showing the Enterprise departing spacedock as the sun shines over the crest of the Earth behind:

Starships Collections Captain's yacht, Klingon D7, and more

A few updates from Eaglemoss' Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection, starting with the first look at the Cousteau (the Enterprise-E's captain's yacht), a photo of which was posted by series manager Ben Robinson, on Twitter. We don't actually know what issue number this will be yet, although I'd guess it must be one relatively soon if we're seeing a model already.

Through more formal channels, Eaglemoss have released their latest round of solicitations, including issue sixty-seven, the Klingon D7 class, which looks pretty neat:

IDW's March titles, and other Star Trek comics updates

IDW have released their solicitations for March, which include five Star Trek titles, including the start of a new story, and the long awaited UK comic strips book. Continue below for full details of those, and other Star Trek comics news.

Star Trek (nuTrek ongoing) #55: Legacy of Spock, part 1
Written by Mike Johnson, with art by Tony Shasteen.

This all-new story set in the universe of the new STAR TREK films celebrates the life of the most iconic character of them all: Leonard Nimoy's SPOCK. In Part 1 of this 4-part epic, the elder Spock joins the last survivors of Vulcan to search the galaxy for a new homeworld! Don't miss this special series, part of the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the STAR TREK franchise!

Writer Mike Johnson recently outlined the series while talking on J.K.'s Happy Hour podcast, giving a bit more detail on what it's all about:

...it actually starts with that scene in the 2009 movie, where Nimoy Spock meets Quinto Spock. And in this comic we follow Nimoy Spock away from that meeting, and follow him as he joins with the survivors of Vulcan and they develop plans to find a new homeworld, and consequences and tribulations ensue from there. And then over the course of these four issues we will see Spock reflecting on the life - It's really looking back over the whole of his life. We'll see cameos and flashback with familiar characters from the original universe/timeline. It's like a celebration of his life, at the same time we're telling a very important story in the Trek present about finding a safe location for the new homeworld.

And speaking of J.K. Woodward, he will provide the subscription cover for this first issue in the series, alongside the regular cover from Tony Shasteen:

Simon Pegg discusses some of Star Trek Beyond's themes

In another follow-up to the release of the Star Trek Beyond trailer, writer Simon Pegg has now chipped in, in an interview with the Nerdist, to expand upon what we have to look forward to in the next nuTrek film, with some very interesting sounding ideas about the setting and the characters.

He gave a pretty good summary of where the film stands both in-universe and in the real world, as it moves on from what the first two films in the series focused on, how it relates to classic Trek, and the demands of modern blockbuster film-making:

...we want it to be about them on that five-year mission. In fact, two years into that five-year mission, and how that impacted them personally and what it meant to be out in space that long. And we liked the idea of also, on the fiftieth anniversary, looking at Roddenberry’s original vision and questioning it. The whole notion of the Federation and whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing and how productive is inclusivity and what is the true cost of expansion. That kind of stuff. So we went in with some big philosophical questions to ask … Star Trek’s had to evolve in order to exist in the current marketplace. A film that was totally in the mood of the original series would not be made today, or make money today. Because people want event cinema. They want [things] to be a little more brash and a little more action-oriented. So we’ve had to dial that into the Star Trek brand. But at the same time that doesn’t mean that can’t be fundamentalized by all the tenants of what Star Trek is, and how those characters have evolved over the years, and to really give its DNA a kind of authenticity.

Mezco's very impressive Spock figure

We can expect to see a lot of renditions of Kirk and Spock next year: Sculptures, plushes, action figures, and more; but I think Mezco might have just secured their place as the best of the bunch with the reveal of their first Star Trek figure in their One:12 Collective range of super-detailed actions figures.

Due out in April will be a six-and-a-half inch tall TV-era rendition of Spock, featuring twenty-eight points of articulation. Mr Spock will be clothed in a fabric uniform, with two detailed head sculpts (one with an arched eyebrow), multiple exchangeable hands (including live long and prosper and mind meld poses), all the equipment he'll need for missions in the final frontier (including a communicator and tricorder which both have articulated details, as well a as a phaser), and a display base for him to stand on. Continue below for a closer look:

The Xindi are coming to Attack Wing

Every month Wizkids release three new ships for their miniatures game Star Trek: Attack Wing, and now and then throw something extra in, like the oversized models of Deep Space 9 and a Borg Cube. This month sees their third big model, the Xindi superweapon, or Weapon Zero as they're calling it. This won't be quite as huge as the previous big models, at about ten centimetres across, it will however by the first ever model of this Star Trek equivalent of the Death Star.

UPDATE: StarTrek.com have now released images of the final product, as well as closer look at all the cards featured in the set. Here it is in the box, and with all the contents, you can read more about the cards on StarTrek.com.

Smaller Xindi ships are also on the way in the most recently announced waves of regular expansion packs, continue below for the details of all those, and previews of the most recent releases in the series.

Remember that Star Trek/Star Wars crossover from the 1980s?

I'm just off to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but before I go I thought I'd share with you this glorious trailer for the 1980s Star Trek/Star Wars crossover that time forgot, enjoy!



This was rather brilliantly made by Youtube user SonofSpock, who also put together a TV spot for the supposed film. Now if IDW could just have a word with Marvel, I think we know what crossover comic we'd like to see next...

Starfleet Academy #1 preview and character profiles

Out this week is the first issue in IDW's new nuTrek Starfleet Academy series, a five-issue run which will feature both the Enterprise crew in their Academy days and a groups of cadets from the nuTrek "present day".

The series is written by nuTrek regular Mike Johnson, and Ryan Parrot, who wrote a couple of the previous Academy flashback issues in the nuTrek ongoing series. The book is illustrated by Derek Charm, who also made the main cover. A subscription cover comes from Jen Bartel, and a further retail incentive cover is by Elsa Charretier.

Continue below to check out all those covers, plus a five page preview of the issue, and character profiles for the new cadets:

Director Justin Lin on Star Trek Beyond's themes

So after seeing ninty seconds of Star Trek Beyond I hope many of you are looking forward to what looks to me to be some fun character focused romps, a pleasing dose of humour, exploring an actual strange new world, and yes, some budget-busting action. Yes? Good, well, for the doubters, Birth Movies Death has posted an enlightening interview with director Justin Lin, shedding light on his approach to Star Trek, some of the themes of the new movie, and more - If he makes a film as good as he talks about all those things I think we're in very safe hands. For instance, it sounds rather like the overriding theme of Star Trek Beyond is going to be an exploration of the ideas of globalisation (but at an interstellar scale) and colonialism, which should be a pretty good starting point!:

What would happen if you go on a five year journey and you’re trying to not only explore but also maybe introduce other people to your way of thinking? What would that mean? What are the consequences of that? You’re spreading a philosophy that you think is great - are there going to be any philosophies that counter you? That was something I thought about since I was a kid, and we got to explore that.

In particular this is manifested in the motivations of the villain, who is apparently called something like Kraal (spelling unknown):

Star Trek Beyond trailer released!

The first trailer, and first look at pretty much anything (officially), from Star Trek Beyond has been released! It's pretty different for a Star Trek trailer, and looks like the nuTrek crew are going to much more exotics places this time. Looks fun to me; check it out below! UPDATE: And continue below for screencaped scrutiny of everything we can see!

Starships Collection now to reach 110 issues!

Great news starships fans, Eaglemoss have announced the second expansion of the model and magazine series Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection, which will now run to one-hundred-and-ten issues (plus specials), up from the previous plan for ninety.

That will see the series running until almost the end of 2017, by which time hopefully there will be need for a whole load more issues to bring us the ships from the new TV series!

Posting on Twitter, series manager Ben Robinson has confirmed the expansion will see ships from all five TV series, and movies, with the official announcement emphasising there will be more ships from TOS remastered, models from the Battle of Wolf 359, Delta Quadrant ships, Federation vessels from Star Trek Insurrection, and oversized special issues with new ships from Star Trek Beyond.

Ben also tweeted that about half the ships will be Federation vessels, and by the current planned end of the series he thinks all the Klingon ships will have been made, and most Vulcan designs too. Two subjects have already been confirmed; the New Orleans class and the Daedalus class. He also posted this picture of the Daedalus miniature (made to illustrate the Star Trek Encyclopedia), which Mike Okuda sent him:

Additionally Ben confirmed the Jellyfish will be a forthcoming special issues, and expects there will be at least two more shuttlecraft models. One of the most exciting tweets suggested work on the Titan is top of the specials list, with plans to offer a pre-order.

He also mentioned that even this new expansion wont be able to cover all the Wolf 359 ships, but if the series continues to sell another extension is possible!

Preview of final issue in the Green Lantern crossover comic

As well as the final issue in the nuTrek ongoing series' mirror universe story, this week also sees the closing chapter in the six-issue Green Lantern crossover. The epic and cinematic story comes to a rather surprisingly close, the first five pages of which you can see below.

This issue has three covers, the main one by Stephen Mooney (coloured by Tamra Bonvillain), a Motion Picture style subscription cover by Cat Staggs, and completing his run for the series, another Garry Brown subscription cover (coloured by Doug Garbark).

Preview of the final issue in the nuTrek mirror universe comic arc

Out this week are two new Star Trek comics from IDW, both final issues in their respective story arcs, both featuring nuTrek interactions with alternate realities, and rather curiously both seeing a restoration of sorts of the planet Vulcan!

From the nuTrek ongoing series, we have the final issue in the mirror universe trilogy, Live Live. Written as ever by Mike Johnson, the story is illustrated by Tony Shasteen. There are two covers for this book, the main one by Shasteen, featuring a Khan as a religious icon, and the subscription cover by Dan Parent, which is part of IDW's wider Archie Comics cover collection, which see variants from multiple titles across their output this month.

Continue below for a five page preview of the issue, and look for a separate post with a preview of this week's other release, the final issue in the Green Lantern crossover.

Latest Star Trek figures: Retro cloth, Femme Fatales, Mystery Minis, Bobble-heads and more

A round up of the latest Star Trek action figures and figurines for you today, including TOS and TNG characters in quite a variety of styles.

First up, a new twist on a classic, in the latest retro cloth figures from Diamond Select Toys. After recreating the classic Mego figures a few years ago, and adding a few new characters while they were at it, DST are currently in the midst of reissuing the range in time for the anniversary year. But they're also expanding it once more! Due to arrive in May, the latest pair of figures will be a Cheron, and a red shirt. Now we've had a Cheron figure before, but this time they're switching the black and white sides, so you can complete your recreation of Let That Be Your Last Battlefield, with Lokai to pair with the previously release Bele. The new generic security man has a twist too, as there will be two variants on offer, with either brown or black hair, and one with officer rank stripes.

Enterprise and Archer coins

Perth Mint have released their fifth captain and coin set, this one featuring Captain Jonathan Archer, an the Enterprise NX-01. Like the rest of their Star Trek coin series, the coins have a face value of one Tuvalu dollar, although have been cast in silver. Continue below to check both coins and their packaging.

Cosy Trek stuff for all seasons

You can stay snug and warm at home in winter, or ready for the beach in the summer, with the latest Star Trek soft furnishings. Continue below for quirky new cushions, towels, and fabrics. And first, new from ThinkGeek, is the USS Enterprise-D rug:

The next generation to their previous TOS rug, this one ups the ante by being a more interesting shape than a plain old rectangle. Although if you do like your quadrilaterals, you're in luck, as they've also released a Borg Cube rug (ThinkGeek are really into the Borg lately!):

Here they both are in situ, for some idea of scale:

Lots of ways to drink something green

I hope you're thirsty, as I've got a drinks cabinet full of new Star Trek barware to share today. First up, a really fun new creation from ThinkGeek: The transporter pad coaster (which comes in a set of four), which has both light and sound effects that activate when you put your drink down, and pick it up. As you can see in the video below, it's a good effect, although you might also be relieved to know the sound can be muted to ensure you don't get transporter psychosis from all the noise!