Canada Post's Star Trek stamps collection

Canada Post have revealed no less than nine new Star Trek postage stamps, available now, which they have issued in a bewildering variety of formats ready to appease the most casual letter-sender through to the most die hard stamp-collector. Continue below to check out all the designs, and the many ways Canada Post are offering them.

The collection is split into three groups, the largest of which is a series of five character stamps. Featured on those are Captain Kirk, Spock, Doctor McCoy, Scotty, and Kor the Klingon. Canada Post cite the Canadian origins of actors William Shatner (Kirk), James Doohan (Scotty), and John Colicos (Kor), as inspiration for their inclusion, while Americans Leonard Nimoy (Spock) and DeForest Kelley (McCoy) appear to have just come along for the ride.

The character stamps have also been issued on a miniature sheet, and are available in a standard booklet for every day use.

Two ships also get some love, these are the USS Enterprise and Klingon battle cruiser.

Both of these stamps have been issued in coil format, and there's a matching coil dispenser to go with them. The coils alternate between the two designs, and come in strips of up to fifty stamps!

Miniature sheet collectors will also be pleased to know the two ship designs have been issued in that format as well!

Finally there is a set of two remarkable lenticular stamps, a rare format for any postage stamp, and the first ever Star Trek ones produced with this built in animation. The stamps depict a transporter materialisation, and a jump through the Guardian of Forever, both from City on the Edge of Forever. Both stamps are available on a miniature sheet, which is itself animated, with the Enterprise zooming past, as you can see in the video below. The images are either end of the animation.

That's just the start though, Canada Post have really gone to town in offering the stamps in different formats for different types of collectors. Those options include a souvenir booklet, which includes fifteen stamps representing all the character and ship stamps (multiples of some, but it doesn't include the lenticular stamps) presented on miniature sheets unique to the book. Here are some preview pages and a video flip-through:

All the stamps were of course available in first day covers. Most of these were franked in the town of Vulcan, Alberta, with the exceptions of the Canadian actor stamps, where franking took place in the home-towns: Montréal, Quebec for Shatner, Vancouver, British Columbia for Doohan, and Toronto, Ontario for Colicos. Each cover has a unique frank design appropriate for the subject.

All eight first day covers are also available in a single pack.

In addition to that, the character stamps are also offered pre-stuck to a set of five postcards.

And then if you're feeling particularly extravagant, there are some larger scale offerings. There's an enlarged poster-sized version of the lenticular miniature sheet, plus a framed version of the characters miniature sheet, and another framed set, including a giant version of Kirk stamp signed by Willian Shatner presented together with the Kirk miniature sheet from the souvenir book, and the USS Enterprise first day cover.

And if you're really loving your stamps, you can also get uncut press sheets of both the character and lenticular stamp miniature sheets.

All of these releases are available directly from Canada Post's website. And meanwhile, be on the lookout in Canada, as they have also gone all out Star Trek on some of the post-vans!

And if all that isn't enough for you, this is just one of many sets of Star Trek stamps out this year; it seems the world's postage stamp creators are especially keen to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary. For a look back at all the previous Star Trek stamps check my Trek Collective list. And return here soon for even more Star Trek stamp news, I've got several more releases to tell you about in coming reports!