Loads of new ships announced and other Starships Collection news

At this weekend's Star Trek Mission: New York convention Eaglemoss ran a panel on Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection, in which series manager Ben Robinson announced loads of new ships,and other news. Continue below for a round-up of what we learnt:

The big news is that once again the collection has been granted an extension, and will now run for at least 130 issues (plus specials and other additional issues), which is almost twice the originally planned 70 issue run!

Ben announced a whole load of new ships during the panel, but by far the most exciting to me was confirmation that the USS Titan issue will be coming, off the back of the petition to find support for it championed right here on The Trek Collective. And better yet, Ben also confirmed the USS Aventine will be released too! Both ships are due out in 2017.

When asked about other non-canon ships Ben was less keen, noting he did not expect to do a USS Enterprise-F. However also noted such decisions will depend largely on how well the Titan and Aventine do. As noted previously, Eaglemoss need to be able to sell at least 5000 of a ship to make it viable. So if you really want to see the Enterprise-F, or other Online and book ships to follow, then you need to make sure you snap up the Titan and Aventine, as well as petitioning for the ships you want.

The next special issue, the Jellyfish, due out later this year was revealed. TrekCore have posted a bunch of photos of the impressively huge looking model. Here's one view:

Ben announced a run of four new special issues (oversized models outside the regular fortnightly releases), which will be coming out next year. The first of these will be the USS Franklin and a swarm ship from Star Trek Beyond - These haven't come as close to the film's release as initially hoped, because the designs kept changing throughout the production of the film, making it difficult for Eaglemoss to keep up with the final designs in time to release sooner.

Following will be the Kelvin timeline Klingon battlecruiser, as seen in the Kobayashi Maru simulation in the first nuTrek movie.

And then Deep Space Station K-7 (only the second station in the collection so far), which may feature an article by The Trouble with Tribbles writer David Gerrold.

Ben also announced a whole new run of ships which will be convention and subscriber exclusives. The first of those will be the SS Yorktown, the originally proposed name of the ship that became the USS Enterprise when TOS was in development, released this year to mark the 50th anniversaries (I assume this will be a repaint of the regular Constitution class model, but it could be one of the Jefferies concept designs, I'm sure Ben will clarify soon).

This will be followed next year by the USS Enterprise design created for the unmade film Planet of the Titans, created by Ken Adams and illustrated by Ralph McQuarrie. This design is of course the inspiration of the USS Discovery, so will be a timely release alongside the new TV series. There were two distinct study models created of the design, which have appear on-screen as background ships, and Eaglemoss plan to release both, one as a regular issue, and the other as one of these new subscriber exclusives releases (images via Memory Alpha).

Ben also announced several new regular issues! Issue ninety will be the USS Saratoga, the first variant class design in the series, following the original USS Reliant Miranda class release much earlier.

That will be followed by the Medusan ship seen in the remastered version of Is There in Truth No Beauty?

Issue ninety-three will be a Suliban cell ship, and another Enterprise ship follows that, the ECS Horizon.

And then issue ninety-five with by the New Orleans class USS Kyushu, the first of the unique designs seen in the wreckage of the Battle of Wolf 359 - Renderings of this ship have previously been released. Ben also noted that with the series expanded to 130 issues we can now expect to see all the Wolf 359 ships featured (see previous reports to see rare photos of all those designs).

And still there's more! Ben also revealed the line-up of the second set of shuttles will be: The Enterprise-era shuttlepod, the TNG type 15 shuttlepod, the early TNG shuttle (type 7 I presume), and the executive shuttle form The Undiscovered Country. On top of that Ben is already seeing what designs he might compile into a third set.

During the Q and A at the end of the panel Ben also noted a few other ships. He is definitely doing to be doing the ringship Enterprise. He would also like to do another concept Enterprise, the Matt Jefferies phase II design. Captain Proton's rocket ship is being considered too (!!!!). But don't expect to see any TAS designs any time soon; maybe after 130 if the series gets another extension.

When asked about Discovery he wasn't able to say much, but seemed very enthusiastic about the series, and made a comment similar to something he tweeted recently, implying we will be seeing many ships in the series:

10 years before Kirk... ST Discovery is a Pike-era show and you have no idea how varied the fleet was in 2255.

Beyond ships Ben also noted he is looking at doing plaques for the USS Enterprise-A and USS Franklin. And also confirmed the previously teased book series will be going ahead; these books will collect and expand on the design articles from the magazines in the series, with the first due out later this year, looking at the designs of the many starships Enterprise.

He also spoke a little a bout Eaglemoss Star Trek: Graphic Novel Collection, confirming the series will launch next year and that it will be collecting comics much wider than the IDW titles featured in the first issues:

The purpose of doing this really, is to collect a lot of stuff that's never been reprinted, or not been in print in a very long time.

Finally, beyond the Star Trek universe he also noted there will be new Eaglemoss ship series launching soon featuring designs from Aliens and Battlestar Galactica!

And if you wan't to listen to Ben discuss all this himself, you can watch the entire panel on the Starships Collection Facebook page.

For a listing of all the ships in the Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection, including links to all my previous previews and reviews, see my index page.

PS, screencaps used above came via TrekCore's eternally useful galleries.