Friday, 27 July 2018

Silver starship Enterprise from the New Zealand Mint

The New Zealand Mint have issued the second in their series of Star Trek silver miniatures, and have gone a whole new direction this time, with a little silver model of the USS Enterprise.


This follows the previous silver sculpture of Captain Kirk; so who knows where they might go next if the series continues. The Enterprise is cast from 150g of pure silver, and the 4cm tall model will set you back $550! Just 1000 of them are being cast. Continue below to check out a 360 video and the packaging:

More Discovery coming to Star Trek Online

Star Trek Online already has a handful of Discovery ships available, but is soon to dive much deeper into the setting of the series, with new story content from the Discovery era in their latest expansion, Age of Discovery, which will include Mary Wiseman playing Cadet Sylvia Tilly in the game. Here's how they describe the new content, due to launch this autumn:
Age of Discovery opens in the year 2256, just after the Battle at the Binary Stars. In the wake of a brutal war against the Klingons, Starfleet Captains must face J’Ula, matriarch of the House of Mo’Kai and sister of T’Kuvma, who seeks to alter the destiny of the Alpha Quadrant. Players will need to rely on the help of fellow Starfleet Academy Cadet Syliva Tilly (played by Discovery actress Mary Wiseman), who has come home to assist with training and see them off on their first assignment. From there, they will journey to iconic locations from Star Trek: Discovery, like the Dilithium Mines of Corvan II, explore the new experimental Crossfield class Starship, the U.S.S. Glenn, and defend Starbase 1 from a fearsome attack by the Klingon House of D’Ghor.

Thursday, 26 July 2018

IDW's October Star Trek comics, and other updates

IDW have released their solicitations for October, which include two new Star Trek comics. Continue below for all the details of those, and other Star Trek comics updates.

Star Trek vs. Transformers #2
Written by John Barber and Mike Johnson, with art by Philip Murphy.
The Enterprise is burning, brought down by the united forces of the Klingons and Decepticons. Captain Kirk and Optimus Prime have a plan to strike back, but can they bring their scattered Starfleet crew and Autobots together before Megatron wipes them out? The no-holds-barred Saturday morning mash-up continues!
Philip Murphy is also the A cover artist, and has released his cover, featuring Kirk transporting into or away from battling bots, via Twitter. IDW have released two other covers: The B cover, by Marcelo Ferreira (which oddly is also marked as the B cover in the art released), features a similar battle, but this time with a giant Spock looming over the scene. And there's a much friendly meeting on the Starfleet and Autobots, with Optimus Prime doing the Vulcan hand sign, on Derek Charm's cute retail incentive cover:


First looks at Eaglemoss' Vulcan and racing ships, plus new previews of XL and bonus issues

Eaglemoss have released their latest round of solicitations for The Official Starships Collection, including the first looks at the models and covers for issues 133 and 134. The latter of those is the Vulcan survey ship, one of two 20th century Vulcan ships seen in Enterprise's Carbon Creek (the other has yet to find its place in the collection). This one should arrive in September in the UK, and other markets later.


Wednesday, 25 July 2018

Trek Toys updates: Mega Construx, Titans, DST, McFarlane, Mego, and more!

Got lots of Star Trek toys updates today, mostly action figures of one sort or another from a very diverse mix of companies, styles, and series!

First up Mega Construx have added an extra Star Trek item to their slowly growing collection of construction toy compatible mini action figures. Available now as part of series three of their Heroes range is TNG's Data, who comes equipped with a phaser and tricorder.


The Heroes range brings together an assortment of Mega Construx's licenses in each wave, so this third series sees Data released alongside characters from Terminator, AliensMasters of the Universe, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

Tuesday, 24 July 2018

Short Treks details and Discovery season 2 bits and bobs

Following the Discovery season 2 newsgasm that was the San Diego Comic Con, more details of the second season and the new Short Treks series of shorts are trickling out.

We have some notable new details on one of those Short Treks, as author Michael Chabon (probably best known for The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay) has been revealed as the writer of an episode called Calypso. Posting on Instagram he talked a little about his experience on the show:
A few weeks ago, I flew to Toronto to be on the set of #STARTREKDISCOVERY for the 3-day shoot of a short film I wrote (one of four making up a new spinoff micro-series called SHORT TREKS). Mine’s entitled “Calypso,” it stars the blazingly talented @aldis_hodge, was directed by the brilliant #OlatundeOsunsanmi, and while all of that is very exciting, the most exciting part of all, personally, was the moment you see here, in this photo. I did not SAY “Ahead, warp factor 4, Mr. Sulu,” or “Make it so!”, because after all I was aboard the Discovery, not the Enterprise. But I THOUGHT both of those things. I thought them very hard.

Discovery mirror universe exhibition from the San Diego Comic Con

At the past weekend's San Diego Comic Con CBS put on an exhibition of costumes, props, and concept art from Discovery's mirror universe episodes. If you weren't able to visit, let's take a virtual tour:


More Eaglemoss busts previews

Eaglemoss have released a few more images of their new Star Trek bust collection, giving us a look at the models they have previously previewed from a few different angles. So far four characters have been revealed, Kirk, Spock, Data, and Worf, all depicted in their main TV era uniforms. The running order has yet to disclosed. Continue below to check them out:


Monday, 23 July 2018

Eaglemoss ships previews: Next Discovery ships, XL Defiant and Reliant, and more!

Eaglemoss have released a whole bunch of new images of forthcoming models in their Starships Collections, including new XL and special models, and bonus and regular issues! Continue below to check them all out.

But first, via the Hero Collector blog, we have lots of new images of the fifth and sixth issues of the Discovery collection. Issue five will be the four-nacelled Nimitz class USS Europa:


Sunday, 22 July 2018

QMx reveal Captain Georgiou action figure, Discovery phaser, and more

At the San Diego Comic Con Qmx had lots of Star Trek stuff on display, including several new items. Among them is the latest in their range of 1/6th scale action figures, and their first Discovery character in that range, Captain Georgiou. Like all the other figures in the range Georgiou features a meticulously detailed cloth uniform, and in this case an interesting combination of sculpted hair with a "real" hair ponytail. Images via ToyArk and Figures.com (who both have more to see from the QMx booth).


Saturday, 21 July 2018

Gentle Giant show off amazing Discovery statues, and other goodies at SDCC

At the San Diego Comic Con Gentle Giant have been showing off some of their latest creations, including a rather impressive pair of statues of EV suited Michael Burnham and the Klingon Torchbearer, both drowning in the details that these showpiece costumes featured.


According to TrekMovie these are 1:4 scale, and are planning for release in 2019 (as is everything mentioned here apparently). Continue below for many more images, and details of other things on display. Images of the statues via TrekMovie, Star Trek Twitter, Figures.com, ToyArk, and the designer of the Klingon armour himself, Neville Page - Most of which have more images to see if you want to take in all the details.

More Mego Star Trek figures revealed

Following their announcement a few days ago that the Mego brand is being resurrected, the full first wave of figures, which will be available exclusively at Target from the end of the month, has been revealed at the San Diego Comic Con.

The new range includes characters from modern and classic TV series, comic books, and real world celebrities, and of the dozen or so different licensees in this first wave Star Trek gets an impressive four action figures - More than any other source in the range except for DC Comics who also have four figures. Continue below to check out all the Trek:

Star Trek is one of only two two-packs in this first wave (the other is I Dream of Jeannie), with mirror universe Kirk and Spock coming in a transporter room back-dropped box:


Friday, 20 July 2018

Discovery season 2 trailer, stills, release date, mini-episodes and casting updates!

The first trailer for season two of Discovery has been released, and it look amazing! Check it out for loads of mystery seeking Captain Pike and Discovery crew goodness:



Continue below for an excessive screencap breakdown. But first, there's loads of other news:

At the San Diego Comic Con the season series has also been confirmed for 2019 release. But we will still be getting some new Trek this year, in a series of character focused mini-episodes called Short Treks. There are four episodes in the works, each 10-15 minutes long, and they will be released monthly this autumn. StarTrek.com gave this summary:
Rainn Wilson will return to play Harry Mudd in a short he will also direct, and Aldis Hodge will star in another as Craft, a man who finds himself the only human on board a deserted ship. Additional episodes will include a deep dive into Saru’s (Doug Jones) backstory as the first Kelpien to join Starfleet, and Tilly’s (Mary Wiseman) journey aboard the U.S.S. Discovery and her friendship with an unlikely partner.

Phaser-glow rock mood light, and other stuff to Trek out the house

I've got a round-up of some of the latest Star Trek stuff out there to Trek out your home or office, and we'll start with one of the weirdest Star Trek products to have found its way to market...

Taking inspiration from The Enemy Within, The Wand Company (who have previously brought us things like the bluetooth communicator, and universal remote phaser) have come up with the phaser-controlled rock mood light. Simulating Sulu's desperate attempts to stay warm, this is a glowing rock, controlled, by a phaser...


The rock faithfully recreates the scene; with the phaser blast "heating" it up to full brightness, which then gradually dims once you stop firing (it is only light that you'll get though, no heat from this rock). There's also an alternate "atmosphere mode" where the rock can gradually shift through different colours and brightness. The rock is USB chargeable, and to complete your landing party experience comes complete with a Starfleet survival blanket!

Diamond Select Toys reveal USS Enteprise-C, plus Kelvin timeline and Borg figures!

Diamond Select Toys recently teased they have a whole load of new Star Trek stuff in development, and they've not disappointed in revealing several of those hitherto mysterious products at the San Diego Comic Con. They have announced several new action figures. But first...

A new ship! On target to join the Starships Legends range of electronic starships with lights and sounds, is the USS Enterprise-C, which plugs a gap in DST's near complete series of Enterprise's (as Eaglemoss have shown us, you can find a lot of Enterprises if you try, but DST will now be covering all the main ones). DST are hoping to have this shipping in 2019. Images below come via Figures.com and Toy News International, who both have more to see in their respective galleries:


Thursday, 19 July 2018

Anovos reveal Discovery USS Enterprise model

Anovos has revealed the third ship in their new range of "studio scale" Discovery starship models, the USS Enterprise - This follows the previously announced USS Shenzhou and USS Discovery. All are created referencing original studio assets of course.

The new look Enterprise is made from polymer resin with steel reinforcement and measures 35 inches long, 16 wide, and 8 tall. 180 LEDs are used to light the model, which includes impulse engines, warp nacelles, formation and anti-collision lights, and windows, including of course the new bridge and mid-saucer windows.

Like the other model in the series, there are some interactive features, with movable and removable sections on this ship being the deflector dish, which can be pulled forward to reveal the internal deflector systems, and the nacelle caps, which can taken off the show the interior workings.

Continue below to check out lots of images of the model (the prototype mind you, subject to change):



Tuesday, 17 July 2018

Terra Incognita #1 preview

Out this week is the first issue in IDW's latest TNG mirror universe comic series, Terra Incognita, which follows the deviations of mirror-Barclay following the events of the recent series Through the Mirror.

Scott and David Tipton continue in writing what is becoming a near ongoing mirror universe series, with Tony Shasteen picking up the art duties this time.

The book is available in four different covers, with Shasteen also delivering the A cover, while the B cover is a photo-montage. There are also two retail incentive covers; a colourful and moodily lit Ten Forward scene by Elizabeth Beals or a menacing giant Barclay looming over the TNG crew by J.K. Woodward.

Continue below to check out all the covers and a five page preview.

Sunday, 15 July 2018

New Star Trek coins celebrate DS9, TOS ships, and TMP poster

Three of the current Star Trek coin licensees have got new releases out, celebrating The Original Series' ships and The Motion Picture poster. Continue below to check them out.

But first, the Royal Canadian Mint are about to release a crazy cool coin version of Deep Space 9, flattening the station down to a disc, with the spaces between the rings and bridges having printed spacey sections, featuring the USS Defiant and the wormhole - There are printed sections on both sides of the coin, which is apparently a first for the Canadian Mint. What makes it really distinctive though is that the coin is minted in the shape of DS9's outer ring, with all the little docking port notches all around the edge.


Discovery season 2 images introduce a Saurian

Entertainment Weekly have revealed a couple of new images from season two of Discovery; the first stills from the season in fact. Among them we get our first look at the first Saurian to come to on-screen Star Trek since the species was introduced in The Motion Picture.


Saturday, 14 July 2018

New Eaglemoss Discovery, XL, and bonus issues revealed

Ahead of the San Diego Comic Con Eaglemoss have released preview images of several new ships from their various Starships Collections, which are going to be on display at their booth at the convention. These include our first looks at several Discovery, XL, and bonus issue models. Continue below to check them out:

We've seen issues five and six from the Discovery collection from afar, but Eaglemoss have now released the first proper look at the USS Europa and the Vulcan cruiser. If Eaglemoss stay on track with their monthly releases, we should see these two come August/September.


Friday, 13 July 2018

Mego relaunches with new action figures on the way

Mego are back! The long hibernating toy brand is relaunching, as "Marty Abrams presents Mego" (named for the company's co-founder), with a range of action figures available exclusively at Target, and that includes a return of one of the earliest Star Trek toy series, the iconic Mego action figure.

Mego's new range will feature a wide variety of characters from classic TV series and movies, including DC ComicsThe Brady Bunch, Cheers, I Dream of Jeannie, and Married with Children. Eight and twelve inch figures are being made, including resurrecting the eight inch Star Trek line. The range will start to be released from the end of this month, following a more extensive preview at the San Diego Comic Con. Each of the new figures will have a limited run of 10,000. For now the initial announcement reveals one Star Trek release: Sulu:


More Eaglemoss Star Trek busts revealed

While ramping up attention for product reveals at the San Diego Comic Con, Eaglemoss have released the first images of several issues in their forthcoming The Official Star Trek Busts Collection. Four characters have so far been revealed, with TNG's Worf busting out of his podium with bat'leth in hands, joined by a more inquisitive Data, and a relatively friendly looking Spock. These will also follow the previously announced Captain Kirk, which will kick off the series. Continue below to check them all out.


Star Trek Fluxx revealed

Looney Labs have revealed their first Star Trek editions of their game Fluxx, so named because the cards drawn and played in the game keep the end goal forever in flux. Two Star Trek games are being released in August, one based on TOS, and the other on TNG, plus an expansion to facilitate both editions being played mixed together. Continue below to check them all out:

We'll start with the TNG edition (because I like the cover more!). Here's the box:


Sunday, 8 July 2018

Eaglemoss ship previews: XL, special, regular and Discovery series!

Eaglemoss have released many images and videos of forthcoming and recently released models in their various series of Starships Collections. Continue below for the latest XL ships, special issues, regular issues from the main series, and previews of the next Discovery releases!

We'll start with the latest addition to their XL series of really big models, the USS Enterprise-B, which will be the eighth in that series. Eaglemoss have revealed new images, and a 360 video, via their UK webshop, and their latest round of solicitations:


More previews from the Star Trek Shipyards books

A few days ago I shared out first preview pages from Eaglemoss' new Star Trek Shipyards books, and now, thanks to Amazon, we have a whole load more. Crucially these include several pages of the new features added to these books, such as size charts, fleet listings, and artwork - The rest of the books are mainly reusing content published in the magazines from The Official Starships Collection. So continue below to check out the new things these books offer.

There are two books in the series so far, each spanning different eras of Starfleet starships. I'm going to start back to front, because the first spread from the 2294 - The Future book is my favourite!

The books are split into chapters based on era and ship type, and Chapter 3 of this book uses the rather broad heading of Multi-Mission Explorer to cover most of the large ships of the 24th century. Each chapter has a two-page introductory spread, with the amassed fleet of the ships about to be covered, making this chapter a particularly pleasing image as it brings together almost all of the 24th century Starfleet ship classes as never seen before:


Friday, 6 July 2018

Big Finish audiobooks, and other Star Trek book updates

Got a variety of Star Trek book news and updates today, including new previews and covers for forthcoming comics and novelty books. But first, the big news is a new publisher entering the literary universe.

This week Big Finish have not just announced, but released their first two Star Trek audiobooks! And there's another to follow; they have produced an unabridged audio release of the English edition of Bernd Perplies and Christian Humberg's Prometheus trilogy (which was of course the first Star Trek novel series published originally in German). The trilogy has been narrated by Alex Newman, who is known to Star Trek fans as Malik the augment, from the arc in the final season of Enterprise.

The Prometheus trilogy was originally published by Cross Cult in German (with German audio editions by Bastei Lübbe following a little later), and is currently being released in English print form by Titan Books - Presumably these unusual licensing arrangement for Star Trek novels gave Big Finish an opening to start doing something with Star Trek, where audio releases are more usually covered by Simon and Schuster Audio (who have indeed given us a revival of Star Trek audio releases the last couple of years, with many Star Trek novels getting simultaneous audio releases now). What I find exciting though is that Big Finish are encouraging fans to feedback on social media with what they'd like to see for future - I for one would like to see them take the route they have with Doctor Who and Stargate, and produce entirely original Star Trek audio stories, with full cats and sound effects (something Star Trek hasn't seen since the Captain Sulu Adventures and Spock vs Q in the 90s!).

Anywho, continue below to check out all the cover art (and a reminder of all the blurbs) for Big Finish's edition of the Prometheus trilogy.


Thursday, 5 July 2018

New Visions #22: An Unexpected Yesterday preview

Out this week is the final issue of  John Byrne's New Visions photocomic! Issue 22 is titled An Unexpected Yesterday, and bring back one of Byrne's most visited characters, Gery Seven, in a time travel double whammy that also features the Guardian of Forever!

Unusually for New Visions, the book will be available two covers. The standard edition brings together the various highlights of the story, including Carolyn Palamas, who returns for this adventure, and the mysterious probably-not-Devidians-but-do-look-sort-of-similarish aliens of the week! The second cover will be a convention exclusive, and is a simple still of Captain Kirk.

IDW have only released three pages to preview this issue (rather than the usual five), which you can see below:


Discovery: Succession #3 preview

Out this week is the third issue of Succession, IDW's mirror universe Discovery comic series. The book is written by Kirsten Beyer and Mike Johnson, with art by Angel Hernandez, and continues to make surprisingly bold moves in reshaping the Discovery-era mirror universe as now-Captain Airiam's plan nears its conclusion.

The book is available in four different covers, with Angel Hernandez's (with colourist Esther Sanz) A cover featuring a strikingly frame filling rendition of Airiam. The B cover is a photo of Michael Burnham, who also features, in full mirror-uniform, on Yoshi Yoshitani's retail incentive cover. Another retail incentive cover is by Declan Shalvey (coloured by Jordie Bellaire), and features as pleasingly unusual angle of the Shenzhou - You can see the artwork for that last one, without the titles, on the artist's Twitter. Continue below to check out the rest, plus a five-page preview from the book:

Tuesday, 3 July 2018

Star Trek Shipyards books previews

Penguin Random House have released preview pages of both of Eaglemoss' forthcoming Star Trek Starships books, which will collect and expand on the in-universe segments from the magazines from The Official Starships Collection, presenting them in chronological order, with new size charts and cool fleet artwork pages.

Tantalisingly the introduction to the books reveals Eaglemoss plan for this to be the start of an ongoing series, which after these two initial Starfleet focused volumes, will dive into ships of every species and region of the galaxy:
This is the first in a series of books that is designed to build into a detailed reference library. Our goal is to produce the most detailed and comprehensive guide to STAR TREK’s ships ever published. Each book will cover a different group of ships. This book and its sister volume cover Starfleet ships, which are divided by era. Other volumes will cover geographical areas, such as the Delta Quadrant, or political groups such as the Klingon Empire. The plan is that eventually we will cover every corner and every minute of the STAR TREK universe.

There are, of course, some rules. The ships are in this book are all canon ships that have appeared in one of the STAR TREK TV series or movies. Some of them are obscure, and were only seen as wreckage in the aftermath of the Battle of Wolf 359, but they were there. The ships in this book are all from the Prime timeline and don’t take account of the vessels that can be found in the movies that have been made since 2009. There will be a place for them, but this is not it. Likewise, you won’t find ships that have only appeared in books, games, calendars or the animated STAR TREK series from the 1970s. Nor will you find ships that have only been glimpsed in graphics or mentioned in passing.

What you will find, is detailed plan views of every ship, with carefully researched text that details their onscreen adventures. You will have the chance to pore over these to pick up details that might have flashed by onscreen. And, you will able to see how Starfleet ships have evolved over the years and how they compare to one another.

This book starts at the beginning with the first vessels in the STAR TREK universe that headed out into space, from Khan’s sleeper ship, the Botany Bay to Kirk’s Enterprise. It also includes all the Starfleet ships from the first season of STAR TREK: DISCOVERY, putting them in context between Archer and Kirk. It’s a book that we feel should have existed before, and we are incredibly proud and pleased to be able to bring it to you. It’s the beginning of an extraordinary journey that we hope will help to put one of the most exciting aspects of STAR TREK in your hands.
Continue below for preview pages from both of the first volumes, plus some other Eaglemoss book updates.

Monday, 2 July 2018

DST cloaked Romulan Bird of Prey coming to Comic Con, and other Starship Legends updates

Diamond Select Toys have announced their exclusives for San Diego Comic Con, which include a new cloaked version of their Romulan Bird of Prey. Continue below to check out that, plus news of new ships and reissues coming to the series.

Transparent and translucent variants are becoming a bit of a Comic Con habit of DST's, with this latest release following in the footsteps of the previous clear cloaked Klingon Bird of Prey, glowing orange self destructing USS Enterprise, and interphase green/blue USS Defiant.

Like those previous releases, the electronics have been stripped out of this model so not to leave the wires and circuit boards visible. What has been left though is the distinctive Bird of Prey markings on the underside of the ship (alas it appears not themselves printed in a translucent ink, which might have looked cool!). Just 200 of these are being produced.


Sunday, 1 July 2018

Rubies and Trevco Discovery costumes and props revealed

Rubies, makers of fancy dress costumes for Star Trek and so many other series have now added Star Trek: Discovery to their range, with multiple options for Starfleet uniforms, and bunch of aliens in the planning too. Continue below to check out their offering, plus some alternate costuming options from Trevco.

The top tier of their offering are the full deluxe level uniforms, which include jackets, trousers, and boot tops (complete with a rather garish rendition of the metallic soles!)


The horga'hn, and other prop replicas from Roddenberry

The Roddenberry Shop has continued to expand its offering of Star Trek prop replicas with suitably summery release, the Risan horga'hn; the iconic fertility of symbol of the pleasure planet. Curiously this is the second horga'hn release just this year, with ThinkGeek also offering a candle holder version. Roddenberry are going for the high end replica take on the prop though, as they describe in their blurb:
In 1991, twenty-five copies of the Horga’hn were produced for use in the episode “Captain’s Holiday”. The studio which crafted the original props, created this 1:1 scale replica based on that work. Constructed from durable cast resin, this 55-ounce example is uniquely hand-finished to recreate what appeared on screen. No two are alike.  
The Roddenberry horga'hn, which is about eleven inches tall, will ship from July, and like all the Roddenberry prop replicas comes with a certificate of authenticity. Continue below to check out more images, and for a look at some of Roddenberry's other recent props.