Friday 31 October 2014

Latest Crowded Coop apparel

Several new items Crowded Coop's new range of TOS bags, wallets, purses, and luggage tags are due out over the next few weeks, and both Entertainment Earth and ThinkGeek have added and updated listings with new images of the Coop's forthcoming creations.

The most eye-catching new listing on Entertainment Earth is the USS Enterprise messenger bag, which manages to form the saucer in the rectangular flap of the bag, with the nacelles functioning as clips to keep it closed:


Entertainment Earth have also amended their listings for the tricorder messenger bag, and tribble coin purse, showing these prop-based designs in their final form:


Continue after the jump for a look at more new pieces from Crowded Coop:

The Primate Directive preview

Starting in December is the latest Star Trek crossover comic series from IDW, The Primate Directive, which brings together the original incarnations of Star Trek and Planet of the Apes. StarTrek.com have now released a preview from this first issue, in fact I think this is the Ashcan preview distributed at the New York Comic Con recently. Continuing below you can check out the first five pages of the story:


Saturday 25 October 2014

Starship Collection's Delta Flyer and Romulan drone

Two more issues of The Official Starships Collection have now been solicited, and StarTrek.com and Entertainment Earth have most new images of the models coming in issues thirty-eight and thirty-nine, the Delta Flyer and Romulan drone.



These ships will be coming in January and February in the UK, and March in the US, with the rest of the world to follow as the series catches up in different territories.

More starships news after the jump:

New apparel from Bioworld

Makers of Star Trek apparel, Bioworld, have released several new items. Which you can check out below:

First up, there's a TOS Starfleet delta ring, which also used the Gold Key Star trek title on the side:


The Starfleet deltas also feature in this necklace and earring set:


Continue after the jump for more:

Friday 24 October 2014

New Star Trek linens range

Trevco have a launched a big new range of Star Trek linens, including multiple TOS designs available as either:
  • 60 x 36 inch throws
  • 16 x 16 inch cushions
  • 60 x 36 inch fleece blankets
  • 28 x 20 inch pillow cases (double or single sided designs)
  • 60 x 30 inch beach towel
  • 22 x 22 inch bandanas (double or single sided designs)
Here is the full range featuring the USS Enterprise blueprint design (the latest reuse of the Haynes Manual illustration), continue after the jump to check out all the other designs in the range:

Star Trek UglyDolls revealed

A few months ago Pretty Ugly revealed they would be releasing a range of Star Trek themed UglyDoll products, and now Urban Collector has posted the first look at those new Star Trek styled characters. Coming in January are two ranges of five characters, UglyDoll's Wage as Captain Kirk, Ox as Spock, Ice-Bat as Scotty, Babo as Doctor McCoy, and Tray as Uhura. All five character will be offered both as twelve inch tall plushes, or three-and-a-half inch clips. Check them out:



Both Urban Collector's listings are to buy them by the case. I'd imagine other retailers will be offering them individually at a later date!

Thursday 23 October 2014

Latest figures: Worf and his wobbling friends

Diamond Select Toys' fourth Star Trek Select action figure, Worf, who was recently previewed at the New York Comic Con, is now available for pre-order on Entertainment Earth, who anticipate he will be arriving in April. The description of the figure states that it "includes a diorama base compatible with the previous Star Trek Select release", although what is shown in the new image is a rather different base design than the Borg decking included with Picard, with a large wall with a Klingon emblem on. Worf will also features several different arms and weapons to allow different action poses, and even two different hair styles!


Entertainment Earth have also recently added listing for more bobble-heads from Bif Bang Pow, continue after the jump for a look at those:

Wednesday 22 October 2014

8of5's Material Continuum

I quite often get messages from both readers and companies telling me about the latest offers on Star Trek stuff. However I rarely post about such things here because I'm not interested in The Trek Collective becoming some sort of Star Trek shopping channel.

While not wanting to clutter up this site with such news, I do recognise there is interest in knowing about such deals. So I've decided to set up a separate Twitter account where I will post news on Star Trek sales, deals, and bargains, for anyone who is interested.

8of5's Material Continuum is now open, serving the Ferengi in all of us.

PS. Don't forgot there are also my regular Twitter, Facebook, and Tumblr pages, to stay up to date with all the usual news from The Trek Collective.

IDW's January releases, and other Star Trek comics news

IDW have announced their solicitations for January, which include three Star Trek titles: The start of a new 5 Year Mission series in the nuTrek ongoing comics, the second issue of the Planet of the Apes crossover, and the omnibus of City on the Edge of Forever. Continue below for full details of them all, as well as some other Trek comic updates:

Star Trek/Planet of the Apes: The Primate Directive #2
Written by Scott Tipton, David Tipton, with art by Rachael Stott.
The colossal crossover nobody ever expected continues! Captain Kirk and the Enterprise crew have landed on the Planet of the Apes—but how?! And how are the Klingons involved? Plus: Taylor meets up with Kirk and Spock, but will he greet them with open arms? Or flying bullets?
IDW also note that "each issue features an essay on Star Trek and Planet of the Apes by comedian and über-fan Dana Gould".

This second issue has three covers, and I think IDW have really exceeded themselves this time, with a stunning cover from the series artist Rachael Stott, a great subscription variant cover by Joe Corroney, and a gloriously nostalgic Gold Key style photo variant cover.




Continue after the jump for a look at the other January releases, and more comics news:

Tuesday 21 October 2014

TNG season 7 bluray details

CBS have released full details of what will be on the final set of TNG bluray releases. Season seven, and the stand-alone release of All Good Thing... are due out in December. Here's CBS's summary of the season seven box set:
STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION – SEASON SEVEN includes all 25 episodes of the final season and a trove of never-before-seen interviews with cast and crew, including the three-part documentary “The Sky’s The Limit: The Eclipse Of Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “In Conversation: Lensing Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

Along with an unreleased gag reel and exclusive deleted scenes, the seventh season collection features some of the most acclaimed episodes of the series such as the conclusion to the two-part episode “Descent;” Worf’s (Michael Dorn) conflict with his human foster brother who violates the prime directive to save a doomed primitive race in “Homeward;” the two-part episode “Gambit;” Data meeting a woman who claims to be his mother in “Inheritance;” and the stunning, final confrontation between Picard and Q (John de Lancie) in the series finale “All Good Things…”.

Plus, the thrilling final season also features can’t-miss guest appearances from Kirsten Dunst, Terry O’Quinn, and former L.A. Laker James Worthy.
As well as the three-part documentary and round-table mentioned above, there is also Closed Set: A Tour of the Real Enterprise, a behind the scenes video shot by the Okudas on the TNG sets before they were altered for use in Generations. You'll also find a gag real, and audio commentaries on three episodes, two of them newly recorded:
  • Parallels, with Brannon Braga (recorded in 2008)
  • Lower Decks, with René Echevarria, and Mike and Denise Okuda
  • Preemptive Strike, with René Echevarria, Naren Shankar, and Mike and Denise Okuda 
As well as al the old DVD extra features, the set also includes numerous new HD deleted scenes, from the following episodes: Descent, Part II, Liasons, Gambit, Part I, Gambit, Part II, Dark Page, Inheritance, Parallels, Sub Rosa, Thine Own Self, Masks, Genesis, Journey’s End, Firstborn, Bloodlines, and Preemptive Strike!

Continue after the jump for all the details of the stand-alone All Good Thing... disc:

Monday 20 October 2014

New Cross Cult covers: The Fall, COE, and more

It's been a while since I posted any updates from German Star Trek books publisher Cross Cult, and since my last post their cover artist, Martin Frei, has been busy generating new artwork for many of their forthcoming releases. The most recently revealed new artwork (on their Star Trek books Facebook page) is for two books in The Fall series. Cross Cult will be reusing the US cover art for three of the five books, but they have decided to replace both of the Enterprise-E covers - Una McCormack's The Crimson Shadow, and Dayton Ward's Peaceable Kingdoms.

Here are the new covers, which will be turning up, translated into German, in the winter of 2015/1016. So far Cross Cult have only settled on the German title for one book in the series, The Crimson Shadow, the first of the two cover here, which will be known as Der Karminrote Schatten:



Continue after the jump for the latest new Corps of Engineers artwork, and lots more finalised covers for new Cross Cult releases:

Friday 17 October 2014

Star Trek Online: Delta Rising

The latest expansion for Star Trek Online has been launched. Delta Rising takes us back to the Delta Quadrant, with lots of familiar faces, and follow-ups to the events of Voyager. STO have even made a homage to the Voyager title sequence to open the new adventures:



The new look Vaadwaur
Tim Russ has returned to STO, to voice Admiral Tuvok again, and this time many other Voyager cast members are back too: Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine), Robert Picardo (The Doctor), Garrett Wang (Harry Kim), and Ethan Phillips (Neelix). They are set to reintroduce players to numerous Delta Quadrant species, as seen in Voyager, with the Vaadwaur set up as the major enemies, and being given a cool steam-punk makeover.

Continue after the jump for a look at some of the new features and ships which have been introduced in this update:

Wednesday 15 October 2014

Book bits: Updated Missing cover, and new excerpt

A couple of book updates: First up, Doug Drexler posted (on Facebook) an updated version of his cover for Una McCormack's new DS9 novel, The Missing. This has apparently been sent to Doug after the team at Pocket Books made some corrections to remove the very purple tinge that had been applied to the previously released version, and also got rid of the weird line which cut off the background before the edge of the cover. Hopefully this will be the version that appears on the final book, which is due out in January:


Next month's book meanwhile is also DS9-related, but not released under that series banner. David Mack's Section 31: Disavowed is set to follow up on threads from The Fall, Cold Equations, and the Mirror Universe series. Amazon.com have now released an excerpt, chapter one from the book, which begins like this:
All that stood between Thot Tran and salvation was unrequited love and the edge of the universe.

In recent years his scientific career had been marred by one failure after another. Despite grievous setbacks, he had retained his position as the director of the Special Research Division, one of the loftiest posts in the Breen Confederacy, but one more failure would be the end of him. Domo Pran, the leader of the Confederacy, had made that grim fact abundantly clear. Now Tran’s entire career hinged upon proving a mad hypothesis before Pran’s patience expired.

To make matters worse, his only hope of success lay in the eccentric genius of his Tzenkethi collaborator, Choska Ves Fel-AA. The humanoid outworlder was strangely beautiful to Tran’s eyes. Lithe and silver skinned, Choska was blessed with coppery tresses that fell past her elegant shoulders, and the irises of her ovoid eyes glittered like gold. Upon first meeting her, Tran had shaken her delicate hand—and even through his uniform’s insulated glove his flesh had prickled from an electric tingle. Though he’d been warned ahead of time that Tzenkethi could impart such an effect upon contact, he had been unprepared for the thrill it had given him. Every detail of Choska’s being was rapturous. Her voice was melodic, like the ringing of chimes incapable of striking a false note. Her movements were grace incarnate. Even her most outlandish ideas and outrageous theories possessed a strange elegance.

Tran’s life and career both hung by a slender thread, and all he could think about was the fact that, against all reason, he had fallen in love with an alien who would never love him back.

Not that he hadn’t set limits. When Choska had suggested they convert their shared laboratory space aboard Ikkuna Station into a gravity envelope enclosure, so that all its surfaces—the walls and ceiling, as well as the deck—could be utilized as operational space, Tran had invoked his privilege as project’s director to keep their lab securely on the floor. After all, Ikkuna Station had been built by, and was run by, the Breen, just inside Confederate space, and converting the bulkheads and overheads to serve the same functions as the deck would have been quite tedious and time-consuming. Which had made it all the more shameful, in his opinion, that for a moment he actually had considered granting her request before he’d vetoed it.

Since then, her already inscrutable façade had become impenetrable, hardened against his searching gaze by what he could only presume was resentment. The only discourse that passed between them now was the cold, dry jargon of the laboratory.

Choska spoke without shifting her eyes from the master console in front of her. “The generator is at full power. Membrane penetration anticipated in twenty seconds.”

“Noted. Increase power to the threshold stabilizer on my mark.”

The beguiling Tzenkethi physicist adjusted the settings. “Ready.”

Chapter one continues on Amazon.com, and the book should be out in the next couple of weeks.

Her Universe is charming

Her Universe have added two Star Trek themed charm beads to their range, one featuring a Starfleet insignia, and one featuring a live long and prosper hand sign. Both are available exclusively via ThinkGeek.


In fact ThinkGeek offer quite a range of geek-themed charm beads, including a TARDIS, T-Rex skull, and Lego(-style) brick.

Tuesday 14 October 2014

USS Enterprise shaped puzzle

I do love to see a new USS Enterprise shaped thing, so I was delighted when I spotted a new puzzle amongst the latest releases from Aquarius. Not only is said new puzzle shaped like the Enterprise, but it's also double-sided, with the alternate side featuring a collage of TOS imagery - Two six-hundred piece puzzles in one!


Also recently released by Aquarius is a more conventional rectangular puzzle, featuring the TOS crew. This one is one-thousand pieces.


Continue after the jump for more new releases from Aquarius:

Star Trek Select Worf

At the New York Comic Con over the weekend, DST were showing off their wares, including the first look at the next entry in their Star Trek Select range of action figures, Mr Worf.

On display was a prototype, which demonstrated how the new Worf will, as is typical of figures in the range, be part sculptural, and part poseable, and feature a range of interchangeable parts to allow you to display as desired. As well as a base, the Worf figure will come with an assortment of weapons, and different, suitably posed, arms to hold them, plus interchangeable hair!

TrekMovie and Toy News International were there to take photos, and you can see many more in their respective galleries, in addition to the ones I've picked out here.



Worf will be the fourth Star Trek Select figure, following the already released Captain Picard, and first TOS pairing, Kirk (with Khan) and Spock (with the Horta). There's some time to wait yet though, as DST aren't expecting Worf to materialise until winter 2015.

Star Trek's early CGI

We're all familiar with computer generated imagery these days, and Star Trek has often been a pioneer of the art-form. The videos below are extracts from a 1987 Open University documentary on computer aided design, which used the earliest examples of CGI in Star Trek, and indeed in cinema history, to examine the use of computer design.

This first video looks at the dream sequence from The Voyager Home, including how the computer graphics team from at ILM, which would eventually become Pixar, digitised the faces of the HMS Bounty crew:



This second clip looks at the Genesis sequence from The Wrath of Khan, a significant moment in cinema history, as this was the first ever entirely CGI sequence in a film:



Both of these videos were uploaded by egregiousdave, who transferred them from cassette recordings he took when they were broadcast! I came across them thanks to Christopher Backa, who posted them on TrekFM's Facebook group, The Babel Conference.

Monday 13 October 2014

Star Trek Metal Earth model kits

Due out in the coming weeks is the new series of Metal Earth Star Trek model kits from Fascinations. There are four designs in this initial wave, each delivered on two laser etched and cut steel sheets, ready to be assembled into impressively detailed metal models. Fascinations have now updated their website with preview galleries of all four designs, including three-hundred-and-sixty degree views of the models. Continue below for a good look at all four designs.

The most impressive model of this assortment, to my eyes, is the Klingon Bird of Prey, which seems to have translated very successfully into this format of model making:

RockLove's Star Trek jewellery range

RockLove have revealed their new Star Trek jewellery range, which is available to order via the StarTrek.com shop. Their designs include rings, necklaces, and keychains, based on the USS Enterprise, phasers, and iconic quotes from the series.

RockLove owner and designer of the Star Trek range, Allison Hourcade, shared her thoughts with The Mary Sue, and also hinted at future designs:
The goal was to produce something a Star Trek fan could wear everyday – a durable precious metal that is understated enough to be professional and sophisticated, yet clever in its design. We wanted to start out with a few classics (the Captain’s Oath, the Klingon Warrior’s Virtues, a simple unisex band) and are already working on the next wave of prototypes (Delta insignias, bracelets, and more).
Continue below to check out all the designs:

The star of the range is the silver two-part USS Enterprise ring, which has a saucer separation feature, held together with a little clip.


Their phaser necklace is also silver, and has a two sided design, allowing you to select the stun or kill setting. The necklace is available in three different chain lengths: Either sixteen, eighteen, or twenty inches.

Friday 10 October 2014

Book bits: New DS9 and New Frontier novels for 2015

A mini books bits today, with news of two new novels for 2015:

David R. George III has two 24th century novels on the way, and on his Facebook page he has now revealed the first of those will be a DS9 novel, titled Sacraments of Fire‬. We can look forward to that in June, and George has previously suggested his next Trek book after that will be a follow-up.

Just ahead of that release, Peter David will be returning to Star Trek, with a new New Frontier novel in May. Peter David's website has that listed, with a link to an "untitled" listing on Amazon, which suggests the book will be released by Gallery Books, which means it will be in the larger trade-paperback format.

Thursday 9 October 2014

D. M. Phoenix's Saber class

For the 2015 Ships of the Line calendar, regular contributor D.M. Phoenix gathered a force of Saber class ships. Phoenix has now posted more images of his reimagined Saber class on his website, as well as a bit of back-story on the development of the class. Here's his real-world summary of the design:
Since the original version from First Contact was a low resolution model meant only for background shots, I took some liberties to increase the density of detail as well as steer the style more towards the Galaxy class with some subtle hints at the Defiant and Nova class lineage as well. The U.S.S. Peterson is named after my good friend and expert modeler Eric Peterson who has often assisted me in the finer points of engineering and practical design.
If you visit Phoenix's website you'll find an in-universe account of the Saber class' history, and more pictures of this version of the design.



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