Sunday 29 March 2015

Star Trek ReAction figures wave 2

Official images of the second wave in Funko's Star Trek ReAction figure range have been released. This second set of four retro Kenner-style three-and-three-quarter inch figures is due out in July, according to Entertainment Earth. We get a diverse mix of characters this time: Captain Kirk and Scotty of the Enterprise, joined by Vina in her Orion slave girl guise, and the Gorn. Check them all out below:

Wednesday 25 March 2015

Books bits: More details of 50th anniversary trilogy, and New Frontier cover

Following David Mack's recent reveal that he will be working on one book in a TOS trilogy for the 50th anniversary next year, further details have been quick to surface. Mack will be writing the second book in the trilogy, which is now listed on his website as Star Trek Legacies, Book II: Best Defense, with a September release date.

Dayton Ward has posted on his blog with more information, he and Kevin Dilmore will be writing the final book in the trilogy, with Greg Cox set to kick it off. Ward also suggested the trilogy would include a September release, with the trilogy hoping to span the summer. He gave this summary:
As story outlines have not yet been finalized and approved, there’s really not much we can offer just yet, except to say that all three books will “star” Kirk and the Enterprise crew in their prime, and each book ties into a larger storyline that we hope pays proper tribute to the legacy of the original series, which all of us love rather more than most normal people would consider healthy.
In other books news, Cross Cult have revealed a new New Frontier cover, for the short story anthology New Limits, which will be known as Grenzenlos, in this German language edition, due out next March. This one is packed full of characters,which makes it look like a New Frontier move poster to me:


Finally, another author podcast to listen to, for your Star Trek books DVD commentary! The latest is Tony Daniel, who talked to TrekFM's Literary Treks about his new TOS book, Savage Trade.

Starfleet Delta coin pouches

The Coop, the new name of the company previously known as Crowded Coop, have revealed a new range of three Starfleet delta shaped TOS themed coin pouches, one for each Starfleet department. According to Entertainment Earth we can expect these to arrive in July



IDW June titles, and other comics news

A few updates from IDW's Star Trek line today, starting with their June solicitations, which includes the start of a new story in the nuTrek ongoing series, and an omnibus. Continue below for full details of those, and more, including news of a new Gold Key story!

Star Trek (nuTrek ongoing) #46: 5 Year Mission- The Tholian Webs, Part 1
Written by Mike Johnson, with art by Rachel Stott (returning to Trek shortly after finishing up on the Planet of the Apes crossover series).
In “The Tholian Webs,” Part 1 of 2, The FIVE-YEAR MISSION of the Starship Enterprise continues! In this epic re-imagining of a classic Star Trek episode, the crew of the new movie timeline encounters a mysterious and deadly alien force... and not all of the crew will make it out alive!
There are two covers for this one, the regular by Joe Corroney, and a subscription variant photo-cover:


More images of Starships Collection's First Contact ships

The Official Starships Collection's manager, Ben Robinson, has been sharing more pictures on his new Twitter account, giving us more views of the forthcoming models of Alex Jaeger's First Contact ships, the Steamrunner class USS Appalachia, and Saber class USS Yeager, which will be issues fifty-four and fifty-six, due out first in the UK, in September.



Continue after the jump for more pictures:

Saturday 21 March 2015

Book bits: New Frontier covers, and 50th anniversary trilogy!

Books news! Including new covers and the first details of fiftieth anniversary novels!

In a recent interview with Visionary Treks' The Captain's Table podcast, David Mack revealed his next Star Trek novel, following Seekers 3: Long Shot in August, will be one book in a TOS trilogy, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Star Trek next year:
I do have one more, that I'm going to be writing this fall, which will be out in the fall of 2016. The story line hasn't been approved yet, so I don't know for sure that it's a go. But what we're working on is a special set of stories to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Star Trek. And I'm working on one volume of what is hoped to be a trilogy, which will play homage to classic Star Trek, in fine Original Series style.
I wonder who else will be filling out the trilogy? Following this, David Mack will be missing in action from the Star Trek universe, while he is busy working on his original trilogy of World War II era fantasy novels. He doesn't expect to be returning to Star Trek until at least 2017, and doesn't seem entirely sure about that, not be able to foresee his own, or the Star Trek books, schedule. What has become of Section 31: Control? Well, the fiftieth anniversary book has displaced his writing of that until a later date. Mack being busy could also effect the ongoing nature of the Seekers series, and one of the points discussed in the interview was who Mack might favour to fill in for him if he is otherwise occupied when the next books come along. Check out the full interview, with discussion of this and much more, on Visionary Treks: Part one and part two.

Also, do you notice the fiftieth anniversary logo at the top? That was recently discovered by TrekCore, and I'm sure will be appearing all over Star Trek products in the not-to-distant-future. Check out TrekCore's report for more on that.

Meanwhile, new cover time! The last two covers for Peter David's New Frontier ebook trilogy The Returned have now been revealed. The first was released a couple of weeks ago. Continue below to check them both out:


Friday 20 March 2015

Ships of the Line poster collection on the way!

I hope you've got a lot of wall space starship fans, because Universe Publishing have got a real treat on the way! Coming in October is Star Trek: Ships of the Line Posters, a collection of twenty-four poster prints of artwork from the Ships of the Line calendar series. Here is the cover and blurb:

Easily framed, high-quality, collectible prints by fan-favorite artists depict iconic scenes and the world-famous spacecraft, in celebration of Star Trek’s landmark 50th anniversary in 2016.

Conceptual artists and graphic designers breathe incredible life into the alien worlds, serene galactic vistas, famous missions, and harrowing battles from Star Trek history in twenty-four stunning Ships of the Line posters. Formerly included in the long-running Star Trek: Ships of the Line calendar and used as novel covers, none of these images has ever been available in poster form.

This boxed collection of easily framed posters gives fans an all-new, accessible way to display artwork from their favorite sci-fi franchise. Vividly reproduced on high-quality stock and including the artist’s name and the title image, each print makes an elegant addition to any fan’s space. Together, it’s a serious collection of eye-popping official Star Trek artwork.
There are a few hints about what will be included, but not enough to narrow down to any definite images. Amazon list the following as contributing artists: Doug Drexler, John Eaves, Koji Kuramura, and DM Phoenix. Amazon also have a short secondary blurb under the author section of their listing, which outlines some of the subjects that will be included:
Each version of the U.S.S. Enterprise is included, from Star Trek: The Original Series, the films, and Star Trek: The Next Generation, as well as Deep Space 9, the U.S.S. Voyager, and other familiar vessels, such as Klingon birds-of-prey and a Borg Cube.

Starships Collection previews and updates: New pictures, more specials, and much more

Lots of news to from Eaglemoss' Official Starships Collection today, starting with the latest two issues to be solicited, the armoured USS Voyager, and the ECS Fortunate, which will be issues forty-eight and forty-nine, finding there way to the UK first in June, with the rest of the world to follow. Online retailers are now listing them, and in doing so revealed new photos of the models, and magazine covers, including the first look at what looks to be a very impressive model of the Fortunate:




Continue after the jump for more previews of forthcoming models, and lots of news of ships to come later in the series.

Thursday 19 March 2015

The Primate Directive #4 preview

Out this week is the fourth issue in The Primate Directive, the TOS/Planet of the Apes crossover comic series. Continue after the jump for a five page preview from this penultimate issue in the series. But first, here are all three covers!



Tuesday 17 March 2015

This Month: March 2015 Star Trek releases

It's a good month for TOS fans, with books, DVDs, clothes, toys, and more inspired by the series spanning everything from the Pike era to The Motion Picture. And there's plenty to keep fans of other eras happy too in this bumper month of Star Trek releases. Continue after the jump to check out all the latest Star Trek stuff appearing this month.

Prose

It's a double prose month, with both a novel and ebook out. The first TOS novel of the year is Savage Trade, by Tony Daniel, the second Star Trek novel from the author following his 2013 book, Devil's Bargain. Here's the blurb for the five year mission story, and if you visit Amazon, you'll also be able to read an excerpt from chapter one.
The U.S.S. Enterprise under the command of Captain James T. Kirk is en route to the extreme edge of the Alpha Quadrant, and to a region known as the Vara Nebula. Its mission: to investigate why science outpost Zeta Gibraltar is not answering all Federation hailing messages. When the Enterprise arrives, a scan shows no life forms in the science station. Kirk leads a landing party and quickly discovers the reason for the strange silence—signs of a violent firefight are everywhere. Zeta Gibraltar has been completely raided. Yet there are no bodies and the entire roster of station personnel is missing…

Warp speed chopsticks from ThinkGeek

Will ThinkGeek ever cease in turning the Enterprise into new things? I certainly hope not! Their latest creation is a USS Enterprise sushi set! The set features a rather snazzy stainless steel rendition of the Enterprise, the saucer of which opens up to function as a soy sauce dish. The blue warp streaks coming from the nacelles meanwhile are cunningly concealed translucent plastic chop sticks, ready to pluck sushi from the wooden board the Enterprise is mounted to.



Another of ThinkGeek's recent renditions of the Enterprise is their amazing flying disc, and they have now released a new video showing it in action (it flies surprisingly well!), continue after the jump to check that out:

Monday 16 March 2015

Gold Key Archives Volume 3 preview

Due out in about a month is the third book in the Gold Key Archives, IDW's remastered reprints of the first ever Star Trek comics. Volume Three includes issues thirteen to eighteen in the Gold Key series, Dark Traveler, The Enterprise Mutiny, Museum at the End of Time, Day of the Inquisitors, The Cosmic Cavemen, and The Hijacked Planet. All have been brought back to life more vividly than ever before, with new colouring, and presented in a hardcover book, with a beautiful new cover by Michael Stribling.

Amazon's look inside feature has now revealed several preview pages from the book, giving us a look a the first few pages from the remastered Dark Traveler. Continue after the jump to check that out, as well as a look at another vintage Star Trek comic.

Wednesday 11 March 2015

Behind the scenes look at the Enterprise-E, Argo, Scorpion, and more

The physical model of the USS Enterprise-E made it's debut in First Contact, and then was never seen on-screen again, as subsequent films went fully CGI. Thanks to Prop Store we can drink in the details of that amazing model though, as photographed by one of the ILM crew members. Continue below for a few highlights, plus some other TNG movie era behind the scenes goodies, and visit Prop Store to check out the full gallery of photos of the Enterprise-E model.




Eurydice, Part One preview

Out this week is issue forty-three of the nuTrek ongoing comic series, Eurydice, Part One (of a three part story). This issues picks up straight from the event of the previous story, and sees the crew going a bit Voyager, as they find themselves rather further form home than they expected on their Five Year Mission. Continue below for a five page preview:

Frisbee-Enterprise is real now! And other examples of ThinkGeek's diabolical genius

Cast your minds back to the 1st of April last year, a day when ThinkGeek repeats its annual custom of revealing to the world even crazier product ideas than they usually dream up, to bring joy and amusement to all. Well, they've only gone a made one of them real!

Available now, possibly one of the greatest Star Trek inventions from ThinkGeek ever, certainly one of the best USS Enterprise shaped things to have been created, the fully-functional flying-when-thrown, USS Enterprise flying disc!


ThinkGeek explain how they changed, complied-with, the laws of physics to make this work:
Each Star Trek U.S.S. Enterprise Flying Disc is pretty much just what it looks like. There's the saucer section (made of space-age plastic) which is the part you throw (just like a regular flying disc). But the Star Trek U.S.S. Enterprise Flying Disc also has the rest of the ship attached (made of foam). The saucer section spins freely, and the secondary hull actually stabilizes and flies behind it. The result? A U.S.S. Enterprise you can easily throw and catch.
And this is just the latest of several recent releases from ThinkGeek. Continue after the jump to see more of their new Star Trek creations:

Monday 9 March 2015

Book bits: New covers and blurbs for 2015 books, and more.

It's a big books news day, as Pocket Books have released blurbs for the last four novels of the publishing year, which include a Pike-era story, the next books in the Seekers and Titan series, and a blurb that is sure to make fans of the DS9 relaunch do back-flips and set off fireworks! Continue below for all those, and more. But first:

Coming in July is the first novella in a New Frontier ebook trilogy, by Peter David of course. Previously reported as being titled Return, StarTrek.com have now revealed a revised title, The Returned, and the cover and blurb for the first book in the series, which features an intriguing choice of ship given when this is taking place in the New Frontier continuity:

Captain Mackenzie Calhoun and the crew of the U.S.S. Excalibur are back, picking up three months after the stunning events depicted in New Frontier: Blind Man’s Bluff. Calhoun's search of Xenex has failed to find any survivors, and now he is bound and determined to track down the race that killed them—the D'myurj and their associates, the Brethren--and exact vengeance upon them. His search will take the Excalibur crew into a pocket universe, where he discovers not only the homeworld of the D’myurj, but another race that shares Calhoun's determination to obliterate his opponents. But is this new race truly an ally…or an even greater threat?
Simon and Schuster tend to release their novel blurbs a third of a year at a time, so there latest updates give us summaries of the October to January books, the last four of the 2015 publishing schedule. All four are now available to pre-order, while the blurbs themselves are so far only found on Simon and Schuster's digital catalogue. Continue after the jump to check them out:

Friday 6 March 2015

New from DST: A well armed Worf, and the USS Excelsior

The fourth figure in Diamond Select Toys Star Trek Select range, Worf, is currently finding his way to retailers, and to mark the release DST has released a collection of images to show off this TNG TV-era rendition of the character. This version of  Worf comes with a phaser, phaser rifle, bat'leth, and an assortment of arms to hold them in a variety of poses. So he is *pun warning* certainly well armed... He also has the option of different hair styles, and a display base sporting the Klignon logo. More images after the jump, as well as updates on DST starship models:

A Scent of Ghosts preview, and other new Visions updates

Out this week is the fifth issue of John Byrne's New Visions photo-comic series, A Scent of Ghosts, a story which features both the Pike and Kirk era crews of the Enterprise, with Number One appearing in both sides of the story, in something of a prequel to her role in Byrne's previous Romulan saga.

There is also a short secondary story Memorium, which with amazing time seeing Spock contemplating mortality, in the Motion Picture era - I posted a preview of that story earlier in the week, and continue below for a four page preview of the man story in this issue, as well as news of the next omnibus book, and the latest behind the scenes previews from the series:

Wednesday 4 March 2015

The Primate Directive #3 preview, and other Apes updates

Out this week is the third issue in The Primate Directive, the five-part TOS/Planet of the Apes crossover comic series. Continue after the jump for a five page preview from this issue, plus news of the series omnibus book, and some more Trek/Apes artwork.



Monday 2 March 2015

Spock's Memorium, in the latest issue of New Visions

Out this week is the fifth issue of John Byrne's New Visions photo-comic series. The main story in this issue is A Scent of Ghosts, which guest stars Number One, now a Commodore, in a story set before Byrne's previous adventures featuring her in his Romulan saga. However, as is customary in the series, there is also a short secondary story in the book, and in a remarkable quirk of timing, this Motion Picture era tale features Spock, pondering the passing of an associate. Here's a sneak peak at the first page of Memorium:


Of course John Byrne could not possibly have known this story would come so close to the death of Leonard Nimoy when he created this story weeks or months ago - In fact the story marks the passing of another Star Trek actor late last year (but I won't spoil who). But it seems it has come with perfect and poignant timing as we all make our own memorials, in thoughts, words, and pictures, to the passing of one of the most significant figures in Star Trek history.

Check back tomorrow for a full preview of the feature story from this issue, as well as the other Star Trek comic release this week, the third issue in the Planet of the Apes crossover series.

Find Star Trek comics, toys, statues, and collectibles at TFAW.com!