Friday 31 July 2015

This Month: July 2015 Star Trek releases

It's been a pretty huge month of Star Trek releases, with the return of New Frontier, the beginning of the Green Lantern crossover comic series, the USS Enterprise issue in The Official Starships Collection, and lots and lots more. Continue below for a look at all the Star Trek releases from July!

Prose

This month's novel was Sacraments of Fire, the start of a new DS9 story from David R. George III, which will continue early next year in Ascendance. The story picks up threads from recent DS9 novels, as well as finally continuing arcs from earlier in the DS9 relaunch series.
Days after the assassination of Federation President Nan Bacco on Deep Space 9, the unexpected appearance of a stranger on the station raises serious concerns. He seems dazed and confused, providing—in a peculiar patois of the Bajoran language—unsatisfactory answers. He offers his identity as Altek, of which there is no apparent record, and he claims not to know where he is or how he got there. A quick scan confirms the visitor is armed with a projectile weapon—a firearm more antiquated than, but similar to, the one that took President Bacco’s life. But the Bajoran liaison to the station believes that Altek has been sent from the Prophets, out of a nearby wormhole. The last time such an event occurred, it was to reassure Benjamin Sisko of his place as the Emissary. For what purpose has Altek now been sent out of the Celestial Temple?

Another long awaited continuation comes from the latest ebook, The Returned, Part 1, the first in a three novella New Frontier story from Peter David.
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?

Comics

It's also a packed month of comics, with three new releases from IDW, including the start of their latest crossover series, The Spectrum War, which brings together the nuTrek universe and DC Comics' Green Lantern. nuTrek regular writer Mike Johnson tells this story illustrated by Angel Hernandez. This first issue has a record breaking number of covers for a Star Trek comic, with twenty-seven different variants on offer, featuring twenty different designs (see them all here, here, and here). You can see a few preview pages in an earlier report.
Two iconic franchises collide for the blockbuster crossover event of 2015! The crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise meets the Green Lantern Corps for the first time in an all-new adventure that spans the cosmos! Don't miss the thrilling first chapter of THE SPECTRUM WAR, as Kirk and Spock make a most unusual discovery on a lost world... igniting events that will change the fate of empires!

Of course the regular nuTrek ongoing series continues too, with issue forty-seven concluding the two part story, The Tholian Webs. Johnson writes this one too, with art by Rachael Stott. I've posted an excerpt from this too.
It's the mind-bending conclusion of “The Tholian Webs!” One crewmember makes the ultimate sacrifice to save the Enterprise in this all-new re-imagining of a classic Star Trek episode!
The original USS Enterprise crew also get an outing this month, in the seventh issue of John Byrne's New Visions photo-comic series, 1971/4860.2, which appropriately guest stars Gary Seven. You can see sample pages from this story as well.
Captain Kirk sets off alone on a mission that will carry him 200 years into his past… but he won’t be alone for long—Gary Seven returns!

    Model ships

    Eaglemoss' The Official Starships Collection got to a milestone issue this month, so to mark the fiftieth issue in the series the ship that started it all had to feature, the USS Enterprise. Also out this month, issue fifty-one is the Hirogen Hunter.



    As ever these have made their debut in the UK, and will follow along in other markets as the series progresses. For extensive coverage of the entire Starships Collection, including links to all my previous coverage of all the issues, see my index page.

    Unusually there aren't any new Attack Wing ships this month, but fear not miniatures fans, the series continues once more in August. There some other ship releases in other sections below, one I'll mention up here is a more unusual rendition of a space station, the Deep Space 9 frisbee, which the Star Trek Shop have released.

    Toys and Games

    The frisbee isn't the only new Trek-toy from July, in fact there has been quite a diverse range of new play things on offer. From Funko we got the second wave of TOS figures in their retro-style ReAction line. The four characters this time are Kirk, Scotty, Vina (as an Orion), and the Gorn.



    From Aquarius, the latest usage of images from the Ships of the Line calendar series is this new set of Ships of the Line playing cards.


    And from DST, their latest electronic toy prop is the Search For Spock phaser. See an earlier article for a video demonstrating all its features.


    Homewares

    There's always plenty of new Trek stuff to add a bit of Starfleet flare to your home, and this month you can start getting ready for Christmas already with the release of this year's Hallmark Keepsake decorations. There are three Star Trek designs available, the USS Enterprise-C, the death of Spock scene from The Wrath of Khan, and an Uhura figurine.



    Also getting ready for cooler times of year, ThinkGeek have a TOS uniform style fleece blanket.


    Indeed ThinkGeek have had a busy month, with other homeware offerings including Romulan ale glasses, "live long and prosper" decals, and a Starfleet Academy graduation certificate.



    Meanwhile in Australia, the latest coins from Perth Mint's Star Trek series have been released. The latest pair feature Captain Sisko and Deep Space 9, and as before are available individually, or as a set.


    Clothing

    ThinkGeek's run of releases continues to the wardrobe department, where they've delivered a Klingon inspired denim jacket, and TNG uniform styled aprons and cardigans!



    They're not the only ones in the cardigan game though! Her Universe have also released their take on a TNG uniform inspired design, the brilliantly named The Captain Picardigan. They also released the Deanna Troi costume dress this month.


    At the most high fidelity end of costume reproductions, Anovos's Wrath of Khan uniform replicas were expected to start shipping in July; some of the individual components which can also be ordered have already been available for a while.


    Also from Anovos, the Enterprise NX-01 uniform cap should also be on the way.


    Other new accessories releases come from The Coop, who have several new TOS designs available: The phaser fanny pack, uniform inspired messenger bags, and Starfleet delta coin purses.



    German language

    Over in Germany, Cross Cult have two new Star Trek translations ready: The middle book in David Mack's Cold Equations trilogy, Silent Weapons, which in German becomes Kalte Berechnung: Lautlose Waffen. Plus there's a new Corps of Engineers ebook, Niemals aufgeben!, Jeff Mariotte's novella from 2002, originally known as No Surrender.


    Comic Con exclusives

    Finally, there was a whole host of other releases available exclusively at the San Diego Comic Con. While these are generally limited editions, they are not for the most part entirely unobtainable, as all of this year's exclusives are also orderable online.

    From DST there was a new variant of their Constitution class model, the USS Defiant, which was made in a semi-transparent plastic to give the impression of being in the interphase. These haven't been made available online yet, but I understand there was some left over stock which DST will be selling via their online shop, so keep a lookout if you'd like one. See my Comic Con report for everything else DST had on display there.


    There were two new Uglydoll plushes available, a (dead) redshirt, and a Klingon - Both can be found online at Giant Robot. Uglydoll also had a lovely bright Star Trek dominated booth at Comic Con, check it out.


    Bif Bang Pow had two bobble-head sets available, which are available online from Entertainment Earth. Those were the delightful bobble-whales (their tales rather than their heads bobble), complete with a tiny Spock swimming alongside, plus the five captains Monitor Mate set.



    Finally, from Icon Heroes, there was a Spock die-cut mouse mat, which too can be obtained online, from Action Figure Xpress.

    And that is everything! A huge month in both notable and numerous releases! You can find out more about all these items, and everything else out this year, with links to all my previous coverage on my schedule page.

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

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