Saturday 6 August 2016

The latest FanSets collectable pins, featuring ships, characters, and more!

Back in June FanSets launched, with the promise of making numerous pins featuring characters from several media franchises, starting with Star Trek. They apparently have some sixty pins already available or at some point in production in their Star Trek collection alone, including "MicroCrew" representations of characters, and "MicroFleet" ships with a sort of mission patch feel. Here are many of the ones they have so far released/announced, and continue below for a look at all the most recently announced additions to the collection:


I really like the ship designs! Last time I posted about them, FanSets had only released artwork that they intended to turn into pins for most of their ships, but more recently they posted this photo of several of the finished objects; and don't they look splendid!


Here's a closer look at the Enterprise-D:


Incredibly, the SS Bonaventure, from TAS is also on the way! FanSets have promised they will provide a wide ranging and diverse assortment, including plenty of obscure stuff that most Star Trek licensees never get near, and they are certainly delivering here! Surely this must be the first piece of Star Trek merchandise to feature this ship?


There will be a second series of ship pins with interact with an app to make them come alive in augmented reality. FanSets founder Dan Madsen explains some of the features these will have to Larry Nemecek for a piece on Trekland:
We are working with a company out of Indonesia that is one of the top three Augmented Reality companies in the world. Essentially, what this is, is—let’s take the Enterprise pin: You'll be able to take an app that we’ll provide and, when you see that pin on anyone, hold your smartphone or your tablet up to it for a second–and suddenly the Enterprise will come alive, out of the pin: it will literally be 3-D and move—shoot off into warp drive, with music and sound effects.
The different pins will also be able to interact via the augmented reality, as Madsen described with the example of the Enterprise and a Klingon ship:
The Enterprise will come out of the pin, the Klingon will come out of the pin, and they’ll have a space battle right there on your phone! Firing back and forth at each other.
The Enterprise appears to be the first of these on the way. You can see the finished pin in that group shot at the top of the article, and here's a closer look at the artwork:


Another unusual format has been revealed this week at the Star Trek Las Vegas convention, a huge six-piece pin set to celebrate the 50th anniversary. Limited to an edition of 1701 (of course), the series will start in September with the center-piece, Kirk, and Picard segments. Sisko, Janeway, and Archer will then follow each month, completing the set by the end of the year.


Also offered at the San Diego Comic Con a couple of weeks ago were two exclusive pins, one featuring the USS Enterprise, and the other a memorial transporter scene noting the late Deforest Kelley, James Doohan, and Leonard Nimoy:


Further exclusive pins will be available via the FanSets Members Club, which will offer exclusive designs every month when it launches later this year. FanSets have previewed the first two of these, both Kirks: The first in the green wrap uniform variant, and the second in an EV suit.


According to Trekland, other types of pins planned include some with moveable parts, autograph pins with a space to get signed by the featured actor, and alphabet pins (ie. S with a Spock).

The vast majority of the FanSets releases and announcements so far however are the MicroCrew, and since my last post they have revealed the final form of many more of those pins:








They have also released artwork for even more designs (I think Q looks especially good):





It sounds like FanSets have plans to bring us much more, so I'm sure it won't be long until I'm bring more news of their efforts. In the mean time, check out my first report on them for a look at the other designs they have so far revealed, and visit their website to browse what they currently have available.



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