Saturday 3 February 2018

Eaglemoss Starships Collection up to issue 130 revealed

It's been a while since Eaglemoss gave us an update on what's ahead in The Official Starships Collection, so much so in fact that the next issue due to be revealed was simply done so in their last round of solicitations - Issue 122 is the Yeager class, one of the obscure kitbash ships from DS9; made almost literally by raming a Maquis raider in the back of an Intrepid class!

But we do now know many more issues ahead, not via the usual official announcements, but from Eaglemoss customer services, who provided a list to one of the users of the very active Eaglemoss fan group on Facebook. So continue below to have a look at what's ahead in the series. There's some surprisingly ships included, and some surprising ships still missing!

Issue 123, due out in April, will be the Romulan Science Vessel, a ship seen just once, in TNG's The Next Phase. Due to the design being a modification of a previously used miniature, it is of course very similar to the Romulan Scout Ship, which we got as issue 90, a year ago. Pictured is Ed Giddings' rendering of the ship for the collection, ready for Eaglemoss to bring to life.

There are very few Romulan ships left for the collection to mine now; we're missing the Scimitar and Scorpion fighters from Nemesis, both of which would make wonderful models (I'm hoping for a Thalaron weapon deployed huge special of the Scimitar). And we might yet find ourselves with a D7 variant with Romulan Bird of prey style paintwork, as seen in the remastered version of The Enterprise Incident (which I think would be a really cool release too!).

Now for something a whole lot more obscure; although arguably it's been in a lot of episodes! Issue 124 will be the SS Emmette; that's the delta-type ship seen in the opening of Enterprise flying over the moon.

As Doug Drexler revealed on his old blog (now offline), the ship wasn't that finished from the front, as the back is all that was need for the shot. You can see some concept art for the ship on John Eaves' blog too.


Issue 125 is Alice, from the Voyager episode of the same name, which was all about Tom Paris' obsession with this little shuttle.

There are loads of potential Voyager ships still not covered in the series (and some really distinctive designs among them), and I can't say this would have been one of my top choices, but I suppose having a whole episode based around it gives it more significance than most of what remains!

Issue 126 resumes the efforts to fill out the Battle of Wolf 359 fleet, with the Niagara class USS Princeton, a weird three nacelled cousin of the Galaxy class.

There are a few more DS9 kitbash ships still to be explored, but we're nearly down with the Best of Both Worlds fleet now, with the Nebula variant USS Melbourne outstanding, plus any of the movie-era (Excelsior and Planet of the Titans designs) prototypes Eaglemoss care to produce.

Issue 127 is the Eymorg ship, from TOS' Spock's Brain. I assume we're going to get the remastered version, which is actually a pleasing original design, which should be quite distinctive among the collection. I suppose there's also the chance we'll get the original retro-rocket ship style design...


Surprisingly, issue 128 is another ship from Enterprise's opening titles, the future shuttle replacement, OV-165, which the titles imply pre-dates the launch of the Phoenix.

If we're mining the titles like this, one wonders how long it will be before we get an actual space shuttle in the series too, especially given Eaglemoss' fanaticism for releasing anything named Enterprise!

Issue 129 takes us back to TOS for the 23rd century Tholian ship, from The Tholian Web of course. Again we have the option of two designs here, the remastered version, or the original. While the original is a little plain, I wouldn't object to getting that one, just because the remastered design is rather similar to the 22nd century version, which we already got way back in issue 26 - I'd anticipate the remastered version though, just because the digital asset exists already.


Finally, for now, issue 130, which takes us up to August releases, is the Borg Probe, as seen briefly in Voyager's Dark Frontier. Perhaps not the most exciting design, but I'm glad to fill out the Borg fleet.

Bizarrely one of the biggest omissions in the collection so far (if you don't count the iffy subscriber bonus model) is the classic Borg Cube itself! Also missing is the small Borg scout ship seen in I, Borg.

So that's it for now, but with the series currently running until at least 160 issues, we've got another 30 ships still to come! And there are some surprisingly big holes to fill yet - In addition to a few of the things noted above, I feel most notable are missing Vulcan ships; at least five designs spanning all eras still absent; surely at least the T'Plana Hath and The Motion Picture Vulcan shuttle are to come? Also missing from the movie era is the Merchantman, and from TNG movies, all the Son'a ships still! And you can still take your pick from notable designs still wanted from DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise. So we've got lots more to look forward to!

Now back in the present, here's Eaglemoss' latest 360 degree video, of the new Phase II concept art USS Enterprise bonus issue:



And here are new images of some of the latest releases, via the Eaglemoss shop. Issue 115 was the Tellarite cruiser:






Issue 16, another member of the kitbash fleet, the USS Curry:






And most recently added, issue 17 was the 22nd century Ferengi starship:






For a listing of all the ships in the Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection, including links to all my previous previews and reviews, see my index page for the main series, and list for the Discovery series.

Eaglemoss

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5 comments:

Neil Douglas said...

Great article. What else would you like to see from DS9/VOY/ENT?

Unknown said...

The rest of the Vulcan ships (two from ENT Carbon Creek,the T'Pau and shuttle from TMP, the one from First Contact),
Cardassian Keldon class and Dukat's freighter Groumal,
the Dominion Battleship,
the Scimitar,
the Son'a ships
the Ferengi shuttle
the big Kazon ship
the Hirachy ship from VOY
the Krenim battleship

...are all important vessels or from major alien races and worth to be included.

Unknown said...

...and the Orion Interceptor from ENT, because it looks so darn cool.

Benjamin said...

My wish list:
- The Son'a ships. I've always liked them, and the collection wouldn't be complete without them.
- Borg cube. Yeah, this just really needs to be a regular issue in the collection. Maybe they're saving it for last?
- Night alien ship from the VOY episode "Night". They just look quite unique.
- The Devore warship from the VOY episode "Counterpoint".
- The Scimitar. Obviously.
- V'Ger.

Fox said...

Huh. I always assumed the Curie was flatter--IE no neck or struts, everything attached directly to the saucer. As bad a rap as the Yeager gets, I'm now thinking the Curie might be the ugliest kitbash.

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