Saturday 29 September 2018

Book bits: TNG: Available Light cover, and Discovery audiobook updates

StarTrek.com have revealed the cover for their next TNG novel, Dayton Ward's Available Light, which is due out in April. The alien packed design is by Doug Drexler and Ali Ries. StarTrek.com have also confirmed this book will be getting an audiobook release. Continue below for a reminder of the blurb, and some other audiobook news:

Friday 28 September 2018

USS Enterprise shaped PC on the way from Lenovo

What's the best sort of Star Trek product? One shaped like the USS Enterprise of course! So thank you Lenovo for bringing us the latest in a long line of things improbably starship-shaped, with the forthcoming Tiburn Enterprise Star Trek PC, which was debuted at the Lenovo Tech World Conference in Beijing this week. Mydrivers.com were on hand to get pictures:


Gentle Giant reveal their amazing Discovery statues

Gentle Giant are set to release a pair of most impressive 1/8th scale Discovery statues, taken from the very start of the series and featuring two of the most impressive costume designs from the entire season: Michael Burnham, in her long-haul space-suit, and the Klingon Torchbearer. Both are of course based on original production assets, with the Torchbearer in particular coming from work Gentle Giant themselves did making the real costume.


These are expected to ship in the second quarter of 2019, and are both now available for pre-order -Which means Gentle Giant have released a whole load of images, showing off the truly incredible level of detail these offer. Continue below to check them out:

Thursday 27 September 2018

Short Treks: Runway trailer

CBS have released a trailer for the first episode of Short Treks, the Tilly focused Runaway. Check it out (and if you can't see the geo-locked Youtube video, see the Instagram version instead).



Eaglemoss starships updates: New ships, new previews

I've got a bumper Eaglemoss update today, including the reveal of several new ships to The Official Starships Collection, and previews of many more, from the regular series, specials, XL, and Discovery collections!

First up lets go right to the leading edge of the main series, with the latest round of solicitations revealing two previously unannounced ships in the series. Issue 140 will be the Starfleet Tug, seen fleetingly in DS9's A Time to Stand. This isn't the prettiest ship, but I find it rather delightful that Eaglemoss are able to dive so deep into the obscurities of Starfleet that we're now going to being getting a model of something like this! It should arrive first in the UK in December, with other markets following.


Tuesday 25 September 2018

Star Trek vs Transformers #1 preview

Out this week is the first issue in IDW's latest crossover comics series, Star Trek vs Transformers: Prime's Directive. The four-part series brings together the original animated series eras of both universes, with artist Philip Murphy and colourist Priscilla Tramontano taking us right back to the retro look of both series. The comic's writing duties are a crossover in themselves, bringing together Star Trek's Mike Johnson with Transformers' John Barber.

This first book is offered in four different covers, with Philip Murphy providing both the A and B covers, which form a diptych, featuring the Starfleet and Autobot characters on the A side, and the Klingons and Decepticons on the B side. There are also two retail incentive covers, with Paulina Ganucheau giving us a feline crossover, and Derek Charm riffing on the classic TAS promo art with a Transformers twist.

Continue below to check out all the covers, plus a five page preview:

Action figure updates: Mego wave 2, DST and McFarlane previews, and standees

Lots of Star Trek action figure updates today, including new previews of forthcoming Diamond Select Toys and McFarlane action figures. Continue below for those.

But first we have our first look at the at the Star Trek figures in wave two of Marty Abrams Presents Mego revival range. Joining Sulu, Chekov and mirror Kirk and Spock from the first assortment, we will soon be able to get Spock and the Gorn.

TrekMovie posted this nice clear images of the Spock figure, which Mego Museum have found a packaged shot of. This is of course very close to the original Mego Spock figure from the 70s.


Picard desktop computer replica from Roddenberry

Roddenberry have revealed the final piece in their Picard desk set of replica prop reproductions; the previously release desk crystal and isolnear circuits set will be joined by Picard's desktop computer.

This is in fact something of an upgrade to the original prop, matching the overall look, and in some cases original techniques used to make it, but switching out some materials to give the new replica a bit more heft and durability. As Roddenberry explain at some length:

Sunday 23 September 2018

New Wizkids game: Conflick in the Neutral Zone

Wizkids have announced a new Star Trek board-game, Conflick in the Neutral Zone - And yes that's the right spelling; a play on words, as the game involves flicking discs around to defeat your opponents:
Resource-rich planets have been found in the Neutral Zone and both the Federation and Klingon Empire are out to exploit them!

In this simple flicking game, players will flick discs representing the various ships found within the Star Trek universe. These ships are used to collect resources or attack other ships.

Collecting resources (energy and command points) is accomplished by bringing a collector ship within range of an energy or command point planet. To attack, you must use your attack ship to hit an opponent’s ship off the planet or board. Successfully attacking an opponent will award a command point.

But attacking isn’t always easy—players can add in asteroids in order to block shots and protect their ships.

Your fleet can be expanded during your turn by purchasing more ships, allowing you to increase the strength of your forces and ultimately claim the planets for yourself.

The game is over when a player reaches 10 command points, and that player is declared the winner.

Thursday 20 September 2018

Short Treks trailer, and titles and dates announced

CBS have announced the full details of the forthcoming four episode run of the Discovery spin-off Short Treks mini-episodes. Continue below for episode descriptions, release dates, and credits. But first, check out the trailer (US geo-locked alas, but the Instagram version should help you if you can't see on YouTube):



IDW's December Star Trek comics, 2019 hints, and Transformers crossover preview

IDW  have announced their solicitations for December, which include two new Star Trek comics (both the final issues of their respective series). Continue below for full details of those, hints at a new series for 2019, previews from the Transformers crossover, news of the latest omnibus releases, and more!

So first up, coming in December:

Star Trek vs. Transformers #4
Written by John Barber and Mike Johnson, with art by Philip Murphy.
With the Enterprise disabled by the Klingon-Decepticon alliance, things look dire for Spock, Optimus Prime, and the landing team. But with the Autobots’ help, can Captain Kirk come up with a solution to save the day from a massive Cybertronian threat?
This book will be offered in three covers. The A cover by Philip Murphy has yet be released, but we can check out the rest. The B cover is by Priscilla Tramontano, featuring Optimus Prime filling the viewscreen on the Enterprise. There will also be a retail incentive cover by George Caltsoudas, featuring M'Ress (who is getting a good showing on covers for this series), and, I think, Bumblebee.


Saturday 15 September 2018

Star Trek Nemesis soundtrack on vinyl

Star Trek Nemesis has become the latest Star Trek movie to get a shiny new vinyl soundtrack release. Available now from Varése Sarabande is a two disc set, featuring Jerry Goldsmith' music from the film on distinctive (thalaron) green discs! If you're a fan you'll want to get in quick though, as this is a limited edition of just 750!

At long last Jerry Goldsmith’s final musical journey into the Star Trek universe gets the vinyl treatment. Now available in a deluxe 2 LP gatefold jacket is the full & thrilling score to Star Trek: Nemesis on green thalaron colored vinyl. Also included are detailed liner notes by Star Trek historian, Jeff Bond. Get this exclusively on our website before Shinzon does.

Eaglemoss starships updates: First look at XL Enterprise-C, new previews, and new ships confirmed

Lots of updates from Eaglemoss' starships collections today, including news of new ships confirmed for the series. But first, let's check out some new previews:

First up we have our first look at the tenth XL ship, the USS Enterprise-C, which has just recently appeared on the UK Eaglemoss webshop, with the promise of an October release.


Friday 14 September 2018

Cancelled Kelvin timeline Playmates toys revealed

Back in 2009, the relaunch of the Star Trek movies with the first Kelvin timeline film brought with it the return of Playmates to Star Trek toys, coming with ambitious plans for a large range of of Star Trek action figures at multiple scales, role play props, and model ships. Alas those ambitions quickly became the latest chapter in Star Trek toys' long history of flops, and after the initial wave plans for expanding the collection were quietly forgotten, while the lingering remains of the first releases found themselves covered in discount stickers.

By the time Playmates pulled the plug they had already announced the line-up of a second wave of action figures, which would have expanded the available cast considerably, including the Delta Vega creatures! But it was known Playmates were already at work on further releases too, and now thanks to an eBay seller we can get a look at what they were developing. Kateunc2 is offering copies of several pieces of concept art, which were apparently "personally obtained via previous worker at Playmates"; they seem fairly credible, as they illustrate several lines Playmates were known to be working on. Continue below to check out what could have been.

Many of the pieces shown are versions of Spock, so I guess either Playmates were really keen on Spock variants, or whoever smuggled these out just had that preference. That includes Spock prime as we first met him in the movie, in his Delta Vega thermals. This design is for one of Playmates smaller 3.75 inch scale "Galaxy Collection" figures; in fact all the action figure artwork shown here appears to be for the smallest scale range Playmates were working on.


Get funky in the latest TOS Trek-wear

TOS inspired clothing is getting pretty jazzy lately, with rainbows, neon colours, comic book inspiration, and more giving the latest TOS Trek-wear some pop. Continue below to check out some of the latest releases.

Drawing colourful neon tinted imagery from the Tokyo Invasion Star Trek branding are a pair of "lounge pants" from ThinkGeek, released last month. Covered in a dense texture of blue Star Trek imagery, there are also larger renditions of Spock, Kirk, the Enterprise, and both Japanese and English text on the legs. These are just the latest product to use these designs are drawn from artwork used to promote Star Trek in Japan in the 70s, with previous examples including an even brighter martial arts top.


Wednesday 12 September 2018

Terra Incognita #3 preview

Out this week is the third issue of Terra Incognita,  IDW's latest TNG comic seasoned with mirror universe Barclay. This particular issue focuses on Doctor Selar, and Vulcan culture in general. Angel Hernandez takes on the art duties for this book, from regular writers Scott and David Tipton.

The book is offered in four different covers, with the A cover, featuring an energetic group of La Forge, Crusher, and Selar (the main crew characters in the issue) from Tony Shasteen and colourist JD Mettler. The B cover is a photomontage featuring Geordi as well. There are also two retail incentive covers; one by Elizabeth Beals which features Riker and Worf mok'bara training (curiously enough neither character appears in this issue at all!), and the most issue relative cover of the set, featuring Selar and a lot of Vulcan-ness, by J.K. Woodward

Continue below to check out all the covers and a five page preview.

Friday 7 September 2018

Model kits round-up: Updates on K't'inga class, Oberth class, and USS Kelvin kits

I've got a round up of the latest Star Trek model kits news today, with updates on several exciting up-coming releases, including the first Oberth class and USS Kelvin kits. But first, lets take a close look at what is surely the most significant model kit release of the year, Round 2 Models' Polar Lights 1:350 scale Klingon K't'inga class battle cruiser.

Round 2 are hoping to have this big kit out before the end of the year, and have just recently released the box-art for both the kit itself and the separate lighting kit. Both are in the latest style Star Trek packaging, which has been nicely specified to the ship with a Motion Picture Klingon in the character segment, and V'Ger making a pretty background to the model shots, which are of course emulating the shots of the ship from the movie.


Thursday 6 September 2018

New TNG postage stamps, including TNG cats!

Star Trek postage stamps have over the years have explored most corners of the Star Trek universe now (still waiting on some Discovery and TAS releases), but just occasionally they get really out there, and the latest release is certainly one of those times!

Released by the Marshall Islands in July, the latest Star Trek stamps series features artwork from Jenny Parks' Star Trek: The Next Generation Cats book. Twelve designs are available, released as two collectable miniature sheets, which together give us all the main TNG characters and a few secondary ones too - This is just the latest in an increasingly diverse range of spin-offs from the Star Trek Cats series, which other recent releases including T-shirts and mobile accessories.


Titan Magazines Discovery companion, and Star Trek Magazine updates

Just starting to turn up on bookshelves now is one of the latest Star Trek releases from Titan, the Star Trek Discovery Special Edition: The Making of Season 1, a companion to the first series including an episode guide, behind the scenes coverage, interviews, and more. Continue below to check out lots of preview pages and covers for that releases, plus other updates from the Star Trek Magazine.

Like last year's Discovery "Collector's Edition" from Titan, this special edition is being released in both magazine and book formats; in fact it's got no less than four different releases! There's the hardcover format release using one of Paul Shippers Discovery illustrations for the cover. The regular magazine format release is an assemblage of promo photos and typically magazine-ish text shouting about the contents. And then more obscurely there's a Previews exclusive tri-coloured Vulcan/Starfleet/Klingon cover, and already available for a month, the Star Trak Las Vegas exclusive cover.


Sunday 2 September 2018

Latest TOS costume replicas from Anovos

Several new items from the TOS TV and movie eras are now available to order from Anovos, the maker of high end Star Trek costume replicas. Continue below to check them out.

First up, something that was previewed at conventions recently, the Wrath of Khan "Starfleet landing party field jacket". The elaborately collared and multi-pocket coat worn by Admiral Kirk in the film, is now available to order, with a long lead time; they're not expected to ship until autumn 2019!

There are lots of details on this piece, which as ever are meticulously recreated referencing originals, and that is no doubt reflected in the certainly-not-a-casual-purchase price of $1500. Alas so far Anovos have only released two images, so detail remain seen from afar (including the Sol Sector Earthbase patch on the sleeve, which sadly can't be seen clearly in either image):


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