Review: The Official Starships Collection #3 - Klingon Bird of Prey

Onwards with The Official Starships Collection reviews (see issue one, and issue two reviews). The third issue of the series is the first non-Federation ship to feature in the series, the Klingon Bird of Prey.

With the more battered finish of the Bird of Prey, compared to the pristine Federation ships, we get a very different feel with this one. The paint applications have to both give all the detail we want, while not being so crisp and perfect as to loose that weathered look. I think they pulled it off very well!

The entire wing and the top part of the central section of this model is made from metal, while the underside of the central body made from plastic wraps around and projects the neck forward to the head of the ship. The guns on the tips of the wings are also plastic.

Perhaps the most satisfying thing about the model is the way the stand attaches; it's the least intrusive of the series so far, slipping neatly into the gap in the impulse engines, with a satisfying click that holds it very snugly in place. If only ever ship had such a convenient place for the stand to plug into!

All over the ship there's a distressed effect paint job, which gets that weathered look across nicely, and also helps highlight the molded detailing quite well. I find the wings particularly well finished with the selective variations in colour across the panels, and the molded edges of each panel highlighted with a darker colour.

One other nice detail is that they've actually painted inside that slot at the back too.

There have been quite a few Klingon Bird of Prey models over the years, including several at a similar scale. Some versions, including the similar sized Hot Wheels edition, feature movable wings, which would have been nice, but I understand would have made it more expensive. I'd much rather have the higher level of detail here in place of that play feature. I'd say the nearest comparable model is the Corgi version from a few years ago. The Corgi edition has slightly more going on with molded details, but the the paint work is much less finessed - This is especially evident comparing the subtle variations of colour on the wing panels, compared to the harsh two-tone patches on the Corgi version. The Corgi model is also let down by the garish neon orange impulse engine. It would have been nice if Eaglemoss' rendition had the same level of molded detail as Corgi, but the overall effect is superior even without it. I'd say this is probably the best smaller scale Bird of Prey to date.

Continue after the jump for a few more photos of the model, and a look at the accompanying magazine.

Star Trek miscellanea

Here are a few bits and pieces on the way I've yet to cover, giving us Star Trek in many forms:

On the way from Icup in December is a new Captain Kirk apron:

Icup are also releasing this good/evil Spock pint glass:

Also out in time for Christmas is the latest product in the Star Trek/The Big Bang Theory crossover range, a Christmas ornament featuring the Big Bang guys in Starfleet uniform. This is part of a series of Big Bang Theory decorations from Ripple Junction, but if you want more Trek on your tree you've got Hallmark's offerings to compliment this.

And finally, I've previously looked at the new Star Trek dog beds and dog toys; but there's still more to come from Crowded Coop, who are also releasing collars, leaches, and dog bowls, a communicator shaped bag dispenser, and several different Starfleet uniforms for dogs (even a miniskirt version!). Continue after the jump for a look at all of those:

Review: The Official Starships Collection #2 - USS Enterprise refit

Eaglemoss' Official Starships Collection launches in the US this week, while it's been going more than a month in the UK, so it's about time I caught up with my reviews! Here are my thoughts on the second issue, which is the USS Enterprise, in the refit configuration introduced in The Motion Picture.

This Enterprise is quite a bit lighter than the Enterprise-D in the first issue, thanks to having a narrower, and thus smaller, saucer, which is again made of metal, save for central part on the bottom side. The rest of the ships is made of plastic, and while it looks a bit fragile seems reasonably sturdy (though I wouldn't recommend stressing the nacelle struts!). The stand grips in the same way as the D, hugging around the engineering section and clipping onto the saucer, making it very stable.

I think maybe they went a little over-board with the transparent elements in the nacelles on this one. Specifically I'd like the nacelle caps to have been an opaque material, with more painted details, rather than glowing quite a vivid blue in certain light conditions. I do like that glow effect on the longer parts of the nacelles though.

The saucer section has molded panel lines, which are quite effective. However the engineering hull doesn't have any sort of panel markings, which seems a bit inconsistent. This would have probably helped better hide some of the joins between parts of the model too.

The Enterprise-D, in issue one, set an incredibly high bar, with a remarkably detailed model, which, as I mentioned in my review, looks like it stands up next to just about every D to come before. Unfortunately the refit design doesn't quite match that impressive start to the series.

Where it really disappoints in comparison to the D is the detailing, which is more reliant on molded features, and makes less use of painted finishes. The publishers have already responded to criticism at the lack of aztecing, citing difficulties emulating the original pearlescent paint effect. They seem therefore to have opted not to give her any aztecing at all (while implying the Enterprise-A will have such detailing, with a non-pearl finish), I wish they'd been able to find a compromise though, as it does feel lacking in comparison to the D. While the existing painted details are nice and sharp, there are a few notably absences too; in particular the blue markings on the sides of the engineering hull. Without them that part of the ship seems especially blank.

It's a decent model, but not pushing the envelope as far as renditions of this particular ship go. Had the order of issues been reversed, I'm sure I'd have been much more enthusiastic about this ship, and then blown away by the D coming second. As far as similar sized models go, it seems to be much sharper in molded details than the Hot Wheels version of a few years ago, but not quite as detailed as the Johnny Lightning release.

With five issues now in hand, I feel reassured the quality of the series overall is more at the level shown on the D. It's unfortunate the second issue model has been less ambitious than the other ships in the series, but it is still a good little ship.

Continue after the jump for more photos, and a look at this issue's magazine:

Latest Trek T-shirts

I think there are a sufficiently wide range of Star Trek T-shirts available, that if you were so inclined, you could probably wear a different design every day of the year. With so many about I don't even try to catalogue them all (especially as most of them are pretty unoriginal), but do like to pick out the best now and then, so here are my latest favourites:

Trevco have addressed something that often bothers me about T-shirts; they're basically plain aside from a rectangle of design on the front, essentially turning the shirt into a frame. Not so with these cool new full-bleed designs. All based on TOS, they take inspiration from multiple sources, including the ever popular retro look from Gold Key Comics, the latest use of the Haynes Manual Enterprise cross-section, and an effortless way to give yourself Khan's chest:



Continue after the jump for a few more recent highlights from the world of Trek-T's:

New Trek advert: Brilliant Enterprise

General Electric have released a new advert in their Brilliant Machines series. This latest spot sees Mr Sulu and Science Officer 0718 saving the Enterprise from plunging into a black hole (again) using (a little oddly) General Electric's "deep sea fuel technology" (that is, I believe, some sort of apparatus they have developed for the exploitation of those ever more elusive hydrocarbons down on planet Earth). Check it out:



I can't find any sort of behind the scenes information on this yet, other than a list of production staff, I wonder if they filmed this back when Into Darkness was shooting, or pulled a few of the set pieces, and costumes, out of storage to make it.

This isn't the first film to be worked into a GE advert, previous examples include the equally enjoyable yet bizarre entries based on The Matrix and Back to the Future.

Latest little ships

A few little bits, pertaining to little ships: Eaglemoss have announced new details of the US release of The Official Starships Collection. The first issue (see my review), which is out next week in the US, will be starting the series at a promotional price, for the US that's $4.95. All subsequent issues will be $19.95. Looking a bit further ahead in the series, the magazine's website is now showing a different cover for issue 7, the K't'inga class, to that previously in circulation:

Pre-order: Things From Anther World, Entertainment Earth, Forbidden Planet.

UPDATE: Forbidden Planet and Some Kind of Star Trek have released a couple more images, giving us new views of issue seven, USS Voyager, and issue eleven, USS Reliant:

Pre-order: Things From Anther World, Entertainment Earth, Forbidden Planet.

Pre-order: Things From Another World, Entertainment Earth, Forbidden Planet.

Forbidden Planet have also posted a much higher resolution version of the previously released Deep Space 9 model image, which will be coming as a larger special issue at the end of the year:

Pre-order: Things From Another World, Entertainment Earth, Forbidden Planet. 

At a smaller scale (UPDATED), there are several bits of news from Wizkids' Attack Wing game, including details of special bits and pieces being given away are retailer events over the next few months. You kind full details of the Dominion War events on Wizkids' page, which includes a look at some of the new ships involved, such as these neat sets of Federation and Cardassian fighters:

Meanwhile for the more widely available ships, Entertainment Earth have added listings for the next two waves of expansion packs. They are:

• Wave 2, due in December, will include:
• Federation: USS Excelsior (Excelsior class)
• Klingon: IKS Koraga (Bird of Prey)
• Romulan: RIS Vo (scout ship)
• Dominion: Koranak (Keldon class)
• Wave 3, due in February, will include:
• Federation: USS Equinox (Nova class)
• Klingon: IKS Somraw (Raptor class)
• Romulan: Gal Gaththong (bird of prey)
• Dominion: 4th Division Battleship

Wizkids have also updated their Attack Wing website with images of the next four expansion packs, which are out this month: the USS Defiant, IKS Kronos One, IRW Praetus, and the Dominion's 5th Wing Patrol Ship. These are apparently considered wave 1, following the wave 0 set of ships released alongside the initial starter set. Here's what they look like all packed up:

Continue after the jump for a look at the contents of each pack, as well as the latest Star Trek Tactics previews:

October's retro prints

Juan Ortiz's retro TOS designs might now be available in its entirety in the new book dedicated to the series, but for those of you still looking to fill a bit of wall space, there are still a few more quartets of posters to come. Here are the four designs for October, with highlights from Juan Ortiz's commentary on each design from StarTrek.com:

Obsession

It is a tribute to Georges Méliès' A Trip to the Moon. The iconic image of the rocket hitting the moon in the eye from that film is, of course, replaced with Kirk and the Enterprise.

The Cloud Minders

This was meant to be a page out of a storybook. My initial thought was to go with an image of Droxine, representing a sort of princess. I felt, however, that the image of the floating city had more of a magical and mysterious tone to it. 

Mudd's Women

I thought of the old movie musicals/comedies. Back in the days before video, cable and DVDs, any old movie on TV would do. Sometimes there would be a whole week of musicals. This episode is in no way lighthearted, but the idea for the design was tough to resist.

The Squire of Gothos

The noose was the hook. I was able to build upon that one image. There is some Russian poster influence in this one also.

I didn't want the noose to be too central. To me the poster was still about the trial and this photo of the actor was too perfect. But what sets this one apart from most is the written copy along the side. 

Lots of socks, and an imaginary T-shirt

Fear not, I've not gone crazy, the title refers simply to the latest Trek stuff from the ever-varied offerings of ThinkGeek. Their TOS mens socks have been available for some time now, but the pressures of equality have finally prevailed, so now ThinkGeek are offering a TOS uniform style sock for ladies too:

And there are more! For men and woman alike, they've applied the same idea to the TNG uniform, to create even more Star Trek socks!

In other ThinkGeek news, they have teamed up with Her Universe to launch a Star Trek T-shirt design competition, called Make It Sew. So any Trekkie-artists should have a look at the page detailing that, for a chance to make an official Her Universe Star Trek T-shirt design.

Books bits: Cross Cult Voyager, Klingons, and aliens among us!

Books news! Starting as ever with shiny new covers: Cross Cult have posted their latest cover drafts on the German Star Trek books Facebook page. Continuing the German release of the Voyager relaunch Cross Cult's regular artist, Martin Frei, has created another diptych design for the next two books in the series, which form the Spirit Walk duology (or Geistreise in German). Here is the combined cove draft for Old Wounds (Alte Wunden) and Enemy of My Enemy (Der Feind meines Feindes):

Cross Cult currently have these two scheduled for May and June next year. Looking further ahead, their Star Trek books website also lists the first books in The Fall series, but no information yet one when they'll be coming (based on what's already scheduled, I'd not expect them until 2015). 

Elsewhere in the Star Trek publishing world, The G and T Show recently interviewed Keith R.A. DeCandido, who talked with them about all sorts of Star Trek stuff (and other stuff too), including giving a neat description of his forthcoming return to Star Trek books, in The Klingon Art of War:

I've been jokingly calling it a self help book (which it kind of is). It's a guide to living a proper Klingon life; it's not just applicable to warriors, it's supposed to be applicable to anybody. It's set up with ten precepts on how to live your life like a proper bad-ass Klingon, and each of those precepts is spelled out with various anecdotes from Klingon history. Some of them are pulled from episodes of the show, some of them from the various TV shows and movies, some of them are pulled from novels and comic books, and some I completely made up from scratch for the book.

KRAD also mentioned that his authorship of this book was thanks to a recommendation by fellow Trek author Dayton Ward. And speaking of Mr Ward... He recently posted on his blog, part of the original pitch for his recent (and excellent) TOS UFO paranoia novel, From History's Shadow. Check out Dayton's blog for a sample of what the book might have been like if it had been written, as originally proposed, as a DS9 novel.

New starships calendar covers, and 2014 calendar round up

There are at least eight 2014 Star Trek calendars available to choose form around the world, most are already available, but there's one still to come, which is Danilo's starships calendar for the UK market. Last year their ships calendar focused exclusively on nuTrek, with a mixture of stills from the first film, and concept art. For 2014 they've broadened the range of ships on display, with stills, promo shots, and concept art from across the franchise. Here are the covers, for the calendar which is out in a week or so:

Purchase: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es, Amazon.it, Amazon.co.jp.

Last year Danilo also released a TOS calendar, but this year they've switched tracks, and gone for an Into Darkness design. Here are the covers for that calendar, which was released a few weeks ago:

Purchase: Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr, Amazon.es, Amazon.it, Amazon.co.jp.

Continue after the jump for a run-down of all the other 2014 calendars available: