TREKCORE > SPECIALS > Ten Forward: 2006/2007 Product Discussion

Date Published: February 18, 2007
Author: John Tenuto

If Star Trek is “fatigued” as critics suggest, the amount of Star Trek collectibles available for 2006 and planned for 2007 should give this bandwagon notion a challenge. The celebratory 40th anniversary and the renewed enthusiasm for the Kirk era Star Trek resulted in one of the best years for Star Trek fans.

Action Figures

Diamond Select Toys earns the award for the most Star Trek product of 2006. Their continuing line of Star Trek action figures offers respectful detailing, good articulation, a variety of eras, and a variety of characters. The fact that new Star Trek action figures are available for Star Trek’s 40th year is astounding.

The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine action figure assortment for 2006 represents DST’s plan to offer the entire crew. 5 versions of Jean Luc Picard (Season 5, Season 7, All Good Things, Locutus, and a mail away Tapestry version with the purchase of the Q Fan Collective DVD), 4 versions of Troi (Season 3 retailer exclusive, Entertainment Earth purple version, Season 7, and Nemesis with Riker), 5 Worfs (7th Season, All Good Things, Nemesis, Soldiers of the Empire, and Mirror Universe or Regent Worf version), 3 Rikers (7th Season, All Good Things, and Nemesis with Troi), and Thomas Riker join the already available figures previously from Art Asylum Toys.

DST celebrated the original Star Trek with 3 Kirk action figures (a Canadian Fan Expo exclusive, Kirk with chair, and a San Diego exclusive of a variant Kirk), Mirror Universe versions of Sulu, Uhura, McCoy, Chekov, and Marlena Moreau. Fans also were treated to one of the few Captain Pike collectibles with the Pike with chair action figure.

Expect more from DST for 2007, including Jean Luc Picard with Enterprise Chair, Nonbearded Will Riker, 4 Data versions (a Chain of Command exclusive available from New Force Comics, All Good Things with Geordi LaForge, 7th Season, First Contact), 3 Geordi LaForge versions (All Good Things with Data, 7th Season, and a Nemesis convention exclusive), 2 Wesley Crusher versions (Cadet, Season 4), 3 Beverly Crusher versions (7th Season, All Good Things, Nemesis), Nurse Ogawa, Q, Reginald Barclay, Lore, and Ro Laren are the Next Generation action figures. Benjamin Sisko (movie uniform, Season 3), Dax (Ezri, Jadzia movie uniform, Season 3), and Odo of Deep Space Nine are also available this year. The Kirk era Star Trek will be represented by a two action figure collector’s edition of Khan and Kirk, a City on the Edge of Forever Statue, Amok Time Statues, and the Landing Party statues of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. Action figures from The Wrath of Khan and Mego versions are available this summer. TWOK Kirk (two versions), Khan (two versions), Captain Clark Terrell, Sulu, Scotty, and McCoy are fan favorites. Mego versions of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, the Klingon, Shras the Andorian, and a Romulan are detailed homages to the 1970s Star Trek items. Versions of Star Trek minimates are Pike, Vina, Kirk, Spock, Scotty, McCoy with dress uniform, and McCoy. The classic 1701 Enterprise and a Wrath of Khan version are available as a toy joining the already available Enterprise A, Enterprise E, NX01 (with regular, battle damaged, and Mirror Universe variations).

There is certainly no complaint of lack of Star Trek toys from DST. The quality or variety do not suffer because of the amount they offer each year. There are a few issues worth discussing, though. First, these excellent toys are not easy to purchase. The amount of action figures with similar names becomes confusing for the casual fan who might like to buy Star Trek action figures. They are often not available in major toy stores, rather they are sold at Suncoast or web retailers. There are too many exclusives according to some fans at the forums of Art Asylum, Diamond Select, Playtrek, and Trektoy.com. This list offers good resources and retailers if you are interested in collecting Star Trek figures from DST.

www.playtrek.com  
www.trektoy.com  
www.diamondselecttoys.com  
www.newforcecomics.com  
www.actionfigureexpress.com  
 

Star Trek in Print, on the Screen

Print form represents one of the earliest available Star Trek products, whether the novels or comics of the 1960s. The tradition continued with 2006, with more for 2007.

Star Trek graced the cover of TV Guide once again (Star Trek has appeared on the cover of 57 TV Guides) this July 24, which printed one of the first discussions of the new Star Trek film. Chronicle Books sold very fun Star Trek Fold and Seal Stationery, a journal, and postcards featured Kirk and crew.

Star Trek readers were treated to the return of a variety of Star Trek comics. Startrek.com’s The Trek Life each Monday is written and drawn by David Reddick. The official Star Trek store offers original art for sale, as well as a plethora of The Trek Life products. Always funny, these Star Trek comics are worth a look if you haven’t yet seen them at the archive available at Startrek.com. The sophisticated Star Trek Manga by Tokyopop was a success with fans of Star Trek and comic books. The comic novel of five Star Trek episodes has a controversial comic of the beginnings of the Borg. IDW is providing fans with much to look forward to for 2007. The premiere of the six issue Star Trek The Next Generation comic with four variant covers is already available. Starting this April is a look at Star Trek history from the Klingon perspective with five issues of comics. The variants will be written with the Klingon language. IDW also plans a “Star Trek Season 4” comic this summer. For articles about the comics, visit www.idwpublishing.com.

Pocket Books continued its nearly 30 year publishing of Star Trek novels and calendars celebrating Kirk and crew. Most noteworthy was the collection Constellations, featuring writings by a myriad of Trek authors. Recommended is the narrative “Make Believe” by Allyn Gibson, a most unusual and beautiful Star Trek authoring. Star Trek Voyages of the Imagination by Jeff Ayers is a detailed look at the publishing history of Star Trek books. This fiction companion not only summarizes all Star Trek books, it presents comments by editors and authors. 2007 will celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation with new books. The Mirror Universe will also be the subject of two books, Glass Empires and Obsidian Alliances. The books look at the Mirror Universe from the five eras, with one of the authors being Mike Sussman who wrote for Enterprise.

Not a Pocket Book publication, yet a book nonetheless is the Christie’s Auctions Star Trek catalog, available now at a discounted price at the Christie’s website or the StarTrek.com store.

The first poster for Star Trek XI was available free at conventions this summer. As discussed by Trekmovie.com, the poster was designed by J.J. Abrams, with iconic images and symbolism that hints at the era of the next Star Trek film. The release of the poster at this year’s San Diego Comic Convention was a surprise to fans and started discussions of the next film. Some fans, hoping to see William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy in the film, wisely had the posters signed at various conventions this year.

Fans of Star Trek from the United States have been without a Star Trek magazine or fan organization since Decipher, Inc’s publishing of issue 155 of the Star Trek Communicator. Titan which has published a Star Trek magazine in Europe for years now offers U.S. fans the new Star Trek magazine. Especially good are the articles by Dave Rossi and Larry Nemecek. The fourth issue, available February 2007, will be a hundred page edition.

Roddenberry.com is selling limited edition copies of Star Trek scripts. These unique designs are very nice with a collectible cover.

Creation Entertainment holds the license for Star Trek photos. This year saw Creation Entertainment offer personalized autographs via their website of Star Trek stars. They now sell Star Trek collector plates, offering five plates of the Star Trek shows, limited to 144 each. Expect more conventions and photos from Creation for 2007. Speaking of autographs, William Shatner offers unique photos autographed at his website, Williamshatner.com.

Star Trek DVDs this year included the fan collectives for the Klingons, Q, or the Borg. 2007 sees the compilations regarding The Five Captains and Alternate Realities. The animated Star Trek is now getting accolades after being decanonized by Gene Roddenberry. The extras for the discs help place the show with its Star Trek historical context, although it would have been good if there were commentaries from Walter Koenig who wrote a episode, or other Star Trek stars.

Star Trek cards also have quite a history. Rittenhouse is the newest card licensee and arguably present the best cards for Star Trek. 2006 was a year of celebration with a 40th Anniversary card set featuring the five captains. This set included 2 costume cards with each box of Star Trek cards. A 40th Anniversary of Kirk’s Star Trek was sold this November, with two autographs per Star Trek box. The Legends of Star Trek continues with this years Picard, Data, Troi, and Riker sets. These cards are limited to 1701 sets, with each set featuring nine cards looking at the character as he or she appeared during various Treks. One of the good bonus sets from these cards are the foil cards of the TV Guide Star Trek covers. 2007 will see more Next Generation characters featured for the Legends of Star Trek.

www.startrek.com  
www.store.startrek.com  
www.roddenberry.com  
www.simonsays.com/startek  
www.scifihobby.com  
www.creationent.com  
www.titanmagazines.com  
www.williamshatner.com  
www.christies.com  
www.tvguide.com

Ships of the Line

Fans of Star Trek starships had much to celebrate this year. There is a variety of ships available for all hobbies.

Corgi is offering three ships in both painted and unpainted varieties. Often overlooked is the amazing detailed and very affordable Johnny Lightning Star Trek ships. This year, a cloaked Romulan Bird of Prey, I.S.S. NX-01 Enterprise, Borg Cube with variants, Enterprise D from All Good Things, and U.S.S. Voyager were added to this line of starships. Selling for about $4, fans were only disappointed that these ships were not offered at most major retailers. This line deserves more attention because affordable collectibles are not common for Star Trek recently. This is easily seen when looking at the $1200 to $1500 price of Master Replicas 32.46” Studio Scale USS Enterprise 1701. While a sculpture with professionalism and care, its price makes it unaffordable to most fans. It is nice that Star Trek items have a variety of prices, yet it is disappointing that the Johnny Lightning ships are usually dismissed by major retailers. The irony is that when the JL starships were offered before at toy stores, most collectors writing at forums mentioned that the Johnny Lightning ships sold out. Why not offer the next ships, then?

If a measure of the success of popular culture is the response from the marketplace, then Star Trek is not fatigued. With a Star Trek tour for 2007, new versions of Star Trek each week, a new feature film, fan produced web casts, and Star Trek collectibles of quality and variety, it is not supported to say that fans wish for less Star Trek.

If Star Trek is to endure, though, CBS Paramount might be wise to look at the way that Star Wars is marketed. There is no problem with quality or variety of Star Trek items. The problems are availability and price of Star Trek items. Star Trek items need to be featured at the stores where parents could easily buy Star Trek products. This would increase visibility of Star Trek. The irony is that 2006 saw probably one of the most amazing years for Star Trek collectibles, especially regarding variety. More items, less visibility. Star Trek collectibles are invisible to casual Star Trek fans. Johnny Lightning should be applauded for selling very reasonably priced, very good Star Trek starships. Yet, who knows about them? It should not be this expensive or this challenging to be a Star Trek fan.

Check back next week for an article featuring the new Star Trek Manga comics...

Discuss this article on The Omega Sector BBS...