Impulse Buy

I try not to go for things like this, but it was the new Enterprise from the movie and there hasn't been any around since the Playmates stuff came out, so why not. I was picking up a magazine at the time as well so bonus I guess.



When I returned to my car after this major purchase, I ripped it out of the package and hung it on my rear view mirror, where it dangled for a few weeks until I took it down for these pictures.I figured the Poor Enterprise wasn't getting any love in the poll so why not give it a boost.



This thing has a fair amount of detail for a keychain bobble. It may even have crisper paint apps than the old Galoob Micro Machines from the nineties. Plus, it's almost the same size.

How about that "aztec pattern" on the underside?

So how many of you are going to pick up the movie on DVD tomorrow? I'll be out of town, but I have left specific instructions on the version I want, and if all goes well, it will be waiting for me when I get back.

Warp speed Mr. Sulu!

Popular Vote!

In the three franchises that I collect, there is always a stand out vehicle, which I believe to also be the most popular vehicles in pop culture. So I thought for an upcoming feature I would do a weeks worth of posts about one of the vehicles above. All will be from the Eclectorama collection, and I believe I have enough of each to make five days worth of posts.

So make sure you vote in the poll and in the following weeks the most popular of the bunch will get a week dedicated to them alone.

May the best ride win!

U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701

From the SkyBox Master Series, 1993, the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 card. I dug this out of a tote of miscellaneous toys and whatnot, it was in a zip lock baggie with a few other cards, I think it's the only one of the series I have, but it's obvious why I kept it.



The Artist is Keith Birdsong, who is an illustrator that has painted numerous Pocket Book covers as well as collector plates for the Hamilton Collection and the Bradford Exchange, you can see some more artwork here .

On the back is this quote from the artist.

"For me, this ship is a source of inspiration and hope for dreams yet to be fulfilled."

That pretty much sums it up for me as well.

These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise

I came home today and waiting for me was none other than the U.S.S. Enterprise Playset, a gift from my wife for my Birthday a month ago, it finally arrived.





I didn't have this set when I was young, not saying I was deprived, just it wasn't in the stars back then. I remember a friend having one of these and we would all meet in his driveway and spin that transporter as fast as we could. When I opened the box today the smell of fresh vinyl hit me and I actually remembered that smell from those days in the summer sun on the driveway.

There are some differences, the addition of a Diamond Select Logo, the crew's furniture is molded in different colors, but the Transporter still sends those figures around, like a record baby!

Here some scans of the vintage instructions and swappable View Screens






Of course I had to break out all my EMCE figures, first the crew...




Then all the Aliens for a makeshift Star Trek Convention...



Man, what a great week, getting this before the release of the Star Trek Movie makes it that much better. I will be taking Friday off, I have plans to see Star Trek in the morning and possible again in the afternoon or on Saturday (I haven't decided). Next week we should be getting some Spockcation photos in from Canada, I've seen a few, but I'm waiting for some more so I will have that to post, plus I'm thinking of starting a feature called "My Favorite Toy, This Month". If not I have a couple Figures that are currently my favorites and will be showing up. So everyone have a great weekend, remember to come back and as always Live Long and Prosper.

Oh Yeah!!!

My planned post is being interrupted for some more Star Trek toy news. Playmates Toys has set up a site detailing all their upcoming Star Trek Movie merchandise, or at least the first offerings. I already have a list of things I want, starting with the Enterprise. So click the picture and get to surfing were now man has gone before!



Side note, I had not planned on getting many of the twelve inch figures, but it's freaking Roldy! Yes, I am a fan of Harold and Kumar, I can't help it. Anyway I'm picking up Sulu here, just in case House gets licensed out and we get a Kal Penn figure, then all we need is some NPH!

Oh and also a note to any family members reading this, Hint... freaking Hint!

Star Trek Destroyer

Here's a blast from the past. A miniature of a Star Fleet Destroyer or Cruiser, take your pick. This was a piece from a miniature rpg from back in the seventies, early eights maybe. I never played the game, but my friends and I would hit the hobby store so we could have tiny models of our favorite Starships. Sort of early versions of the Micro Machines I put up yesterday.



The only drag was you had to paint these yourself, and being a kid with a fair knowledge of painting models, I still had problems trying to paint the name and numbers on my ships. this one was actually coated in white after a failed attempt to paint the numbers on the saucer section.



These ships are about the same scale as the micro machines, maybe a little smaller, but to give you an idea this guy is about two inches max in length.



I think besides having the chance of getting a small Enterprise back then this opened up my eyes to a a much larger and diverse range of ships both from the Federation and all the aliens of the show. I think this may have been the only time I had actually seen a Tholian ship as a model. Years later I would be reminded of these tiny ships when I picked up a Classic series book detailing the federation designs and this ship along with the cargo ship were both featured in the diagrams section.



Too bad we never really played the game, though we did make up or own using these ships, small rocks for torpedos, and the 12" tiles on floor of a friends parent's house as a measuring system for parsecs. Like we knew what a parsec was.

Space the Tiny Frontier...

More smallness this week with Tiny Trek Ships! Actually these were from the Galoob Micro Machines Space line of the early nineties. Galoob known for it's tiny Micro Machine cars branched out by taking on Star Trek and Star Wars in this tiny scale. These were both a welcome sight in my home back then. This meant a fleet of ships could be displayed on top of computers, shelves, toothbrush holders, you get the picture. While I amassed a large set of Star Wars ships, we'll only be checking out the first set of Trek stuff today.



The first series, besides having a more generic packaging featured what could be considered Trek's big three as far as ships go. The U.S.S. Enterprise leading the pack here is a pretty close representation of the ship from the classic series. I was surprised when these hit stores that it was as detailed as it was for a mass produced miniature. I think I bought an extra set so I could hang one from my rearview mirror in the Chunky Mobile... I know super geek.



Another surprise was the detail on the bottom of the Romulan Bird of Prey, but I guess if you are going to do this ship you kinda have to go all out with the bird on the bottom or it would look kind of boring. I know I've mentioned this before, but the AMT model version of this ship was one of my nemesis back in the day. I had more problems with that damn bird decal...



Last but not least, the Klingon D-7 Battle Cruiser. Probably my second next to the Enterprise of favorite ships from the original series. If the Enterprise was hanging from the rearview, that meant that extra D-7 was converted to a key chain!

Not that I'm an army builder, but I thought at one time I would get a few of these and maybe make a fleet of D-7's for my Enterprise to take on. Then I could take all the Enterprises and re paint them to make the other ships in Star Fleet. Man I'm glad I didn't take this project on or I would probably be single right now.

There she blows!

It's the great white whale...err... Star Ship Enterprise! So This has been making the rounds this week with the announcement of a trailer premiering in four days at the official movie site.

I don't hate it, but I'm not really falling head over heals for it either. I guess I need to see it in action on the big screen. I like the nod to the original motion picture, the saucer section looks really close to the Enterprise retrofit and the Enterprise A, so I could see how they could flow continuity wise. The nacelles seem a little bulky, especially after seeing the ship on the show Enterprise, and the secondary hull seems a little trim, but I think this will all grow on me. I have mixed feelings on the deflector dish, I loved the old school copper radar dish that continually broke of every model of the enterprise I have owned, and I like the original motion picture's treatment of the blue glow, streamlined version. This seems to be a nice cross of the two, but I don't know I sorta miss the copper one. Enough nerd talk.

On a secondary note, since I have family reading the blog, I noticed this little bit for a pre order of the new movie toys, a case of the new figures in 3 3/4 scale for the amazing price of 62.89 USD! Ten figures in all, delivered in April 2009, just before the movie! I'm just saying this would make a swell Christmas present or Birthday present! I do not mind waiting for April to open a present! Hint, hint. Here's the link in case you are curious.

Till next time, ahead warp factor one!

UPDATE! RED ALERT! RED ALERT!

Diamond Select Toys and Art Asylum are bringing back the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise for all us EMCE Fanatics! Kirk was quoted as saying "The big chair and flat screen are mine!"



Oh Happy Day!

Space the Final Frontier...

1976 had to be one of the most wonderful years, as far as toys go, because it produced the Dinky Toys U.S.S. Enterprise. This Enterprise is actually my childhood one, you can see that I tried my hand at detailing this toy by adding black to the windows to make them stand out and I even tried to paint the detail on the shuttle bay doors, or what should be the shuttle bay doors on the back. Apparently I didn't have a thinner paint brush at the time.



Dinky Toys is an English company, so besides covering the American series Star Trek, it introduced me to some wonderful English properties. My Dinky Toy collection consisted of and Eagle from Space 1999 (yes it's somewhat American, but it's Gerry Anderson so it could be considered British), Thunderbird 2 from the Thunderbirds (via Gerry Anderson), The U.F.O. Shadow truck and missile launcher (another Gerry Anderson production), I even had this crazy little tank that could launch something like twelve little missiles (not sure where that one came from, assuming U.F.O. as well), plus of course my Enterprise.

Dinky's I still secretly wish I would have picked up along the way, the Aston Martin from James Bond, complete with machine guns, rotating plates, and a shield from pursuing gun fire, also the funny looking jet from U.F.O. that launched a big honking projectile from it's nose. I was close on that one.



Dinky Toys used to be kept in a special area of the toy store (at least all the ones I went to back then), usually near the cash register and in a glass display case. You could easily see all that the store had to offer and once you made your selection, the shop keeper (read employee) would unlock the case and from behind the display toys produce they toy of your dreams in a package. It was like magic. Now I have never seen Dinky Toys sold in any other way, always a glass case under lock and key, always packaged product buried within the case. If you remember seeing it displayed or sold any other way I would love to hear about it.





The U.S.S. Enterprise at the time was the toy to have, too young to build the models, and the shortage of "accurate" Starship toys to be had, the Dinky Toy version was as close to show as you were going to get. For the life of me this is one of the only toys I cannot remember getting as a gift for Christmas or a Birthday, I'm not saying it couldn't be, but I believe this came from either Toy Land at the Air Force Base Exchange or the Toy Box from Windsor Park Mall. It was more than likely the result of me begging and pleading for the pride of the Federation and the eventual purchase made by a parent. I never remember opening this on a Christmas morning or un wrapping it in a hail of birthday gifts, so it had to be from a toy expedition.





The Dinky Toys U.S.S. Enterprise was an amazing ship, not only did it come with a bottom that opened to reveal a little orange shuttle craft, but it came with these little solid "Photon Torpedos" that could be loaded into the main hull (the circular part) and with a twist of what would be the bridge you could fire them as fast as you could twist your little wrist. From what I remember these things shot rather far and hard. I think that was the best part about Dinky Toys, those little jewels could shoot missiles!







Okay so I mentioned the shuttle craft and it's landing bay... did I mention it was in the wrong place. Anyone who knows Star Trek knows the shuttles come out of the back of the Enterprise. Funny thing is years later the show "Enterprise" would show shuttle craft dropping out of the bottom of the ship, but that's another ship entirely. This little over sight used to bug the hell out of me as a kid. I would sit and wonder if I could modify this thing so that the shuttle would come out the back. I must have beat and pounded on this toy repeatedly try to figure out how to "crack it". But as a testament to the quality that is Dinky Toy, the Enterprise held, sure it's a little looser, but the damn thing held together. Eventually I gave up my quest to modify the toy. What I didn't mention is that the bottom shuttle bay actually has a duel purpose, the doors make a handy stand to display the ship. Now I knew it could do that, but I didn't appreciate that it could at the time.





Star Trek also had a Klingon Battle Cruiser, but I didn't care for that at the time, if it wasn't the Enterprise I didn't want anything to do with it. Besides who the hell wanted to be the bad guy??? The Klingon even came packaged in a set with the Enterprise and would shoot the Klingon equivalent of the Photon Torpedo, theirs happened to be white not yellow.

I remember for a while, when Star Wars hit, that they tried keeping the die cast vehicles from Kenner in the Dinky Toy case. That didn't last long, Dinky Toys were in a class by themselves, plus you know the clerk tired of open the case every five seconds to retrieve a TIE fighter of Land Speeder. I think this sort of confused me, because to this day I call the larger die-cast toys Dinky Toys, not so much Star Wars, mostly the Corgi and Ertl stuff.

Galileo Shuttlecraft

1996's Playmates Toys Galileo Shuttlecraft staring James T. Kirk himself! Captain Kirk was a pack in with the shuttlecraft toy, sporting his "Where no man has gone before" costume, and early version of the popular Starfleet shirt that the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise would make famous.



If it's one thing I like it's the classic shuttle craft, I don't know, it must be the retro box design. I've just always dug this ship. Another thing I like is that Playmates Toys went out of their way to produce just about every ship you could think of from the series, and the shuttles were doe at a similar scale as the figures. I say similar because it isn't actually to scale, the shuttle would be about two and a half times longer and a couple times higher to be in scale, but kids don't care as long as you can jam Captain Kirk, Batman, or He Man in there you are good to go!



I tell you when I was a kid I soooo wanted a shuttle for my Megos. I even thought about building one, but it was little more than a cake box that I later turned into a square version of the Jupiter 2. So jump to 1996 and this guy hit the market, at the time it seemed that Star Trek toys were sort of on a decline because when I first spied these they were already hitting clearance aisles, when I went back to the store on payday they were all gone, so about a year ago I found this guy online and beamed my payment right away.



Besides being out of scale it's a pretty cool little playset type vehicle, there are all sorts of compartments that you can open up for Spock and Scotty to make repairs. A couple of seats (with seat belts, huh?), open cockpit and cargo door (which the original shuttle didn't have), and the coolest the side door opens up! Along with the good captain the shuttle comes with a little missile firing Phaser Cannon for shooting at Klingons, Romulans, and Gorn (oh my!).



Now, this next opening hatch (shown above) I have no clue what it is. Looks sort of like missiles or something, though I like to think it's something scientific. My only guess is that it's an homage to the concept designer, Walter "Matt" Jefferies from the original series, and it's a G.N.D.N. hatch. G.N.D.N (Goes Nowhere Does Nothing) was what they would label those pipes and other set dressings in the original series, the ones you would see as the characters would walk down the hallways. Another fun bit of trivia, the Jefferies Tube was named after Matt, this is that section of the Enterprise that Scotty would crawl up into to make some sort of critical repair.



The Galileo here is the first shuttle to carry the name, it was lost in the episode The Galileo Seven, and later replaced with another shuttle bearing the same number designation, but named the Galileo II. While it's cool that it came with a Captain Kirk, I think this shuttle would have been way more cooler if it came with a Mr. Spock and Lt. Boma so you could have them fight it out like in the episode, teeeension.

Denim, the final frontier!

What better way to say "beat the crap out of me and steal my lunch money" than to sew a patch on you tough skins of your favorite sci-fi show?

The crazy thing is, I kept this from my child hood. I even remember picking it out when I was young! It never got used (thank the maker!) Must have been during the time they stopped making tough skins and I had to start wearing regular jeans. That's one beat down I escaped!

The beard is logical...

...or at least cool. Spock with a beard, you have to admit that is pretty damn sweet for a toy. This is a little early birthday present that I purchased for myself on E-Bay. This little logical fellow is copyright 1997 from a great little toy company called Playmates, the makers of all things Ninja Turtle. I remember seeing one back in 97 and I had to pass because times were tight, not that I did without, but the bearded Spock just wasn't a logical choice at the time (how many times can I use logical in this post?). Well throwing logic to the wind I signed on to the bay one day and found me a Spock with a beard.

This version of everyones favorite Vulcan is from an episode of the original series called "Mirror, Mirror" were Captain Kirk finds himself in a little transporter mishap and ends up hanging with the "evil" duplicates of an alternate universe. How beard equals evil puzzles me somewhat, but I guess they had to make Spock look different somehow. Mr. Spock, or Mirror, Mirror Mr. Spock comes with some snazzy accessories; a Mirror Universe Phaser which looks like a normal phaser, but is now an offensive instead of defensive weapon, an Agonizer for punishing crew members, a Knife cause he's evil, a Desktop Computer for planning out his manifesto, and a Starfleet base to pose him on. The base is kind of weird because the mirror universe has a different insignia than the normal Trek universe, so it really doesn't fit here. Yes I'm a classic Trek geek, yes I say Trekkie and not Trekker, oh and yes I freed this Mirror Mirror Spock from his little plastic bubble universe. I mean he can't be that evil and if I remember the episode correctly he did help our good captain find his way back to the U.S.S. Enterprise, right?

Anyway this will be far from my last post about Classic Series Star Trek stuff, that's why I call it eclectorama.