Modelling Star Trek ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ By Sven Harvey ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Well as usual in the middle of summer there has been virtually no news on the model front other than the release of the new Playmates Star Trek: The Next Generation toys in the U.S. and the confirmation of a further batch of toys just before or after Christmas and the Deep Space Nine toys expected before the major Christmas shopping commences. The current U.S. figures are as follows; Range as 1992 plus 1st/2nd season versions of the previous release crew-members, Doctor Beverly Crusher, Cadet Wesley Crusher, Borg with chrome- plated accessories, Locutus Of Borg, Guinan, Klingon Warrior Worf, K'Ehleyr, Benzite, and Geordi LaForge in season 3 onwards dress uniform. There will be figures of Abassador Spock (as in Unification), Scotty (as in Relics) and McCoy (as in Encounter At Farpoint), probably in the next batch. Other rumoured figures are Ensign Ro, Beverly in season 1/2 uniform and Wesley in one of those variety of acting ensign uniforms or even in the proper season 3 uniform as in the end of season 3 and first part of season 4. The inclusion of LaForge in dress uniform suggests that this will be the crew-uniform variation for the 1994 range. The Q figure has not appeared as rumoured but may appear in the Christmas batch along with, supposedly, Hugh of Borg and Lore. The Classic Trek set has not debuted yet but if you see one anywhere buy it! As for the non-figure items, only the Tricorder has appeared on U.S. shelves so far and are like gold dust. The effect is of cause intensified in the U.K.. Dark Side Of The Moon has reported that it sold out it's first batch of Tricorders (200 in all) before they even recieved the shipment, at £20 each! WHSmith were not so lucky. They recieved a small amount of the new figures which sold out very quickly but their wholesalers have been prohibited from bringing further shipments into the country until they get a CE number for each item. There is a possibility that Bandai who had a special deal with Woolworths for the first releases (Woolworths had the first figures in American packaging on sale in January, six months before Bandai released them for sale anywhere else) may have stepped as if WHSmith had got a good supply going at £6.99 a figure it would have taken Bandai's market before they even released their versions! The smaller importers have not been affected to my knowledge, probably because their prices are too high at £10 a figure. Just keep an eye on the larger Woolworths stores here in the U.K. if your after the figures! The other toys, the Bridge, Klingon Attack Cruiser, figure collector case, Romulan Warbird and Transporter room should appear before Christmas with the DS9 stuff. Ertl has also been flexing it's legal muscles recently by ceasing Comet miniatures work on their Enterprise-C kit probably to warn companies of the Star Trek ships and Enterprise kits especially as U.S.S. Enterprise is a Paramount trademark and hence can only be legally used by licenced companies such as AMT/Ertl. Does this mean we will see the expansion of the Enterprise kit lines with an Excelsior class Enterprise-B and Ambassador class Enterprise-C form Ertl? Not likely, we haven't even seen their Runabout yet and their Deep Space Nine kit seems to have disappeared into the nearest Wormhole. C'mon Ertl, if you don't want other people making kits do them yourself. There is still no Reliant, Grissom, Excelesior, Next Generation shuttlecraft, or Warbird, Marauder or Klingon Bird Of Prey in a decent scale (i.e. the same scale as Enterprise-D) and the Bird Of Prey in the Adversary set is really terrible anyway. There is an enormous market out there for any Star Trek kits yet AMT/Ertl haven't got their act together! On a higher note, the American version of the Mergers and Monopolies commision has started an investigation into the prices of model kits, vinyl kits in particular. They finally realised that a price of £50 for a model that costs just over £2 to make is a little high. Look for price drops on vinyl models such as Screamin's range and more importantly, Geometric's range of Star Trek: The Next Generation figure kits! With a bit of luck Ertl's prices may drop even though at £15 for an Enterprise it's still a bit of a bargain! Just to get the message to Ertl, Bletchley based Alien Worlds (Sign of the Squashed Cat) ?!? are advertising a 5 foot NCC-1701, a 4 foot Exclesior and a Federation Space Dock. What scale will that be in?!? The Space Dock has not been given a fixed price as will the other two, but don't expect too much change from £100 for any one of them! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ After completing the above article I received further news/rumours about AMT/Ertl. It seems that the reason for Ertl's abrupt stamping on of Comet Miniatures is because AMT are doing some more kits. An industry insider conceeded that AMT/Ertl will be "extensively expanding thier Star Trek range" while others say that the range by this time next year could be double the size of the range today! If true then this would suggest a big change in attitudes at AMT and that the days of having to buy expensive resin models may be over. After all AMT/Ertl's kit's are better than everyone else's in quality and at the current prices alot better value. AMT could do an Excelsior in the same scale as Enterprise-D (i.e. 18 inches long) for £15 no problem compared with "garage kit" prices of £50 for a similar resin model which has not got the detail that a properly tooled AMT could have! AMT may have woken up at last to the fact that their Star Trek licence could make them lots of money, and if they give the fans what they want, they will too! Ah well, more next issue with hopefully some reviews of Playmates new U.S. range and kits for iminent release (such as AMT/Ertl's Runabout).