Another burst of ship announcements have come over the weekend - this time as part of the final day of Mission New York.
During a panel broadcast on Facebook Live, Ben Robinson revealed a slew of new craft as regular issues plus the next four specials and a couple of unexpected additions that will please fans no end. Let's dive straight in....USS Saratoga NCC-31911
Ben Sisko's ship from the pilot of Deep Space Nine it lasted only a few minutes on screen but marks the third time the series will move into producing a variant of a ship class if you consider the Armoured Voyager and the future Galaxy Class ; in this case it's the Miranda Class first seen as the USS Reliant. This could well open the floodgates during the now confirmed run of 130 issues for ships such as the USS Bozeman and other variants from this and other classes.
Excitement factor: 4/5
Medusan Ship
Another craft from the remastered versions of The Original Series, in this case the episode Is There In Truth No Beauty?. Admittedly my memory of it is therefore hazy but I would expect it to be fairly simplistic and maybe along the lines of the Antares for its finish. Sadly the only real 'misfire' for me in the swathe of announcements from Eaglemoss at Mission New York.
Excitement Factor: 2/5
Suliban Cell Ship
One of those that Ben mentioned fairly recently as an essential to the collection and one that featured from the very beginning of Enterprise. A really unique shape and design, the cell ship will be a ship that will benefit from the scale of the ships and potentially be the smallest ship in a regular issue.
Excitement Factor: 3/5
ECS Horizon
I was barely excited about the ECS Fortunate and look how that turned out - one of my top five at the time thanks to the exquisite finishing touches. Potentially this could be just as good as that cargo ship from Enterprise. Certainly going to be a bit more excited than I was back then as we all know how impressive the CG ships from the prequel turn out.
Excitement Factor: 4/5
USS Kyushu NCC-65491
Straight out of Wolf 359, we will be seeing one of the immortal kit bashes from the seminal Star Trek battle. From the work of Rick Sternbach it looks certain to be the first of a line of ships produced just for the background of the fourth season premiere. Must have. Period.
Excitement Factor: 5/5
Specials
Spock's Jellyfish
Legend has it that this will be the next special and pics have already surfaced of the cool little ship from the 2009 reboot movie. Have to say it's looking like a great model already and one we have been expecting. Only issue is that it will push the Beyond releases into 2017...
Excitement Factor: 4/5
USS Franklin NX-326
I suspected this would be coming hot on the heels of Star Trek Beyond. Sure to be a big attraction, the Warp Four ship was an undisputed highlight of the third reboot movie and was a cool design that echoed its lineage and the warp five craft that would of course follow.
Excitement Factor: 5/5
Swarm Ship
A craft we didn't see enough of in the movie and was always moving at a breakneck pace so identifying it or getting a close look at its details when stationary! Fairly logical that this, like the Franklin would be appearing soon thanks to their appearances in Beyond. Nice to have a large scale alien ship in the specials as so far the only other one has been the Klingon Bird of Prey from Into Darkness.
Excitement Factor: 4/5
2009 Klingon D7
Not the one we expected to get but a new Klingon D7 from the Kobayashi Maru simulation in the first reboot movie. As with a few others we've seen in this line up from New York this didn't have a great deal of screen time and seems a bit odd to be getting its own special but then I guess that's down to the contract. Not especially enamoured with this as a special as you might have guessed.
Excitement Factor: 2/5
Deep Space Station K7
WOW. Big stuff and only the second non-space flight capable craft in the collection after Deep Space Nine. A big demand for this one over the past few years and we can't wait to see what's coming with this one. Bit of a wait since its fifth in line
Exceitement Factor: 5/5
Extra Specials
In 2017 Ben Robinson has promised that there will be more variety in the line with the inclusion of some rather unusual ships available at specific events and for collection subscribers.
Ralph McQuarrie's USS Enterprise
Actually two versions of the ship that never happened. Due to the design changes we might get one version as a regular issue and then one as a convention/subscribers special edition.
Another one probably included due to the huge demand from collectors since issue one. Very fitting that this will be included seeing as there are certain similarities between it and the Discovery from the anticipated 2017 show. On that note Ben pointed out that there were more ships than we know about that would be appearing which might also be a sneaky indication of why the collection has now been confirmed to hit 130 issues
Original Matt Jefferies SS Yorktown
All tubes and balls and the design that started it all back in 1964. The audience went crazy for this one in New York and it's as near to the Daedalus Class as we've got at this point.
Others that will appear in the future but as yet have to be fitted in will include...
Star Trek: Phase II USS Enterprise
One never actually seen but a link between The Original Series and The Motion Picture including elements distinct to both versions.
XCV-330 Ring Ship
Confirmed by Ben is the Ring Ship we've seen in Archer's Ready Room and included in some classic starship books over the year. A design that there have, again, been a lot of questions about and one that will be in high demand.
Following the immense success of an online petition that raised over 5000 signatures, Eaglemoss will be producing the named but not seen (in Nemesis) USS Titan. Later seen on countless novel covers, the Luna Class starship will be the first to come from the literary universe and its success will determine if we will see any more - although the USS Aventine will be out at the same time.. There was a lot of chatter around Aventine being confirmed but having listened back there's no mention of it at all.
As Ben said when we spoke to him around the time of issue 50, the Insurrection ships continue to be the hardest to find workable details for and the Narada could be a problem and therefore we may never get to see it because of the size and the spines.
Big shame but that's the price of scale modelling and price I guess. Ben also noted that the Designing sections of the magazines are to be released as a boo for Christmas and that the graphic novel series which was test run recently will be returning for its full run in the New Year.
One more thing it seems not only will there be a second set of shuttles but there could well be a third. The second set will contain the Type 7 shuttle from the first two seasons of The Next Generation plus the NX shuttlepod from Enterprise, the Type 15 shuttlepod from The Next Generation and finally the executive shuttle that delivers the crew to the Enterprise-A at the start of The Undiscovered Country. That would leave at least two notable absentees in the form of the observation pod from The Motion Picture plus the Galileo/Copernicus variant from The Final Frontier (meh film but loved that shuttle design).
Excitement Factor: 5/5
To top it off it was confirmed that the graphic novel collection will be starting proper in 2017 after its stunted trial run of five issues - no shocker really since that's exactly how the Starships Collection was test marketed in 2012.
This has to be one of the biggest and most exciting reveals to come from the Starships Collection since the series began. All of the regular issues are genuinely fascinating additions and the specials may well even top them for anticipation. The expansion of the subscriber specials is a whole new angle which will take the collection in a very new and unique direction. Just one more thought. Issue 100 will therefore arrive sometime in about a year - could that be earmarked for USS Discovery...? Can I wait? Can I hell.
All images from Google Images with the exception of the Spock's Jellyfish image credited to TrekCore.com
All images from Google Images with the exception of the Spock's Jellyfish image credited to TrekCore.com
So which ships are you most excited about?
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