Along with the torrent of news around Discovery, another one of our favourite topics received an update with Ben Robinson revealing another batch of new starships for the official collection plus an added bonus.
As is now our tradition, here's the assessment on the latest additions to the ever increasing collection list...
USS Curry
Another kitbash. Definitely fits the list of every starship plus everything seen on a display graphic and all the variants in between. A combination of refit Constitution and Excelsior parts, the Curry Class made a singular appearance in Deep Space Nine's A Time to Stand on the retreat from the Dominion. One to stick alongside your Centaur and New Orleans Class ships. Not a must have but a nice inclusion for Niners.
Anticipation Level: 2.5/5
22nd Century Ferengi Ship
An easily forgotten ship from the mixed up early days of Enterprise. While the guest cast from the episode were top notch including Clint Howard and Ethan Phillips, the ship was less memorable. Given that it wasn't supposed to give the game away of the boarding party too early it doesn't have too many parallels to the later Marauder nor the Quark's Treasure (now there's a model we still haven't seen). Will probably have exceptional detail however!
Anticipation Level: 2/5
Freedom Class
Back to The Best of Both Worlds, The Next Generation and Wolf 359 for the second kitbash in quick succession. Now what does strike this apart from the Curry Class is that there has been clamouring demand for this one to sit alongside the other ships involved in the fateful Borg encounter. To this point we've had the New Orleans, Cheyenne, Springfield and Challenger classes which makes this the one to complete the set - and a set to stick alongside the First Contact fleet perhaps! The display stand for this one should be interesting...
Anticipation Level: 3/5
Hirogen Holoship
Featured in the excellent seventh season Voyager two-parter Flesh and Blood, the holoship was part of the swan song for the dynamic Delta Quadrant hunters. Only their second appearance in the collection (likewise the Ferengi with their 22nd Century ship) and one in fairly excited about. Much more impressive design than the Federation Holoship. Enough said about that.
Anticipation Level: 3/5
USS Bozeman
This is one of those that will set the collection alight and will be a must have. The Soyuz Class might be just another skip variant of the Miranda Class but it's fame from The Next Generation's Cause and Effect has meant this one has been in demand for virtually as long as the collection has existed and at least since issue 11's USS Reliant. Had to happen after the Saratoga and many would say it's been too long.
Anticipation Level: 4/5
Xhosa
And Finally. Kasidy Yates' freighter from Deep Space Nine joins the collection. Seen only a couple of times in the show it's one that I was only talking about the other day as being a noticeable absentee from the set. Likely to be a better result than Neelix's Baxial, the Xhosa does meant that Deep Space Nine is receiving a little more attention than usual in this new set of announcements.
Anticipation Level: 3.5/5
What else did we learn from the session at Las Vegas? Well there were a couple of design shots of the upcoming Phase II USS Enterprise variant that Ben teased previously and there was a graphic of the Andy Probert design for the Enterprise-C also due in the coming months. News also that we will be getting the original Rick Sternbach concept for Voyager with those movie era drop nacelles.
Ben has also let go that there will be a set of shuttles from the Kelvin Timeline including Pike's shuttle, the one from the Kelvin and the shuttle that delivers Kirk and McCoy to the Enterprise plus one more. That will, I would think, be set four as set three has already been confirmed.
The big news from Eaglemoss however was left to the big thing that Las Vegas was really all about - Discovery.
Ben announced that in 2018 they will be releasing a new line of starships from the series but these will not be part of the already running Starships Collection. It will be an entirely new line (and new subscription) with ships that are slightly larger in scale than the existing series. The ships will be die-cast and resin constructed and be made direct from the VFX blueprints used on the show. Each is planned to measure around 20-25cm in length. Planned for a one-per-month release schedule, the first two issues will be the USS Discovery and the USS Shenzhou and Ben provided a quick snap of the grey prototypes of the first two craft.
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