No Clear Winner: USS Kobayashi Maru - The Official Starships Collection Special Edition

A special issue of a ship that appears for even less time than the reboot Klingon Battlecruiser.

Yes, honestly the 2nd Class Neutronic Fuel Carrier formerly of The Wrath of Khan plus quoted about more times than I've had hot dinners was never physically seen in 1982 but when JJ got his hands on the franchise we were privy to few fleeting seconds of footage inside the simulator that finally put a "face" to the name.

The craft we have from Eaglemoss this time is actually not screen accurate but rather what the finished ship would have looked like if it had been fully realised beyond those snatched glimpses on a viewscreen at the back of the scene and I've got to say, it's not a bad shout.

Bearing one of the thinnest profiles of any ship in the collection...ever, the USS Kobayashi Maru is a hard one to review when you don't really have substantial screen material to work from. However, the work put into creating this as a fully realised edition of the series has to be admired. For one the choice of paint finish is sublime. The two shades of grey used work amazingly well with the lighter shade piercing through the darker top coat and giving almost the whole ship - cargo pods and all - an excessively used look as though the top layer of paint has worn away from the hull. It's beautifully uneven, scuffed and marked adding a sense of age to this infamous craft.

The hull panelling is itself very impressive on the upper saucer/primary hull section. There's even a good level of detail around the central bridge module with differing heights of metalwork and continued use of the aged paint finish even on the smallest of areas. Hull markings themselves are kept to a subtle minimum with onyl the ship name and registry to the front while a Starfleet pennant streaks away to the back from behind the bridge. 

At the front is perhaps the weakest element of the Kobayashi Maru in the very plasticy deflector dish which, although translucent, just looks a little cheap against the rest of the decent work on the cargo carrier. To the back of the main hull we have two cleanly painted in impulse engines. Considering the size of these exhaust ports they're been precisely marked in given that there is only a very small grilled area for each.

Oddly for such a craft we have the warp engines attached to the edge of the main hull. Slim, tipped with translucent blue bussard collectors, these nacelles are very well made and quite strong even though they extend back from the hull for a distance that you would think would make them susceptible to bending. Fortunately not but notably these two engines are devoid of the mottled paintjob that covers every other surface. The panel detail on the warp nacelles is lovely but the point that they are finished totally different to the rest of the Kobayashi Maru does draw your eye. 

The metal primary hull is inset with a plastic ventral section when you flip the ship over. The mottled paint work is very subtle on the hull which contrasts rather fiercely against the strong tones of the two cargo pods that run underneath the ship and almost make the main hull look as though it's just the one colour. Get it in the right light though and you will be able to see the difference. The panelling is once more very precise with the plastic inset fitting perfectly. There's no lip, protrusions or bad fitting anywhere on the Kobayashi Maru which is always nice to see especially in these bigger replicas.

The underside has some decal work with panel lining to the front just behind the deflector dish and further Starfleet striping to the very back.

Finally to the cargo pods and well worth a look from the back on this one to see that the engines, hull and pods all manage to line up exactly. There's not a line out of position here and I think you can see this not only in the way that the parts all magically line up but also in the rigidity of the craft itself. On the lengthy cargo pods there's no give at all and spot that they are actually a top and a bottom inset piece all in plastic which might be assisting with the build quality here. 

These two absolutely identical units (bet they were easy to mass produce) carry the strongest two tone paint finish on the vessel on their undersides which could be to indicate that they are at some point hitting the ground and wearing even more heavily. The segmenting of the pods, best seen from the underneath, is wonderful and they are realised from every angle and are even tipped with running lights and completed with another pair of Starfleet pennants.

The Kobayashi Maru isn't one of the lightest ships we've seen which might be your assumption from first glance in the box but there's a bit of weight behind that lump of metal used for the upper primary hull. It looks a lot more flimsy than it actually is.

Stand positioning is simply central with the clip sliding easily over the back of the primary hull and placing the ship in a good, stable display position - although I'd pick a high or low shelf so that you're not just staring at that thin profile!

The 20 page magazine unusually kicks off out-of-universe talking about the appearances of the ship and references to the Kobayashi Maru within the franchise back to The Wrath of Khan and most recently in the 2009 reboot. Including sketches from John Eaves as well as screen shots from the two aforementioned movies, this gives a comprehensive history of the craft plus offers up some possibilities on what it might have looked like and even did look like according to a 1989 novel.

A full eight pages of the magazine are dedicated to the work of ILM on the 2009 reboot movie from JJ Abrams. It also includes reference to their first foray into Star Trek with the Genesis sequence from The Wrath of Khan and the battle in the Mutara Nebula. Eight pages is a tight space to discuss an extensive amount of work and just how it's created for the cinematic audience. Eaglemoss have included some snapshots of ILM's work to give the maximum coverage but this is a topic begging for a nice big fat hardback book.

Rounding out the book is the brief story behind the inclusion of the classic simulator sequence that opens up The Wrath of Khan and how it came to be in the movie and the influence it had on the rest of the story. Amazing to think that such a late addition to the script would prove to be such a memorable piece of Star Trek history.

The Kobayashi Maru special might not be everyone's cup of tea due to its minimal screen impact in the form it's presented here (which wasn't exactly what was filmed) but Eaglemoss has created a great model here that does help to complete the series of ships featured in the recent Kelvin movies. I'm not glowing with wonder over her and there are a lot of the other specials which I'd choose first but this is still a sturdy starship.

Would you recommend the Kobayashi Maru to add to your collection? How does it rate against the other special editions?

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Cameo Klingon: The Official Starships Collection Special 13

A new Big Green Machine is on the block courtesy of Eaglemoss but this isn’t one with which you’ll be overly familiar.

It’s only made (so far) one, solitary appearance in the Star Trek universe and even then it was barely glimpsed on screen on a screen.

The 2009 reboot movie features a Kobayashi Maru sequence and within that infamous scenario we have the opposing Klingons using the Kelvin Timeline equivalent to the D7 Battlecruiser.

To be fair it probably appears on screen longer than any of the ships from the equally infamous Wolf 359 graveyard and it’s absolutely in keeping with the Prime Klingon design ethos that wasn’t necessarily followed when it came to the Bird of Prey from the subsequent Into Darkness.

Coming in at xxcm long, the Klingon Battlecruiser is one heavy muthafucker. Painted up in two-tone green, the design heritage - or homage perhaps more accurately - is there for all to see with the basic command section, connecting neck and body plus nacelles formation firmly in place.  

Let's - unusually - start from the back. The twin warp nacelles sit at their slightly jaunty angle and carry a nice bit of tech detail on their surface. There’s the usual assortment of lumps and bumps indicating that more function-over-form approach you might expect from the Klingons but what is missing are the translucent inserts for the warp field grilles. On something of this scale I would have expected this almost as a standard instead of painting in the paired grille slats. 

These two chunky engines then lead back into the short green pylons and then onto the main engineering hull section. The origin of the form is clearly planted in the D7 Class from The Original Series and get there are a ton of nuances and tweaks that make it distinctly Kelvin. Take the hull plating for example. At first glance it’s very similar to the K’T’inga upgrade but the pattern of the bird feathers feels more aggressive thanks to the addition of a couple of fins here and there and extra firepower. 

Mind those two additional leading edge guns though because they are fairly bendy and thin - certainly bits to be cautious with. At the rear edge there are two yellow protruding impulse engines that seem oddly stuck on and out of place, flanking a rather basically detailed docking port - definitely the area of the cruiser that's been neglected in the design process. For note, only this hull upper and the warp engines are in plastic with the majority of the ship produced in metal and on the bottom this really works well as we will see shortly.

Just adding on top of a great design has added to the visual spectacle of the Battlecruiser and Eaglemoss have managed to produce a piece of kit that shows off all its assets far better than they were in 2009 in the blink of an eye. Look closely and you’ll see the echoes of the triangular pattern from the K’T’inga towards the centre of the hull while out towards the nacelles there is a more unique interpretation more mechanical in form than bird. Placing the ship alongside its two regular Collection cousins emphasises both these similarities and differences which Eaglemoss have captured so well.

Down the centre line of the Battlecruiser there’s a lot more chunky Klingon hardware to pour over with the main engine compartment to the back and more armour plating stacked up down the more vulnerable neck section resembling vertebrae - literally a neck!

Now interestingly on that section, the finish mirrors the effect that was designed for the Klingon armour which was cut from the Rura Penthe scene in the 2009 movie It even goes a step further with the plating around the main command section imitating the shape of the Klingon helmets from the same film with the side pieces arcing around the torpedo launcher opening.

What you can see getting towards the front end is that the mix of colours comes to a very abrupt end with everything from the vertebrae forward in the singular green. This is the case on the underside too where the forward sections are in one colour and the more ornate designs are left to the sole benefit of the body piece. In fact the finish on the underside is a little more tightly packed than the topside with the triangulated pattern emphasising the "bird" effect along the wing edges. It's very striking and Eaglemoss have managed it without any hiccups right across the hull. 

The bridge section is lightly detailed but with that solo paint scheme remaining constant. The mixed finishing pieces to the top give it a more individual feel and avoid that mass-produced left/right mirror effect and adds more to that Klingon "personality" conveyed through their architecture. The similarities to the K'T'Inga are strong again with the central superstructure a clear descendant of the movie original.

The stand grip clips around the rear central housing that sits proud of the engineering hull and then under the belly of the beast as per the other Klingon cruisers. Steady posture on this one and certain to look particularly menacing as part of any Klingon display.

The magazine poorly disguises just how little background material there is on a ship purely created as a piece of the background with almost half the pages dominated by big sketches and CG renderings. There is very little to go on here aside from the point that the Battlecruiser was 90% a copy and paste job and 10% adding some fins and flicks to the established design before sticking it into the simulation. A lot of the concept for the finished product actually came from a scene in the 2009 reboot that never made it to the final cut.

Closing out the printed piece of this edition we do get to enjoy the evolution of the Klingon cruiser through its various forms from The Original Series' D7, through to the Vor'Cha and the Negh'Var before spinning back in time to the D5's and such like from Enterprise. Lots of good old model shots from 90's Star Trek in there to drool over!

Is this one to add to the fleet? Great special?

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Game On!

It's all happening at the moment isn't it? Posters, trailers, stills, rumours and now the announcement that Star Trek The Video Game will launch on April 23rd 2013. 

For those who can't wait that long to be a part of the experience, pre-ordering commenced on Friday 21st December 2012.

Produced by Namco Bandai Games it has been announced that customers pre-ordering will receive the "Elite Officer Pack" which includes a series of tasty extras:

• Brawler Pack - Kirk's leather jacket costume and Spock in Starfleet Academy garb
• Academy Pack - Kirk and Spock in Dress Uniform plus an Academy phaser
• Kobayashi Maru Pack - Kirk and Spock in Kobayashi Maru simulator uniforms
• Stealth Pack - Kirk and Spock in stealth uniforms with a Starfleet Type IV stealth sniper rifle and extra ammunition
• Kelvin Pack - Kirk and Spock in USS Kelvin uniforms plus a USS Kelvin phaser

If you pre-order Star Trek at Amazon in the UK before April 26th 2013 you'll be eligible to receive the Elite Officer Pack. Currently the game is priced at £39.99 for XBox 360 and PS3 while PC owners can save a bit of cash and pre-order for £32.99.Ko

Pretty interesting huh?  Worth a pre-order?  Probably is if you're going to be buying it anyway. Thing is for me, I'm a bit of a film/TV tie-in skeptic.  History is not kind in these situations and I welcome you to check out Knight Rider, Dukes of Hazzard, Harry Potter, Transformers...etc etc as evidence (I'm not including non-Michael Bay Transfomers as they were fairly decent). Apparently this game has already won awards at E3 however the official game website seems devoid of any mention of awards except in relation to JJ Abrams leading me to think this may be an error on the part of startrek.com.

So let's have a look at the official trailer for the game and see if there's much we can glean from 57 seconds of action:

What is it with the JJ Abrams universe and jumping off stuff?!  In the first film it's skydiving onto Nero's drill and in the second it's Spock jumping off a building PLUS someone zooming through a spacefield.  I do hope this isn't going to be a recurring theme of the alternate Trek universe.

OK, There's Kirk and Spock as the main playable characters but the graphics really don't instill me with ANY confidence that this is going to be top-quality in line with Call of Duty, Skyrim or Grand Theft Auto V which will be out by the time it debuts. In fact it looks like a pretty standard third person shooter with possible attempts at Tomb Raider-style climbing pieces.  There's no shots aboard the Enterprise  and in fact there are only two shots of the ship within the trailer - right at the beginning and briefly at about 47 seconds in.  

There appear to be only a couple of distinctive sets here - an icy alien world, some form of space vessel (and maybe more than one). There's also a nice shot of some kind of fleet moving through a wrecked environment.

 It all looks a bit "samey" which is why I've had top rely more on the range of screen shots from the game's website.  They seem to show external space battles, scenes on the Enterprise and the characters moving through the alien worlds that are part of the game.  The only piece of dialogue within the trailer indicates that this is set after the first film at least with mention of "New Vulcan" which could also indicate that a certain Spock Prime could be included as we know this is where he ended up to live out his days. What we can confirm is that the 2009/2013 movie crew (Kirk, Spock etc) are all lending their voices to this new game.

Frankly this is even more cryptic a trailer than the one for Star Trek Into Darkness.  I would think that the ship goes to New Vulcan to sort out some kind of invasion/attack/mystery which leads to you playing as Kirk or Sock to save the Vulcans and the day from what has now (as of January 2013) been revealed as the Gorn - one of the best and most fondly remembered Trek enemies ever!

Tragically the gameplay looks pretty basic but it's a rare opportunity to actually play as the Trek characters in a modern style of game - while I won't talk about them here, my The Life of Trek series will touch on my previous experiences with Star Trek PC games over the years as I look at how the show and I have become entwined over the years.

In conclusion the trailer does give us Trek, explosions and indication of more by providing less and then forcing you take a look at the game site for some snippets of information.  At the moment it is lacking in content and the page on startrek.com was significantly better even if it was just to let us know about the preordering situation.

I will more than likely be purchasing this title as long as the build-up continues to prove that a lot of work has been done to make it look more fluid and less blocky than this brief trailer suggests. Good luck to Bandai Namco and Paramount, I hope the hype and the "awards" indicate that this is going to break the mould of tie-ins and provide us with some excellent and lengthy game-playing.  Please don't make it JUST a shooter with a bit of ledge-hanging if you're listening.  Put some thought into it so we have something more to do than point, click, run and fire. Trek fans will want a game that makes them THINK.

Overall - the jury is definitely out.