DST Salt Vampire Figure Cancelled...

It's official, DST sends word that they have canceled their plans to release the Salt Vampire figure based on the original unproduced Art Asylum figure from the early days of the line. Back in 2003 AA canceled the figure saying they had run across too many tooling problems during production. This year DST informed fans of their plans to finally produce the figure and they were going as far as locating the original AA molds. Now due to poor sales of the line, the release of this long lost masterpiece has once again been put on hold.

Starfleet Gear...

Over the years Star Trek licensees have put out multiple collectibles based on items used by Starfleet officers or students at the Academy. Many of these have been exclusives to the Official Fan Club or Star Trek venues such as Las Vegas' Star Trek The Experience. Let's take a look at some of my favorite Starfleet-themed collectibles, gear, and supplies.



The Starfleet Away Team Kit -- Originally offered by the Official Fan Club for a brief period of time near the end of the club's existence this kit came in an awesome looking field backpack with a Starfleet survival team logo o its shiny metallic grey surface. Inside the pack you'd find a glow in the dark flashlight, water bottle, and a blanket made out of space age materials. This to me seemed like one of the coolest collectible ever, the backpack alone is one of the coolest looking trek items I have ever seen, but the fan club discontinued it rather quickly and then they closed their doors for good so I was never able to get it. I still check for it on Ebay from time to time but unfortunately I have never found a complete one for sale.



DS9ers baseball hat -- This is one of my favorite pieces of Trek wear. From one of the most fun Trek episodes ever, DS9's Take me out to the holosuites, this cap is an exact replica of the one used on the show by cast members in Captain Sisko's baseball team. I used to wear this cap a lot during my early college years and it brings back fond memories of my favorite Trek T.V. series and a very special period of my life every time I see it.



Starfleet Academy Diploma -- For those us us who've always dreamed of attending Starfleet Academy this diploma was an awesome thing to have. You could order it from the Official Fan Club and it would come in personalized with your name on it as well as George Takei's signature.
The diploma was printed on beautiful parchment paper just like the real deal. It would come encased in a blue vinyl holder with the Starfleet Academy logo embossed on the front. A beautiful collectible and a great conversation piece for your wall.



Enterprise crew shirts and hats -- Some of the coolest gear from Enterprise was the hats worn by the crew on away team missions, as well as the black undershirts. The fan club made these two pieces of apparel available pretty early on during the show's first season. I still wear these from time to time. They are perfect to wear anywhere and if someone recognizes them as Star Trek gear they are also hardcore fans since the only visible branding is the small NX-01 text. The only complaint I have about these is that the cap does have the Enterprise logo on the back, even though the ones on the show didn't.



The Starfleet Survival Guide -- Published by Pocket Books this book is written for Starfleet officers as a field guide to brief them on multiple subjects such as nonstandard uses for standard equipment, unconventional medicine, dangerous life forms, and extreme scenarios. Very creatively put together by David Mack, author of multiple Star Trek novels, and full of great illustrations by Timothy Earls. A perfect piece to go along with the Away Team Kit.

2 day only deal on 12 inch figures....

Some of the best collectibles from the 2009 Star Trek movie were the 12 inch line of figures from Playmates. Toys 'R Us has a great deal on them today and tomorrow only. Originally selling between $29.99 and $34.99 at most retailers you can now get them for $19.99 each at TRU. The deal includes the Sulu and Pike exclusive figures too. If you haven't gotten these yet this is the perfect time to do so. This offer is good in stores only.

Star Trek Master Series from Skybox...

Lets take a look at my all time favorite Star Trek trading card series, the Skybox Star Trek Master Series featuring original art compositions from some of the genre's top illustrators.
These cards were released back in 1993, and to this date I don't think we've gotten another trading card series with art as beautiful as these. I used to try and buy 2 or 3 packages of these every time I went to my local comic book shop back in the day.







Some of the artists whose work is included in this set had been illustrating Star Trek posters and novel covers for many years and they truly know how to capture the essence of our favorite characters, aliens, and ships. Artists like Sonia Hilios, Keith Birdsong, and even Trek production illustrator and FX guru Dan Curry all contributed paintings for this set. These are just beautiful to look at. There is so much detail in each image that you could just stare at them for hours.







Usually one has to spend a lot of money buying limited edition prints or lithos to get this level of quality in Star Trek art, but this set was the perfect way of bringing high end Star Trek art to every fan. Skybox did an amazing job at putting these together. During the many years they had the Star Trek license they put out some amazing card sets, much better in my opinion than what Rittenhouse Archives puts out these days.







SkyBox International Inc. was a trading card manufacturing company founded back in 1989 as Impel Marketing, the company became SkyBox not long after. In 1991 they picked up the license to produce Star Trek trading cards. Skybox, which was later bought by Fleer, continued to produce Star Trek card sets until the year 2000, when their license expired.







Since these cards were produced back in 1993 the set only features art from the first 6 motion pictures and The Original Series, The Next Generation, and DS9. There was a second series produced the following year, I'll share my thoughts on that one as well as my favorite images in a future post. It would be great to see a new series of art cards in the same style released today so it could include art from all the Star Trek shows and films produced since these Skybox sets were released. Now lets take a look at a couple more of my favorite images from the Star Trek Master Series 1.

Celebrate 30 years of Star Trek The Motion Picture with some help from DST...

This week marks the 30th anniversary of the U.S.S. Enterprise's first silver screen voyage.
DST has just released its latest role play item just in time for the celebration. Their latest offering is a replica of the Starfleet Phaser as seen in The Motion Picture. As all the other great role play items from AA/DST this one's a must have. For some reason these guys can't make quality action figures anymore but they can still put out some impressive role play items and accessories. You can pick up the phaser from Entertainment Earth right now. Here's an up close look at the piece.

Trekin' through 2009: The Star Trek year in pictures...

2009 has been the biggest year for Star Trek since 1994 -- when TNG was coming to an end, DS9 was starting to hi its stride, Voyager was about to launch, and the world was impatiently waiting for the meetings of the two legendary Captains of the Enterprise on the big screen in Star Trek Generation. Star Trek was at its Zenith, with Shatner and Stewart on the cover of Time magazine amongst multiple other national and international publications. And now 15 years later Star Trek has found its mojo once again in the eyes of general audiences all over the world (we true Trek fans know it had never really lost it). The launch of the new major motion picture from Paramount and JJ Abrams brought with it a huge amount of promotion, tie-ins, merchandise, and events to help usher in a new era for our beloved franchise in the epic fashion it has always deserved. Here's a look at some of my favorite images from the many promotions taking place during Star Trek's comeback year.


Unused teaser poster for the film from Paramount Pictures.


Chris Pine meets Leonard Nimoy at an event for Shatner's charity horse show and the press is right there to capture the moment.




The first official promo shots from Paramount introducing us to the new Kirk and Spock.




Star Trek dance parties in L.A. and New York become the "it" event in the cities' nightlife with Orion slave girls, special Trek-themed photo booths and cool giveaways like this awesome poster.


As a longtime fan I got great joy in seeing ads for a Star Trek movie in the newspapers once again.










Ads from promo partners lined up the walls of movie theaters.




Popcorn bags, buckets, and coke cups featured Star Trek in theaters all over the U.S.












Burger King launches a multi-million dollar national ad campaign and in-store promotions to tie in with the film.


After more than a decade since the end of Playmates previous Trek toy line Toys 'R Us and stores all over the world begin to dedicate big chunks of aisle space to Star Trek again.


Star Trek gets a race car!
















Supermarket aisles are chock full of products with multiple offers for Trek items to help promote the big film.




Billboards and wraps cover up buildings, buses, and more prime spots all over the world to help promote the film with an ad campaign budgeted at over 150 million dollars.


A Premiere of epic proportions for the Star Trek film takes over Hollywood Blvd.



The Burger King Klingons show up at the Star Trek Hollywood Premiere to cause some trouble at the Mann's Chinese Theater.