Star Trek fans might the the biggest and baddest of all the fandoms, known by all for being at the forefront of every fan-ish phenomenon from cosplayer conventions to the internet fan fiction’s ’slash’ genre. They’re the original modern fandom, really, with Trekkies and Trekkers (there’s a difference–look it up!) devoting their time, their money and sometimes every aspect of their lives to the universe the shows, books, films and games have created.
Once upon a time, though, a lot of the collectibles and merchandise you could find at conventions was fan-made. While it seemed obvious to Trekkers/ies that there was a market for themed items, the production companies were a little slower to catch on.
Not anymore! The massive merchandising wave was truly born of the success of Star Trek’s second incarnation, “The Next Generation”. With that came figures, replicas, books, role-playing games and apparel that sold like hotcakes to every fan who had waited for more than the paltry offerings of the Kirk and Spock days. And now, with this summer’s hugely successful Star Trek reboot film (the 11th Trek movie, for those keping track), interest has been renewed among the mainstream and the toy companies know how to react.
So here are some quick links to CmdStore’s Star Trek toys and collectibles, where you can find something from the original series to TNG to Deep Space Nine and beyond! Check these out!
The Original Series collection includes classic characters like Kirk, Spock, Uhura, and Khan, plus adorable Quog versiona of the characters. Retro fans need look no further for their Enterprise fix. And yes, we’ve also got a salt vampire.
Captain Picard, Riker, O’Brien, Dr. Crusher and many more make up this very awesome selection of toys from The Next Generation. For the record, my favorite was Data.
Deep Space Nine brings us Sisko and the Defiant Command Chair, Kira Nerys, Gul Dukat, Julian Bashir more. And again for the record, Odo may have been pale, but he was no Data.
The Vehicles Series includes a whole lot of Enterprises. Battle-damaged, Wrath of Khan style or remastered for 2009, we’ve got ‘em all. Plus, a bonus Excelsior!
The accessories section includes Phasters, a Tricorder and communicators style both for the original series and the second film. Whether you’re a collector or a cosplayer, you’ll definitely want to check these ones out.
Finally, we come to the latest entry into the Star Trek legacy, the 2009 film collection. Pine’s Kirk, Quinto’s Spock and Nimoy’s…well, Nimoy’s Spock are all here and ready for fans both new and old.
The success of September’s Montreal Comic Con means that the organizers aren’t going to waste any time prepping for the next one! And so, on December 6th, expect a one-day Comic Con featuring guests like Kane Hodder, Lloyd Kaufman and Monica Rial, plus a number of other guests soon to be announced! You can check out the official website for more info!
And coming up even sooner is the Montreal Toy Con–it’s a little out of the way for downtown-dwellers, taking place in St. Laurent’s Courtyard by Marriott Hotel, but if you’re looking for the best new and vintage comic, toys and collectibles, this is worth the trip! There’ll be a ton of dealers, plus cosplayers, LEGO and building enthusiasts and more! It goes down October 18th, costs only $4 (Kids 5 and under free) and is sure to be a blast! Click the pic to visit the site and find out more!
Two new Star Wars Sideshow figures are headed for our shelves, shipping in the first quarter of 2010 and featuring all the detail and quality you would expect from some of the best action figure designers in the world.
First up is the Clone Wars Anakin Skywalker, featuring a completely accurate costume including shoulder armor and wrist guards, two sets of interchangeable hands, lit and unlit lightsabers and a display base.
The second figure out next year is the Episode 2 Clone Trooper. It features over 30 points of articulation, two different weapons and a perfectly-detailed bodysuit based on the designs in the film.
And if NEW Star Wars isn’t your thing, here’s a walk down memory lane…
Direct from the Guardian:
It’s almost like LucasArts suddenly realised the value of the old games they had gathering dust in their proverbial gaming cupboard. Following on from Monkey Island, Indiana Jones and the rest comes yet more retro goodies. Super Star Wars has been released for the Wii, with the other two games in the series out soon. Okay, it’s not the Grim Fandango re-release we all want but let’s not complain.
Back in the early 90s the Super Star Wars games were as close as you could get to reliving the original trilogy. Ok the films didn’t feature any tricky platforming but hey, the graphics were great for their day. When I remember the games – and I haven’t played or seen them since 1994 – I think of extreme difficulty and impressive audio. The landspeeder level sticks out too. I’m guessing the music won’t be as impressive this time round but the difficulty level – after 15 years of softening up as games have gotten checkpoint-friendly and generally easier – will likely be a killer. Will today’s gamers have the patience to persevere with Skywalker and co?
Anyway, Super Star Wars – are you tempted? And what do you want to see released next from the LucasArts archive?
Those are the action figures from this year’s incredible Star Trek quasi-reboot movie. All of the castmates can be found here, from Spock Prime to Zachary Quinto’s new take on the Vulcan, from Sulu to Uhura and, of course, Captain James T. Kirk, as portrayed by Chris Pine. They’re perfect companions to the other Star Trek items we’ve got in-stock over at CmdStore.com !
And for more Star Trek fan-love, check out the Oh No They Didn’t Spin-off devoted entirely to Star Trek fans, fan encounters, news, gossip, fanfiction and fanart, crafts and anything else you can imagine coming out of the community. It’s called ONTD Star Trek and it’s mostly based around the original series and the 2009 film, but anything is welcome! Click the pic below to take a look and, if you’ve got a Livejournal, join in the fun!
We have debated this countless times in our store….almost having fist fights concluding with little boys crouched sucking their thumbs in a fetal position. I have found this great article by Damon Wellner at Probot Productions.
Am I the only one who isn’t buying this Star Trek “out-prequeled” Star Wars BS or what?
I had a great time watching the new Star Trek movie. Love the cast. Great visuals and fast pacing that kept me fully entertained the whole time.
However, it was no Phantom Menace.
It’s been ten years since George Lucas first turned back the clock and showed us how it all began. The anticipation for that film was unlike anything before or since. Because people had impossible expectations, people overreacted to the relatively few flaws that the film has, and the public quickly turned against it. But time has shown Darth Maul to be a classic badass villain and I’ll bet that ten years from now the name Nero won’t be on anyone’s list of great villains. Ricardo Montalbán he aint. The Phantom Menace gets unfairly judged in my opinion because it was so over-hyped, when it should have been compared to the 4th film in any other series, like Halloween 4 or Jaws 4, as in FOR FANS ONLY, and don’t expect too much.
The new Star Trek movie was admittedly a fun movie, but NOT better than the worst of the 6 Star Wars films. Oh, there are several reasons why it’s getting better received, but it boils down to one thing, and it’s all there in the core message of the film: Cheating is okay. In Hollywood everyone knows that’s a fact, but no one knows it better than JJ Abrams. There are a million tricks in storytelling to tugging audiences emotions around and JJ Abrams is a master at the craft. They do it on Lost every week. There is a lot of talent in his work, but also a lot of emotional manipulation to get audiences to feel the way he wants, then jerk them in the other direction for a while. I grew tired of it on Lost and stopped tuning in a while back.
The reason this new film is a cheat is that it’s not a prequel at all. It’s a RE-quel. Die hard Trekkies probably hate this film because it’s actually a betrayal of the original story.
Alternate reality? Easy answer I say. The use of this plot device reminds me of the new Terminator film and TV show taking that story in 2 different directions. Exploiting a loophole in space/time and script writing, Abrams cheats his way out of every criticism, and I commend his honesty at least. He made “cheating” the theme of the film.
But imagine if Lucas had done the same thing? What if C-3P0 had appeared in Phantom Menace saying he was from the future and went into a long, extensively narrated flashback about flying through black holes and new destinies and all that? That easy cheat would have freed Lucas to proceed in any direction he chose, with no need for that little detail of the required closure of actually fitting into the classic timeline. Better yet just fire Lucas and get some young blood in there to make Star Wars “cool” again, right? Some people may have preferred that. But it would have severely disappointed fans and the film would have an even worse reputation than it does, at least in this reality.
The reason everyone is letting Abrams get away with this hijacking of a beloved franchise is that Star Trek has always had much lower standards to live up to. After all it’s just TV. Star Trek only became palatable to me in a few of it’s film incarnations so I am not a Trekkie at all. I just think that this film, while fun to watch, often drifted into territory that felt a lot more like tv to me than film. And that’s fine! Good for Abrams for raising the bar for Star Trek to almost filmic levels of fun. But that’s not even the same league that Lucas is playing in. Visually, The Phantom Menace was absolutely stunning from start to finish, and the cinematography and effects in the Star Wars prequels only got better and better. But there really wasn’t a lot in the new Star Trek that we haven’t seen before in the Star Wars prequels and the new Battlestar Galactica.
I can think of several plot points in this Star Trek film that were lifted directly from the Star Wars saga. The Spock/Leia connection, The planet Vulcan implodes just like Aalderan was destroyed, and for similar storytelling reasons. To send a message to the Galaxy and to punish a single person. Then there is the Snow monsters scene, which starts out referencing Luke’s Wampa attack on Hoth, then switches to a plot point used TWICE in Phantom Menace: The Monster gets eaten by a BIGGER, SCARIER monster! The coming out of warp (hyperspace) into a post battle debris field. Very similar to when The Millennium Falcon comes out of hyperspace into the bown up remnants of Aalderaan. I could continue…
One last reason Star Wars prequels will always be better in my book: NO PRODUCT PLACEMENT. Good to know that Budweiser will still be selling piss beer in the distant future, and that Nokia won’t bother updating their jingle for centuries to come. Can I order another alternate reality please? Admit it. Star Trek still sucks.
With the release of J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek movie, here’s a showcase of some of the best of the Star Trek figures we’re offering over at our online store, spanning generations of the show and the characters.
This model of the USS Enterprise from Diamond Exclusive features electronic lights and sounds. The stand makes it a perfect display piece and casual fans to Trekkies are sure to enjoy it.
Now available for pre-order, here’s a look at the fifth series of original Star Trek figures. An appropriately hairy Dr. McCoy, Season 3 Kirk, Yeoman Rand and Nurse Chapel make up this new group, which can be purchased as a set or as individual figures.
The Next Generation represented the second coming of Star Trek, an amazing relaunch of the franchise that captured the hearts and minds of fans all across the globe. This particular figure is Captain Picard at the command chair, created to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the show.
This Communicator + Phaser 2-pack is one of the many Star Trek accessories now available both in-stock and for pre-order. They make great additions to the get-up of any cosplayer, or just the display cases of devoted collectors.
We’ve got tons more Trekkie merch available in our Star Trek section, and you can check out the rest here:
From the New York Times
Geeks Gone Wild: Spock’s Surprise Appearance at ‘Star Trek’ Screening
By Mekado Murphy
A group of Trekkers in Austin on Monday had a long, prosperous night to remember at the surprise world premiere of Paramount’s new “Star Trek” film.
Austin’s Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, long a destination spot for fanboys and home to the annual Fantastic Fest, had planned for a public screening of “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” which was introduced by Harry Knowles of Ain’t It Cool News, as well as Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the screenwriters of the new “Trek” film, and its producer, Damon Lindelof. But as the opening credits rolled on “Khan,” scratches appeared on the print, it became warped and seemingly burned up in the projector, according to a report from the Drafthouse blog.
The lights came back up, and Tim League, a founder of the cinema, told the crowd he would go try to fix the print himself. Then an unannounced guest — Leonard Nimoy himself — came to the stage with a print of the new “Star Trek” film to play instead, three hours before what was to be the film’s official premiere in Australia.
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For those not lucky enough to be in attendance, the wait seems too long–especially for any true Trekkies or Trekkers (there’s a difference!). But until the film arrives in theatres for the rest of us, you can get started on your Trek toy collection (or expand your existing one!) with pre-orders of the upcoming Star Trek Movie action figures…
If you follow the latest in internet trends, you’ve undoubtedly heard of Twitter and you might just have one of your own. Essentially, Twitter is social networking and blogging filtered down to its purest form: every update you make or read must be 140 characters or less in length and answer the question “What are you doing?”
It might not sound like much right now, but it’s big! So big, in fact, that it’s caught the attention of some very noteworthy people–some of them very popular in the world of Geekery (and beyond!) Now, we at CMDStore are already on Twitter (follow our ‘Tweets’ at http://www.twitter.com/CMDStore for updates), but here’s a list of some other Twitters you might want to check out to get your 140-character doses of sci-fi, superheroes, film and TV and more!
- Stephen Fry might be familiar to fans of British comedy or British actors in general, but he’s also an absolutely massive techno-geek who was an early joiner to Twitter and updates frequently from both his iPhone and laptop about the latest technology, his incredible world travels and…everything else you could imagine! He updates all the time and is always a treat to read. Find him at http://www.twitter.com/stephenfry
- Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica. Dwight Shrute might not be the spokesperson the geek community wants, but the actor who plays him on NBC’s The Office is nevertheless beloved by fans and you can find him on twitter right here Twitter.com/Rainnwilson.
- Mythbusters fan? If you’ve enjoyed watching Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman go to great lengths (explosions, deep-sea dives, firewalking, vodka-making, partying with a ninja, trying to get a duck’s quack to echo, racing, filling a car with dead pigs…to name a few) to bust myths on their popular Discovery TV Show, you might want to check out Adam Savage’s Twitter, appropriately named “Don’t try this”.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation brought new popularity to the waning Star Trek franchise and created a fanbase so large, no one could have foreseen its popularity or its scope. And now three of its stars are tweeting! You can find Brent Spiner (Data), LeVar Burton (Geordie La Forge–or the host of Reading Rainbow!) and Wil Wheaton (the much-maligned Wesley Crusher) all updating regularly about their lives and all things related to new projects. Wheaton also has a lot to say about D&D, video games and books/film he recommends.
- Greg Grunberg is a name familiar to fans of NBC’s Heroes, where he plays Matt Parkman, a police officer with the power to read minds. Like most, he tweets about everything, but Heroes viewers will be especially pleased with the exclusive behind-the-scenes content and spoiler-hinting to be found by keeping up with the actor.
- No stranger to internet forums and often a surprisingly strong presence in even the smallest fan circles, Warren Ellis is also Tweeting! The comic book writer generally updates about his days, but you can bet there are some great recommendations and some up-to-date information on future projects from the writer of Transmetropolitan, Jack Cross, Doktor Sleepless and more!
- Fans of Joss Whedon’s supehero/sci-fi musical Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog were re-introduced to Felicia Day (after some other Whedon appearances!) when she starred as love interest, Penny. But she was already big in the geek community as part of World of Warcraft’s The Guild and her reviews of novels, film and television. Definitely worth checking out, she shows that some of the biggest geeks out there today are girls.
- Finally, something a little different. For fans of fantasy, sci-fi and horror (and especially the combination of two or more of those!), look no further than Creepypasta, a Twitter that will keep you up to date on all kinds of spooky media, from film and television to the internet horror microfiction that bears its name!
The Super Bowl spots for J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek have already made their way online. Star Trek movie will be released at theatres on May 8th 2009. It stars John Cho, Ben Cross, Bruce Greenwood, Simon Pegg, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Winona Ryder, Zoe Saldana, Karl Urban, Anton Yelchin, Eric Bana and Leonard Nimoy.
Cmdstore has so many action figures to chose from, you will always find something for your collection. In business for over 16 years, they are a member of the Better Business Bureau so you can always buy with confidence.
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