DSTZach

So correct me if I'm wrong but now we are coming up on 2 years, if we round up, since the info that DST still had some sort of a license and "expanded" it at that... And we have literally 0 in hand to show for it? Yuuuuuup.... I did see the packaged JJverse figures posted so those might make it in under the 2 year mark...maybe...

 

JJ figures hit 1/30. Borg I've seen a loose sample. Ent-C, Reliant and Phaser are at the factory in various stages of finalization. Working on an SDCC exclusive item, as well. 

Glad everyone is entertained! We thought it was pretty cool, and I think the idea that only an elite few know about the Enterprise's destruction, and those same few wouldn't buy it, is fairly myopic. Millions of people have seen Star Trek III, and with the scorching on the hull, it will very clearly be on fire.

As far as actual damage goes, tooling a new saucer for a limited edition is not cost-effective. The cost of a tool that size could only be amortized by a sizable run of figures, and I assume that if we had that much confidence in the sales of an Enterprise with chunks out of it, we would have done it as a regular release years ago.

This is just a fun piece, and it seems like people won't be TOO broken up if they miss out on it, which is good. Hopefully we have some in our web store after the show.

I'm sure some people will think this is our swan song, which is kind of funny timing, with the rumors going around, but we developed this a year ago, with the Defiant. And hopefully there will be some new pieces on the other side of the booth.

Sorry it took so long to respond to people on Twitter, I just wanted to confirm what I thought, which is that we are still making action figures, ships, role play, etc.

 

Borg should be offered soon, with more articulation, plus interchangeable parts for different looks, and hopefully it addresses people's concerns about the line.

 

And two ships (Reliant plus ______) are more or less completed, so they may come out in more rapid succession, which is obviously another concern.

 

TNG Phaser, I have no idea, but we're still trying to get everything inside that little guy.

 

AND we've expanded our license! So you may see more products from us, from different areas of the Trek universe!

 

We'll also announce our SDCC exclusive soon.

 

Sorry if people consider me too sarcastic or what have you, but I sometimes respond to what I perceive to be overly dramatic comments with humor, and I do not mean to lessen your feelings on a matter. I certainly do not want to discourage people from enjoying our products, and I do not believe I have ever told anyone NOT to contact customer service with an issue. We can't do anything for a ship that you've had for ten years, but if it has a problem out of the box, contact us.

 

Otherwise, I hope you guys like what Todd puts out, and I hope he gives you the articulation you were looking for.

 

End transmission.

David, you tried to have a conversation about this stuff on TWITTER. 140 characters per. If you want something that is fully explanatory, come here, where the COMPANY SPOKESMAN continues to come against all rational explanation -- don't pitch 140-character criticisms at us and then be mad that my responses aren't sufficiently in-depth.

 

And yes, I field and take criticism. All the time. I'll explain what happened in certain cases, say we're working on it in others, but I will not roll over and tell everyone who thinks they know how to run a Star Trek toy line that they're right -- I'll tell them why we do what we do, so they UNDERSTAND why their idea might not work. Sometimes they are legitimately misinformed. Otherwise, they'll just keep saying their idea is the better way, and we're doing it wrong.

 

For instance: "Make a new Star Trek ship, but make it a limited edition or retailer exclusive so you don't have to sell as many." Does not work like that. I try to respond to those.

 

And no, you are NOT alone -- there are others who think I am quick to defend DST, but the people who WANT to like us, or know there are things they DO NOT know, are happy to get honest info. My problem is I need to ignore those whose minds are made up. But I like to shake them up a bit, I'll admit it.

 

We're very interested in Trek, but only insofar as everyone else is, and while I know there are certain people whose love never flags, the public's interest comes and goes, and that has hurt past products, as well as current products. Even David has pointed out on twitter the sharp decline of the new Trek movie after a strong start. But as I told David, we've put out four different Trek products this year, plus one in late 2015 specifically for the 50th, and have two more planned, and we have three more things on deck for 2017 already. It's not exactly a famine.

 

If anyone thinks we are running out of steam with one role-play, two ships and two figures in development, you can't compare it to the heyday of the full AF line.

I am not a Deep Space Nine fan, so the Yridians thing is also lost on me, but I apologize if I come across as untrustworthy and only giving info for money! And I've been the face/voice of the company for five years, so if anyone's defensive, it's me. Maybe Chuck gets a little in Ask DST, but I don;t think he's particularly defensive. If anything he knows what sells and what hasn't, and takes individual comments as opinions to be responded to as such.
 
I don't come here to dismiss opinions or be secretive, I come here to dismiss inaccuracies and provide information, because this seems to be one of the more active Trek message boards out there, at least as far as merch goes. But I do wonder how many people visit overall -- it may just be that we few people are highly active. If anyone can suggest a MORE active (or more populated) Trek board, I might check it out, but I wonder if message boards are the best place to discuss DST releases, which have fewer regular updates due to our current frequency and volume.
 
People should feel free to say whatever they want here. This is not my forum, and I only come here to answer questions, but when one third of the questions are rudely stated and the other third are less questions and more graphic suggestions, you guys don't really NEED me here. People can travel to the DST FB page or Twitter for answers and bring them back, I'm always there. I may come here less frequently, not to punish, but because there is nothing to say besides arguing about hypotheticals.
 
Or feel free to ask Chuck about line direction if you have concerns. The only thing people write in to Ask DST about are "When will you make a Voyager/K'Tinga/Prometheus/Vengeance/JJPrise"; nobody asks any questions that might merit a real answer. We recently scrapped an entire Trek Ask DST because the questions were all redundant, having been answered a million times. But maybe a monthly Ask column is not the best forum, either.
 
But I'm glad I finally know who David Ellis is on here!
 
A few thoughts:
 
Obviously we make things for consumers to purchase, and we want them to buy them, but we were founded by Diamond Comic Distributors, and they are our exclusive distributor. Since then, our primary customer has been comic shops and specialty stores, although we also sell to biggish  chains. Our entire existence is predicated on sales to retailers, not direct to consumer,  and if it does not have much interest from retail, then we are not going to develop as many products as we do for a license that retailers are hungry to stock. We'll still make items because we know fans want them, but we are not going to over-produce and we are not going to rush. We are not planning on changing our entire being, hiring staffers and overhauling our e-commerce business just to "make Trek work." We'll still do the occasional one-off item that we can sell straight to consumers, but it will probably never be our focus.
 
And I never said we had problems with the factory. I said we were still working on items at the factory. Working on something to get it right is not the same as a "problem." These things take time, and I know that people here notice when small details are not right, so we take our time. The electronic starships cannot be compared to Eaglemoss starships, and Select figures can not be compared to ReActions or Titans. They're just different products. You can compare Select to 1:12, if you like, but even those are two very different types of products, with different manufacturing challenges.
 
And saying that we've been having the same problem for ten years implies that nothing has changed, or that we have not fixed things we did not like, or that it's even the same people or factories working on it. IF we're working longer on items, it's to make sure we do not need to revise, correct or overhaul them in the future.
And what is a "mock up" of the Reliant and our next two ships after that? We showed 2-D (actually 2-D printouts of a 3-D rendering) or the Reliant, but we have not fully rendered three ships in anticipation of the 50th. Or do you want some kind of 3-D version? That's called a prototype, one that we are finalizing for approval and display as a representation of the final product. People seem to think that creating a 3-D file of a ship, outputting it, painting it, designing and applying the decals is the easy part. It's not, its just the first hard part. To do something faster -- output an unfinished and unpainted version, or re-paint someone else's Reliant model -- would not represent the final product, and would not be useful for approvals, or for convention display, and would waste time. Nowadays, "mock-ups" are made digitally, so we'd be putting a photo of a ship inside a photo of a box.

As far as your choice of preferred 50th anniversary products, a Captains Box Set of action figures? Captains Chair action figure box sets? Legacy of Spock action figure box set? I can only assume the actual contents of these line-ups, but if they involve new sculpting/tooling, then we're sculpting and tooling new figures as we speak. If they're all re-packs, then I"m not sure why we need to celebrate the anniversary by re-packaging something that came before into a more expensive set. Why not make new things? I have heard criticism of our re-issues, including our ships and our Retro figures, so I would think new products and characters would be preferred. BUT they take time.
 
If retail interest ever changes, or our license ever changes, we can change, too, but hopefully those that appreciate our products can wait for them, and those that don't can find joy elsewhere. .

Any questions about more TNG for the 30th anniversary should go to DSTChuck at Ask DST. Now is the time for him to start planning 2017, so bug him now for TNG stuff.

We released new Kirk and Spock figures a few years ago with the launch of Trek Select. I can only imagine the outcry here if we were to launch NEW Kirk and Spock figures just for the anniversary, instead of making new characters. Those figures are in stock and available, to those who still need them. Fans may think we're trying to sell the exact same figures over and over again to the same customers, but that's not our goal, so we went ahead with the next character that we thought would make the overall line worth collecting. And yes, more releases may have been possible in the calendar year with some planning, but I'm not sure what role secondary TOS characters will play in this line just yet. (I am not involved in planning.)
 
I can't speak to what was said in the past regarding blaming factories for delays. That would have been before my time, because I don't remember ever saying that, although delays do happen. And I have not sat down and compared Data/Sisko to Riker/Worf as far as likeness or quality goes. But from experience, I know that Trek fans give our products a high level of scrutiny, one that may make retailers see more returns than normal, and that fans are antsy about WHEN they get their items, which may see lengthy pre-orders get cancelled, even if they get re-placed elsewhere shortly thereafter. So perhaps retailers have qualms with those two aspects, but our distributor stands by our products if they have concerns, and we do offer customer service to anyone with legitimate issues that can be resolved. I do not think release dates and quality control are what kept retailers from ordering the new Retro or Minimates lines -- it may have been character fatigue, or low sales expectations, but that would lead me to think that newer or simply different characters would be the solution, not more TOS-based sets featuring the main crew for the 50th..
 
Retailers and fans still order our other Trek lines -- I wasn't trying to say none did. And we continue to promote our products in order to attract new customers, because obviously, new fans are born every day, and I have certainly heard from people who just discovered our various lines. But established Star Trek fans who collect should be aware of who we are and what we make -- we've had all of our products in Toys"R"Us and on Amazon, been promoted in various official Trek media, and we send news and review samples to various online outlets. If there are those among them who are not aware of our products, I have to assume a low level of interest in actual Trek merchandise.

The new lines are great, but I do not know how many 1:12 Trek figures Mezco sells/will sell vs. DST Selects, or how many Trek sets Megabloks sells vs. their other lines. If it's more in either case, then more power to them -- I'm glad to know there is a larger potential audience for this type of product. But I'm sure there are still Trek fans who are not aware those lines exist, same with Eaglemoss or QMX. Even with the recent lull, there are still more Trek fans than there are Trek collectors. They may buy a bathrobe or a mug, but they will not buy a toy, no matter how nice. Not trying to make excuses, just something I've learned in my time in the industry.

Is there swapable legs, so he can sit in the chair he comes with ?

Yes, there should have been a secondary image. He also comes with multiple arms, for a variety of poses.

We made articulated figures for several years, including all of the characters we are currently making. If you don't have them, I'm sure they're not particularly expensive on the secondary market. That line went away because people stopped ordering it, not because we developed am allergy to articulation.

Digital. We do not hand sculpt the ships, as far as I know, and I'm not sure if we ever have. Obviously the early ships used digital data from the studio, not sure if that data is available in all cases.

 

All digital files need to be outputted to a 3D printer at some point for painting, con display and catalog photography, but that does not mean the sculpt is finished, necessarily.

 

I am not fully versed in the tooling process. I believe I saw it first-hand when I was in China over a decade ago, and I remember that being a process involving the physical 1:1 mapping of a prototype onto a steel block. BUT I believe they can also do it from digital data, so it would be a sort of "reverse 3-D printing," where the shape is dug into a tool. However, we still send them a physical paint master so they can assemble a paint guide.

 

The current prototyping is being done by two members of the old Art Asylum. I believe they are working on the digital file now, making it ready for tooling, and those are the actual files visible on the board. I believe they are also on paint duty.

 

I'd like to point out that we still get daily e-mails (usually two or three) asking what our next ship is.

If you're in the US, I can guarantee that the ones in the diamondselecttoys.com shop are all 2015 editions, and if you order one through your local comic shop (comicshoplocator.com), it will be the newest edition, as well.

Also, its pointed out that the buzzard collectors on later Dominion War iterations for the Miranda were yellowish. 

Sorry I didn't weigh in on this thread earlier, but I was setting up the show all day on the 11 and 12, and at the booth working all day the 13 and 14th. I posted some pics occasionalLy, but did not hit the forums.

 

It's the Reliant!

 

You asked for drawings, or at least an announcement without a prototype, so there you go! (There is a prototype, it's just not here.)

We'll reveal the next ship at Toy Fair this weekend. And it's not even 100% final, so you got what you want. BUT we are not going to say what the NEXT next ship is, or what we would LIKE to do, beyond the wish-listing Chuck has done in Ask DST. (He actually LISTED the ships he saw as being the most important.) But we'll see how orders are for the BoP, now that we're actually soliciting it (we've already done most of the development work), and we'll see what orders are like for the next one, and we'll use that data to decide what's next. And there will definitely be variants of both ships, as well as new variants of earlier ships. There is often  blowback online to our variants and re-issues, but many people do not understand the number of ships we need to make to justify the cost of the massive tooling involved.

 

Star Trek Select figures are not highly poseable, besides their multiple interchangeable parts, because we have already made poseable action figures of most of the main characters of most of the series. This was meant to be a new type of line, and I think it succeeds in what it does -- putting Trek characters in dynamic poses, with some customizability. The detail and quality have not changed, and you can still fiddle around with the poses on both kinds of figures, or just leave them on a shelf if you like. People still ask for fully poseable figures, but I always tell them to look up the old figures, which are still out there, and anyone who has not been made is probably more of a long shot today. You may see Kahn this weekend, not 100% sure yet.

Saying that you only get DST info from here and Trek Collective, then saying that you love Ben's Twitter... well, there you go. Follow our Twitter. Follow our YouTube channel. Follow our Instagram. Read Ask DST. Look at our regularly updated release calendar on artasylum.com, which I Tweet about AND post on Facebook whenever I update it.

 

Trek isn't as big a percentage of our product output, so we aren't going to hire someone JUST to blog/tweet about Trek,and there is no one here who just works on Trek. But I post as much Trek stuff as I do any of our other properties, I respond to every question we get on Twitter and FB, and whenever I see any comments about a prototype that I think sound important, I pass them along. And if you come to our booth at SDCC or C2E2 or NYCC, we're all there, and you can ask the president, or me, and sometimes our product managers what's in the pipeline.

 

I send info to a lot of Trek blogs, and I don't always follow up with them to see if they're covering it, but I think TrekMovie does, and StarTrek.com picks stuff up occasionally. I don't watch as many reviews of our ships as I could, but it's tricky to weed out the knowledgeable from the misinformed, and the opinions from the facts.

 

Just as a matter of point, I would argue that there is more info about Eaglemoss releases because there are more Eaglemoss releases. That's just how it is. I can post more pics of the same ship on a regular basis, but we have been burned by showing unfinished ships in the past. While a CGI representation or in-progress sculpt may not be far off the mark from a 5" die-cast model, it could more significantly misrepresent a 12" ship.

 

And additional items packed in with ships like diagrams and plaques will raise prices, and require more time from the development team, and clog up the approvals process. You'd be getting more stuff, for more money, but less often. I know there are those here who think $65 is a steep price, and wish it were lower.

 

Honestly, I have more important stuff to be doing (Toy Fair prep, sleep), but I come here, not to defend myself/DST, but to respond to concerns.