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#1 djc242

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Posted 28 July 2015 - 10:33 AM

The latest Ask DST is up:

 

http://www.diamondselecttoys.com/blog

 

 

 

Some takeaways:

 

- no plans for a TNG tricorder, focus still on the TNG phaser

- no retailer support for a Minimate shuttle but one was designed

- no plans for clothing-worn communicators

- hoping to show new ship at NYCC

- no plans on variants of the ENT-D since costs to produce them have risen

- short list of ship options in no particular order: Defiant, Voyager, Borg Cube, ENT-C, Reliant, Romulan Warbird, Klingon D-7 Battlecruiser

- no plans for ENT role play re-issues

- Q: "Is the next federation ship from the 24th or 23rd century?" A: "No comment.  We're still not done with the prototyping, so we don't' want to get anyone upset if anything happens to change plans."

- Q: "Is there a starship Reliant in the works?" A: "No comment.  Not being coy, it's just the next ship has lots of work to do on it so we're not ready to say.  In fact, at one point the Romulan Bird of Prey was NOT the next ship, but it just worked out that way."

- TOS McCoy and Scotty are being considered for the select line.

 

Basically anything that was shot down came with a "never say never" so that makes for some very clear ambiguity.  :D



#2 Alteran195

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Posted 28 July 2015 - 11:01 AM

"short list of ship options in no particular order: Defiant, Voyager, Borg Cube, ENT-C, Reliant, Romulan Warbird, Klingon D-7 Battlecruiser"

-Interesting that the Cube is on the list, I know there are people that want it, but DST has said they don't really know how to make it without it feeling cheap/hollow. 

 

"no plans for ENT role play re-issues"

-I'm confident we'll get a re-release on the Enterprise Tech at some point, how many times did they say we weren't getting an NX-01? For that they even lost the mold for it. 

 

"Is there a starship Reliant in the works?" A: "No comment.  Not being coy, it's just the next ship has lots of work to do on it so we're not ready to say.  In fact, at one point the Romulan Bird of Prey was NOT the next ship, but it just worked out that way."

-I'm back at Reliant for being next, if it is movie era it's the only one that makes sense. 

 

"no plans for a TNG tricorder, focus still on the TNG phaser"

-Of course they're still focusing on the Phaser, it isn't even close to being done yet. That said, them not making a Tricorder would be stupid with how much demand there seems to be for one. 

 

"hoping to show new ship at NYCC"

-A man can dream....



#3 1701D

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Posted 28 July 2015 - 11:54 AM

I'm thinking it could be either the Reliant or Defiant.

#4 djc242

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Posted 28 July 2015 - 01:48 PM

I wish I understood more about the business side of things.  It seems strange to me that there should be any dependence on retailers in today's marketplace.  DST could beef up it's online store, use it and a presence on Amazon to do most of it's sales.  Brick and mortar stores could still order stock to sell themselves.  Just because retailers passed on the Minimate shuttle doesn't mean DST wouldn't be able to sell 10,000 of them through their site.  Retailer interest does not always correlate directly to consumer interest, especially when it comes to Star Trek items.  But maybe there are concerns I'm not aware of.



#5 Alteran195

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Posted 28 July 2015 - 02:06 PM

I wish I understood more about the business side of things.  It seems strange to me that there should be any dependence on retailers in today's marketplace.  DST could beef up it's online store, use it and a presence on Amazon to do most of it's sales.  Brick and mortar stores could still order stock to sell themselves.  Just because retailers passed on the Minimate shuttle doesn't mean DST wouldn't be able to sell 10,000 of them through their site.  Retailer interest does not always correlate directly to consumer interest, especially when it comes to Star Trek items.  But maybe there are concerns I'm not aware of.

I bought the minimate Enterprise and have 0 interest in minimates. I bought it just because its a nice stylized Enterprise, and I'd probably buy a minimate shuttle too if it was available. 

 

I also agree about brick and mortar stores becoming more and more irrelevant, I rarely buy my collectibles from them, and usually use Amazon or BBTS. I think the only thing I buy from physical stores nowadays is LEGO.

 

Not making something just because brick and mortar retailers didn't show enough interest, doesn't mean there aren't enough collectors out there to meet demand. 



#6 Razorgeist

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Posted 28 July 2015 - 05:07 PM

Im a bit dissapointed that the new Fed ship isn't ready yet.  But I can understand the reasons.



#7 tuvok47

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Posted 28 July 2015 - 07:01 PM

If it's the Reliant, how long would it really take? Couldn't they reuse parts of the E's mold? They designed an entirely new BOP ship faster than the new Fed ship.

#8 Alteran195

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Posted 28 July 2015 - 08:58 PM

If it's the Reliant, how long would it really take? Couldn't they reuse parts of the E's mold? They designed an entirely new BOP ship faster than the new Fed ship.

For the most part I think Reliant would have to have custom parts. The nacelles MIGHT be able to be used, but I can't tell if they were bigger on Reliant.

#9 Stormfury_Echo

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Posted 28 July 2015 - 10:41 PM

For the most part I think Reliant would have to have custom parts. The nacelles MIGHT be able to be used, but I can't tell if they were bigger on Reliant.

They're longer.

#10 JMW326

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Posted 29 July 2015 - 03:48 PM

I have loved DST Star Trek and bought just about everything they have made. I used to enjoy when they would give us actual hints as to what was coming and wish they still did. It seems to me like Chuck got in a bit of a snit a couple of years ago over people not liking his answers or complaining about wait times (yeah the complaints were deserved) so he really just started giving no info at all. Basically answering questions with no info and making the choice to not show products until they are almost ready to ship.
I don't see this problem with other licenses they hold. I feel like DST has put Star Trek on the back burner and it only gets attention when they have a break in their other licenses. With no real news, lack of advertising and seeming lack of interest in getting Star Trek products out in a timely manner I am starting to wish that they would just get rid of the license, at least for figures. Let Funko, McFarlane, Neca or Mezco have it. I would love to see a legacy line for Trek like Funko is doing with Firefly.

#11 DSTZach

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Posted 30 July 2015 - 02:44 PM

Star Trek is not back-burnered -- we have a dozen items in the works at any given time. Right now, we have a bank, two Select figures, two statues, three ships, a role-play item, two new retro figures plus a dozen re-issued retro figures and a playset, some of which require updating. The ships are pretty complex, as are the figures, AND the role play items. If you want them to be simpler, or less accurate, or less detailed, that would certainly move development along.

 

If Chuck pulled back on giving info, it was meant for your benefit. Why talk about items that you'll only be more impatient for and not get for a long time, if ever? It only created more of an adversarial relationship to announce thngs and then deny them to you.

 

As far as circumventing retailers goes, while some of the most popular items in our web store have been Star Trek items, and the online community seems to find us for exclusive items we've offered in the distant past, our store (and our warehouse) is not set up to sell and custom-ship 10,000 items directly. We've never sold that many of anything in the store. And for most of our products, that's the number we're talking about.

 

We're also not trying to snake business out from under our retailers, since they are our primary revenue stream, and will remain that for the foreseeable future. Our sister company is a toy and comic distributor, so us selling direct is just an occasional side thing. If we can't give retailers one product to sell, we'll give them another. If we don't offer them something, or offer them something then take it away to sell it ourselves, then they might decide not to invest further in the line.

 

We don;t do a lot of print advertising, but we do some, and web ads as well. Where are toy companies adverising nowadays that we are not?



#12 1701D

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Posted 31 July 2015 - 02:29 AM

I don't really understand why fans are targeting diamond select with quite a lot of negativity. I think they do a huge amount of Star Trek stuff every year when by all rights they could be spending more time doing other product for properties that have more than just the one movie every few years coming out. My anger is squarely based at Paramount and CBS for continuously missing the chances they've been given with Star Trek. They've fumbled and are now scrambling to put together something JJ Abrams had been willing to do back in 2009 which was to establish a major multi-platformed franchise. DST are doing the best they can with a franchise that has still yet to reach its full potential. However, having said that, I do find it strange that DST aren't more forthcoming with product development. I think one area DST aren't as good or as well developed as other toy companies such as NECA or Mezco is through their social media. I'm going to take the new federation ship as an example. Why haven't we been given a name yet? I have a very limited knowledge of how a toy company works and what they can or can't do but clearly we have known that a new federation ship is in the works for a while now.

I don't think it's anything to do with the quantity of Star Trek products DST are producing, it's down to how they pass on the information on new products out to fans. if you take NECA for example, they use social media really well by documenting the development of any given product. In terms of this new federation ship in my mind it should have been announced at toy fair with a piece of art work and then the progress of the ship documented on social media (Twitter, Facebook and Instagram) through teasing shots of it and then at SDCC and NYCC a rough prototype and then at toy fair or SDCC the following year the full functioning final product.

on a side note I also think that the starship legends name could be changed and a big push in the 50th year to launch the name Ships of the Line by DST could be done to keep the line fresh. They could get some of the artists who've done renderings of the ships for the calendars and books to do the artwork for the launch of the next DST ship!

Anyway I think it's mostly down to fans being left in the dark by DST whereas other toy companies are better at getting news and development of product out there to fans through social media. If the case is DST aren't ready to show this ship then what the hell have they been doing for the past year!

#13 DSTZach

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Posted 31 July 2015 - 06:50 AM

If you don't know why fans are targeting DST with so much negativity, why are you being so negative? :D

 

What we've been doing for the last year is working on the long list of protoypes I mentioned above. They are not the only items we are working on, so they are not the full focus of our entire team, but we have several freelance artists and two different product managers working on them at any given time. The new ship has been in the works a lot longer than a year, but our initial prototyper had some health issues, so we had to transfer the project to a new designer. That same designer was already working on, as far as I know, the RBoP and the all-new paint scheme for the NX-01, so finishing those took precedence.

 

Chuck just said why he didn't announce a name in advance, but our current policy is not to show anything until a prototype is completed and (in most cases) fully approved. We also like to have the cost confirmed by the factory, in case we need to adjust anything beforehand, although that is not always the case, either. To show a work in progress, unapproved, is another way to disappoint fans, especially if a product changes significantly in the prototype phase. Old, in-progress pictures will be held up as reasons that the final product is somehow deficient or inferior. Plus, announcing the ship with a picture of it is much more exciting, and better than two less-exciting reveals, name and picture.

 

We currently use CBS-provided artwork for our packaging, and our own photography of our ships, so I'm not sure why getting artists to paint new, photo-realistic pictures of the ships on new space backgrounds would improve anything, be it packaging or advertising. It would be more work and expense, and would only slow any releases down -- if the point is to move faster, investing more work in the packaging is not going to accomplish that.

 

And changing the name of the line makes no sense. Why would we need to change the name and start fresh? I'm not even sure what that would accomplish. It would be like relaunching a comic series with #1 to boost sales, which we don't really need, and most people criticize. Plus, we'd be making the line harder to find. It wouldn't come up in the same searches as older ships, and you'd also get back results for any number of books. "Ships of the Line" is a pretty broad naval term, and doesn't mean a lot to most people who don't live and breathe Star Trek (or seacraft), in my personal estimation. But everyone knows what a Starship is, and what a Legend is.



#14 1701D

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Posted 31 July 2015 - 10:30 AM

Fair enough. I just think it's a case of damned if you do damned if you don't but I guess my thinking is that I'd rather know what the next ship is going to be and be disappointed in it not being what I wanted than to be lead a merry chase not knowing anything.

I think fans are always going to moan, however you showcase the development of the next ship early on to the majority and you keep the public eye on your trek products rather than having long periods of silence on the Star Trek line risking people loosing interest and moving onto something new. It would have been awesome to see some development stuff on brand new items for Star Trek at SDCC

#15 JonWes

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Posted 04 August 2015 - 08:49 AM

One thing that I think it's important to remember... I, too, get frustrated as a fan as there are not more numerous releases from DST. Just because, you know, I'd love to have a few more Selects to buy or ships like Voyager in my collection. But... right now DST are pretty much the only people to have sustained a Trek toy line of any kind in years and years.

 

As hard as it is to face as Trek fans, Star Trek is just not the merchandising juggernaut it once was. The merch from both of the recent movies has fallen flat on its face. Sales are soft on other retail Trek toys, too.

 

So... although it can be frustrating as fans because we want more, more, more... the fact that DST are still cranking away at these toys at all is pretty great. The Star Trek III phaser is a lot of fun. I can hardly believe it was made! I have to tell myself to do this sometimes, but I think it's good to just relax and take some more time to enjoy the cool things you have, rather than looking for the next new thing.



#16 JonWes

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Posted 04 August 2015 - 09:06 AM

Also - about the Borg Cube. What I'd love to see, if DST ever tackled this, is for them to do something that no one has before... make a multi-leveled Borg Cube to really sell the depth and complexity of the cube. It should be the TNG version.

 

- You'd start with a "core cube" that had detail molded on, but a lot of it was transparent to let through the orange-ish light from within. At key points, there could be green LEDs that could shine out when certain buttons are pressed.

 

- Then, the next layer would be highly detailed plates with lots of mechanical detail AND lots of holes for light to shine through.

 

- The final, outer layer is the same as above, but where there were open areas above, there would be more closed-off areas and where there were closed-off sections above would be more open on this layer, to let the detail come through.

 

I think this way you could finally get that mutli-layered look of the Borg Cube, with some sections backlit, and the light streaking out of the central core in others.



#17 dstchuck

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Posted 04 August 2015 - 07:59 PM

I understand the frustration - I've been waiting for the box sets from Bruce for years...but honestly folks...we announced the Romulan at Toy Fair - maybe a little earlier than I wanted, and you all did exactly what I told you, you would do, in a earleir Q&A. "Ok great, but what's next". SO if I say which ship is after Romulan, how long until you say "what is after that?" " Why won't you tell us"... Its going to go on and on. So we had to make a decision on when we give out informaion about ships or any other project for that matter, as a course of business.... We showed 11 Ghostbuster figures at SDCC, and got a bunch of emails asking where are the ghost.Its the nature of the fan to want to know as much as possible as soon as possible.. Sorry if you think I am playing some sort of game sitting here rubbing my hands togther with a white cat in my lap, laughing, but that's far from the truth.. Everyone at DST that works on Trek does it because they love it. I do the Q&A  every week because when I was a fan,or even now for things I care about , I would have wanted to have that type of access and information. The vaule you get back from them is 100% based on the questions I get. I tell you I would FLIP , if JLM did a Bruce Springsteen one , and did NOT edit the questions. Or Ben Cherington for the Red Sox... I'm never intentionaly coy or misleading in them, and never refuse to answer a question (unless its been answered many times before, or is a pure soap box desgiused as a question). Zach spends a TON of time working on the social media and fan outreach (more than I would like some weeks) and advocates for the fans in every meeting we have. He does the best he can, with the time he has, and the restrictions I place on him. Did any of you ever wonder why I got to most of our trade shows - instead of maybe stay home with the family or at work?? I do it so I can be there for fans to answer questions and be accountable. I think you deserve that for the support you give us. I'm sitting in the same chair, in the same spot at every show, or at a panel. For NYCC we even bring in DSTRobet who I think in the only person around, who has been working on Trek at DST longer than I have, and is the Minimates project manager, amoung others things. We do the best we can, becuase we think you deserve that becuse of the support you give us. If you think others do it better then we will continue to learn what we can and adapt it to our business model if we can. We're not pefect - I know for sure I an not, but just thought maybe you need to hear we care a ton. I thought that message was getting through but I guess I was wrong. We'll all keep trying. See you in NY!



#18 Alteran195

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Posted 04 August 2015 - 08:40 PM

I understand the frustration - I've been waiting for the box sets from Bruce for years...but honestly folks...we announced the Romulan at Toy Fair - maybe a little earlier than I wanted, and you all did exactly what I told you, you would do, in a earleir Q&A. "Ok great, but what's next". SO if I say which ship is after Romulan, how long until you say "what is after that?" " Why won't you tell us"... Its going to go on and on. So we had to make a decision on when we give out informaion about ships or any other project for that matter, as a course of business.... We showed 11 Ghostbuster figures at SDCC, and got a bunch of emails asking where are the ghost.Its the nature of the fan to want to know as much as possible as soon as possible.. Sorry if you think I am playing some sort of game sitting here rubbing my hands togther with a white cat in my lap, laughing, but that's far from the truth.. Everyone at DST that works on Trek does it because they love it. I do the Q&A  every week because when I was a fan,or even now for things I care about , I would have wanted to have that type of access and information. The vaule you get back from them is 100% based on the questions I get. I tell you I would FLIP , if JLM did a Bruce Springsteen one , and did NOT edit the questions. Or Ben Cherington for the Red Sox... I'm never intentionaly coy or misleading in them, and never refuse to answer a question (unless its been answered many times before, or is a pure soap box desgiused as a question). Zach spends a TON of time working on the social media and fan outreach (more than I would like some weeks) and advocates for the fans in every meeting we have. He does the best he can, with the time he has, and the restrictions I place on him. Did any of you ever wonder why I got to most of our trade shows - instead of maybe stay home with the family or at work?? I do it so I can be there for fans to answer questions and be accountable. I think you deserve that for the support you give us. I'm sitting in the same chair, in the same spot at every show, or at a panel. For NYCC we even bring in DSTRobet who I think in the only person around, who has been working on Trek at DST longer than I have, and is the Minimates project manager, amoung others things. We do the best we can, becuase we think you deserve that becuse of the support you give us. If you think others do it better then we will continue to learn what we can and adapt it to our business model if we can. We're not pefect - I know for sure I an not, but just thought maybe you need to hear we care a ton. I thought that message was getting through but I guess I was wrong. We'll all keep trying. See you in NY!

I think the main reason people are asking "what's next" in terms of ships is because, at least in my opinion, we fans care more about Federation ships than Alien ones. That's not to say we don't care, I am certainly going to be picking up the RBoP, I just would have preferred to know what the Federation ship is first. 



#19 Jay K

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Posted 04 August 2015 - 10:19 PM

Hello, Chuck. :)

To further respond to the bit about what ship is next after the Romulan Bird of Prey, I think the reason most of us have been so keen to know what the Federation ship will be, is because we've been told for a long time now that there are two ships in development. I doubt anyone will ask you what's next (for at least a little while) after you've released the name of it...

 

On the off chance you do see this, may I make a request? Should you ever make the Defiant at some point in the future, could you please make her look like the studio model/later CG version (like Round 2 have done with their tiny 1/2500 model, or Eaglemoss with their version), as it isn't any different in terms of volume, but looks infinitely better. ;)



#20 1701D

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Posted 05 August 2015 - 01:48 PM

Thank you Cuck for responding to us fans! Also to Zach for all he does and all his hard work in maintaining the social media side of DST and being very patient with our comments and opinions.





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