The Excelsior was live, browsable, and (IIRC) searchable when it first went up over a year ago as a pre-order that got listed immediately after the first fair/con/whatever it was where it was first announced & shown. But after awhile, as with most extremely-far-in-advance pre-orders, they "cloaked" the listing. I also have the Ent-B on order from the same timeframe:
http://www.bigbadtoy...amp;mode=retail True, although I wouldn't have posted the "cloaked" listing just yet--it makes the "Collector's Grade" upgrades usually sell out long before I, as well as others, have the money budgeted aside to buy the ship once it's actually about to be released. Granted, I think BBTS was the first place that we saw the pictures of the ship outside of Toyfair where it was announced. *In his best Scotty voice* But, Cap'n, a listing cannah be viewed when she's cloaked! (Okay, I should've saved that for the BoP, but I might not get a chance since it seems to be humming along nicely.) It looks like DST is keeping up the pattern of a starship "blitz" every other year here; observe:
2007: A second run of 1701-E's which were really a late-2006 release, the BD 1701-E, the Cage and WNMHGB 1701s, and I believe the TWOK 1701 was and the BD variant were also '07 releases.
2008: Nothing that I remember; maybe a simple variant or two that was bumped up or pushed back, but nothing major. This was during the Enterprise-D's design though, but Chuck's "release date" snafu made things seem worse than they were
2009: Lots of ships, simple variants include the HD and MU 1701s, while the 1701-D was the "flagship" of 2009, and the AGT-D was a "complex variant" giving us four ships; the TWOK 1701 was also reissued bring us up to five ships total, similar to what we saw in 2007.
2010: Nothing yet, but DST could surprise us with the Klingon BOP and bring the grand total of ship releases for 2010 up to one; I'd rather that they take their time though and knock my socks off like they did with the Enterprise-D.
2011: If the BOP (Bird of Prey, not Blow-out Preventer,) isn't released this year, you can bet it'll be a 2011 release if things go as Chuck seems to be suggesting that they likely will. The Ent-B and Excelsior will likely share a common mold the way that the Ent-D and AGT-D did, with the Ent-B getting the "additional parts" treatment as a "complex variant" of the Excelsior. DST is supposedly looking into another run of the Ent-E and has been for some time, so throw in the NEM Enterprise-E and that brings the potential 2011 total up to five, with one complex variant, one simple variant, and one reissue in the mix.
If I had to guess, I'd say this pattern will repeat for 2012 and 2013 as well, and I'm not even counting the Playmates ships from the movies which also have coincidentally fallen into this pattern. (Now if Playmates was smart, they'd have DST sculpt the Trek XII 1701 for them and share the credit for the ship rather than reusing the 2009 mold.)
Regarding this Enterprise E...you can bet the farm that all we're getting is a new paint job, and nothing else. In fact I will be surprised if even that is as significantly superior as all the hype suggests.
In the past I would've agreed with you, but DST seems to treat variants--simple or otherwise--differently from standard reissues. A "standard reissue" is usually the same as the original run unless there's a glaring flaw. Examples include the TWOK 1701 where DST used a slightly darker plastic to reduce light-bleed, (Chuck acknowledged that he thought it could've been better) and supposedly any future runs of the 1701-D which will likely have the windows painted on that were accidentally left off of the initial run.
Variants on the other hand generally tend to receive a new paint job, maybe a retooled mold, new lighting, and usually a new sound chip. If the mold is retooled, the retooling may be retroactively applied to future runs of the ship that the variant is derived from. Examples include the following:
- The HD 1701 and the MU 1701, both of which have retooled saucer sections; the HD 1701 also has new LEDs, and both have new sound chips. To a lesser extent, The Cage and WNMHGB 1701s both have new sound chips and some minor retooling around the engines, but the same saucer from the initial mold. For those who are unaware, the HD 1701's saucer is a single piece of plastic; there are new screws and thus no "screw covers" on the bottom of the saucer as there were with the initial run.
- The AGT-D, if you consider it a variant, has major retooling as well as a new sound chip.
The Enterprise-E was a unique situation. Art Asylum was being acquired by DST while the ship was being designed and things were overlooked as a result of miscommunication. Art Asylum's initial prototype had to be totally redesigned because there wasn't enough space for the batteries. The end result was a ship that was designed by two companies, DST wanted the "talking" starship, so we got Picard's voice in addition to sound FX. Art Asylum didn't view LEDs as economical in 2006, so they used rice bulbs. DST and Art Asylum miscommunication lead to the missing lights in the "blue" portion of the warp nacelles, the unpainted pylons, and the lack of a "play cover" or suitable "universal" battery cover. The battle damaged variant lacks any updates because it was released as part of the regular Enterprise-E's second production run. It's worth noting that the second--and much shorter production run occurred in a "gap" between the initial release of the Enterprise-E, where pre-order numbers dictated the need for a second run, and the time when the Enterprise-E actually began making there way into people's hands. Once people started receiving their Enterprise-E's and posting pictures, people began canceling their pre-orders over the missing paint apps, missing lights, and in some cases, the lack of a play cover or battery cover that's suitable for people who "suspend" their ships for display. By this point, the second run of Enterprise-E's and the battle damaged variants were on a slow boat from China and DST couldn't simply "cancel" production. Even with the quality drop, the Enterprise-E sold rather well, simply because it was so much better than the two pitiful attempts made by Playmates toys, even without a play cover, proper lighting, or decent paint apps, DST's ship at least managed to have the right shape and proportions. (While I can forgive the First Contact ship, I can't forgive the abysmal Insurrection retread when Playmates had the chance to fix their mess and didn't.)
Art Asylum, or rather Play Along's Art Asylum handled things differently than DST. Play Along would do "silent" update as ships were put into second and third runs. The NX-01's first run and battle damaged variant were simultaneous releases so there weren't any major differences, but the second run, later reissued by DST, featured improved warp nacelles that set the precedent for DST's ships when Art Asylum realized that copying Playmates' style of nacelles was a dumb idea. Likewise, the MU NX-01 features the updated mold, even though the NX-01 wasn't reissued in its regular form, and the MU variant was a DST release.
Similarly, the 1701-A was released under Play Along's control of Art Asylum, but a second run was never produced. A "limited edition" Search for Spock version--mislabeled as a TWOK ship was released, but it was a simple paint variant; this was a system that Play Along started, and Art Asylum carried over to DST up until they realized they could do better after the Enterprise-E's battle damaged variant was nothing more than a repaint. In fact, DST's next "main" ship was the TWOK 1701, and that was nothing more than the 1701-A mold with some minor retooling, a new sound chip, and LEDs. I don't have the battle damaged variant of the TWOK 1701, but I believe it was more than a simple repaint, and if it wasn't, it was the last simple repaint before DST switched to the "new soundboard" system that they've been using ever since. Of course, the TWOK ship didn't need a sound update, it had every line of dialogue an every effect either variation of the ship needed to be a TWOK ship; if DST had release a Search for Spock variant, it probably would have had a soundboard update. My point is that DST could keep the sound board--there's no reason to change it, but they could also change the rice bulbs to LEDs and tweak the ship since this appears to be a "new production" rather than a reissue, and DST seems to only justify retooling with the inclusion of a "new production" of some sort, like the HD version of the TOS 1701, or any of its other variants.
Definitely going to pre order this ship - what I don't understand is why list it as a Star Trek: Nemesis ship? That movie was less than popular so you would think they would list it as a Star Trek: The Next Generation Ship.
That's actually a good question 1701. Technically, the current ship
IS the "Nemesis" ship; the mold is designed to match the digital model from Nemesis rather than the "physical model" from "First Contact" and certain scenes in "Insurrection." Insurrection had a digital model for a few scenes, but it was designed to match the physical model. By the time NEM was released, the whole ship was done digitally and John Eaves tweaked it to include detail that he couldn't include on the physical ship but had initially wanted to, which is why I hope that if we ever see a "Director's Edition" of First Contact and INS, that it'll be updated to include the Enterprise-E as its designer originally intended it to.
I can think of a few reasons why the ship is being referred to as the "Nemesis" version, including:
1. The 2011 release date; Nemesis' 10th Anniversary will be in 2012, but if my chart above holds consistent, it makes sense for DST to release the ship a year early rather than a year late; besides the film was in production in 2001 so meh, celebrate the 10th anniversary of the film's production instead of its release if you need to rationalize the early release.
2. The Enterprise-E wasn't a "Next Generation" ship; calling it a First Contact ship would be more appropriate but as noted above, the design was different.
3. As people begin to watch Nemesis either for the first time, or without being blinded by the Insurrection and Enterprise-induced "Trek hatred" of the early part of the last decade, they realize that it's not a bad film, and is actually much better than they may have previously given it credit for. Remember, in 2002 the previous Trek film was Insurrection which was almost as bad as Star Trek V, and the current TV series was ENT, which people wanted canceled; it didn't help that the show was in its really abysmal phase either. The leaked Nemesis script didn't help things when people began to complain because a scene that they really wanted was cut, such as the seatbelt joke, (later included with deleted scenes,) footage of the U.S.S. Titan that was never filmed , and a much longer Riker/Troi wedding. The real problem was that people wanted to see "First Contact" quality, to counter-balance Insurrection's screw-up, and that was simply unrealistic. Now that people are looking at Nemesis objectively, it's not given the same type of response that it was ten years ago. In fact, I'd even say Nemesis is the most underrated Trek film ever produced. I watched it again recently and noticed that there are a lot of similarities to the new film--and unlike the new film, Nemesis' "car chase" actually served a plot point and wasn't stupid or contrived. There are other similar scenes where it seems like Nemesis actually may have been better, but the mood surrounding Trek in 2002 was "it sucks," and in 2009 was "it's going to be perfect," even if it wasn't. Once the blinders are off for either bias, both films clock in as being pretty decent, rather than at the extremes that they were greeted with.
4. DST needs a name for the ship to distinguish it from the first release, calling it the "HD 1701-E" might not be bad, but it could raise a few eyebrows and conjure up images of the defects on the HD 1701. Calling it the Blu-Ray addition would require royalties to the Blu-Ray Disc Alliance, which is primarily Sony, and seems kind of contrived.
5. Calling it the "deluxe edition" would be a good idea, but if DST really does look into a "deluxe" line of ships one day, this could lead to confusion down the road.
I think that calling it the "Nemesis" edition is just fine, I'm more interested in the ship than it's name, and as long as the ship itself is awesome, DST can name it the "Klingon's call this a garbage scow" edition for all I care, although Mr. Scott might want them to rephrase that.
Seriously though, I think DST went with the "Nemesis" edition because the mold is already based off of the Nemesis model and the paint scheme is now accurate. BBTS isn't calling this a "limited edition" yet, and I really hope that it's not a limited edition run, but a new "standard" model. It looks like they're rerunning the "old" 1701-E as well though, maybe to generate hype for the new ship, or maybe in limited quantities alongside the new ship. Either way, my orders with BBTS are placed, and I'm looking forward to this ship just as I did when the first Enterprise-E was announced from Art Asylum way back when.
I have to compliment Chuck for his accuracy here; he did say they were going to be rerunning the Enterprise-E at some point soon likely, and it looks like that point is quickly approaching. Now I just hope that other people pre-order since we all know that's the only way to ensure a DST release of anything these days. I've already pre-ordered, and I hope others are as well.
http://www.bigbadtoy...amp;mode=retail
