Pike

http://community.web...572655002TimMCT


For those that dont know, SOUTH BEND TMP ENTERPRISE is the coolest star trek toy ever, http://www.calormen....hBend/index.htm
After milling about in my basement after a hard day at work, I decided to check out the nacelles from the 1/350 scale NX-01, turns out they are just a bit bigger than the 22 inch long SOUTH BEND ENT.  As yoiu can see from the link, I havent done anything other put the bare nacelles on, but the look is cool and just retro enough to work for me.  Its not the new ENTERPRISE just an old toy with some new parts.  I dont really care for the funkier looking hull I would have preferred something more similar to the REFIT.  Now I can have a totally unique ENTERPRISE as well as a cool new toy.  I am going to try to incorporate the box slots to allow the toy ENTERPRISE to be re-configured.  Its just something I was doing for fun.  Thought you guys and gals might enjoy it.

I fell in love with her the moment I saw her. She was from a different time and place, but I just knew I had to have her.


http://entertainment...096703357RiUWzB





She is being made using only stuff that is cheapest and finest of the cheap materials I could find. The lighting is done by minipods by B&D and they have 3 leds, very bright, blinding leds I might add. The grunt work is almost done, just have to do the dorsal and ventral neck and then it will come together. Lego was just used to approximate size and scale. Im working on building a few surprises into her.

She is about 30 inches or so long so that makes her about 1/350 scale. The saucer is made of two plastic trays from party city, styrene strips have been added to the sides to make the multiple deck look with brackets every 2 inches, the lower nacelle is a 2 foot long pvc pipe. I couldnt find anything that is tapered and the secondary hull is a sports bottle.

TRANSFORMERS had it, as well as SPIDER-MAN, and of coarse, STAR WARS CLONE WARS.  I think now is the time to help fill in wee hours and bring on STAR TREK ANIMATED back into play.  I doubt that our desire will die while we wait for the sequel, Im pretty sure the studios are aiming for a 2011 release, just like TRANSFORMERS, they want to capitalize on the film's popularity and current popularity with a younger audience.

The real question, what era and what would it be based around.  Several ideas immediately come to mind

STAR TREK ANTHOLOGY--set in starfleet academy, different stories can be told of different eras--thereby covering all of trek and making up some new stuff.  STAR TREK Books alone are rich with stories, be they canon or not, stories are out there, both long and short.
--Captain Sulu and the USS EXCELSIOR
--Captain Pike and the Original ENTERPRISE
--Captain April and the maiden voyage of the USS ENTERPRISE.
--Captain Picard and the ENT D
--as well as a host of other captains and thier ships.


STAR TREK--Basing it off the new movie would be ideal, but I would venture that also showing stories of Lt George Kirk and his adventures aboard the USS KELVIN would be pretty cool.  Its Kirk, but not the Kirk we know.  Basing it off the movie would still be fun and the actors would probably be all for it.  Voice over work doesnt take that long.  I wouldnt mind seeing Pike as a younger guy working with Capt. April.  

CGI vs Animated--I would have to go with CGI on this one, just due to the coolness of the ships and what is being done with cgi, its incredible.  I cannot stand Manga at this point, everything looks the same.  CAPTAIN SCARLET, MAX STEEL, STARSHIP TROOPERS ROUGHNECKS, CLONE WARS all have an incredible quality of detail about them and I would truly hope this is the route that is taken.

For years I have been amazed at the SOUTH BEND ENTERPRISE. A component based ship that could be re-configured into different ship designs, some even out of the STARFLEET TECHNICAL MANUAL. With the new movie doing well and the different designs based off of the USS KELVIN, wonder if PLAYMATES would give this a shot.

The protrusions obviously would not be there, but the the slot/tab system could totally work, whatever slot isnt being used, a ship skin tab is inserted to streamline the look.


http://www.calormen....hBend/index.htm

http://www.calormen....B/prototype.htm


This is a prototype that I had made using an old TOS ENTERPRISE model



Given the ships that were on the screen in the movie, I see only one ship being made and that is the USS KELVIN and since not all of us can customize and paint, I think this would serve everyone well. Actually being able to make a Trek ship using the components configured however the owner wanted them. Be it the KELVIN or anything they can think of. I think PLAYMATES would have a winner.


http://i720.photobuc...ward/fleet1.jpg
http://i720.photobuc...ard/fleet2a.jpg
http://i720.photobuc...ward/fleet2.jpg
http://i720.photobuc...ward/fleet3.jpg



T.

Im curious to see if Playmates will make small die-casts of any new STAR TREK vehicles--If you go to startrekmovie.com, go to the gallery and check out the wallpaper of the orbiting space station, there are at least 5 different starships that I can see.  My biggest hope is that they come out with the KELVIN.  I would be happy if that is all they end up doing, but wouldnt it be great to be wading thru star trek product in the aisle once again?