Those of you out of the closest with respect to Trek, do you ever get dopey Trek gifts from relatives? Or do you specifically tell people not to get you any Trek-related stuff?
I might have asked this last year, but I enjoy hearing Trek-related X-mas horror stories.
Posted by Michael_T (Member # 144) on :
My family knows that I'm a hard-core Trek fan...so last year they decided to make up for the Christmas roadtrip to Colorado the year before. They bought me a Seven of Nine doll. My sisters thought it was funny...I didn't.
Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :
I live in the Netherlands... there IS no Trek-related stuff here.
Posted by StyroFoam Man (Member # 706) on :
I want a Quantum Torpedeo for christmas. Just one.
That and a Defiant-style warp-core. ----
One year I recived nothing but Star Trek novels and T-shirts for christmas. 15 novels and 5 t-shirts. Nothing else. Of the 15 novels, 4 were dups and two of the the t-shirts were the same!
Another year, I recived nothing but models of the Enterprise-A. I asked for a kit of the Defiant and E-D. Instead I recived THREE E-A kits! ("what's the difference, you ungreatful bastard?!" Was what they said when pointed it out)
NEVER EVER ask non-trekers to buy Trek stuff! Posted by MinutiaeMan (Member # 444) on :
Well, I've had good stories and bad.
My second year as a Trekker, my parents gave me the first edition of the "Star Trek Encyclopedia." I've still got it on my bookshelf, 8 years later.
Then there's the time I asked my grandparents for a model of the Enterprise (I was into building the AMT/ERTL kits at that time.) Instead, they got me one of those cheap Playmates kits with the sound effects and pop-off damage panels. (Ugh...)
And finally, there was the time I asked for "Star Trek 4" or "Star Trek 6" -- and got a copy of "Star Trek: The Next Generation"... Episode #6. ("Where No One Has Gone Before") That's an episode that I absolutely hate!
In general, I've had a hard time getting "good" Trek-related Xmas gifts from relatives, though my parents and sister are definitely in tune with the kind of stuff I'm interested in.
Posted by MIB (Member # 426) on :
I want a tri-cobalt torpedo. That is bound to give me hours and hours of fun. MWHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Posted by Dr Phlox (Member # 680) on :
I only ask for the episodes and films on DVD.This year for my birthday I got the Endgame novelization. I actually enjoyed even the Homecoming section.
Posted by Grokca (Member # 722) on :
I want a phaser to mount on the front of my van to get rid of all those idiots on the road.
Posted by Grokca (Member # 722) on :
Sorta unrelated but a Star Trek horror story none the less. I was a Sci-fi convention in Toronto with my wife and daughter last year. I am examining some pins when I hear my wife scream across the room "Paul here's some of those quarterpack things over here!" She was of course refering to tri-corders. Talk about embarrassing, she wasn't allowed to go with us this year.
Posted by The359 (Member # 37) on :
I got "Encounter At Farpoint"/"All Good Things..." box set for Christmas, a TNG Shuttlecraft CD Holder, a Worf Mug, a Playmates TNG Bridge and Engineering set with action figures, and I think a few Trek novels.
Damn, I get shitty stuff for Christmas...
Posted by CaptainMike (Member # 709) on :
Harry, you are lucky.. Star Trek doesnt really have much in the way of standards when it comes to merchandising.
My Dad is wicked cheap and only shops at closeout stores where everything is surplus and dirt cheap. He also doesnt know anything about me except that i like Star Trek (not that theres much more to me anyway.. the stuff he doesnt know about is drinking, drugs, really nasty girls and pornography, so im content to let him think that Trek is my whole life)
So he always gets me the worst stuff.. Star Trek sno globes with ships inside them.. burgundy, black and silver vinyl fanny packs and matching fifth-grader sized bookbag..
for three years in a row i got 'Leadership Lessons based on Star Trek', on of those 'be a better boss' books with a theme, analyzing authority as it was used in different episodes. He kept forgetting he had already gotten it for me because it was the only Trek book at Building 19..
hmm.. my Playmates 'communicator pin' is pretty bad.. released in 1994, the tech for pin beeping was so poor that the thing was about 3.5 inches by 4 inches.. and an inch deep.. i cant imagine myself pinning that on my shirt, no matter how geeky i was.
Posted by TSN (Member # 31) on :
I got the Encyclopedia (original edition) for Xmas back in... '95, maybe? And, honestly, if that hadn't happened, I never would have seen the problems w/ the starship list in it, I never would have tried to amke my own correct version, I never would have looked on the Internet for further information, I never would have ended up finding the original UP Forum, and I wouldn't be here right now. Fascinating...
I also got videos of TMP, TVH, and TFF one year. It was the year Insurrection came out, actually. I saw it at the theater, and happened to mention later that those three movies were the only ones I still hadn't seen.
Slightly different, but I also got a Trek b'day present once (1999): the second edition of the Encyclopedia. But, in that case, I had specifically asked for it.
So, I've never really ended up w/ a bad Trek present...
Posted by MIB (Member # 426) on :
If it weren't for my quest to find more info on the certian varities of Federation starships 5 years ago, I would not be here.
Posted by OnToMars (Member # 621) on :
New York abstains.
Posted by Balaam Xumucane (Member # 419) on :
At first I resented the "All I need to know about life I learned from watching Star Trek" shirt. Now I love it. It was always fun to play a show in my suit and dress blacks and afterwards to be chilling out with the groupies in the green room and open the shirt to suddenly have Start Trek staring them in the face. I think it confused a lot of people. I think some of them assumed I was just doing it to be cool, that I couldn't really be a Trekkie. But the right people got it.
Posted by Masao (Member # 232) on :
Balaam: I remember how in the mid 1980s, wearing a Batman t-shirt, one with the TV logo, was considered sort of retro-hipster ironic cool. Then after the movies came out, wearing a black Batman shirt was considered a sign of mindless devotion to multinational corporate consumer culture.
How is Trek seen now by the culture at large? With greater distance, has TOS now acquired some kind of retro cool? Is Voyager only for geeks? I don't live in the US now, so I'd like to know.
Posted by MIB (Member # 426) on :
I livein the U.S. and even I do not know the answer to that question. I do know that it's cool to hate Voayger though.
Posted by StarFire (Member # 748) on :
Hmmm. Haven't ever really got anything Trek for Christmas before. Got Insurrection on VHS for my birthday. Don't think my dad knew what to really buy..but it was the thought there..
Posted by GBurch (Member # 666) on :
For my birthday a couple of years ago, I got the 3D Chess Set from the Franklin Mint
I always seem to get a few Star Trek things, not much of it is really any good though. I've learned to be very specific with my christmas list
Posted by PsyLiam (Member # 73) on :
TSN: "I got the Encyclopedia (original edition) for Xmas back in... '95, maybe? And, honestly, if that hadn't happened, I never would have seen the problems w/ the starship list in it... *SNIP* I never would have ended up finding the original UP Forum, and I wouldn't be here right now. Fascinating..."
Okuda and Sternbach must die.
"I am examining some pins when I hear my wife scream across the room "Paul here's some of those quarterpack things over here!" She was of course refering to tri-corders. Talk about embarrassing, she wasn't allowed to go with us this year."
Good thing you put a stop to that right there and then. We can't have woman getting the names of Star Trek props wrong. Especially when it causes embarrasement in a room full of Star Trek fans. I'm imagining the sniggers you received. I feel your pain.
![[Smile]](smile.gif ":)")