I don't know if this has been discussed before, but I just found out what ship had been selected for this year's Christmas ornament from Hallmark.
Apparently, some brain surgeon over at Hallmark (or whoever it is who decides which ship will be made) made the bright idea to make this year's ship the Reman Scorpion fighter. Yes, a ship that looks nothing like a usual Trek ship (more like something Batman would keep in his cave), and that had a total screentime in all the annals of Trek hours of about a minute.
To see the ship, go over to the Hallmark site (I'm too lazy right now to link to it). Obviously this decision was made to try to milk the last vestiges of Nemesis profits, without really thinking through that most people wouldn't even recognize the ship as a Star Trek ornament at first glance.
I mean it's not like they didn't have many other ships to choose from. Even the NX-01 shuttlepod would have been a better choice.
Well, there is a bright spot. At least they didn't make it the Scimitar.
Posted by Harry (Member # 265) on :
Can you even make the Scimitar in 3 dimensions with those millions of pointy bits?
Posted by Sol System (Member # 30) on :
I'm not sure I see the problem. How does a major plot element from a Star Trek film not count as fodder for Star Trek merchandise? That it was an awful film doesn't really factor in, here.
Now, having said that, I've got a friend whose parents always buy these things, and if I had to decide on something from Nemesis I'd want to see hanging off their Christmas tree, I might choose one of those Valdores, or maybe a diorama of Data about to jump into space. But that's just my personal taste, and hardly an indictment of Hallmark's business decisions.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
Okay, here's the skinny: Paramount decides what hallmark can and cant do for ornament design and chose the Scorpion because it has Picard and Data visibly inside it (the closest thing they have to instant recognizablity with a Nemesis ship). They already did and Enterprise E severa; years back and Hallmark does'nt repeat designs (for collectibility's sake)
It takes several months of prep time to create the master and the molds for the kind of worldwide mass-production that hallmark does with it's ornaments (to say nothing of the lights and sound chip!) and they expected the movie to be big. So much for hoping, right?
Polar Lights, (the current liscence holders for plastic model kits) is forced by Paramount (by contract) to make a snap-tight Scorpion Fighter model kit for much te same reasons: the contracts and molds had to be created far in advance of the movie's release and although the movie flopped, they still have to produce a kit they know wont sell in order to keep the liscence and give us great kits that will.
That being said, they ARE making a cool 350th NX-01 (with shuttlepods even!)
Posted by SoundEffect (Member # 926) on :
This year will be the first year that I WON'T be getting the Hallmark Trek ornament. The fact that the price is $10 more for a smaller ship than before was the real clincher. (Scorpion is $42 Can.) When the PL model of the Scorpion comes out. I'll buy two of them. They'll be much bigger, and I'll still have spent less on two of those than one ornament.
Posted by Jason Abbadon (Member # 882) on :
....and you can make Loqutus and Lore from the Picard models inside!
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
I will definitely be snatching a couple of the NX-01 models from PolarLights when they come out. One to make the NX-04 and one to go a kitbashin' with.
When are they coming out?
Posted by SoundEffect (Member # 926) on :
If the PL NX-01 is still running on time, it should be available in January.