'Augmented reality' for collector pins? Yes, and more out now from FanSets—aka my old buddy Dan Madsen!

Some of just the first offerings from Fan Sets

It's the 50th! Everyone is looking for a new way to show and celebrate their Trekness... and now here's a cutting-edge spin on an old favorite from none other than my buddy and colleague Dan Madsen.

His new company FanSets just launched with Dan, founder of the former longtime Official Star Trek Fan Club and my boss-publisher for the late great Communicator mag, and two partners in a great new enterprise: combining official and beloved 2-inch Star Trek character and ship pens in a bunch of new ideas for wearing and display—including a blow-your-mind way to see and enjoy pins in a whole new way!

Wait, what? you're saying by now:  Pins are kinda retro, old-school —and yet still fun for when you can’t cosplay and just want to wear a favorite ship or character. But what's cutting-edge about a pin?

My annual catch-up with Dan at San Diego Comic-Con

"It’s the Augmented Reality pins," Dan told me in an exclusive chat. "We are working with a company out of Indonesia that is one of the top three Augmented Reality companies in the world. Essentially, what this is, is—let’s take the Enterprise pin: You'll be able to take an app that we’ll provide and, when you see that pin on anyone, hold your smartphone or your tablet up to it for a second–and suddenly the Enterprise will come alive, out of the pin: it will literally be 3-D and move—shoot off into warp drive, with music and sound effects."
 
Or, say, point your app'd smartphone at one or more certain characters on a transporter pad and get a 3-D holographic beam-out effect, with voices and music. Or stand your Enterprise pin next to your buddy with her Klingon ship, and point again:  "The Enterprise will come out of the pin, the Klingon will come out of the pin, and they’ll have a space battle right there on your phone! Firing back and forth at each other."

Dan says he and FanSet partners Lew Halboth (28 years in the video game industry) and John Garrison(his industrial background backed by comics fandom) expect to have the first AR pin out by Christmas, and to demo the system for fans at "STLV"—Creation Vegas Khaann. But long before then, there are lots of other lines coming—and an ever-growing batch of the basic pins are up at the FanSets.com website right now."The fun thing is, not only can you wear them, you can display them," Dan says. "If you decide today you feel like wearing Sisko, then you put Sisko on and wear him— then you come home and you put him back in your display."

They have "tons" of these pins planned—from basic character and ship pins by the "hundreds" of styles, where minor characters like M'Ress are just the start (she's in the first 50). "She's one of the coolest pins, to me," Dan says. "That’s just an example of how we’re going into more of the minor characters that you don’t see turning up on most merchandise, if at all."

But you can also look for everything from pins with moveable parts, to autograph pins (to get and wear your favorite actor's inking), to "alphabet" pins sporting a notable of that letter (S with a Spock!) ... to the AR pins and app. The autograph pins are slightly larger, but "not so heavy they weigh down your jacket!"—and take any pen used for signing regular photos.

"By Vegas in August, we will probably have 50-70 different ships and characters, and probably have some of the first autograph pins there for the actors who are appearing," Dan says. He's especially proud of the vibrant colors and the enameling on even the basic pins: "The website does not do these colors justice! The little Chakotay pin—it's only two inches tall, but you can see in detail the little tattoo on his forehead."

"And by the end of the year we're going to be launching a collector’s club, so that people can not only get exclusive pins but get access to order first on our limited- edition pins—like a run of 1701 pins, and once they’re gone, they’re gone."

Look for a special FanSets display case coming, too. "The fun thing is, not only can you wear them, you can display them," he notes. "If you decide today you feel like wearing, you know, Sisko, then you put Sisko on and wear him— then you come home and you put him back in your display." You can collect them all, he adds—or maybe just the original series. Or Next Generation or Voyager, or just the ships, or the captains...and so on.

Dan was most enthused and insistent that his partners all came together with a business plan that took over three years to design and capitalize and, in a word, is not flimsy. They fully intend to "pump out" hundreds of pins, go deep into the Star Trek bench of characters, ships, and gear—and not be dependent on early sales to make the full line come to pass, including the high-end AR pins. "No, we're not launching with just a bare-bones line—that’s the reason it’s taken so long," he says. "None of us wanted to get involved if it was gonna be hanging by a thread, at first. We wanted to make sure we had all our ducks in a row, so as to have the biggest launch and rollout we could."

"We’re gonna have a huge collection in Vegas—our very first appearance at a convention, " he adds. "We hope to have an augmented reality demonstration there to show, and we’ll have a ton of pins there to buy. And at Mission New York a month later, and at Destination Star Trek Europe." The license includes many countries globally and covers all Prime Trek, with the Kelvin Timeline movies about to be added and the new Bryan Fuller TV Trek series dealt for as soon as possible.
 
FanSets also has a license for the same ideas with Harry Potter and DC Comics, and will be adding more franchises soon. "But I wanted to start with Star Trek because that’s where I started, with the Official Fan Club," Dan says, "and it’s still the closest to my heart. And to get them launched in time for the 50^th anniversary!"

Timing did not allow FanSets to get a booth at massive San Diego Comic-Con—but Dan says they'll have a presence with two exclusives, available from either the Stylin' Online at the Official Star Trek booth or at the Stan Lee Comikazi booths at SDCC. One of the pins is a tribute to Nimoy, Doohan and Kelley on the transporter pad, the other is an Enterprise inscribed with the SDCC 2016 line—and both to be sold for that weekend only for $12.95.

Otherwise, the regular character pins sell for $8.95, the ships are $12.95, and the Augmented-Reality pins are $12.95 as well. The line of the moveable-part and larger autograph pins are not set yet, but everything the company sells will be under $20.

And, he proudly adds, no consultants were used in the choosing of these pins.

"We’re all Star Trek fans—we sat down and thought, who should we do?" Dan recalls. "We have to do the main guys, but once past that—who are the ones we don’t see very often that we ought to do? We don’t have to sell a million of each one—we’re selling to collectors, so we can do a smaller run and do pins that appeal to a smaller number."

Sure, that's great talk, I tell him—but have you thought about a Tellarite?

Dan knows me well: “I am absolutely proud to tell you that we have a Tellarite!"

I can't wait to see it.



FanSets also has a Facebook page.

The new Star Trek stamps: THEY didn't need a petition!

The news today about the four Star Trek stamps for the 50th anniversary next year is welcome, fun news. I love the crisp look by designers The Heads of State, though with a definite Prime TOS  tilt to them… which is, after all, appropriate for the 1966 anniversary. I didn't see a first day of issue listed anywhere, yet, but… Sept. 8, anyone?

And somehow, it is SO perfect that the sight of beaming, a Vulcan salute, the Big E and the delta shield patch with warp stars … should all be emblazoned with FOREVER in all caps.

(Yes, I know that the unending label is about the postage rate. Still,  it's awesome.)




We've come a long way since the USPS finally recognized Star Trek with a stamp, albeit through the backdoor via the 1960s edition of the "Celebrate the Century" millenium-looking decade by decade special stamp sheets, in 1999 (at right). It was a hoot to deal with helping announce the release of that issue in the old Communicator as the official source. Of course, nowadays the Postral Service is hip to giving pop-culturists (and promotion-cooperative media) exactly the nostalgia they crave on a dwindling communication art form.

What's almost forgotten now is that  Bill Kraft, a stamp collector from  Sauk Rapids, Minn., led a lonely, 17-year petition campaign for a Star Trek stamp all through the '70s, '80s and into the '90s to help that along—i.e., on paper with stamps!—way before The Big Bang Theory and the geek revolution made it mainstream. As both a Trek fan and a stamp collector, *I* was a party to that petition as well… and I'm so glad Bill shared the celebrity support letters and the saga of that effort in his book, Maybe We Should Get God to Write a Letter…. still available on Amazon.

How fitting that when news broke about the new bright and shiny pop-art Trek stamps for 2016, I got this short email from Bill about the story:

"I'm assuming it is in conjunction with Trek's 50th anniversary. I didn't even have to campaign this time."

We do still have our Star Trek campaigns to wage, Bill. It's just that commemorative stamps are not one of them! 

My secret's out and you can order it now: The Starfleet Stellar Cartography maps/book set

UPDATE: Just need to pre-order now? Quick link is here!


Yes, I can finally say it. The big Trek "secret project" I've teased but stayed mum on in recent months is out there: the Star Trek Stellar Cartography: The Starfleet Reference Library poster map set and guidebook is now on Amazon for pre-order, as ballyhooed on the front page of startrek.com today. In case there was any doubt—Star Trek non-fiction is BACK, baby!

I do not know what is cooler: that we finally got to do evolved-canon star map posters suitable for framing, that we got to do starmaps from not only various historical eras but from various alien origins ... or that I got to update and "massage" some background gaps that have bugged canon fans like me for years.

Look, I don't want to spoil everything here—there's a lot in the press release, which you can see below—but just know that we didn't reinvent the wheel. We took the bedrock work of Geof Mandel in the 2002 Star Trek Star Maps as our touchstone—indeed, we got Geof back for a massive "historical" UFP map in the set of 10—and then got artists Ali Ries and Ian Fullwood to help take it from there for the various vibes needed. Together, they sweated a lot of our details—and that cover you see here does not begin to reveal the depth of what we get into.

You get the set of ten 2x3 maps I oversaw, plus the hardback guidebook I authored (at left)—all in the guise of a curated collection from the analog and digital archives of Memory Alpha. In those pages, we update for the Prime universe since 2002 (real-time) as of 2386 (canon time), we tie together a lot of threads like that whole confusing "Alpha Quadrant powers" thing, and we even deal with the onetime "Delphic Expanse" of Enterprise and, in a special update, JJ's Romulan subspace supernova.

What I may be most singly proud of, though, is for the first time finding a way to choreograph the known elements of the Dominion War onto that grid in a way that makes sense—including all that "threatened Federation homeworlds" business—and not only illustrate some major canon battles but make sense of those onscreen DS9 wall maps, too.

You guys who have read my "Fistful of Data" column in Titan's UK-turned-US Star Trek Monthly magazine since 1998 know my belief that most all canon hiccups can really be solved—and more simply than you think. This is actually my fifth time to work on a Trek maps project—the last four all with Geof in some way, amazingly, and the last three licensed ... and in all of them I got to put my credo into practice for that era.

I am so proud to have my name on this monster, and for everyone who worked on it—including my very patient becker&mayer! book editor Dana Youlin and art director Rosanna Brockley, plus CBS' John Van Citters, of course. They are veterans of lots of projects both in and out of franchise properties, including fellow background nerd David Goodman's incredible Federation: ... 150 Years book last year... but this was the most intense title for Dana and Rosanna yet. You'll soon see why!

The only bummer on the whole thing is that it won't release until Dec. 3, 2013—just in time for holiday gift-giving, of course—but you can pre-order now, exclusively at amazon.com (and no money due til it ships!). If you do hurry up and jump on now, every pre-order sends a signal to CBS and Amazon, etc., that we want more of this new-wave creative but intense non-fiction "gap filling," as I call it—since it may be some time before we get any on-screen Prime Universe backgrounding again. (For one thing, I do know that tabletop or paper-and-dice Trek space gamers will just have to have a set.)

We'll talk more, but for now know this:  If Stellar Cartography floats your boat and you are headed to Vegas Khhaaann in August, please stop by the panel already planned on this book and fire away on your questions. There'll be lots more to say and detail as we go along.


FULL PRESS RELEASE:

47North and becker&mayer! announce STAR TREK^TM Stellar Cartography: The Starfleet Reference Library

Officially licensed, georgeously illustrated collection featuring ten original, fully removable large-format maps of the Star Trek universe

From the publishers of Star Trek Federation: The First 150 Years comes a stunning new map collection straight from cartography archives of Starfleet Academy: STAR TREK Stellar Cartography: Starfleet Reference Library (47North/becker&mayer! On-sale: December 2013; ISBN-13:, ISBN-10: 1, $79.95).  These beautifully reproduced maps provide a rare opportunity to view the expanse of Federation space (and beyond) through the multiple lenses of the Galaxy's key players—visually expanding the Star Trek universe in never-before-seen ways. Compiled by Star Trek expert Larry Nemecek (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion) with illustrations by Ian Fullwood, Ali Rees and Geoffrey Mandel, STAR TREK Stellar Cartography: Starfleet Reference Library will release in December 2013.

The original maps include an ancient Vulcan map, a Klingon Empire map from the pre-Organian Peace Treaty era (in the native Klingon), an official Romulan government map of the Empire, a native Cardassian Union map from the occupied-Bajor era, along with Federation maps from the modern era. Housed in a handsome clamshell case and paired with a fully-illustrated reference book providing detailed information on planets, systems, and topography, this 48-page collection, licensed by CBS Consumer Products, will have something for Star Trek fans of all ages.

No Star Trek fan will want to miss this definitive collection. Visit www.amazon.com/StellarCartography to find out more about STAR TREK Stellar Cartography: Starfleet Reference Library and to pre-order this deluxe special edition book in advance of December. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Larry Nemecek is an author, editor and Star Trek consultant. He wrote the New York Times bestseller Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion. Nemecek edited the Star Trek Communicator magazine for eight years, contributed to Star Trek Fact Files in the UK, and served as a consultant on Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas. He lives in Burbank with his wife, Janet.

ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATORS

Ian Fullwood lives and works in rural Herefordshire, England, and has clients both at home and in the USA. With more than 20 years of experience in technical illustration and commercial art, Ian's love of the technical has taken him from traditional earth bound engineering type illustrations to the far flung galaxies of the Sci-Fi genres, illustrating more recently the maps of the Star Trek Stellar Cartography and previously Star Wars Vehicles, Weapons, Droids and Planets.

Ali Ries is a 3D digital artist from Salem, Oregon. Coming of age in the NASA era of Gemini and Apollo anchored her artist roots in space. Like many children of the Sixties she was mesmerized by Neil Armstrong’s historic first moonwalk, wishing she could be standing beside him in the grand adventure.

When Star Trek premiered on network television her future was paved with dream of some future in the world of Sci-Fi and Fantasy art or special effects. With the equivalent of a mental Hubble platform, Ali began creating astronomical star scapes, nebulae, and other space scenes as real as the night sky.

Today her work is used on book covers, television projects and other media around the world, including the recent SyFy network project, BSG: Blood and Chrome, Riddick 3 and Star Trek Fandom movies.

Geoffrey Mandel began his career as an art department P.A. on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Since 1995 he has worked as a graphic designer for films and TV shows, including many projects in the Star Trek franchise and various genre shows, such as The X-Files, Space: Above and Beyond, and the 2005 film Serenity, a spin-off the cult sci-fi series Firefly. In his spare time, Mandel designs and illustrates props, blueprints and star maps for various science fiction franchises, including the Serenity blueprints, and maps of the Star Trek, Firefly and Battlestar Galactica universes.

™ & ©2013 CBS Studios Inc. STAR TREK and related marks and logos are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

About 47North

47North is an Amazon Publishing imprint specializing in books for readers of science fiction, fantasy, and horror.  47North offers a wide array of new fiction and cult favorites, from urban fantasies to space operas, alternate histories to gothic and supernatural horror.

About becker&mayer

For over 30 years, becker&mayer! LLC, the largest book packager in the U.S., has created hundreds of innovative nonfiction books and book-plus products for adults and children in formats that integrate paper components, digital content, electronics, audio, and other specialty features for publishers worldwide. www.beckermayer.com

Fan girl fashion hits Trekland, and look who's involved!

You may have seen everywhere today the entry of Her Universe, the two-year-old femfan fashion brainchild of Star Wars voice actress Ashley Eckstein, into the Star TREK universe today with an intro line of tops.  What you may not know is the familiar Treklander who's been advising her young company all along...

None other than my good buddy and longtime boss/colleague, Dan Madsen, founder and late head of both the Star Wars and former Star Trek official fan clubs—whose Communicator magazine I manage-edited for eight years.

Thanks to Dan (with me on a recent visit, below), I've had a front-row seat as Ashley founded and expanded her company from her Star Wars origins to recent forays into licenses for both Trek and also Doctor Who, announced last week.

"I started working with Ashley from the very beginning of Her Universe and it has been one of the best experiences I have ever had,' Dan tells me. "She is truly a fangirl and loves all things sci-fi. From the very beginning, we always hoped we would get the license to do Star Trek apparel for women, so it was quite exciting when it happened. It also has been one of the most requested licenses we have had."

"It is great to be back in the Star Trek universe and talking Trek again!"

As I told Dan and Ashley in 2010—and as they well knew already—this is a perfect way to reach and serve the long-ignored "geek girl" revolution that has been sweeping fandom and the convention scene in just the past few years. In Trekland especially, many would say it's been there all along--just ignored the early days of feminine power driving early Trek fandom in the '60s and 70s. (In fact, that "T" at top carries the first big Trek fan slogan OF those early-era female fans—as first burst into the mainstream in TV Guide's 3/25/72 story "Grokking Mr. Spock," about the first-ever Trek convention).

CBS Consumer Products licensing has even allowed a special logo just for Trek products of a female nature, exclusive to Her Universe (at left).




Other obvious and not-so-obvious designs in the initial line are below—including the all-important subtle "Made you look!" polo with a simple and cryptic "LLAP" chest logo:

Incredible must-read: The '92 Vegas Star Trek that almost was

You HAVE to see this. And kudos to Gary Goddard for sharing the story—a bitterly ironic one.

As someone who worked on the final weeks' detail layer of Star Trek: The Experience—that's only the later, topmost layer, on top of a lot of planning and wrangling by many, many others—I'm familiar with Gary's former Landmark resort/theme park development company in the mid-late 90s. But I had no clue to even dig about this ....

Gary now has his Goddard Group, and it's from that podium that he shares the incredible story of how we almost have an even more awesome Vegas landmark in 1992—FIVE YEARS before the Experience opened in January 1998. The ENTERPRISE '92 project at least led the way and got a lot of wheels turning as to possibilities.

It also points to the glaring OMISSION of any current "destination Trek" landmark in Vegas' makeup, since the Experience's premature closing in 2008, its replacement with nothing since at the dying former Hilton, and the collapse of Rohit Joshi's hoped-for "Experience revival" downtown at the Neonopolis center.

And yes, Gary's  recollection revelations come complete with concept art and the whole shebang—just READ:

Now It Can Be Told: The Las Vegas "STAR TREK" Attraction That Almost Came To Life in 1992

The real winner of the 1992 downtown Las Vegas redevelopment competition was NOT the FREMONT EXPERIENCE – it was the STARSHIP ENTERPRISE from STAR TREK.  But no one knows this – until now. ...

'Bye Bye Robot': CBS turned my buds loose with a Trek art license!

It's not often that I get to watch the genesis of a Star Trek licensee from close up—but this week I'm feeling a little like a god-parent.

You know: having had nothing to to do with the conception or carriage, but honored to know the parents, be hit up for a little advice (very little) and be around at the delivery ... winding up with a title that's all glory and no responsibility!

So it is I'm thrilled to see the birth this week of a whole raft of LICENSED Star Trek limited-edition fine art prints as the debut offerings from Bye Bye Robot—otherwise known as Charity Wood, who with husband Chris is already well known as the Trek news blog and podcast Subspace Communiques. We've met and hung out several times on the con circuit the past couple years, and I'm really stoked for them as they launch this new endeavor. As Chris tells me: "We're devoted Trek fans and we're excited to be bringing an original take on iconic imagery." And with a license, they are fans actually empowered to do cool yet professional fine art by CBS/Paramount.

Charity also has some non-Trek, non-franchise original pieces as well in a series she calls AquaMARINE, with more variety on the way—but all her work is done in a technique she calls Pas de Lignes, which literally translated from French means “No Lines”; in effect, built up from a black rather than white foundation.

"It’s a modern style I’ve been working in for many years," she says on the site. "You can think of it as painting in reverse. I begin on a black canvas so the black “lines” you see are actually unpainted areas…not 'outlines.' Another way of thinking of it is that I paint everywhere except the 'lines'.” And they are available in a variety of sizes and options befitting fine art pieces designed to last, in Giclee, or museum-quality archival inks and acid-free cotton.

Charity just told me another news flash that's not up yet: "Along with bringing additional artists' work to the site, we're in the process of offering a line of original stickers."

I hope you have seen the launch news all over, like trekmovie.com and startrek.com, but here's my take from a front-row seat with both Charity and Chris. The first Trek topics are great choices to harness Charity's textured, color-splashed process to the max—but it is a business, and she artfully scores there as well.

Thinking for as broad a market audience as possible, the 1960s Enterprise is iconic and cool, of course—a familiar form to all, no matter what token Planet Hell cave set you may have been hiding away in. In a different way, I think the Gorn offers a surprise, even for those whose world orbits in a universe of mundanes; the reptiloid guy is eye-catching even if you've never even heard of Cestus III  or Bobby Clark. These are both on canvas, including the two views of the Big E.


But the unusual vertical "triptych" format for the tribbles panel on paper, is, I think, doubly perfect for the legit fan with an professional day-job office full of walls or halls to brighten up—and wants to do it both subtly and playfully. I can so see those furrballs in a Treklander engineer's office or doctor's waiting room. Who can argue with the perky hues? it will be fun to watch which visitors and patrons catch on to not only the tribbles joke, but the main Starfleet tri-palette behind them—and how long it takes...

So, good luck, Charity, Chris and Bye Bye Robot (no relation to that other Star Trek robot guy, as she shares the story behind the name on their site.) Everybody go take a look! Aside from online sales, they intend to be at a number of conventions this year, including Vegas Khhaaann in August, of course—as well as Comipalooza in Houston May 25-27, and Austin Wizardworld Comic-Con Oct. 26-28... and more to come.

Meanwhile, I'll be waiting patiently on my Tellarite Gav (or Grolst?) print in the next batch!

"I'm a Wall Decor, not a Doctor!": Lifesize Trek for you!

We may be breaking some kind of sneak-peek today, but who cares? This is cool—partly because it's so dang simple.

Or is it? Need a transporter in your bedroom? Or just a certain Vulcan science officer?

Walls360 is a start-up company already offering durable, re-"stickable" wall art posters from small to mural-size pieces ... and now just guess what their first franchise license is?

Well, take a good guess, Lieutenant, but clear that board.

Of COURSE it's Star Trek—beginning with the original series. The press release announcement is set to hit today...but their site is live NOW. They offer images from characters to ships to gadgets to, well, rooms...these are just three of dozens... and are "contour-cut from a single sheet of repositionable fabric paper for seamless installation."  They stick to almost any surface—from walls and windows to ceilings and around corners—and can be removed and re-hung 100 times without losing adhesion, leaving a mark, or damaging surfaces.

... But best of all, they offer these flat goodies in all sizes and prices from $15 (one-footer) to $155—the biggest at eight feet tall!

"It has been a LOT of fun going into the CBS archives and picking out images that will work for giant wall graphics," John Doffing, the Walls360, told me. "We are starting with TOS, and will be adding a LOT of new content.  We are a brand-new company, and this is our first big branded partner launch." And yes, they do utilize the new higher-res clarity of the Remastered TOS editions to deliver the large-scale sizes.


Stay tuned, and we'll be having our own TREKLAND giveaway of some TREK Walls360 items coming up real quick.

Another Trek shake-up, another veteran gone

Recent whispers of cutbacks at Pocket Books reaching to Margaret Clark, the 13-year veteran and last of the specialized Trek editors (for now), finally burst out on the record this week as part of a larger overall cut at Simon & Schuster. It's similar to the one that claimed her colleague Marco Palmieri a year ago, and the 2007 wipeout of the longtime startrek.com staff at CBS Interactive I worked with most recently. It's all unsettling news in what we'd prefer to have as a cozy little status quo in Trekland.

With this last cutback, Pocket/Simon & Schuster pledges to carry on the Trek license, hold to plans already made, and announce the new assignment among its remaining editors soon, but for now we tip our hat to Margaret for her years at the helm—including interfacing on the last edition of the TNG Companion and, to a smaller extent, our help on Geoff Mandel's Star Maps, much less the magazines' news and blurbs over the years.

It's not always an easy job, working under such a harshly specialized microscope while guessing at the growing or shrinking Trekfan market demands and answering to all those involved on the business side. We wish all good things for both Margaret, as she finds her next calling, as well as the Trek line's future at Pocket—and any potential changes in process it may take.

The Royalties on the Edge of Forever

Well, now we are REALLY in a retro-Star Trek era. Just like old times, Harlan is in a feud with Paramount.... er, Paramount/CBS, on the TV side.

After all these years and talk of having made up with the studio—or just mellowed out—Harlan Ellison is kickin' up a Star Trek ruckus once again and grabbin' headlines. And—can you blame him?—it's all about the offshoot money.

Sure, by modern standards, Harlan was never on staff, and penned only one episode. It's just that that "one epsiode" is perhaps the most iconic of the original series, so much so that it easily clears the bar for even Christmas ornament status...

Who da Kirk?

The recent GoAnimate and QUOG cute-imagery news does mean a fresh and, yes, direct invite for the kids to access Star Trek—kids of any age, that is. As CBS licensing chief Liz Kalodner says, they do "bring a smile"—and this Treklander thinks they in no way take away from the serious side of the sport.

But this QUOG-laden preview T-shirt from new licensee Trevco makes me wonder:

















Is that Kirkster image based on young Shat, Chris Pine.... or Phase II's James "Capt. Elvis" Cawley?