Battlestar Galactica Auction # 2

And now a break from our regularly scheduled Star Trek blog.

Battlestar Galactica is near and dear to many of our hearts. Certainly, it launched a new career for me. It also ranks second behind Star Trek as the biggest prop & costume category in the hobby. No other show, other than Star Trek, has as many items in circulation as does BSG.

The two live auctions were hailed by many as the best prop & costume auctions ever held. That was due to the attention to detail and creating a fun environment that NBC/Universal and Propworx strived for. One area this was very evident in was the auction space itself. Every item was available for preview and we tried to create a museum like feel to the space.

Here are two of my favorite photos from the second BSG auction. The first is a photo we took of the preview area, which was made to represent the Galactica hanger deck. It included custom made struts that mimicked the look of the Galactica hanger deck. Becky Casey spearheaded the effort to get these built, and they really made the space look amazing!

And of course the photo of The Colonial Fleet, the biggest and best BSG fan group. They came in costume to each of the live auctions and added a great sense of community and passion to the events.


And make sure you get your copy of Battlestar Galactica: The Plan that comes out October 27th.

Blu Ray:




DVD:

Star Trek: The Motion Picture special event in L.A.

Sunday, September 27 - 5:30 PM
STAR TREK: 40 Years of Designing the Future
Director’s Cut! STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE, 1979, Paramount, 132 min.

Director Robert Wise, ably assisted by Harold Michelson’s (DICK TRACY) otherworldly production design, Jerry Goldsmith’s stirring score and a special effects team including Douglas Trumbull, John Dykstra and Ramon Sanchez, delivers the first STAR TREK film as a profound meditation on man’s struggle to survive against the negative forces in the universe. With William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Walter Koenig, George Takei, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, Persis Khambatta.

This program will review the full spectrum of STAR TREK’s visual achievements and its contributions to the art of narrative design for science fiction. Production Designers John Jefferies, Joseph R. Jennings, Herman Zimmerman and Scott Chambliss, along with moderator and VFX artist Darin R. Dochterman, will take us on a journey using visual clip pods based on design themes such as the ships, the bridge, alien worlds, gadgets & gizmos, and production challenges. Collaborating with Dochterman in the selection of the content for this program are Designers Michael and Denise Okuda, authors of The Star Trek Encyclopedia. Included are pre-recorded guest speaker clips from such STAR TREK veterans as a concept artist, VFX artist, set decorator, costume designer, graphic artist and producer. The panel and clip show will be presented first. Pre-show 5:00 PM, Program 5:30 PM, Film 8:00 PM.

More information at the American Cinematheque special events page.

eFX to take over where Master replicas left off!

This came in my email last night:

eFX Boldly Goes Into a New Frontier
With the Addition of Star Trek Collectibles

Star Trek Joins Other Incredible Entertainment Properties to Make eFX the Premiere Producer of Officially Licensed Prop Replicas

BURBANK, Calif. (Sept. 21, 2009) – Space was the final frontier for Capt. James T. Kirk and his crew – and now it is the next frontier for eFX Inc., which today announced that it will introduce new high-end collectibles based on the classic Star Trek films and TV series.

eFX will introduce its Star Trek collectibles, licensed from CBS Consumer Products, later this year with the Mark IX Tricorder as seen in Star Trek: First Contact – and it’s just the first of many contacts that eFX plans for fans to be able to make with the seminal science-fiction TV and movie series, which holds a special place in the hearts of eFX’s development team.

“For many of us, Star Trek was our introduction to the possibilities and promise of science-fiction storytelling, and it is an absolute honor to have been given the chance to bring Star Trek collectibles to fans,” said Bryan Ono, president of eFX Inc.

Pre-orders for the Mark IX Tricorder are expected to begin in September, and eFX will limit its production run to no more than 1,000 pieces worldwide. The Tricorders will be offered as a “Signature Edition” signed by actor Brent Spiner, who played Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation and the films it inspired.

Star Trek joins an incredible list of properties within the eFX portfolio. They include Star Wars; the original Battlestar Galactica TV series; Disney animation, live-action films and TV series; and the Muppets.

“With the addition of Star Trek to the eFX catalog, we’re very proud to be home to high-end collectibles based on some of the most classic entertainment properties and brands,” Ono said.

More details about eFX and its collectibles can be found online at www.efxcollectibles.com.

The Phoenix

One of the great Star Trek models recently surfaced in the collection of Star Trek collector Adam Schneider. It is truly spectacular and already one of my favorites models I have seen in person! Here is a peak:





Adam is working on a custom display stand for the model and I should have more photos soon.

Alec

More on Ed Miarecki and eBay

In talking with Ed Miarecki this past weekend, we discussed that he puts items up for sale on eBay from time to time. This week he has two interesting items.

One is a shuttlecraft casting from "The Osiris Chronicles" which was a production to be made by Star Trek veteran Joe Dante and Paramount. We have seen some of these items in the IAW sales as the items were stored with all the Star Trek assets. You can read about this item and "The Osiris Chronicles" on John Eaves web site here.

The other items is what Ed calls a miniature "master" though I would speak to Ed if you are interested. I don't think Masters were made from foam, but I could be wrong. Ed sells a lot of good stuff, and he knows of what he speaks, but just check with him on this one. You can see it here. A few weeks ago Ed had a casting of the Ferengi filiming miniature that went pretty high.

Star Trek 5/6 Assault Phaser - Part 3 Ed Miarecki's Phasers

The Master inspects the Assault Phaser from the Doug Drexler collection, which he made.

Ed Miarecki, the long time prop creator for Star Trek, was hired by Greg Jein to make resin versions of the Star Trek 5 Assault Phaser for Star Trek VI. These versions were painted exactly like the STV versions, but were resin, whereas the Greg Jein had made fiberglass heroes and rubber stunts for ST V. Those all had metal baseplates. The ST VI version Ed supplied had metal baseplates added to his by Greg.

According to Ed, he made 12 of them initially, and within days they requested he make 12 more as those had disappeared from the set! So there are a good number of these around. However, this post deals with the subsequent castings Ed has done.

Ed still can make you a ST VI Assault Phaser out of the original molds if you like. They are beautiful pieces. But Ed doesn't paint versions that were not made for the production like the ones he delivered to the set. First of all, that paint is a pain in the butt and includes a printers ink which is a carcinogen. That is what gave the production versions that metallic look to the black paint. For all subsequent versions Ed made, including ones he gave to the Star Trek and ILM staffs he was friends with, Ed paints in a two tone Metallic grey/black. The difference is obvious and can be seen here.

While not as desirable as a production made version, this is as close as you will get to one. While the Master Replicas and Roddenberry versions are both awesome, they are not 100% accurate because of what they were cast from.

Thanks to Ed for spending a lot of time telling me about his time on Star Trek. He is a great guy and a true hero to us prop collectors.

The Assault Phaser that Ed gave as a gift to Star Trek and ILM crew members

Production Version

Star Trek 5/6 Assault Phaser - Part 2

After Star Trek V, the Assault Phaser played an even bigger role in Star Trek VI. For this production, Ed Miarecki was hired by Greg Jein to make resin Assault Phasers to supplement the Fiberglass heroes and rubber stunt versions.

Here are photos of one Ed recently sold to Josef from Austria, a long time Star Trek Prop, Costume & Auction Forum member, and the photographer and layout designer of the Battlestar Galactica Auction catalogs.

The COA from Ed states:

"This document certifies that the Star Trek Assault Phaser Prop pictured above was fabricated by me for the film "Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country". It was returned to me after the production was finished, and has been my personal collection."

Josef says the Phaser is made out of resin (Confirmed by Ed) and has 3 metal parts; the tip, the rear fins and the knob on the side. It is in very good condition with only minor scratches from production use. It did not come with a base plate attached, something Ed had allready mentionend in the eBay description. When he asked Ed if he could make him a replica, he told Josef that he never made the plates in the first place, they were fabricated and applied by someone else (Greg Jein). Also, the plates on his Phasers were simple stickers, not metal plates as found on the hero versions.