About the Manufacturers

NOTE:  You can click on most pictures to get a larger view of them.

Before we get into looking at the actual collection, let's do some deeper looking at the manufacturers that I've collected.

Memory Alpha Link

The main driving force in my collection is this company.  These are the guys that got me hooked on collecting small model starships.

"Hallmark has been known primarily as an American greeting card company and was founded in Kansas City, Missouri in 1910.

Since 1991, Hallmark has produced many licensed "Keepsake" Christmas ornaments based on Star Trek characters, ships, props, artwork, and scenes."

I find that thier ornaments are very well detailed and for the most part, thier choices in what to produce each year are pretty good.  Their move to having the ornaments be self-powered was a good one, in my opinion as now the internal lights on the models won't burn out from being on all the time.  As I've stated earlier, I have questioned some of thier choices in ships over the years (Reman Scorpian... BAH!!!  PHOOEY!!!) and really, why do they keep making new versions of the TOS Enterprise?

About My Collection - Addendum

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So this is where collectors might yell at me about how I've defiled certain "models".

Back in the early days of Hallmark's Star Trek ornaments, they had wires attached to each ship that you would then need to plug into a Christmas Tree light bulb socket in order to get it to light up.

When I decided to start displaying the ornaments in bookcases, those wires looked really dumb sticking off the ships, as well as they threw the ship off balance so that it would not stay in a nice position.

And so, I cut all the wires off.

There, I've said it, it's out in the open.  I have sinned against the collecting world.  And I don't care.

As you'll read in my first review though, that's not the only sin I've committed so stay tuned.

About My Collection

NOTE:  You can click on most pictures to get a larger view of them.

  

Note: This display setup is constantly changing as I add new models and have to re-arrange to cut down on crowding.

Originally my collection fit entirely on that brown bookcase you see in the pictures above.  When I decided to expand the collection and fill in the missing items, it became painfully clear that I needed to expand the display area.  That was when I bought the Dark Chocolate colored bookcase, some fishing twine and a bunch of eye hooks.

About Me and This Blog

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I am a Trekie.  Plain and simple.  Although I love the series and everything about it, I do not dress the part.  I was introduced to Star Trek The Next Generation (TNG) as a kid, so yes, I am a child of the 80's.  My mother also introduced me to The Original Series (TOS) crew through the movies.  I will admit that while growing up, I did not get into any of the other series after that.  The TOS TV episodes seemed crappy and fake to me after having seen TNG and the movies.  Deep Space Nine (DS9) lost me after only two episodes as I felt they had deviated away from what Star Trek was about, which was exploration.  While Voyager (VOY) was on I was going through a weird time in my life and just never had the time to watch it, although I did manage to watch the series finale when it aired.  Enterprise (ENT) was really what got me back into the franchise as I had both the time and the interest in stories.

I really like star Trek because it shows what we as a human race are really capable of if we would set aside religious and political bullshit and put our heads together.  Everything tech wise in the show is possible from a scientific point of view.  Medical, computer, star ships, all of these innovations can be achieved one day if we worked together.  As a computer technician, I particularly am fond of the technical side of the show.  And I'm a huge fan of space ships.  Lets face it, the show has tons of those.