About the Manufacturers

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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

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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.

My Star Trek: Enterprise Rant

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In my opinion, Star Trek: Enterprise (ENT) was given the shaft way to soon.  This series had the greatest potential.  They had great opportunities to tell some really cool stories and show us what space exploration was like in the "cowboy" days before Kirk and all the rules that captains had to follow.  This series was based in a time when we as a race were learning what the universe was really like.  And it was a time when we learned from our mistakes.  For the first two seasons, they suffered from what every other sci-fi show suffered from and that was rushing thier stories.  The show had 45 minutes to lead into a great story line, but as will always happen in these situations, you find that they have to rush the solution in the last 5 to 10 minutes of the show. I would like to smack the producers for Season 3 of the show. Their attempt to fix the quick rush solutions by turning the entire season into one long story arc was just plain stupid and was in my opinion the shot to the head that ultimately killed the show.  Season 4 is where this show finally shined and was sadly thier last season.  They got back to telling the grass root stories and did some wonderful tie ins to stories from TOS and beyond.  And they finally got the formula right so that instead of rushing the stories, they did them over 2 or or three episodes which for me was perfectly acceptable.  It's a shame they killed the show at this point.  On a side note, there is a campaign to resurrect the show through NetFlix or ABC directly.  It's called Star Trek Enterprise Season 5 - Netflix Campaign and they are doing it through FaceBook.  If you liked the show, go check it out.  They even have pictures of what the NX-01 would look like as it was do for a major refit.

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.