You do understand that it is just the numbered subscription that is ending right?
Yup.
Not to be a PITA Prime, but my eyes lingered on a few excerpts in that...
The XL s will continue as long as they sell. Also ships in the same size as the numbered subscription will continue as bonus issues, so not a couple a month, but more likely one a month.
Also there is the Discovery line, a Picard line is coming, as well as a Star Trek Online...line.
So while the numbered subscription is done Eaglemoss is not abandoning their cash cow any time soon.
I know, I know, but we both know the backbone of everything was the standard line, and apparently that's no longer profitable. Call me a pessimist if you must, but I'm not reassured by the rest. If anything, I just wish
Picard were completely set, at least aesthetically, in the prime TNG canon to keep the door open to some
non-re-imagined past designs.
RG, they haven't actually confirmed 180 is the end of the mainline and left a little wiggle room, but yeah, it seems it's likely STSS will continue as Bonus issues and Specials, maybe more XLs, as SP says. Plus the STO series, Picard, etc. Hope they continue with the smaller scale stuff, and make them all available to Diamond. Btw, Klingon Raider and Disco Shuttle are out at N. American shops next week.
The Borg cube is still in the works: their previous protos were unworkable, apparently. They're still working on the legalities for the Franz Joseph and Planet of Titans ships. Don't think anything much was said about the Frankenfleet recently.
Well, wiggle room is nice if a few of those things left on the back burner wiggle through.
I'm fearful on the XLs continuing due to the higher price point, and that some of the meshes and paint apps just didn't justify reacqusition in the larger scale (I do want that
Stargazer though).
A forthcoming Borg Cube is on par with DSTs
Reliant as virtual folklore now. With the mainline ending, I'm nowhere near as confident on fulfillment of the Cube promise as I was before, and I wasn't laying money on it then. Again, I wasn't asking them to reinvent the wheel there. DeAgostini accomplished it, and licensing the mold, or a near-but-not-quite-patent-infringing knockoff, was all I hoped for from EM. Proto's being unworkable (Can you cite that somewhere? - Would like to read that if I haven't already) sounds like what Ben said about the
Narada, and this isn't quite
that complex. Incidentally, EM can't do worse than Mattel on that, so they ought to crank a
Narada out even if it doesn't hit on all cylinders.
I really had hoped the
Firebrand was some sign that the Franz Joseph matter was close to a resolution as it was a derivative design, and was released without complaint (that I know of). As for the rest, if we were to get TOS-R Miranda design Mike Okuda alluded to, or a April Fool's
Trieste release, don't you think it would be more likely as regulars or specials within the mainline than latter one-off standard-size specials? I could see a major concept design of a major hero ship having the gravitas to warrant that treatment after the line wraps up, but not otherwise, and that still depresses me...inasmuch as painted (mostly plastic) die-cast model ships can.
Let's see what the new year brings...