Art Asylum/Diamond Select Tricorder delay

[WendellM]

The AA/DST tricorder release has been delayed to January 2009.

Previously posted on the AA site are the different screen graphics that the two versions will have:

Science:


Medical:



Pics of the science tricorder scanner haven't yet been released, while the medical version will have McCoy's familiar one. Though asked about it, they don't have plans to release a hypo.

I love the earlier AA/DST props and look forward to their tricorder(s). They have a history of producing realistic, affordable replicas with sound and light features (not as nice as Master Replicas, but at less than 1/10 the price). Pictures of their phaser and communicator are here.

[Gep Malakai]

Aww, crud. Any word on why the delay? I'm getting kind of tired of all the cool Trek stuff getting pushed down to next year....

[WendellM]

Gep Malakai wrote:

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Any word on why the delay?

No, the site just states the date with no explanation. Posters on AA's own forum (before it went away with the website's renovation) had doubts from the start that they'd be able to release the Tric in '08, expecting an early '09 release, so I guess they were right. I'd perhaps suspect a movie tie-in, but that's not the case with a January date.

In terms of sheer speculation, AA recently posted what they're going through/went though to get their Enterprise-D accurate and fully functional (here and here), so maybe(?) something similar happened with the tricorder. I'm naturally not enjoying the delay, but I'd certainly prefer an accurate tricorder in a few months rather than an erroneous one sooner. Regardless, I trust AA/DST to get it to us fans ASAP and accurately.

[Edit:] Oh, and I'm just pleased as all get-out that there's finally going to be a decent tricorder (well, MR had one a while ago, but I'm not made of money ). Back in the late 70s, my dad took a friend and me to a store because there was a "rumor" that they had the Mego tricorder/recorder. As it turned out, they didn't; and later info showed it to be a really inaccurate tricorder replica. But still, I've sort of wanted a decent tricoder ever since. So finally, some thirty years later, that's possible.

[gastrof]

I hate it when lifeforms are indeterminate...

[WendellM]

gastrof wrote:

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I hate it when lifeforms are indeterminate...

That didn't bug me, but the fact that the angle shown to the "lifeforms" doesn't look like 111 degrees did (assuming 0 degrees is straight up). But perhaps it's offset for some reason.

Checking the transcripts, it looks like that bearing might be from The Devil in the Dark:

SPOCK: Adjusting my tricorder to register for silicon, Captain. Interesting.
KIRK: Traces?
SPOCK: A life form, Captain. Bearing one hundred eleven degrees, elevation four degrees.
KIRK: One of our people?
SPOCK: No, sir. Silicon.

Searching the transcripts shows not a single use of the word "indeterminate" in all of TOS. However, The Lights of Zetar does have this:

SPOCK: There are ten distinct life units within it, all powerfully alive and vital.
KIRK: Who are they? Where are they from?
SPOCK: Impossible to determine without programming for computer analysis.

Also, the "Scan of: 3 sq. km" seems possibly wrong, since the side scales appear to be 3 units by 3 units (and thus 9 square units). But that's not definite.

[Sisko_is_my_captain]

What the heck's with Fahrenheit?

[Trekwatcher]

I gotta say, given how (IMHO) awesome most of the AA/DST items have been, I am okay with the delay as long as the tricorder is up to their usual high standards. For the price, you cannot beat their P2 or Comm. They are not Master Replicas, but for 1/10th the price these things are truly great items.

[AstroSmurf]

^ I could not agree more. The work these folks have produced so far is just absolutely wonderful for the price and I know never to look a gift horse in the mouth. If it takes until 2009 than so be it. I know I am going to be thrilled with it.

(And I am really excited about the E-D now! Thanks for the links WendellM. She is the only major ship I don't have in my "collection" and it looks like they are really pushing for something fantastic. Unlike the "other" toys crudely fashioned after the E-D, this one looks to be as close to the real deal as possible. I am thrilled.)

[Ronald Held]

Better to wait for a quality job, then to rush to get it out and find production errors/problems

[Tomalak]

AstroSmurf wrote:

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(And I am really excited about the E-D now! Thanks for the links WendellM. She is the only major ship I don't have in my "collection" and it looks like they are really pushing for something fantastic. Unlike the "other" toys crudely fashioned after the E-D, this one looks to be as close to the real deal as possible. I am thrilled.)

I still have my trusty Playmates Enterprise-D from when I was a lad, but I'm rather tempted to snap up a new one. Why weren't Star Trek toys this cool back then!

[AstroSmurf]

^ I still have mine too. (I also still have the battle damaged one from Generations.) But I tried displaying it with my Bandai and DS/AA ships and it looked terrible. The others, with their fine details and clean sharp lines, really made the Playmates E-D look like a clunky toy. Now if I display it with my Borg cube and Klingon Bird of Prey it looks just fine.

And as I was typing this post I realized I have way to much crap! I also have the E-D bridge playset, engineering playset and at least one action figure of all the major characters from the shows. I even have about two dozen micro machines around here somewhere too. Paramount has made a mint off of me.

[Tomalak]

I never really had the action figures. I preferred the smaller ships with the miniature figures inside - I must have built half of the interior of the Enterprise-D in a Blue Peter-style frenzy of cardboard cereal boxes and sellotape. My engineering set even had a lightbulb in the warp core. It was class.

[AstroSmurf]

^ Actually I am to old to have been collecting the action figures really. I was in my twenties when I started buying them.

But I used to make these elaborate fortresses for my GI Joes though so I know where you are coming from. My mom bought masking tap and magic markers by the case. She also knew better than to throw out any cardboard box. It was law.

[26138]

WendellM wrote:

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That didn't bug me, but the fact that the angle shown to the "lifeforms" doesn't look like 111 degrees did (assuming 0 degrees is straight up). But perhaps it's offset for some reason...

Maybe it's offset like the Enterprise bridge in some technical manuals?

[Super Grover]

I can't wait for this to come out. I already have the Phaser and communicator. Be careful with the communicator, the gold part came loose when I flipped it open too much. But I fixed it with some super glue, and it's good as new.

I was thinking, I've seen some videos on youtube where some folks have hollowed out old Nintendo NES controllers and found a way to install cell phones in them and have them be functional. I got to thinking as I compared the communicator to my cellphone, this thing is significantly larger than my cellphone, and it wouldn't be too hard to do this with one of the communicator toys.