Did they ever fix that on the more recent Polar Lights’ re-releases of the AMT kit?
Missing 32" Enterprise finally found...
- Thread starter Dar70
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https://news.artnet.com/art-world/star-trek-uss-enterprise-model-fraud-lawsuit-2488443
Apparently that Heritage was biased in favor of Roddenberry and pressured them into settling for a lesser finders fee, rather than auctioning it off for top dollar. But the fact that the model is probably classified as stolen means I don't think they have much of a case. Heritage's hands were tied.
Actually, AMT fixed it sometime in the late 1970s. The last one I built (and fitted with lighting, including flickering nacelle lights on a rheostat), when I was in high school, had the revisions. The main deflector dish had been reshaped, the original removable secondary hull bow-end (removable for access to a battery in the earliest iterations) had been redesigned, as had the Bussard collectors, and the nacelle stern-ends, to match the series configuration of the 11' model.
And the nacelle attach points on the secondary hull had been redesigned to eliminate the tendency to sag, which seems to have worked, because mine is now over four decades old.
Huh... This was the last thread I ever expected to experience "Godwin's Law".
Sorry, I wasn’t trying to compare any of the actors Involved to being Nazis, but rather the last that I recalled any artwork to which was obtained through questionable circumstance that was that of looted …or displaced….was artwork during the last world war. I suppose I could have referenced the Elgin marbles, but that’s a bit farther back vis a vis relevant legal timeframe . if you are aware of more recent, and relevant , cases regarding ownership of art ….do share.
I've got one: as I understand it, nobody knew for decades where the hero X-wing fighter miniature was, until Greg Jein died and it was found in his garage.
Not sure what the real story is there, but it's more similar to the disappearing 33-incher than some old marbles.
Wow. I did not know that. Thanks for sharingI've got one: as I understand it, nobody knew for decades where the hero X-wing fighter miniature was, until Greg Jein died and it was found in his garage.
Not sure what the real story is there, but it's more similar to the disappearing 33-incher than some old marbles.
I do believe the storage unit guys got $500k for their trouble.
Wow….thats a nice payday
That sounds high to me. Like, more than the model might have brought at auction, unless the tech billionaires were bidding.
So whose pocket did it come out of? It's hard to imagine "Rod" Roddenberry tossing that kind of cash around.
Yeah. I don't remember where I read it. Definitely in an article from earlier this year. I'm not sure if they got the money yet. I would think though that the model would fetch well above 500k. I mean it is a huge part of scifi history. It's in the opening credits of the most famous sci fi show ever. It won't go to auction. But I bet if it did it would fetch at least 1mill.
Gene Roddenberry took the 33-inch Enterprise with him to the Tricon Convention in Cleveland, in September 1966. This was days before the NBC premiere, and long before there was such a thing as Star Trek conventions. It was the famous event where Gene showed "Where No Man Has Gone Before," followed by his black & white print of "The Cage." The Time Tunnel pilot and Fantastic Voyage were also shown at that Tricon. Allan Asherman was there and he wrote it up in The Star Trek Compendium.
There are photos from the con (not in the book). Some show the 33-incher on display, completely unprotected, with fans milling around it. The nacelles are a mess, not parallel to the secondary hull, but hanging at crazy angles. Even by the time of these pre-airdate snapshots, the model had already taken a beating. But two years later in "Requiem for Methuselah," and years after that on Gene's desk, the nacelles look okay.
So the 33-incher was damaged and repaired early on, and probably more than once during it's pre-disappearance lifetime.
Maybe during that unprotected time is when the shuttlebay doors go missing?
Traveling with Roddenberry to Ohio, getting knocked around en route or at Tricon, and then traveling back to Hollywood, I'm sure some little pieces could fall off unnoticed. Some of the intercoolers (the aft nacelle do-dads) are visibly missing in "Requiem for Methuselah," along with the bay doors.
Nothing can happen until the lawsuit is resolved. The storage unit buyers are still the legal owners at this time.
Anyone know where the court case is, in the process?...most recent I can find is from May of '24...
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