• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

NCC-1701 1992 Paramount blueprint

CLLCTR5

Cadet
Newbie
Has anyone seen this item before? I'm trying to help a customer with the identification and value.



appimg_273477.jpg
 
The reference is an obviously cut and pasted article from Wikipedia? :wtf: This is provenance nowadays? I really don't think so.

The expert, Randy May, says "it is as close to 'original' as has ever existed" without giving a single piece of evidence to that effect. He further states, "I believ (sic) it very likely that what you say about 6 of them ever being produced is probable but undocumentable." In other words, it's either your client or you who says that only 6 were made in the manner you describe. Again, evidence here, please.

It is an interesting artifact but is only worth what you can get in an auction, nothing more. You haven't even said if this is the movie or the TV version of the ship. The expert, Randy May, implies it is the TV version but I don't trust him. Tell me, has he even seen this portfolio, or is he just an Internet expert?

This appraisal isn't even worth the electrons that make it up.

You want a real estimate and opinion on this piece, CLLCTR5? Go over to Trek Art. Post multiple pictures of this blueprint, not one small snippet. Give a full inventory of what's inside the covers. Talk to them about how your client came in possesion of this. Get opinions from real experts, not a guy who is proud of the baseballs he has appraised.
 
Well, the actual artwork and text are taken directly from the 1980 Star Trek: The Motion Picture Blueprints published by Wallaby Books (a Pocket imprint), drawn by David Kimble from designs by Andrew Probert. (Note the "7912.7" stardate -- that's taken from the Wallaby blueprint set, and is a "stardate-ified" rendering of the date December 7, 1979.) So the question of the originality of the artwork or designs is not even an issue -- it's simply a fancy reprint of a 12-year-old set of illustrations based on motion picture artwork based on the original television designs. So the appraiser is totally off-base on just about every level. The question isn't remotely whether these are the original designs of the Enterprise, which anyone who's ever seen the show can tell they aren't. The question is of the authenticity of the claim that they're a genuine limited-edition set created by Paramount in 1992. (He's also quite wrong to say that the original ship's dimensions weren't settled on until years after the fact; they were certainly locked down by the time The Making of Star Trek was published, and that was in 1968, while the show was still in production. Since these blueprints are of the refit Enterprise, its dimensions are somewhat different.)

I would point out, though, that they couldn't have been published "to celebrate 30 years" of Star Trek, since ST premiered in 1966, only 26 years before these prints were copyrighted.
 
Wow, the B/C deck is completely the wrong shape...

Well, that's overstating it a bit, but I can see what you mean; some of the details of the back portion of that part of the ship don't exactly match the Kimble blueprints. Evidently these images aren't directly copied from the 1980 prints, but were traced/adapted from them by other artists. So they're not 100 percent accurate.
 
This portfolio's collectability would then be in its scarcity. Again, more information is needed.

Now that I see the images the other guys are talking about, when you post more pics, make them better ones, please, CLLCTR5.
 
A polite email to Paula Block, now of CBS Consumer Products, might work. She has been vetting ALL licensed tie-ins since before Roddenberry's death in 1991.
 
So does this artwork definitivly match one of the enterprises from the show or movies?A few more things I learned from the seller where..theres a small chip on the side and you can tell that underneath all that blue its like gold or copper under the whole face.So originally I thought it was a gold stamp or something over a blue fibreglass,but its the other way around.Its weighs aprox 2 0r 3 lbs,it's 17 by 11 inches and made of some kind of fibreglass with copper or gold plating in the middle.Its gotta be something special.Any thoughts??Why can't I find one shred of solid info or picture of this item anywhere??
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Sounds like a certain amount of cutNpaste, because the Kimble Probert stuff for TMP would have had it listed as Enterprise class, but this is supposed to be 1992, after the Okuda messover retcon of Constitution class from TNG
 
I forget what website it was on but they talk about kimble blueprints that got scrapped for some reason.
 
So does this artwork definitivly match one of the enterprises from the show or movies?

As I stated above, it is copied from David Kimble's Star Trek: The Motion Picture blueprint set published in 1980. (That's the meaning of the "After Probert & Kimble" line in the image reproduced in post 1. Andrew Probert finalized the design of the TMP Enterprise and David Kimble created the blueprint set.) Kimble's original blueprints are an accurate, definitive representation of the TMP Enterprise; at least, I've never heard anything to the contrary. But because this item is a retracing in a different medium, there are some slight, subtle inaccuracies.

Its gotta be something special.Any thoughts??Why can't I find one shred of solid info or picture of this item anywhere??

Given that it's a fiberglass plaque, I'd guess it was meant to be a wall hanging, perhaps intended for an exhibit of some sort. The copyright date on the plaque is 1992, so it might have been from the 1992 Smithsonian Exhibit and the Federation Science touring exhibit that opened in the same year. However, I was briefly an employee at the Federation Science exhibit when it came to my city, and I don't recall seeing any plaques like that.
 
well...Im not sure what it really is.If I should buy it.What would be a fair asking price?I looked at the trek auction site and some blueprint stuff was really expensive and some wasnt.grrrrrrr.Thanks christopher for your detailed reply.
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top