ThinkGeek released an wild new exclusive Star Trek: The Next Generation accessory earlier this month: an Enterprise-D–style warp core USB charger, ready to dock with your Galaxy-class starship and warp you to places never before explored.
But will it take you to Warp 9 or leave you cruising at impulse? Read on!
This warp core is a pass-through USB Type-A charger, with two ports supporting 2.1 Amps of charging power each — meaning that if you’ve got a newer USB-C device, you’ll need an adapter — and even though it’s from the 24th Century, it still plugs into your car’s 12V power port / cigarette lighter rather than drawing from your antimatter reserves.
The charger is not small: it measures 8″ tall, with a wide 2.5″ base that settles onto your vehicle’s cupholder. (It also includes an adapter ring if you have larger-than-usual cupholders.)
Depending on where your charger sits in your vehicle, the two ports may be somewhat awkward to access, as they are strangely placed surrounding the power cable that plugs into your dashboard — meaning you may end up with the cable wrapped around the charger depending on where you need to plug in your devices.
The big feature of this charger, of course, is the internal lighting to simulate the famous blue glow of the Enterprise-D‘s matter/antimatter reaction chamber, hurtling the starship through space faster than the speed of light.
Powered by internal LEDs, the core has a series of simulated warp pulses which travel from the top and bottom of the device — but this small version of the core has no audio component, so don’t expect to be hypnotized by the sound of the dilithium reaction chamber while you’re on the road.
To be clear: We added the extra audio effect to the video above!
One minor disappointment on the internal lighting is that the central portion of the core, normally lit up white aboard the Enterprise-D, doesn’t have its own dedicated LED to glow here; it’s lit up only by the blue lights coalescing around it — which can be easily disabled as needed by the top button.
There’s also a pair of orange LEDs deep below the base to light up the core from the bottom, certainly more visible in the evening hours.
All that being said, this really is a neat bit of Next Generation electronica, which will be right at home in the shuttlepod of your choice — just make sure to perform regular maintenance on the ejection system in case of collision!
The Next Generation Warp Core USB charger is available exclusively from ThinkGeek, at a price of $39.99.
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Thanks to our friends at ThinkGeek, TrekCore is happy to give away two Star Trek: The Next Generation Warp Core USB Chargers to a pair of lucky readers!
All you need to do is leave a comment below, telling us the following:
From Montgomery Scott to Trip Tucker, Star Trek has plenty of miracle workers in the ‘fleet – tell us your favorite adventure centered around one of those technical wizards!
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Contest Rules
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