A new player in Star Trek starship models is making its way into the merchandise scene… but in reality, it’s a company that’s coming back to the final frontier after several years away.
 
UK-based Corgi first beamed into the Star Trek universe all the way back in 1982 with a small line of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan diecast models, some of which made it to stores while the film was still carrying its pre-production The Vengeance of Khan title.
 

While everybody's got #StarTrek dogs on the mind, here's some of the newest arrivals to TrekCore HQ:

A pair of Corgi (get it?) STAR TREK: THE VENGEANCE OF KHAN metal ship toys, issued in the UK in 1982 before the second Trek film was retitled as THE WRATH OF KHAN. pic.twitter.com/keAr4oBVm5

— TrekCore.com 🖖 (@TrekCore) July 11, 2019

The company returned to Trek merchandising in 2006 for the franchise’s 40th anniversary, once again releasing a small line of starship replica models (of the original Enterprise, a Klingon Bird of Prey, and the Enterprise-D). They also had plans for a USS Defiant, a USS Voyager, and a Romulan Warbird, though their Trek program was cancelled before they were ever produced or released to market.

Now, after more than 15 years, Corgi is returning to the Trek merchandise game with new plans for diecast starship models, announced through their social media this week.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cqp_z43v3q5/

On their Facebook page, the Corgi team shared that they “have the rights to all of Star Trek so nothing is off the table”, and that their sizing plans are “8 inches for Constitution class as a ballpark idea” — making their planned releases a bit larger than the Eaglemoss starship models many collectors are familiar with.

We reached out to Corgi directly, who shared a few more details with us — including the fact that as of this writing, their Star Trek merchandising license is for all regions except for the United States and Canada.

Corgi has also shared that they are not using any ship model design assets or production tooling from the now-closed Eaglemoss, and former Eaglemoss manager Ben Robinson shared on social media that he is not involved with their operation.

Corgi is delighted to be returning to The Final Frontier later this year with the launch of a new range of Star Trek die-cast products after nearly twenty years away.

 

We’ll be able to share more detail on exactly what is coming in due course, but we are officially licensed with Paramount across all the Star Trek films and TV series. For now, our license extends to the UK and ‘Rest of World’, which excludes the United States and Canada.

 

The aim for the new Corgi product is to present a premium piece of ‘desk furniture’, and not to directly compete with the product that was produced by Eaglemoss in particular. As such, the range is planned to be smaller and not as expansive, but presented in a different way.

 

We’ve spent a good couple of years looking back at what worked and what didn’t for Corgi’s previous product releases, so our top priorities are accurate decoration and a new display stand that can capably support the models. We’re also currently exploring the potential of exciting packaging options that will appeal to fans.

 

We’ll have lots more to share later this year, and we really can’t wait!

While there’s been no formal announcement yet where (or if) their ships will be available for purchase if you live in the US and Canada, we expect more retailer details to become available once product announcements start rolling out — so hopefully they will be a somewhat easy way to obtain the Corgi releases once they come to market.

Corgi has no specific product listings or reveals to share right now as they’re not even to prototyping yet, we expect to hear lots more from the company as 2023 continues.

Be sure to keep checking back to TrekCore for more Star Trek merchandise news as it breaks!