Jaxxa
New Member
A friend of mine recently acquired a box of Star Trek... stuff. He asked me to help him figure out if any of it was worth anything as a collectible or could be cleaned up as displays or costuming. I'm also a Trek fan and have done some prop/costume work, but oddly have not done much Star Trek prop/costuming work, so I'm trying to figure out the best course of action for these things.
First off, the tricorders. There are the two pictured below and a medical tricorder with the extra scanner in the top that I forgot to include. All three are the licensed ST:TNG toy products and appear to have been at least partially repainted. One of these has working lights and sound, the other has working lights but no sound, and the medical scanner is dead. I'd like to repair these and possibly upgrade the electronics.
This is a licensed TOS tricorder and has a copyright date of 1995 on the back of it. It looks like there is a battery compartment, but it's stuck so not sure if this one has any lights or sounds.
This is also a TOS tricorder, but I couldn't find any manufacturer's markings. It looks like the faceplate was held together by glue that failed. It's very, very similar in materials and design to the licensed 1995 one, but twice as large. I'm thinking it was a kit of some kind. It appears to have been a static model with no electronics (the colored lights are just glued in place).
Now, to weapons:
Two small phasers. The bottom one looks like a cricket resin model kit I've seen at conventions. I think the top one is from a toy, but not sure.
This pistol has the removable piece, but it looks a bit different than the one from the last picture. It's very lightweight, hollow plastic but no manufacturer marks and appears to be hand painted. The palm phaser is held in place by a piece of foam, so I'm thinking this might be a model kit of some sort.
No manufacturer markings and I think it's been sanded and repainted. The "magazine" is the battery door. There's another little door under the front and the trigger slightly depresses. Haven't gotten anything to work so far with it. I also have a second phaser of this type, except it is made of what I think is solid resin and is super heavy.
Speaking of solid resin, I'm pretty sure I could club someone to death with this one. It's a Dustbuster phaser that is nearly the size of a Dustbuster. No electronics, just a painted chunk of resin.
The last couple are late TOS movie era phasers:
This one is another licensed toy, has a Playmates 1997 copyright. Battery compartment in the magazine, but haven't gotten it to work yet. Slide and magazine battery compartment work fine. Looks like some silver paint was added at some point.
This one is resin, a little different design than the other. It looks like it was painted without being sanded first, the finish is pretty rough.
My friend definitely wants to fix up the TNG stuff. I found an older RPF thread about tricorder LED mod kits and his eyes lit up when I showed him the video. I'd like to put the full size TOS tricorder back together but didn't want to touch it until I knew more about what exactly it is. I'm thinking the toy phasers might need some electronics work, a couple may be victims of battery corrosion. I can't see doing much else with the resin ones except sanding them and repainting them and seeing if anyone in the local Trek scene needs costume props. Any advice or other resources would be helpful. I'm more used to the Star Wars costuming/prop online community and Trek seems like it's far less centralized and a lot of what I've found ends in dead links.
Thanks!
First off, the tricorders. There are the two pictured below and a medical tricorder with the extra scanner in the top that I forgot to include. All three are the licensed ST:TNG toy products and appear to have been at least partially repainted. One of these has working lights and sound, the other has working lights but no sound, and the medical scanner is dead. I'd like to repair these and possibly upgrade the electronics.
This is a licensed TOS tricorder and has a copyright date of 1995 on the back of it. It looks like there is a battery compartment, but it's stuck so not sure if this one has any lights or sounds.
This is also a TOS tricorder, but I couldn't find any manufacturer's markings. It looks like the faceplate was held together by glue that failed. It's very, very similar in materials and design to the licensed 1995 one, but twice as large. I'm thinking it was a kit of some kind. It appears to have been a static model with no electronics (the colored lights are just glued in place).
Now, to weapons:
Two small phasers. The bottom one looks like a cricket resin model kit I've seen at conventions. I think the top one is from a toy, but not sure.
This pistol has the removable piece, but it looks a bit different than the one from the last picture. It's very lightweight, hollow plastic but no manufacturer marks and appears to be hand painted. The palm phaser is held in place by a piece of foam, so I'm thinking this might be a model kit of some sort.
No manufacturer markings and I think it's been sanded and repainted. The "magazine" is the battery door. There's another little door under the front and the trigger slightly depresses. Haven't gotten anything to work so far with it. I also have a second phaser of this type, except it is made of what I think is solid resin and is super heavy.
Speaking of solid resin, I'm pretty sure I could club someone to death with this one. It's a Dustbuster phaser that is nearly the size of a Dustbuster. No electronics, just a painted chunk of resin.
The last couple are late TOS movie era phasers:
This one is another licensed toy, has a Playmates 1997 copyright. Battery compartment in the magazine, but haven't gotten it to work yet. Slide and magazine battery compartment work fine. Looks like some silver paint was added at some point.
This one is resin, a little different design than the other. It looks like it was painted without being sanded first, the finish is pretty rough.
My friend definitely wants to fix up the TNG stuff. I found an older RPF thread about tricorder LED mod kits and his eyes lit up when I showed him the video. I'd like to put the full size TOS tricorder back together but didn't want to touch it until I knew more about what exactly it is. I'm thinking the toy phasers might need some electronics work, a couple may be victims of battery corrosion. I can't see doing much else with the resin ones except sanding them and repainting them and seeing if anyone in the local Trek scene needs costume props. Any advice or other resources would be helpful. I'm more used to the Star Wars costuming/prop online community and Trek seems like it's far less centralized and a lot of what I've found ends in dead links.
Thanks!
