Order of H'Pak

That's an expensive model:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4801631.stm

O M Gawd!

Those are some astronomical prices!

No wonder, now I finally can forgive my dad. When I was about 8 he took me to a Star Trek convention in Oakland or thereabouts (I was 8, gimme a break!). There was all kinds of stuff there that I wanted, but what really really really caught my eye and my fancy was this AWESOME metal Phaser II. Oh, I wanted it so badly. It was heavy. It was real. But Dad said, "No." Man, was he mean, I thouhgt. But they prolly wanted $1701 or so bucks for it! At last, I understand. I forgive you, Dad! And I'll stop giving you coals and switches for Xmas from now on.

My grandfather gave me the Star Trek Star Fleet Technical Manual about that time, and it had diagrams for all the equipment. My little 8 yr old self got all hopeful that I could make my own Phaser II from the diagrams! Silly 8 yr old Frum!

lol! He was probably afraid you'd phaser the neighbor's cat too!


I still have the "Star Fleet Technical Manual" - I remember finding it at Gemco (a Wal-Mart type store that has long since vanished) in the Sci-Fi book section and practically fainting. I too was a wee lad.

I was always kind of disappointed (believe it or not) in some sections that appeared "unfinished", but I can still remember my favorite section was the drawings of other starships besides the Enterprise styled one, my favorite being the "Dreadnought Class".

There's some interesting reading on the manual here and here (the second one is particularly interesting imo), including some history on the author and how material from it is considered "non-canonical" now and yet several pieces of it were incorporated into latter Star Trek films/episodes. Here are a couple of clips from them including two on the Dreadnought Class starship:

The book's most over looked contribution to the look of the Star Trek universe was the book's font itself. The book's first use of the microgramma font became the semi-official Star Trek font, used in a wide range of Trek publications and in the movies and TV shows.

Class I Dreadnought - Larger, more heavily armed, and propelled by three space/warp propulsion units (warp engine nacelles), the first dreadnoughts were referred to as Federation-class starships. Interestingly, the "dreadnought Entente" is mentioned in communications chatter in the Epsilon IX scene of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. This would seem to be a reference to the USS Entente NCC-2120, a Federation-class ship listed in the Star Fleet Technical Manual.

Of particular controversy is the book's section on starships. Later Star Trek shows seemed to establish warp nacelles could only work in pairs, however the tantalizing dreadnought class had three nacelles (capable of warp 10 which was later established as being impossible). As well, the destroyer and scout class had single nacelles. Roddenberry ostensibly later revoked the book's canon status, although there are so many urban legends about what Roddenberry said was official that, well, who knows, who cares. The dreadnought was darn sweet, having that "next year's model" look about it and a kind of "oh, if only the Bush family had not cancelled Star Trek, what wonders we would have seen in subsequent seasons!" And that's that.

Here's a picture of the side of a Dreadnought starship from the cover of a Star Trek novel.

I forgot I also have the "Spaceflight Chronology" book, which is interesting as well. Here's a huge list of Star Trek books.

You guys seen values for McDonald's Happy Meal toys? They're the thing to save now. This stuff's crazy, but Happy Meals are woth a million fold original cost (i.e. free with your meal).

I suggest you buy a hundred happy meals each.

Like everything else along these lines that ends up being worth something - assuming you sell it and someone pays for it (seems obvious but it's worth nothing until you actually sell it to someone willing to pay X amount for it) - the old ones are the ones worth something because they didn't make as many and they weren't being saved at the time (and thus are more rare now).

...and as a general rule, by the time someone in a foreign country tells you to start saving things because they will be incredibly valuable in the future - unless the person has some insight knowledge about the value in his/her country that you might not be aware of - it's WAAAAY to late to get into the market early enough to make a killing.

vinylrake Wrote:...and as a general rule...it's WAAAAY to late to get into the market early enough to make a killing.

I'm gonna start hoarding 6 Million Dollar Man dolls.

Besides that, do you have any idea what size freezer you'd need for all those Happy Meals?!



I did see a special on breakfast cereals years ago where a guy had a box of Quisp amongst his vast collection - literally hundreds of unopened cereals from the 60's and 70's - and it was supposedly worth US$3,000.

My first thought was OMG!!

My second thought was: How much had it cost this guy in electriciy, storage space, moving, etc. to store that box (and the hundreds of others) for umpteen years.

My third thought was: I wonder if the cereal in the unopened bag is still edible? If so, what does that mean? Scary stuff...

My fourth thought was: Yeah, right. Let's see someone actually buy that box of cereal for US$3,000!

My fifth thought was: I remember eating a box of that stuff when I was really young in the short window before my Mom (and the rest of America) found out exactly how much sugar was in those kiddie cereals (anyone remember Freakies?!). As I recall my older brother got a box of Quake - at least that's the name I remember. Dang, that was cool to see a box of Quisp again after all this time - sure am glad I don't have to dust that sucker off and store it.



*** P.S. OMG! I am amazed to see that Quisp still exists! Not only that, it mentions his arch-rival, Quake on the website! lol! A picture of both on this Wikipedia page.

Baak Wrote:
*** P.S. OMG! I am amazed to see that Quisp still exists! Not only that, it mentions his arch-rival, Quake on the website! lol! :lol: A picture of both on this Wikipedia page.

I am just as willing to suspend disbelief as the next person, but I never really understood why a tiny flying alien and an oversized miner were arch-enemies. Undoubtedly it's probably something about some rare ore that the alien ruins the miners mines to find, or some harsh mining regulations the alien imposes on the human colonist/miner, but as a kid I could never understand it.

vinylrake Wrote:I am just as willing to suspend disbelief as the next person, but I never really understood why a tiny flying alien and an oversized miner were arch-enemies. Undoubtedly it's probably something about some rare ore that the alien ruins the miners mines to find, or some harsh mining regulations the alien imposes on the human colonist/miner, but as a kid I could never understand it.

Aye, it is one of the weirdest rivalries of all times methinks.

Perhaps a side-effect of the Swingin' Sixties?