back to article Trekkie pays £45,000 for rusty shuttle

A dilapidated shuttlecraft prop used in the original Star Trek series has sold at auction for $70,000 (£45,000). Some Trekkies have far too much cash in their hands. As you can see from the image below, the 24ft long shuttle, which had been acquired by a collector years ago, has clearly seen better days. This didn't stop a …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Would be cheaper to make a replica from new. Not much of the original will be "original" by the time it is restored.

    1. RIBrsiq

      This is my Grandfather's Axe...

      "This, milord, is my family's axe. We have owned it for almost nine hundred years, see. Of course, sometimes it needed a new blade. And sometimes it has required a new handle, new designs on the metalwork, a little refreshing of the ornamentation... but is this not the ninehundred-year-old axe of my family?"

      That's not to say I see the logic in paying so much for it, but just saying...

      1. theModge
        Thumb Up

        Re: This is my Grandfather's Axe...

        To be, the long, verbatim Pratchett quote is worth of a like on it's own.

      2. Compact101
        Happy

        Re: This is my Grandfather's Axe...

        Bit like Only Fools and Horses when Trigger wins an award from the council for owning the same broom for 20 years.

        It'shad 17 new heads and 14 new handles, but still the same broom.

    2. Rolf Howarth

      $70000 is a lot today but think what it will be worth in 200 years time when we're landing on foreign planets in something that looks very similar and it's stuck in a museum back on Earth as being the original protoype...

    3. LarsG
      Facepalm

      All he needed to do was buy two old caravans, rivet them together and remodel it with a mallet. It would have cost less than a pint of beer.

      The man is a fool.

    4. Jedit Silver badge
      FAIL

      "Would be cheaper to make a replica from new."

      Hey, what a great idea! Museums don't need to display actual historical objects - they can just make fakes and display those instead, because it's so much cheaper! While they're at it, they can pull down that tatty old Sphinx and put up a new one with a nose. Provenance? Who gives a damn?

      1. mark 63 Silver badge
        FAIL

        Re: Fakes

        Jedit , they already do that - the statue of David in the origibnal location - the Piazza della Signoria in Florence is a fake - the real one being moved indoors in 1873 to the Accademia Gallery

        1. Jedit Silver badge
          Holmes

          "They already do that"

          Allow me to clarify. I know that fakes are already displayed in some museums and cities, for the purpose of preserving the original. However, the museums and cities in question do have the original. What the AC is advocating is making fake exhibits *instead* of acquiring originals, because "it's cheaper and it's just the same, innit?"

          1. Stevie

            Re: "They already do that"

            "However, the museums and cities in question do have the original. "

            Unless it's a Natural History Museum, where they borrow someone else's originals and make casts in resin, or even borrow someone else's resin casts.

            I'm thinking why bother anyway. Why not replace museums with facebook pages and just photoshop up the exhibits? Cheap and fast and no need for all those big buildings *and* it's iPad friendly so everyone will love it.

    5. tmTM

      Idiots

      In 100 years time when Apple try to patent the ishuttle, the sly owners relatives can point to their ancient shuttle, claim they own previous art and haggle a colossal licensing agreement.

  2. I Am Spartacus
    Happy

    vinyl front tier

    You owe me a screen wipe!

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    does it come with the guy in the red star trek outfit, the one who always gets killed on a surface mission?

    1. NogginTheNog
      Coat

      I know him

      Crewman Soonbedead.

      1. cyborg
        Coat

        Re: I know him

        Welshy! NOOOOOOOO!

      2. Euripides Pants

        Re: I know him

        Actually, it was Ensign Expendible...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Always the FNG

      Always the new guy who was never mentioned in the credits. Though apparently there were a couple of actors who played the new guy who dies several times!

      1. The Serpent

        Re: Always the FNG

        I think you are referring to my favourite character - Lieutenant Leslie

        http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Leslie - the Health and Vitality section is best

        1. The Serpent

          Re: Always the FNG

          Oh, forgot Assaults and Injuries

          1. TRT Silver badge

            Re: Always the FNG

            Rusty Shuttle? Was that the crewman's name? Sounds more like a porn actor.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      You mean "the Malcolm"? as, for some long-forgotten reason, we refer to said character, in our gaff.

  4. thefutureboy
    Thumb Up

    vinyl front tier

    Very good!

    1. Steve Evans

      Re: vinyl front tier

      Please don't encourage him! PLEASE!

      1. Arctic fox
        Trollface

        Re: "Please don't encourage him! PLEASE!"

        Indeed. Like the Patrician I am in favour of the Scorpion Pits for mime artists and people who make puns like that.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: vinyl front tier

      You should require a license for that kind of behaviour.

  5. Aqua Marina

    this would make

    a great 23 foot long caravan!

    1. Eddy Ito

      Re: this would make

      Maybe after another $70,000 but does it have the headroom? Although it always struck me to be a bit like Tardis in that regard depending on the scene but then my memory is about as old and hasn't been "partially restored", which may be a good thing considering.

  6. Khaptain Silver badge
    Facepalm

    What a piece of shit

    I would love to have seen his wife's face when he announced "Honey come and see what I bought, you will never believe it".

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: What a piece of shit

      Married? You obviously know sod all about Trekkies.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: What a piece of shit

        No.

        You know sod all about Trekkies

        I married one. A couple of her friends got married around the same time and we're nearly at our Silver Wedding anniversary

        Despite the rep, in the UK at least, the Star Trek events had a lot of women going to them

  7. Trollslayer
    Trollface

    You should be hung by the tribbles

    for that joke!

  8. Darryl
    FAIL

    Big mistake

    The warp nacelles are missing... You have any idea how much those are going to cost to replace?

    Wait... Did the shuttlecraft in TOS have warp capability? If they didn't, then those are obviously just floats for water landings and I retract my earlier complaint.

    1. Steven Gray
      Headmaster

      Re: Big mistake

      Not floats, but *reaches for Star Fleet Technical Manual* 'Booster Propulsion'.

      It's on Technical Order page TO:01:04:80. Just so you know.

      1. Darryl
        Pint

        Re: Big mistake

        Thanks Steven... I looked at my post again and decided it made me look a little 'nerdy' but in comparison to someone who has the Star Fleet Technical Manual.... !

    2. TeeCee Gold badge
      Happy

      Re: Big mistake

      ".....how much those are going to cost to replace?"

      Never mind the cost, it's the availibility that's the real issue. I mean, those things won't have not been made for years for years[1]......

      [1] God this language is shit at time dislocated tense handling.

    3. Pet Peeve

      Re: Big mistake

      If you look at the auction, you can see that the nacelles are there, just not currently attached. According to the terms of the auction, all of that stuff was included in the price. From the photos, it looks like someone started a restoration project and gave up.

      Here's hoping that they put it all back together and display it in a museum someplace, and not keep it in their garage.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm not sure

    that the wheels are big enough

  10. Goes to 11
    Angel

    With Scotty Gone

    No one will ever be able to make it run.

  11. Richard Scratcher
    Alien

    Wow! What a wreck!

    What happened to it? It looks as though it's been battered by a shower of boulders, thrown by a group of giant ape-like creatures.

    1. James Hughes 1

      Re: Wow! What a wreck!

      That episode gave me nightmares as a child, and the picture in the article reminded me of it straight away!

      £45k? Pah, that's nothing for memorabilia like this!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      Re: Wow! What a wreck!

      You made me laugh on a day when laughing was not an option ... I salute you!

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Wow! What a wreck!

      "What happened to it? It looks as though it's been battered by a shower of boulders, thrown by a group of giant ape-like creatures."

      You're forgetting the episode where it was stolen by Klingon's, who pillaged it, stole the nessels and threw it through a temporal rift where it would arrive on earth in the 1960's. The internals ripped out by the USAF and the chassis left behind, sparking a TV series and the modern era human race.

    4. Field Marshal Von Krakenfart

      Re: Wow! What a wreck!

      Looks like they bought it from Harry Mudd

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    hohoho

    My mate had a boat that was built as fake shuttle as well,on canal nearish london,other mate had "friend" who was spitting image for bright green alien head from very early episodes of star terk opening credits,still kick myself that i could not put boat,"friend"and camera together at same time,ever.

    would have made crackingly good pics.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      Re: hohoho

      A star trek shuttle boat? Was its stated mission to boldly row where no man has gone before???

  13. Winkypop Silver badge
    WTF?

    Star Dreck

    What a piece o'crap!

    1. TRT Silver badge

      Re: Star Dreck

      Oh, I'm sorry. Did I say it was only fit to tow garbage? I meant to say, it's only fit to be towed away AS garbage. Ha ha ha ha!

  14. Richard Cartledge

    Looks fake. Compare the two photos. This one bears nothing but a passing resemblance. The dimensions and construction are different.

    1. DavCrav

      Can you also tell by the pixels?

  15. Arachnoid
    Mushroom

    When you waiting for an Earth destroying meteor to arrive its just good preparedness to have an escape shuttle to hand

  16. Andy J Poulton
    Alien

    To boldly row - and other stuff

    Surely [and don't call me Shirley] it should read

    "To boldly row where no one has rowed before"

    Anyways, I was just thinking what an ace shed this would make - much better than a boring wooden 8x6. I'm just going to the shuttle dear sounds so much better than I'm just popping out to the shed - -and imagine the phone calls, "hang on, he's in the Shuttle - I'll just beam over to him right now"

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

      Re: To boldly row - and other stuff

      "Just off out to the potting shed dear. To boldly grow, where no man has grone before..."

      Help! I can't stop myself!

    2. Stevie

      Re: To boldly row - and other stuff

      It's a shed, Jim!

  17. Pete the not so great
    Go

    Garden shed?

    Gotta have somewhere to keep the lawn mower.

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
      Facepalm

      Re: Garden shed?

      To boldly mow, where no man has gone before...

      Ooops! Sorry, couldn't stop myself. Naughty me!

      1. Woza
        Joke

        Re: Garden shed?

        All these terrible puns - time to boldly groan as no man has groaned before.

        1. TRT Silver badge

          Re: Garden shed?

          If he pulls it home on a trailer behind his SUV, would he boldly tow?

          1. Mark123
            Facepalm

            Re: Garden shed?

            That's a lotta cash to spend on that...

            Did he Boldly blow what no fan has blown before?...

  18. Stevie

    Bah!

    And *this* is why you don't let Spock drive.

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