Star Trek Insignia Pins

I remember the days when I used to drive all over town looking for some newly released toy or something that I thought was cool. I could waste an entire lunch hour bouncing from store to store, hitting up the three Targets in my area, and maybe a Wal-Mart if I was feeling spunky.

Those days are over, and I'm glad.

But I had a BRIEF taste of that aged misery just a few days ago, when they released the new JJ Abrams Star Trek movie on DVD and BLU-Ray. I'm not really a big collector of movies anymore, but sometimes something will come along that catches my attention, and that I deem worthy of paying a few bucks for. I figured this movie was one of them.

What intrigued me even more was the fact that Best Buy was releasing a deluxe set that came packed with four metal rank insignia pins, just like the ones in the movie. Or so the copy on the advertisements read.



(Photo courtesy www.scifiwire.com)

I zoomed down to my local Best Buy right after work, only to learn they were sold out. Feeling that nagging sense of ugly-nostalgia flaring up, I decided right there and then that I would NOT be driving all over town to pick one up, despite the fact that the 3 disk edition came with the shiny silver pins. No sir. Not me.

Instead, I went home and pulled up the interwebx. Best Buy had it on their website, but for some reason, it was going to take FOUR WEEKS to ship it to me. Oh hellz no. But they also have a feature where you can pay for it, and then go pick it up at a local store that has it in stock. I found a store just a bit further up the street that had it in stock, paid the bucks, and slept soundly.

I had a chance after work today to make my way up to the Best Buy, where my new copy of Star Trek was waiting for me. Nice! Not only was that a very cool process, but it turns out that the pins are REALLY nice.

Regular readers will know that I am a difficult man to please. I am a real stickler for quality, accuracy, and craftsmanship. And I must confess I was more than pleasantly surprised when I finally opened up this disk set to reveal the four rank pins. They are REALLY nice. The finish on them looks just like I thought it would, and the shape seems pretty good. I haven't done any side by side comparisons, but from what I recall the insignias looking like, they nailed it.

The pins are made by QMX, a company that makes all kinds of licensed, er, products from some cool properties. While I have noticed that they have broadened their product base to include some items that I find completely uninteresting, they do also have some really killer stuff. I think it is very cool to see such a high quality replica included in such a huge release, and I hope QMX gets the attention and kudos they deserve for putting out such a fine product.