BREAKING: Ben Robinson offers confirmation and new details about Eaglemoss' bankruptcy

Just some of the STAR TREK starship models Eaglemoss offered

AUGUST 11, 2022 - In a collaborative podcast, Weekly Trek’s Alex Perry is joined by TrekCore’s Ken Reilly to interview Ben Robinson, formerly of Eaglemoss Collection and HeroCollector. As we reported last month, Eaglemoss, the company that offered a fleet of tiny starship models, had filed a “Notice of Intention,” which often spells doom for a company. Now Robinson has confirmed that after 10 years of being a company, Eaglemoss collection / HeroCollector is officially out of business.

Below are some of the highlights of that interview between Perry, Reilly, and Robinson on what happened and what, if anything is in store for the future of our beloved collectibles, not to mention the Enterprise-D build-up that so many have already invested lots of time (and money) into, with many hopes now having been sucked away like a Ferengi exploratory ship on the wrong side of a wormhole.

According to Ben: “At the end of last year, there was an embarrassment of riches. Many items, collections, and ships were announced. A very aggressive expansion of our products was decided on, to make it look attractive to any potential buyers that might have wanted to buy the company.”

He then went on to say that due to such an aggressive approach, they took on more than they could, exhausted their resources, and now “Eaglemoss is on life support with no way of recovery. “We went too fast and toppled over.”

Was it, perhaps that the line became too obscure with barely known Star Trek ships so that fans were no longer buying them? Not at all. Over 400 ships have been produced in the past ten years. From Jem Hadar vessels to shuttlecraft. The line was still being eagerly sought after by fans and collectors.

On the lineup for new ships were more from Star Trek: Lower Decks. The Cerritos and Titan sold extremely well and so there were more ships from that line in various stages of work. The Star Trek: Picard Stargazer was in the works, as well as the Caretaker Array from Star Trek: Voyager, and from Star Trek: Prodigy, the Protostar had been announced but had not made it to the production stage.

However, the biggest question that is on most collectors’ minds is, “What will happen to my Enterprise-D build-up kit? The builders that are the furthest along have 2/3 of the ship built. Will it ever be finished now, or should I just build a Spacedock repair diorama and leave it docked indefinitely?”

Ben tells us that builders should have hope. “Eaglemoss can’t continue but this project is viable and other companies are looking at taking over the project. Interest has been shown. No promises, but there is reason to believe it will continue. Now’s not the time to get rid of what you have. Give us a few months to put things into place. I believe that you’ll be able to finish it.”

There was nothing that could be communicated about refunds on the build at this time. If anyone has a current dispute with Eaglemoss, pursue it.

Do we expect that there will be an ‘Eaglemoss 2.0’ in the form of another company stepping in and keeping the line going? Ben, again, was relatively optimistic that the line will continue, but any company taking over needs to get licensing from CBS, etc. It’s not likely that smaller ships like a Jem Hadar fighter would ever be redone to complete the collection of ones that may have missed it, but ships like the Enterprise would be more likely to be picked up.

What could a company start off with if they were to take over? Basically, anything where the tooling has already been done for a new ship and you see a ‘finished model’ for display purposes, it makes financial sense to go through and produce the piece, as the biggest expense has already been met. Also, the XL models still have a very high interest and value to collectors.

But, for a new player to have confidence in taking it over, there will need to be significant interest and fan commitment in buying it. Not crowdfunding, but some type of genuine interest.

Some might not be aware, but Eaglemoss also had a line of books that they’ve published, so what will happen to new projects that are in development? “We believe the celebration books, such as the TNG Celebration and the Original Art project, etc. will be picked up by other publishers. We believe that they will be appealing to others and that someone will step in and continue them.”

Robinson promised that he will do his best to find a source to continue those projects. CBS is also very committed to finishing and continuing them. The stakeholders at CBS too were blindsided by the news.

Those are just a few of the quick highlights of what was gleaned from the podcast. You can also hear Ben reminisce about his favorite ships and projects that he’s worked on. To hear the whole thing yourself, we encourage you to listen to the entire 43-minute podcast, which can be found below and is so engrossing that it flies by at warp speed!