Federation Commander

Take a look at this auction.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Star-Trek-Fleet-Bat ... 9766694448

This is in the description.

"You are bidding on a Vintage 1980's Task Force Games Star Trek Star Fleet Battles Built and Primered Federation Mine Sweeper Ship and Space Mines Lot."

Did TFG ever market such a product or is this a kit bash? Are the space mines homemade?

I'm just curious.

I'm not an authority, but I want to put in my 2 cents.

It appears to be a standard Starline 2200 oCL. As SVC stated in another thread just recently, there is rarely more than one miniature done for a given hull type. As for the mines, I'm not sure.

What you do want to take into consideration is that the guy has other "minesweeper" minis for other races (the Romulan one looks like a standard Snipe mini) with almost identical pictures.

And he had (ended) a few others that were clearly NOT TFG products like a "Bajorin" (misspelled) ship lot that was the Micromachine Cardassian Galor class and DS9, and a Ferengi lot.

I'm not trying to say that the seller is being deliberately deceptive. He may just have some minis in a box and assumes that they are all vintage TFG products.

Yup. Just a stock vintage lead Starline 2200 Federation Old Light Cruiser (which does have a minesweeper variant in SFB, IIRC). He might have added some stuff to it up on the bridge area (hard to tell if that is just paint or not).

The mines appear to be craft beads on plastic ellipses. Kind of clever, but certainly something that a person can make for themselves.

There's no way I would pay $20 for that.

Its a rip off. Its just an Old Light cruiser with a crappy paint job. Looks like the seller dug threw his kitchen odds and ends drawer and threw together some extra junk to throw into the lot, so he can jack up the price and rip someone off.

There was no "mine sweeper miniature" for the old 2200 series.

OG and I both said that.

djdood wrote:Yup. Just a stock vintage lead Starline 2200 Federation Old Light Cruiser (which does have a minesweeper variant in SFB, IIRC). He might have added some stuff to it up on the bridge area (hard to tell if that is just paint or not).

The mines appear to be craft beads on plastic ellipses. Kind of clever, but certainly something that a person can make for themselves.

There's no way I would pay $20 for that.

Plus shipping. Don't forget the shipping charge.

Every once in a while you do come across an eBay auction for old lead figures and the seller wants a lot of $$ for something that's not worth it.

Agreed. I've been buying eBay and Craigslist lots, here and there, for the last couple of years. You always have to really scope out the pictures and read past the seller's own ignorance of what they have sometimes. It goes without saying, no-picture = no-buy. People can use "fake" pictures, but I haven't had a problem with that.

Honestly, the fuzzier and poorly staged the photo, the better I feel that it's legit (why fake with a "crappy" picture?).

More often than not, I end up buying a box of "mixed Star Trek metal miniatures". I've been around a long time, as have some of my online mini buddies, and we can usually suss out what's in a lot from even a pretty bad, fuzzy picture. Trains have "trainspotters", we have "mini-spotters".

Once I've established that there is enough in a lot that I want, I buy it, then sell/trade the stuff I don't need to the same buddies. The price has to be reasonable though. I've never spent more than $150, and that was for a huge lot of three dozen minis (including 4 that I wanted bad and can't get any other way).

I was on a mission to acquire enough old SL2200 lead 4-piece Klingon D-7's, to fill out my fleet and that's what always drove my buys. One would get me looking. Two would get me pixel-scanning the photo to confirm and possibly buy. Three (or more) and I was definitely in, once the picture passed muster.

It worked out well. I have somewhere in the neighborhood of eight classic D-7's now. My buddies have (or will soon have) old FASA stuff I don't want and duplicate ADB minis I don't need. I even ended up with Tholian, Hydran, and Lyran squadrons I never really intended to get into, but they came along for the ride.

The master for the Federation Old Heavy Cruiser is (slowly) being made using lead oCL hulls acquired in those same batches, along with one I've had since 1985.

One thing I've noticed in these purchases is the preponderance of Orion Salvage Cruisers. It makes no sense. It's supposedly a fairly rare ship, so most folks would really only need one. I have at least six now... and haven't found folks who want to trade for them.

djdood wrote: One thing I've noticed in these purchases is the preponderance of Orion Salvage Cruisers. It makes no sense. It's supposedly a fairly rare ship, so most folks would really only need one. I have at least six now... and haven't found folks who want to trade for them.

I'll see your six, and raise you two more.
And that doesn't include the two that I carved up to make other stuff with.

What is it with that mini!?!

Did everybody (but me) buy ten of them, back in the 80's?
Did TFG give them away as party favors?

I find almost as many Romulan War Eagles (old), which are at least useful as modern Snipes.

More than one Sal is pretty redundant though. More than thre is just silly.

djdood wrote:OG and I both said that.

Good for you. You get a cookie.

Predator06 wrote:

djdood wrote:OG and I both said that.

Good for you. You get a cookie.

Mmmmm....Cookie