To the uninitiated of the Star Trek fandom, April 5th will be any old day, but Trekkies will know April 5th as the date of The First Contact – The day Humanity first encountered an alien race within the Star Trek universe

To celebrate this important date in Humanity’s history, Star Trek Online is holding a scavenger hunt style event to create a model replica of the Phoenix (The first Human star ship capable of Warp Speed) and compete to see how far yours can fly.

The event will run from April 5th until April 12th on both console and PC versions of the game. Event rewards include ship parts, replica models and a holo-emitter to make your starship look like the Phoenix.

For the full event details, head to the Official Event Announcement on Arc Games

I really love that the Star Trek Online game will be celebrating this important event within the Star Trek universe. It’s a great way to respect the history and lore of the Star Trek franchise while giving the community something, too.

What do you think of this Star Trek cannon event? Leave a comment below

The Sci-Fi MMORPG Star Trek Online has partnered with GamePrint to offer 3D Printed Models of player’s starships from the game for purchase, ranging from a $200 “Primer” model that you can paint yourself, to a $350 “Collectable” model which will be hand painted by an expert for you.

Going by what Cryptic have said, every aspect of your customised STO starship – with a few exceptions – can be captured in the 3D print process, which will use files exported directly from the game to generate an accurate render of your starship.

For the full details of this pretty cool merchandising idea, check out the official announcement post from Cryptic Here

Star Trek fans love their merch, and I can think of quite a few Trekkies who would jump at the chance to own a model of their very own personalised Starship, but a base price of $200 for a basic model seems a little excessive to me.

There’s also the downside hidden away in the GamePrint FAQ that the 3D printed models are manufactured 100 at a time, so you might be waiting a while to get one, unless this idea proves very popular.

What do you think? Do you play Star Trek Online? Would you purchase a model of your starship? What other games do you think could create player-customised 3D models? Leave a comment below!