Star Trek model kits
The development of Star Trek model kits began shortly after  began to air in . AMT acquired the license to produce plastic model kits based on the series and announced their plan to produce a kit of the . 

The model's resounding success at retail prompted AMT's development of a follow-up kit, resulting in the creation of the  Klingon battle cruiser, released as model kit in . It was specifically designed for AMT by Matt Jefferies. The D7 design was soon featured in the third season of Star Trek by the show's producers. These two models were the only Star Trek models AMT released while The Original Series was still in production. The only other company, besides AMT/Aurora, that produced model kits while the series was in production, though only just barely, was the Japanese company KSN Midori, in the guise of two differently sized USS Enterprise kits, for the Japanese market only.

Over the next decade, and after The Original Series had wrapped, AMT would expand upon the line to include the Romulan Bird-of-Prey, a Spock figure kit, and scaled versions of Star Trek props. Originally, AMT chose not to license the Star Trek name outside of the US. Aurora Plastics Corporation, another noted model kit company, leased AMT's molds and released the models outside of the US. The Spock figure kit originated from Aurora but a reciprocal leasing agreement gave AMT the exclusive rights to release the figure in the US. AMT bought the Spock figure's tooling from Aurora in . 

At the release of , AMT was acquired by  (or rather its parent company Lesney Products & Co. Ltd.) and began to expand its range to include the refit-Enterprise, the  battle cruiser, and the long range shuttle. AMT continued to release kits based on the  following its acquisition by the Ertl Company in . AMT/Ertl subsequently gained the licenses to produce model kits based on  The Next Generation and  Deep Space Nine but Revell-Monogram was able to outbid them for the license to produce ships from . AMT/Ertl's original Star Trek line came to an end in .

Following AMT/Ertl's merger with Racing Champions, the company tried to revive the Star Trek line with four re-releases in . The line's revival strongly improved after  when the AMT division was acquired by Round 2 LLC and was given a new and unique AMT branding.

Since the 1990s, a limited number of other companies including GEOmetric Design, Tsukuda Hobby, Polar Lights (acquired from Racing Champions by Round 2 in 2007), Platz (through an one-time-only sub-license from Polar Lights), Bandai, and De Agostini (Japan) have been officially licensed to produce plastic Star Trek model kits. Excepting Polar Lights, most of these licenses were extended on an one-time-only basis for either a limited time (Tsukuda, Bandai), a particular kind of kit only (GEOmatric Design's figurine kits, De Agostini's single ship partwork model kit) or special occasions (Platz). In 2016, Moebius Models became the last known third-party model kit company to be extended a temporary, to the alternate reality films restricted, licence to manufacture and release such Star Trek model kits. Of their planned four releases however, only two were eventually released in 2018. 

As of 2020 though, Revell Germany (spun-off from Revell-Monogram in 2006, becoming a fully European-owned independent company) and Round 2 LLC (current owner of both AMT and Polar Lights) are the only two known fully licensed model kit companies to actually release Star Trek model kits on a regular basis, Revell Germany doing so far less frequently than its two American counterparts do, with AMT limiting itself to re-issues of their kit releases predating their acquisition by Round 2. The status of the US Revell-Monogram Voyager license, was until 2021 unclear as no Star Trek model kit has been released by them since 1997, nor are any likely to follow as the last Monogram owner Hobbico declared bankruptcy in June 2018. 

However, that uncertainty came to an end in July 2021, when Polar Lights released a differently scaled and retooled  model kit, indicating that the Voyager license had in the mean time been acquired for the North-American home market by Round 2 as well, meaning that all official Star Trek model kits – save one – were as of 2021 produced under a single roof for the first time since Revell-Monogram acquired the original Voyager license around 1994. The European license however, still resides with the German Revell branch, which was spun off from Monogram in 2006. Revell-Germany incidentally, has gained the distinction of becoming the first to release an officially licensed Star Trek model kit based on the alternate reality films, that of the   in 2013 – and only joined by Moebius Models five years later as aforementioned. Unlike those from Moebius Models however, the Revell-Germany model kit is under the license stipulations formally forbidden to be sold on North-American soil, as are all the other Revell-Germany Star Trek kit (re-)releases for that matter, including the very same Voyager reissue ones as previously released in North-America by former parent Monogram. (see: main article)

By 2021, Revell-Germany and Eaglemoss Collections were the only two other companies left anywhere else in the world still retaining an official license to produce Star Trek model kits beyond Round 2 LLC itself. Contrary to the Revell-Germany releases though, the British single one-off specialty kit from Eaglemoss is allowed to be sold in North America. The licensing of Star Trek model kits is traditionally the purview of Paramount Consumer Products and its predecessors, and the different treatment of the German-produced kits and the single British one is but one of many examples of the department's confusing policies, sometimes frustrating fans and customers, including model kit collectors. Former VAM producer and fan Robert Meyer Burnett became one of the Star Trek alumni who publicly voiced his frustration at these department policies in a February 2017 Word Balloon podcast interview (currently posted on ), where he related the lengths he had to go through to get his hands on a copy of the Revell-Germany alternate reality Enterprise model kit.

Star Trek model kits, both the official ones as well as the below-mentioned "garage" kits, have been covered extensively in a wide range of hobby magazines and book titles concerning themselves with the subject, and of which the British Sci-Fi & Fantasy Models publication has, until recently, especially warranted attention.

Quick to point out kit (canon) inaccuracies as had already been the case with the very first 1966 Enterprise kit and the subsequent AMT releases – which has to this date forced them to frequently retool the masters for kit re-issues – more adult kit modelers are in general sticklers for accuracy, regardless of the subject matter and unsurprising considering the amount of time they are required to spend on their builds. Recognizing and acknowledging the phenomenon among Star Trek modelers, it was especially Bandai and Polar Lights who took their customers' need for accuracy to heart with the praised 2003-2004 kit-line in Bandai's case, whereas Polar Lights took it up a notch even further with their critically acclaimed 1:350 scale model kit line, launched in 2003. It has also served as a rationale why Polar Lights has apparently been appointed as the lead company for truly new Star Trek model kit releases by owner Round 2.

A major source of frustration and chagrin for an entire generation of Star Trek modelers had until the late 1990s been the complete lack of good actual studio model reference material for their builds, particularly in regard to painting, deeming the usual artistic interpretations featured as box-art of little to no use. Even though AMT had some pictures (precious few though, as far as modelers were concerned) of the actual studio models featured on the box covers and sides of their 1980 The Motion Picture kit releases, they did not continue do so afterwards, with the exception of the 1992  and three of the four 1993-1996 Deep Space Nine kits – even though they had sometimes and very sparingly featured studio model photography on the box sides of other kits as had been the case with the 1989 3-Piece "Adversary Set", featuring the real color of the original D'deridex class model. Incidentally, AMT had used the production-used D7 class model (actually one of AMT's two tooling masters for kit production, but usurped by the strapped-for-cash Original Series production for filming purposes) as box-cover art for their aforementioned 1968 kit release, becoming the very first and for twelve years the only time an actual studio model was used as such, but strong studio light flooding blurred out the model's original paint scheme in the picture, precipitating a decades-long misconception in Star Trek-lore, not in the least among modelers, of what the real color of the D7-class was.

Revell-Monogram became the first company to realize the added value of actual studio model imagery for modelers as visual aid, as emphatically stated on their boxes, and was consistent in its use as box-cover art – but, excepting Maquis raider and Kazon shuttle kits, not on the box sides where pictures of the completed model kits were used instead – of their 1995 Voyager kits, though dispensing with it afterwards for the reissues and new releases, featuring photographs of completed model kits instead (conceivably for copyright reasons, i.e. having to additionally pay the franchise for picture use - see also  below), considered equally useless by modelers.

Until then modelers had to make do with low-resolution blurry motion picture stills, taken under studio conditions on top of that which not rarely could lead to confusion and misconceptions (as had been the case with among others the D7-class,  and , in the latter case somewhat ironically as AMT's photo on the box side of its 1989 three-piece kit had been the first-time publication of the model's true color which only added to the confusion of modelers who up until then only knew the two different on-screen and publicity versions), as good studio model reference material was still extremely hard, if at all, to come by on the early 1990s internet, nor was any available yet in print beyond a stray single equally low-resolution picture published here and there over multitude of more generic publications, be it licensed or unlicensed. Only put online by William S. McCullars in 1997, the very first more detailed Star Trek studio model reference website became the in modeling circles renowned, but now defunct, "The IDIC Page", where the featured behind-the-scenes photographs, provided and taken on personal title by production staffers and exhibition visitors alike, of the studio models were especially valued by the Star Trek modeling community.   To an extent, the one year earlier established specialized  website has taken over from The IDIC Page by later incorporating a  featuring pictures of the actual studio models, including several from other science fiction franchises as well. The very first specialized print publication on the subject concerned the 1999 Japanese reference book Star Trek: Official Guide 4 - Mechanics, though that book has remained a rarity outside Japan.

Still, model kit companies have by and large continued to underestimate the modeler's need for accuracy, those from imaginary franchises in particular, and persevered for marketing purposes with the use of for modelers next-to-useless, albeit flashy, imagery as box-art, with the noticeable exceptions of Bandai and some of Polar Lights' later kit releases. Lack of reference material on the other hand, is hardly an issue of note for modelers anymore, as far more of it has by the late-2000s become available, both on the internet and in print, and greatly aided by the advent of both production-used CGI and High-Definition/Resolution motion picture productions, the former incidentally, increasingly used as not only box-cover art by Polar Lights for their kit releases, but also used for illustrative purposes in print publications, especially those from GE Fabbri and its successor Eaglemoss Collections.

Licensed model kit release chronology
1966 | 1968 | 1969 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1979 | 1980 | 1984 | 1985 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1999 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022

"Garage" model kits
Over the years, from the 1990s onward after  had premiered, several "amateur" (meaning not officially recognized), both unauthorized as well as unlicensed and often short-lived companies, dubbed "Garage kit makers" by the model kit community, sprung up, producing Star Trek model kits. These "companies" often produced lesser-known canon or fan-designed non-canon classes of starships which were typically made out of glass reinforced plastic (GRP), commonly referred to as "fiberglass" or "resin" (somewhat incorrectly, as this term also refers to more modern composite plastic materials). Fiberglass "conversion kits" to improve or customize officially-released models have also been released, along with "aztec-ing" painting templates, and custom decals.

Typically, the production run of items produced by these companies tended to be quite low, numbering in the few hundreds instead of the thousands produced by the officially licensed model kit companies, thereby becoming relatively rare and quite expensive. This was due to two reasons. First, as amateur companies, these garage companies could not afford the professional, high-grade steel molds utilized by the professional model kit companies from which the kit parts were cast. Instead, lower grade molds were used, typically made out of cheaper material such as baked clay, plastic resin, gypsum, or plaster, all of which susceptible to wear and tear far beyond of that of the ones used by the professional model kit manufacturers, meaning these molds worn out much faster. For these same (economic) reasons, garage kits tended to consist of far fewer parts, cast as solid pieces, meaning that the completed models were quite heavy compared to those constructed out of the injection molded plastic parts (vacuformed as opposed to those of the garage companies which were simply cast) of the model kits from their officially licensed counterparts. The quality of garage kits using those molds near the end of their lifespan tended to diminish as cast parts exhibited an ever-increasing number of air bubbles and excess "flash" on the parts due to widening apertures in the seams of worn-out molds. Constructing garage kits therefore required a certain amount of experience on the part of the modeler.

Second, aside from the practical reasons keeping production runs low, there was a legal one as well. As unauthorized companies, low production runs were a means to operate under the radar of the Paramount Marketing and Licensing Department (currently Paramount Consumer Products), thereby dodging copyright legalities. It appeared however, that the official franchise has, until recently, turned a blind eye to their activities, as no litigation against any of them were hitherto known to exist, at least publicly.  No doubt this was due to the fact that many of them were relatively short-lived as well as the fact that virtually all of them initially produced Star Trek ships that were not produced or planned by any of the officially licensed model kit companies at the time, even if some of those ships were yet to be produced by them later on, usually at a different scale. In turn, garage companies themselves usually observed strict adherence of not producing ships that were produced by the official model kit companies (though some of them did in later years, again at different scales) and not showing any official imagery on or in their box-art or instruction sheets as well as not distributing their products directly but rather through official intermediaries. The initial lack of legal actions against them has emboldened some of the still surviving garage companies, such as Starcraft Models, to employ professional, full-fledged websites, marketing their products. However, while former franchise owner Paramount Pictures had condoned the existence of these companies, subsequent owner CBS Corporation appeared to be of a different mindset and had more recently started to crack down on these "interlopers"; the Starcraft Models website, for example, went unexpectedly dark in late 2015, and has not been up since. 

UK-based Warp Models (one of the first, and its products at the time distributed through the famed London, UK-based genre retailer ), and US-based Federation Models, Nova Hobbies, and Starcrafts (the one currently known as "Starcraft Models") were among the best-known unlicensed garage kit makers. Warp Models in particular was noteworthy, as they only produced canon ships and where possible in-scale with those of the AMT product-line. For , John Eaves used a garage kit of the USS Enterprise-C to create gold models which were used in the USS Enterprise-E's observation lounge.  With the exception of Warp Models, most garage kit companies preferred to release their Star Trek products uniformly as 1:1400 scale model kits, a scale corresponding with that of AMT's 1988 Enterprise-D model kit, but otherwise rarely used by the official model kit companies as far as their Star Trek product lines were concerned.

As a format, garage kit companies not only turned out to be popular for model kits, but for 1:3900 scale gaming miniatures as well, those originating from FASA in particular, and several specialized gaming miniatures garage companies have also been concurrently in existence.

Appendices

See also

Star Trek starship miniatures – links to many pre-painted starship models not listed above

External links

Memory Foxtrot, the Sci Fi Model Kit Database wiki