Why was a giant Starship Enterprise for sale on a Scarborough lawn?

Why was a giant Starship Enterprise for sale on a Scarborough lawn?

It’s yard sale season, so naturally people are going to be selling some weird junk in front of their houses. But one Toronto resident has taken things to the next level. Earlier this week, Twitter discovered a gigantic model of the Starship Enterprise lying on a Scarborough lawn. Attached to it: a “for sale” sign, with an asking price of $1,200.

The giant starship is about the size of a car. It’s a scale replica of the Enterprise NCC-1701-A, which last appeared in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, a movie that was released in 1991. There was some confusion on Twitter about the provenance of this magnificently weird object. A similar model starship once hung at the Cineplex Scotiabank Theatre on Richmond Street, but this wasn’t that one. (The Scotiabank’s Enterprise was the Enterprise E, a different ship that appeared in some of the later Star Trek films.)

This particular Enterprise, according to the seller (who wouldn’t reveal his name, despite repeated requests), was salvaged from the Richmond Hill SilverCity, another Cineplex location. The seller was a subcontractor involved in some renovations at the theatre late last year. The Enterprise, which had been on display there, was about to be thrown out. When the seller found out the ship was free for the taking, he pounced, even though he’s not a Star Trek aficionado. “I just didn’t want to throw it in the trash, that’s all,” he says. He used scissor lifts to safely remove the ship from its mount in the theatre, then strapped it to a trailer and brought it home. “I had it on my trailer for a while there,” he says. “But I needed the trailer, so I put the ship on my lawn.”

A Cineplex spokesperson confirmed that this Enterprise was removed from the Richmond Hill SilverCity during renovations last year, but couldn’t say how long the ship had been on display there.

A car-sized piece of Star Trek memorabilia may seem like a tough sell, but evidently not: the Enterprise sold shortly after being placed on the seller’s lawn, for a very reasonable $600. (The seller claims he got an offer from a New York–based buyer of $35,000 after the ship had already sold. But he’s happy to be rid of it all the same.) The buyer was Bill Doern, a marketing and public relations CEO who lives in the area. “I’m a huge fan of Star Trek,” he says. He moved a boat out of his garage to make room for his new acquisition.

The Enterprise is in rough shape, but Doern is hoping to restore it then put it somewhere where the public can enjoy it once again. “I’d like it to be accessible for people to see it and get close to it,” he says.