I have this issue as well. It may be related to the fact that ship skins which are not unlocked are supposed to have a little Zen price tag by them. I don't have that price tag. Instead when I try to assign a ship element that I don't have unlocked it bounces the ship appearance back to the basic default appearance.
They all look interesting. But no point in voting for the Batarang, because I fully expect it to be used as a Ferengi Summer ship design at some future point. That leaves just the technological geometric (Dorito) ship or the smooth round (UFO) ship. I could see my captain in either one. But all the angles and layers of…