EMvTW 02 - USS Enterprise NCC-1701 (and -A) (Constitution Class Refit)

NOTE:  You can click on most pictures to get a larger view of them.

It's time to move along with my Eaglemoss vs. The World series and talk about the second ship in the collection.  The ship we will review this time round is the Constitution Class Refit, known as the USS Enterprise (NCC 1701 and the NCC 1701-A).  I will group both of these together as they are in essence the same type of ship.  In fact, the studio models used in the movies for both of these ships was in fact, the same model.

Just a quick reminder as to what this article will review... My collecting tastes tend to stay with the small scale starships.  I like the ships in my collection to stay under 6 inches in length as they tend to display better.

The picture above shows the various versions I own of this ship.  Across the front row, you can see an Eaglemoss, two Furuta, a Hot Wheels, and a MicroMachine variation of this ship.  Hanging on the wire is my AMT model and a Hallmark model.


Per Memory Alpha and Beta, "The Constitution-class was a Federation Class I Heavy Cruiser in the Starship-class. They were the premier front-line Starfleet vessels in the latter half of the 23rd century. They were designed for long duration missions with minimal outside support and are best known for their celebrated missions of galactic exploration and diplomacy which typically lasted up to five years."  In regards to the refits version, they go on to say, "In the late 2260s to early 2270s, the Constitution-class starships underwent their last known major refit program. The actual refitting took eighteen months of work and essentially a new vessel was built onto the bones of the old, replacing virtually every major system. Thus, the Constitution-class continued in service for at least a further twenty years."  They then say this about the Enterprise, "In the course of her career, the Enterprise became the most celebrated starship of her time.  In her forty years of service and discovery, through upgrades and at least two refits, she took part in numerous first contacts, military engagements, and time-travels. She achieved her most lasting fame from a five-year mission (2265-2270) under the command of Captain James T. Kirk.  The Enterprise was destroyed over the Genesis Planet in 2285, when Kirk activated the ship's auto-destruct sequence to prevent the Enterprise from falling into the hands of the Klingons."

If you would like to read more official stuff on this type of ship, feel free to check out the following links:

Constitution Class Refit Information: Memory Alpha LINK and Memory Beta LINK
USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) Information: Memory Alpha LINK and Memory Beta LINK

Before we get into the meat and potatoes of my reviews, let us talk quickly about the MicroMachine version and the second Furuta model of this ship.  Furuta actually produced two ships of this classification.  HOWEVER, for some reason, the ship they produced in thier third series was MUCH smaller in scale than thier previous release.  In fact, most of thier third series ships were about the same size as MicroMachines.

 

Furuta volume 3b

 

MicroMachine

The Furuta (3rd Series) Enterprise is just slightly larger than it's MicroMachine counterpart.  It is still well detailed for what it is.  My biggest issue though was that they had already released a Constitution Class Refit during thier Volume 1 run.  That ship looked great.  I think that they should have used this "slot" in the collection for a different ship that hadn't been produced.

 MicroMachine vs. Furuta volume 3b

MicroMachine vs. Furuta volume 3b

And that is all the attention I will give those two models as this series of articles focuses more on the slightly larger scale models.

Eaglemoss vs. Furuta vs. Hallmark vs. Hot Wheels

On to my "gravy shot" pictures.  As I stated before, I wish someone had done this sort of comparison review for me when I got into collecting as I may have spent a lot less time and money on the collection.  But that is water under the bridge now.  And I get to do something no-one else has done.

AMT vs. Eaglemoss vs. Furuta vs. Hallmark vs. Hot Wheels

AMT vs. Eaglemoss vs. Furuta vs. Hallmark vs. Hot Wheels

I included my 1:2500 scale AMT model in these pictures to further assist you in size comparison.  Hot Wheels comes out as the largest of the group and Furuta (vol 1) comes in as the smallest.  Each ship has its own pros and cons.

Eaglemoss

 

 

 

 

This was Eaglemoss' second ship of the line in thier collection.  I do a lot of research and reading of other people's reviews to make sure that I don't miss something as well as measure up how good of a job I did when looking over the ship myself.  The average review on this ship tends to put it down as not being very detailed, especially when you compare it to the Enterprise D that proceeded it in the collection.  The consensus seems to be that this model leaves you feeling that it is "unfinished".

I think the problem lies in the fact that Eaglemoss got all over-zealous in thier want to wow us with thier first issue that they raised our expectations on what we should be expecting with our little $20 models.  The reality is, there is no way that Eaglemoss is going to be able to keep producing models as awesome looking as the Enterprise D, each and every issue.  They would go bankrupt in the process.  

And it is with that thought that I remind myself of when I go forward reviewing thier models.

The sculpting and molding of the metal and plastic is very well done and help bring out all of the important details of the ship.  The ship has lots of panel lines and the primary parts of the ship are all present.

The paint job is where the model starts to fall short and is why a lot of reviewers were disappointed.  

First, the entire ship is done up in a duck egg blue.  I'm not sure why they went with this color as everytime it appears on screen, it is more of a pearl white.  The model does not have any aztecing, which is fine as not every model needs aztecing to look realistic.  Honestly, if Eaglemoss had azteced this model like they did on the enterprise D, I think we would have had a very ugly looking ship.  When you look at the top of the model, all those important parts of the ship that were molded in, also have paint to help highlight them.  The bridge dome, phaser banks and rcs thrusters all stand out nicely.  And then you turn the model over and wonder if Eaglemoss just got tired and hung up thier paint bushes.  

Although the sensor dome and a few access hatches have been painted, the rcs thrusters and phaser banks seem to have been forgotten.  The torpedo launcher on the neck of the ship is also missing some highlight paint work.

Here is a funny side note.  I've had this model for almost a year and I never took notice of this lacking of details on the bottom until I wrote this review.

I'm also not quite sure what this red blotch is supposed to be on the hanger bay doors.

The one larger issue when it comes to being screen accurate or not is the fact that I can't seem to find any reference pictures that support thier use of shadow effecting for the registry numbers in red as much as they did on the top and bottom of the saucer section.

The joins and seams on certain areas of the model are a bit noticeable, especially where the nacelle struts and the navigational section join with the engineering section.  

 

I really like the use of clear plastics on this model.  Those grills on the nacelles look really nice with the plastic.

And then, Eaglemoss leaves me in bewilderment because even though they dropped the ball on the paint for the underside of the saucer, they were able to squeeze in tiny registry markings on the nacelles.

In my last article, I had written that I seemed to have a fixation on the deflector dishes on my Galaxy class ships, and that I'd continue that tradition.  In reality, I have found over the 50 some issues that I've reviewed that looking at this section of the ship gives me a very good idea of the level of attention that the manufacturer puts into thier model.

This is where I can see where people might complain about lack of details.  On every other variation I have of this ship, the deflector dish has some sort of definition, whether it is from some subtle color variations or just plain lines on the dish.  This deflector dish is rather drab looking.  And then from this angle, you can see what I mean about maybe adding a little color to the torpedo bays as well just to make them stand out a little more.

Furuta (Volume 1)

 

 

 

 

As I pointed out in my last article, Furuta is a Japanese company that produced a series of gashapon toys.  Gashapon toys are meant to be nothing more than cheap little $1 to $5 bubble gum machine prizes.  I want to remind my readers of this fact so that they can take any critical reviews I may make in the spirit it is given.  I am in no way expecting these toys to be on the level of a Hallmark, Eaglemoss or Hot Wheels toy.  I found a neat video about these types of toys and you can check that out at THIS LINK.

This was Furuta's first go at making the Constitution Class Refit Enterprise.  And quite frankly, they did a good job for a cheap bubble gum machine toy.  The sculpting and molded details on the plastic is very well done.  She is extremely detailed, almost too much.  The ship's details make her a very "busy" looking little model.

The paint job is what leaves me scratching my head on this model.  They didn't paint the phaser banks causing them to just blend in with the rest of the saucer section.

And when you look at the bottom of the saucer, you I mean about being busy as Furuta seems to have gone a bit overboard on the detailing here.

The color scheme seems way off on the nacelle pylons and secondary hull. 

They did a fairly good job with the ship's nacelles even thought the coloring is a bit off.

As we take a gander at the deflector dish, you can clearly see how these are machine painted in a bit of a rush.  I do like the fact that the dish has details molded into it but the paint on it as well as the paint on the secondary hull nose just plain detracts from this cool detail.  I guess thier version doesn't have any torpedo launchers either.

Hallmark

 

 

 

 

In 2005, Hallmark released thier rendition of the Enterprise A.  This was the first year that they started making the ships take batteries so that they did not need to be plugged into a light string.

Photo Credit: Hallmark

They did a really nice job with this model, covering all the details as well as they could and not going overboard.

The molded details are a bit on the soft side, taking on a more rounded look.  This doesn't detract from the overall look though as Hallmark seems to have wanted to detail this model as best as they could.

The paint job is really well done with Hallmark highlighting all the important areas of the ship without going overboard.

The only thing I can really find fault with this model is that the nacelle pylons are really thick.  They needed to do this though to hide the wires as well as keep the ship from being fragile as hell.  However, look at that hanger bay!  The details and paint work are gorgeous!

They did a nice job hiding the button to turn the lights on in the curl of the secondary hull near the hangar bay.

The molding and painting on the nacelles is really good, and this coupled with the fact that the nacelle lights up moves this model to the tops of my favorites for this type of ship.

Looking at the deflector dish, I have to say that Hallmark knocked it out of the park here.  I like the detail lines on the dish and the whole assembly lights up as well.  This is a very cool feature that makes this model stand out from the rest.  And the photon torpedo launchers were given some love as well with the subtle addition of some well placed paint.

Hot Wheels

 

 

 

 

WARNING: I used to think it was just an issue with one of my other ships, but as time has gone by, it appears to be a manufacturer issue with all of thier different types of ships.  The stand fits very snugly into the underside of the ship.  I started noticing that my ship was gradually tipping forward as the saucer was much heavier on the model.  I would periodically readjust it.    After the third time of removing it for pictures, the stand snapped off, leaving the ball joint stuck in the ship.  Obviously, these are not meant to be "played" with and are for display purposes only.  Given the shape of most ships, once they break off the display stand, they will not look so graceful in your display case.

Hot Wheels in its on-going quest to cash in on it's license license with Paramount as much as possible had released three variations of the exact same ship during thier run of making this sized toy.  There was the original variant of the ship, then they re-released the same ship with battle damaged tattoos that were heat applied on.  Then during the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con, they released a special issue of the enterprise being repaired in Spacedosck.  Once again, they plastered on heat tattoos to simulate the construction work and the box it came in looked like the grid work of a construction dock.  These "damaged" variants are actually cheaper (but not by much) and if you are skilled with hot soapy water and an exacto knife, you can remove the tattoos to give yourself a "undamaged" variant.  Given that the price difference isn't too much at this point, it would be more worth your while just to buy the "undamaged" one.

From a molding point, this model is excellent and sports tons of crisp and clear details all over the ship.

The part that didn't impress me, and in fact, turned me off of this model pretty much from the start was the lack of paint.  If people thought that the Eaglemoss ship was lacking in details, then they never held one of these.  Looking at the topside, we can see that the phaser banks are not detailed and the ship name seems way to small.  The RCS thrusters are also missing.  The bottom side shows an even more lacking of detail, both in the phaser banks again as well as the cargo bay doors.

The nacelles are very well done.  They actually have some nice paint work and Hot Wheels opted to add in come clear blue plastics.  

The deflector dish was a nice surprise in that they at least molded some details into it.  They also added some color to the torpedo bays so they at least stood out a little more.

Conclusion

And that is all I really have to share at this point on this class of ship.  As for pricing, I will continue with the tradition of rounding up the most inexpensive Buy-It-Now prices from eBay at the time of this article's (re)writing (January 2018).

Eaglemoss = $33

Furuta Volume 1 = CAN'T FIND!

Furuta Volume 3b = $16

Hallmark = $47

Hot Wheels = $48

Hot Wheels Battle Damaged = $59

Hot Wheels Repair Dock = $58

Micro Machine = $15

NOTE: Prices were researched last on January 10th, 2018.

We now come to the part of my article where I like to give you my opinion of which ship gives you the "best bang for the buck", which is my rough way of telling you which one is the best one to get, for the best price.  To put this in a nutshell, when I write these, I am trying to give my opinion of which model is the best for the least cost.

It's interesting to see how these toys have become collectibles over the years.  The Volume 1 Furuta toy was meant to be a cheap little toy and now, it is so rare that it can't even be found.  The last time I researched this article, I had found one for $47.

Both times that I researched this article, I had flipped on which model got my seal of approval because of how the prices fluctuated each time.   And it looks like I might have flipped my choice again.  In all honesty, I would spend the little extra and try to get my hands on the Hallmark model.  The paint detailing is very nice and the fact that it lights up is just an extra bonus.

BONUS ROUND!!!

Every once in a while, I'll have a little extra stuff to share with you that sort of fits in with my comparison articles.  This time round, I have three additional ships to share with you.

AMT (Dougherty)

The first one I'd like to share is my very own flagship, the USS Dougherty (NCC-7448).

 

 

 

 

She originally was part of the AMT Round 2 1:2500 Enterprise Set.  This ship is probably one of the oldest models in my collection.  She is over 20 years old and up until about a year ago had never been painted.  She had been played with heavy when I was a kid and has survived several encounters with Borg Moving Boxes.  When I decided to get back into model building, and more importantly make an attempt to paint the darned things, she was one of my first to undergo a "refit".  My universe story line has her being salvaged by Admiral Patrick Dougherty and being refitted and upgraded around the time that the USS Lakota received all her upgrades.  Sadly, in my universe, she was also destroyed quite a few years later.

Here are some closeup pictures of my nacelle work.

Outer Nacelle

Inner Nacelle

OK, yes, now I'm being silly but my ship was getting dish envy.  Anyway, I never said I was very good at painting.  At least I tried to detail the dish and torpedo launchers.

I have really dug the AMT 1:2500 ship sets and have used them extensively for my kitsbashes.  

Polar Lights

My nephew also is a huge fan of what he calls the Enterprise A, which is his term for the Refit class in general.  It's taken him a while to break him of that.  Anyway, he wanted to build one of his own but do something different with the paint job.

 

 

 

After doing some research for him, it was determined that the Polar Lights model would be a good first ship for him to build.  As it turned out, he built and painted it as if it were commandeered by the Klingon Empire.

He he he.  No comment from me here.

AMT (Creeper Baden)

My nephew has a younger brother who ended up being a little jealous.  I decided to build the little guy his very own "Enterprise" but opted to also go with the Klingon motif for it as well.  This one was another AMT 1:2500 kit.

 

 

 

I had gotten the color idea from when my own son ended up painting a Romulan Warbird using Testor's Jade Green Spray Paint.  The effect on the hull is just down right cool.  For mine, I used Testor's Metallic Green Flake which basically is the same thing.  The purple was done up using Metallic Purple flake.

And no, that is not a gigantic Gatling gun on the from of the ship.

Eaglemoss Issue #72

And for one last bonus, I have finally reached Issue #72 in my collection and have gone on to review the U.S.S. Enterprise (NCC-1701-A) that Eaglemoss has produced.  You can read that review at THIS LINK.

As always, I hope you found this article useful and informative.  If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, please feel free to comment below.

So for now, "Live long and prosper!!!"



Additional Links To Photos Of My Collection:

Eaglemoss     Furuta Volume 1 Volume 3B   
Hallmark     Hot Wheels     MicroMachine   
Comparative Shots
AMT     Polar Lights     AMT (vCB)

Other Reviewers Take On The Eaglemoss Model:
Some Kind Of Star Trek
Star Trek Starship Collection