This article is going to focus on the Ferengi D'Kora class Marauder. We are first introduced to this type of starship in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode titled, "The Last Outpost".
As you can see, my collection consists of an Eaglemoss, Furuta, MicroMachine as well as an AMT model that I built and painted.
Per Memory Alpha and Beta, "The D'Kora-class Marauder was a type of advanced starship utilized by the Ferengi Alliance during the 24th century. This class of vessel was, at times, referred to by several classifications, including both a warship and transport ship by the Federation, and as an attack vessel by the Ferengi themselves."
If you would like to read more official stuff on this type of ship, feel free to check out the following links:
D'Kora Class Information: Memory Alpha LINK and Memory Beta LINK
Before we get into the comparison of the two main models, I'll give you a quick glimpse of the MicroMachine model.
Galoob did a very nice job of representing this ship in such a small scale. And that will be it for that share, as my reviews tend to focus on the much larger models.
AMT vs. Eaglemoss vs. Furuta
AMT vs. Eaglemoss vs Furuta
AMT vs. Eaglemoss vs Furuta
As you can see, Eaglemoss' ship is a bit bigger than it's Furuta counterpart. There is also some major color variations and detail difference between the two ships as well.
Eaglemoss
When I first wrote this review back in January 2015, I was overly excited about the collection and overly generous of my assessment of the Eaglemoss model when I wrote, "Over all, Eaglemoss did a good job on creating this ship." As I am re-writing this article, and taking a closer look at my model, I realized that I should have been a bit more brutally honest.
The first complaint that I want to get out of the way, has nothing to do with the actual model. The stand that Eaglemoss devised is not very good. It attaches from the front and quite frankly, doesn't attach that well so that the model falls off at the slightest bump.
Eaglemoss' Directions For Stand
I do confess that I read a couple other people's reviews and takes take on the Eaglemoss' models. This allows me to get a feel for whether I missed something or to see if my model has something out of the ordinary.
The guy who wrote the review at Some Kind Of Star Trek came up with a great idea that I am now doing with my model, and is too good of an idea not to pass along to my readers as well. He suggested turning the stand around and clamping on around the neck of the model instead.
Photo Credit: Some Kind Of Star Trek
While you are gazing at the above picture, which I borrowed right from his review, I want you to also take note of the coloring. This will become important very shortly.
The sculpt and molding job they did for the entire ship is really well done. They even made sure to mold in the shuttlepod that is located on the bottom of the ship.
The pincers don't seem that great when it comes to molded detailing. I can't quite put my finger on it, but they seem odd to me.
When it comes to the paint job though, things get a little, no, they get a lot weird. Firstly, I don't think I'm a fan of the overall color that Eaglemoss chose for the base paint.
This ship has tons of painted details on the top side. There are tons of tiny windows painted all over the top side of the model. In fact, I would say that there are WAY TO MANY little windows, so much that it begins to look sloppy along the rear of the model.
Eaglemoss even managed to put the Ferengi logo on the sides of the ship.
All of this fine detail is washed way though by the rather glaring overspray that my model seems to have received. It looks like a skunk! the overspray dulls the look of the model a little too much. I always do a double-take when I look at my model sitting in my display case, thinking that there is a thick layer of dust on it. I'm not the only one who has noticed this overspray effect on thier model either. I've seen other reviewers complain about this issue too. I am thinking that maybe they tried to dull the overall paint job of the ship to make it look more drab, but just failed miserably in that attempt.
This issue had to be a problem with a select run of the models though as you clearly saw from the Some Kind Of Star Trek picture, thier model was much darker and missing the overspray all together.
The bottom of the model is where Eaglemoss dropped the ball in the painted detail department. Although the molded details are great, the painting details are non-existent. Perhaps they should have cut back on the budget for the white overspray and used that money for some detail painting on the bottom.
All that lack of contrasting painted details, allows the joins and seams to be overly noticeable from the bottom of the model as well.
The only saving grace for the bottom of the model is the clear yellow-green plastic parts for the warp nacelle sections, as they add a nice touch to the overall look of the ship. Those clear plastics are also present on the topside of the model too.
Furuta
I always like to point the following out for my first time readers. 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 like 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.
Furuta, knocked this one out of the park in my opinion.
The molded details, while a bit on the soft side, are plentiful, and all the important areas of the ship are present.
Sometimes with Furuta models, you will see some of the details appear to be a bit disproportionate. The pincers on the Furuta model are one such place. While they are larger than the accurately proportioned AMT model I shared earlier, they are closer in size than the Eaglemoss model.
The top and bottom both have this mottled paint scheme to the ships hull, giving the ship that gritty merchant trader look.
The model does sport lots of painted details both on the top as well as some on the bottom.
While the Furuta model does not give the warp grills and kind of differentiating colors, there still is enough varying color on the model to make it look a bit nicer than the Eaglemoss counterpart.
Furuta also included the Ferengi logo on the sides and the bottom of thier model.
The bottom rear of the model also sports some nice details and in my opinion, this edging was handled better than on the Eaglemoss model too.
This cheap little toy packs in a lot of details both in its molding as well as its painting. Given its initial cost to purchase, I really could not find anything majorly wrong with this model.
Conclusion
And that is all the pictures and comparisons I have to share on this ship at this time. Which brings us to the pricing portion of my article. As usual, 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 (April 2018).
Eaglemoss = $24
Furuta = $11
Micro Machine = $5
NOTE: Prices were researched last on April 16th, 2018. As of the writing of this article, you can also currently order the Eaglemoss model right from the company themselves for around $23 (shipping unknown).
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. In conclusion, the Furuta takes the blue ribbon for this round. For the price, Furuta is giving you a nice model with good all around attention to details. As nice as the Eaglemoss' ship is, the lacking painted details on the bottom of the model, and the glaring over spray on the top of the ship hurt it's final standings when it comes to pricing. I can't in good standing recommend that someone spend the extra money for less and quite frankly, messy details.
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.
As I shared in my collection picture in the beginning of this article, I also have an AMT model that I had built and painted on my own. In reality, I built this model over 20 years ago, and then I just recently painted her in 2013 as a method of getting back into model building.
Ferengi D'Kora class Marauder
1:2500 Scale AMT Kit
This model held up surprisingly well over the 30 some years that I've owned her.
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:
Comparative Shots
Other Reviewers Take On The Eaglemoss Model:
Some Kind Of Star Trek
Star Trek Starship Collection
Other Reviewers Take On The Eaglemoss Model:
Some Kind Of Star Trek
Star Trek Starship Collection
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