EMvTW 26 - Tholian Starship (22nd Century)

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

Rewrites: March 2016 & June 2018

I feel it necessary to apologize to my readers, but the next couple of Eaglemoss vs. The World articles are going to be short ones indeed.  You see, the next few ships that I am going to discuss have never before been made by any other manufacturer in a pre-made and pre-painted form.  This once again demonstrates why the Eaglemoss collection is such a great thing for us collectors.  We continue to be given completely new ship models for our collection.

This time around, we are going to take a look at the 22nd Century Tholian starship.  We are first introduced to this ship in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode called "Future Tense".

The reason I am apologizing is that my sole purpose for writing these articles is to do comparisons.  When there is only one ship to show off, I kind of feel like I'm wasting your time.  However, I also don't want to skip these single ship reviews either as I can hopefully give you some idea of what you would be purchasing.


Per Memory Alpha and Beta, "The Tholian starship of the 22nd century was a relatively small starship employed by the Tholian Assembly.  Tholian vessels were of a characteristic cuneiform shape, and their small size made this type of vessel highly agile. Each side of its exterior had a glowing, patterned screen panel. This class was outfitted with formidable weaponry, including a type of energy-dampening weapon which they used against Enterprise to render it almost completely powerless. The interiors of these vessels were kept at temperatures exceeding 200 °C."

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

Tholian Starship (22nd Century) Information: Memory Alpha LINK and NO Memory Beta LINK

Since I don't have any other models to compare this to, let's just jump right into looking at the Eaglmoss model.

Eaglemoss

 

 

 

 

This actually is a very nice model from Eaglemoss.  She is more metal than plastic, making her one of the more heavier models in the collection.  

The first thing I noticed was that the join seam is way too visible around the nose of the ship.  It has a really noticeable gap.

One of the things that I was concerned with when I first got the model, was whether or not I could actually figure out what was the top of the vessel.  The truth is, it's not hard.  Two of the sides of the ship have the exact same pattern molded into them, while the bottom has a bit of a different look to it.

Bottom Closeup

It's hard to tell from the pictures, but I believe that the bottom is also slightly darker when it comes to the weathering.

The sculpting and molded details of the metal and plastic parts are both equally impressive.  For such a simplistic looking ship from a distance, up close, she is actually rather well detailed.  

Side Closeup

I found her to have an excellent paint job.  Eaglemoss' painted on details accentuates the molded in details of the plastic and metal.  I particularly liked the weathered and rusted look they gave the ship.  Considering we saw these ships working at what would be the equivalent to a modern day scrap yard, this little detail is just plain cool.

This ship has a LOT of molded clear blue and clear yellow plastic parts.  In all honesty, these are the parts that really make this model as cool as it is.  I think that if they had opted to just paint those areas of the ship, this model would not look as good as it does.  

 

The stand, is a slight bone of contention with me.  It really requires you to force the model into the clamp to get it to stay.  I don't like this because if you are like me, and love to take your models down to show them off (i.e. play with them  😎 ), then this tight fit is going to wear off the paint.  But since this review is of the quality of the model, please take this gripe with a grain of salt.

June 2018 UPDATE: Over time, the stand actually loses it's grip and you will one day find that your model has made a departure from your display case.  I actually do not display the model on the stand anymore.

Conclusion

We of course now come 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 (June 2018).

Eaglemoss = $20

NOTE: Prices were researched last on June 1st, 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 have now reached the part of my article where I normally tell you which ship gives you the "best bang for the buck", which is my rough way of telling you which one is the best buy. 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.

Considering there is only one ship, we can skip over this part as well.  This is one of those more unique ships that you don't see being offered by anyone else, so it would definitely make for a great addition to your fleet.  And at the prices I have seen online, I consider it a steal with how excellent the quality is on this model.

See?  I told you this was going to be a short article.

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.

In August of 2018, Eaglemoss released Issue # 129, the Tholian Starship (23rd Century).  I have since then written a review of that starship and compared it to this one.

Feel free to go check out that article as well by clicking on 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   

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