Rewrites: June 2016 & December 2018
Issue 44 of my Eaglemoss vs. The World series of articles brings us face to face with the Intrpid. We first get a glimpse of this starship in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode called "The Expanse".
My current collection of this ship consists of an Eaglemoss, a MicroMachine and a Resin Modeler kit that I built and painted myself.
Per Memory Alpha and Beta, "The Intrepid type was a starship type in service with the United Earth Starfleet in the mid-22nd century. The class was armed with phase cannons and two torpedo launchers."
According to the Memory Alpha article on The Intrepid, as well as Memory Beta's article on the Intrepid, the ship classification is called an Intrepid-type starship. I never liked that as it can confuse the die-hard fans with the Intrepid Class which we all know as Voyager. I have seen on a few websites where the ship was classified as an NV class because of the ship registry and in some cases, it has also been called the Neptune Class, but mostly in some games. I think I prefer the NV Class name as it more closely resembles Enterprise's NX classification of the same era. I welcome any comments or your thoughts about this down below.
If you would like to read more official stuff on this type of ship, feel free to check out the following links:
Intrepid Type or NV Class or Neptune Class Information: Memory Alpha LINK and Memory Beta LINK
Intrepid (NV-01) Information: Memory Alpha LINK and Memory Beta LINK
And moving right along, at some point in my collecting, I was able to find a MicroMachine version of this ship.
This was someone's attempt at making the ship in resin and in this tiny format. The bussard collectors are messy due to the size and I absolutely hated the paint job when I received it. I ended up giving her a good repainting.
Eaglemoss vs. Resin Modeler
Eaglemoss
First off, I'm excited that Eaglemoss was the first manufacturer to create the first pre-built and pre-painted version of this ship.
HOWEVER, my first impressions as I looked at it in the box was "This model is PLAIN". My next thoughts as I unpacked her was that she was a bit bendy. BE CAREFUL when unpacking her, lest you snap a nacelle or stabilizer off.
The molding and sculpting on this model just seem a bit soft and too rounded to me. The details just don't stand out.
I feel like she doesn't have any edging to her. She doesn't have a crisp solid starship look and instead looks like a really good attempt to make a clay spaceship.
Editor's Update: As the years a have gone by and I have reviewed over 130 of these models from Eaglemoss, I came up with a name for this problem of soft details. I call it the Eaglemoss Melted Marshmallow Syndrome, or E.M.M.S. for short. I have included a better definition of this problem at the end of this article, but trust me, I am never impressed when I encounter EMMS.
As far as the painting goes, they did give her a very light aztecing across the ship.
I felt the paint was lacking in a lot of key areas of the ship.
I think that the big issue is the fact that the color is wrong. In every episode and every picture I can find, this type of ship is metallic colored like the Enterprise of the same era. The tan color that Eaglemoss chose just contributes to the clay model look and feel. They would have done better by choosing to go with a gunship or battleship gray for the overall paint color.
Looking that the rear of the saucer section is really where I felt left down.
First of all, the paint on the impulse engines is a bit messy. Although official pictures of the rear of the saucer show those square sections, the corresponding sections on the Eaglemoss model don't translate well into the physical realm. They seemed weird looking to me, almost too big and a waste of open space on the model.
The join between parts is very visible from this view too. I would say that these joins are more noticeable on this model than on other Eaglemoss models. The joins and seams on the rest of the model look OK though.
The only real clear plastic parts are the red bussard collectors. I think they should have either put some blue plastic in the nacelles or at least dabbed a little blue paint in there to give them a slight "glow" effect.
Nacelle - Outer View
Nacelle - Inner View
If you have been following my series of "Eaglemoss vs. The World", you will know that I like to hyper-focus on Starfleet deflector dishes as I feel that they help provide a better understanding of different manufacturers' attention, or in some cases, lack of attention to details.
NV Class Deflector Dish
One of the many things that disappointed me about this ship was the deflector dish. The following picture is from Eaglemoss' NX Class ship and as you can see, they were able to get it right early on. Given how skimpy they were with all the other details on this ship, they could have done a far better job in this area. And since they have proved that they can do better, I question "what gives?"
NX Class Deflector Dish
From my reading and research, the lacking details may be due to the fact that the actual CGI model is plain as well. The ship was never meant to be a hero piece and instead was only meant to be seen in the background. It was purposely left simple so that it could be copy and pasted into scenes as multiple vessels.
Conclusion
And now, let us do a quick check on eBay to get some prices of the ships I've shared with you. I typically will just round up the most inexpensive Buy-It-Now prices (with shipping included in that price) from eBay at the time of this article's (re)writing (December 2018).
Eaglemoss = $27
MicroMachine = COULD NOT FIND
NOTE: Prices were researched last on December 10th, 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). I must have lucked out when I got my MicroMachine sized ship as it could not find it currently available on eBay. I went back through my records and found that I had purchased it in a two ship package with the Warp Delta of the same size. I had paid $52.51 for both ships.
Normally, at this point in my articles, I like to wrap them up by giving my opinion on which ship gives you the best bang for your buck. That's my way of saying, 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.
It seems pointless to say all of that though as there really is only one choice when it comes to the pre-built and pre-painted arena. Honestly, I wish there were other choices to look at because as a long standing collector of the Eaglemoss ships, I was very disappointed with this one. Eaglemoss once again shined in the area of providing a new type of ship for the average collector, but they really dropped the ball in producing their usual great stuff. If you are not good at building and painting your own models, then I guess it's an OK ship to add to your collection.
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.
NV Class
[1:1400 Scale Resin Modeler Kit]
I am not going to go into a blow by blow discussion about this particular model. I had already written up a review on the model a while ago and you can go read that review HERE.
While I normally would not compare one of the manufacturer's PB/PP models to a DIY model, Eaglemoss really upset me, and I think they deserve this type of review.
Compared to Eaglemoss' ship, the molded details were much more crisp on the resin model. I know I painted mine with much more details than the Resin Modeler's recommendations, but I thought it looked pretty good.
And here is a close-up of the deflector dish. Wow, it actually looks like a deflector dish.
The nacelles were very intricate. Although it looks like my resin is drooping with age.
Nacelle - Outer View
Nacelle - Inner View
In my opinion, if you don't mind all the work involved in building and painting a resin model, and the $30.40 plus shipping to obtain it doesn't break the bank, then I would highly recommend you going this route over buying Eaglemoss' model as you will end up with a nicer looking NV class ship. That, and you can take pleasure in knowing that you built it on your own.
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!!!"
Definitions
EMMS = Eaglemoss Melted Marshmallow Syndrome. This is best described as a softening of details where they appear more rounded, less edgy and a bit out of focus. Sort of what happens to a marshmallow as you heat it up to it's melting point on a camp fire.
Additional Links To Photos Of My Collection:
Eaglemoss Resin Modeler
MicroMachine Comparative Shots
Other Reviewers Take On The Eaglemoss Model:
Some Kind Of Star Trek
Star Trek Starship Collection
MicroMachine Comparative Shots
Other Reviewers Take On The Eaglemoss Model:
Some Kind Of Star Trek
Star Trek Starship Collection
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