EMvTW SC01 - Shuttlecraft Collection

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

Rewrites: June 2016 & April 2019

Here comes one of my longest "Eaglemoss vs. The World" articles to date.  I was recently able to get my hands on Eaglemoss' Shuttlecraft Collection.

Photo Credit: Eaglemoss

Normally I don't order stuff directly from Eaglemoss because they have a tendency to advertise stuff that they don't even have in stock.  And after you order it, I've heard horror tales about waiting one or more months to get your items.  As was the case with this set, I did get a notice AFTER they got my money that the shuttlecraft were on backorder.  But surprisingly, they came about two weeks later so I think I fared rather well.

Editor's Note (June 2016): When I bought my set directly from Eaglemoss, I paid $75 plus shipping for the set.  When I looked up the pricing for this article's re-write, I see that Eaglemoss now wants $100 plus shipping and I've seen the entire set on eBay for around $100 with shipping included.  This will become relevant later on in this article when I start giving my thoughts and recommendations.


The first thing you should know about these shuttles is that they are SMALLER than the typical Eaglemoss releases.  BUT, you do end up with three shuttles that no one else has produced in the small scale pre-built and pre-painted format.

They come in a nice looking box which is more like a sleeve for the contents.  I placed a quarter in the picture for a sense of scale.

Inside you will find the standard Eaglemoss packaging as well as 4 mini magazines.  I was pleasantly surprised when I saw these magazine, as the initial reports were that the models only came with plastic sheets called ‘Okudagram’.  The down side to the "magazines" is that they do not mount into the binders like the ones from their larger scale cousins, and they do not talk about the typical behind-the-scenes stuff that the larger magazine cover.

The stands for the models are much different than other models from Eaglemoss.  The stands are basically tiny little tables that the shuttle rests on.

Speaking of the Okudagram, these are essentially schematics of each shuttle and were originally created by Mike Okuda.  He was famous for his designing of the ship's computer displays.

All but the Class F shuttle are done up in his traditional LCARS interface style.  That shuttle's Okudagram is done up in the TOS style of rectangular "buttons".  I'm not a big fan of the feet that attach to the Okudagrams.  You can't really use the feet without covering over some of the information on the bottom of the displays.

This will be a rather unique article from me as you will be getting 4 different types of ships reviewed at the same time.  Let's get started and we'll just go through them in the order of the magazines that came with the models.

Class F Shuttle

TOS Era

The Class F shuttle is the one shuttle that I can do some serious comparing with other manufacturers.  My current collection consists of an Eaglemoss, a Furuta, a Hallmark and a MicroMachines model.

Per Memory Alpha and Beta, "The Class F shuttlecraft was the standard issue Starfleet shuttlecraft during the mid-23rd century.  During the mid-2260s, Class F shuttles were based at starbases and aboard Constitution-class starships, which were standard equipped with four shuttles of this class, along with other shuttle classes."

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

Class F Shuttle Information: Memory Alpha LINK and Memory Beta LINK

Let us take one quick look at the MicroMachine model.  My collecting focus is mainly on larger scale models, but since I have it, I'll share it.

 

The fact that the actual ship is basic and simple in design lends well when you do it up in such a small scale.  I really don't have anything bad to say about their version.

Eaglemoss vs. Furuta vs. Hallmark

I write these Eaglemoss vs. The World articles to give a good side-by-side comparison of the various pre-built and pre-painted small scale starships available to a collector.  I found that there was a serious lack of material showing what they looked like next to each other thus not giving me a good informed choice on what to buy.  I decided to start providing this information myself since I ended up buying the different manufacturer renditions of the same ship anyway.

As we get further into the Eaglemoss Collection, these side-by-side reviews are coming further apart because Eaglemoss is producing more and more unique ships that no one else has done.  Luckily, with this particular ship, we have some good stuff to look at.

 Eaglemoss vs. Furuta vs. Hallmark

Of the three models, Hallmark is the largest with Eaglemoss and Furuta being close in size to each other.  They each have their quirks that make them stand out from the other.

Eaglemoss

 

 

 

 

I took a picture of the model next to a quarter for size comparison.  For such a small sized model, Eaglemoss did a pretty decent job with representing it.

The molded plastic and metal parts are all well detailed, for a ship that originally didn't have a lot of detail going for it.  Eaglemoss even managed to include the door details.

I was particularly impressed with the detailing on the bottom of the model.  Eaglemoss could have gone the lazy approach since this area of the ship is often ignored, however, they decided to give it a

The paint work for this model is very nice as well.  Lots of the molded details received painting which really makes the shuttle rather colorful.

The nacelles come off looking great, with Eaglemoss squeezing in some clear plastics for the bussard collector.

One little thing, that goes a long way for me is that fact that Eaglemoss matched the color of this clear plastic part to the ones on their TOS era Enterprise.  You can check out that model in my review of it at THIS LINK.

I do have one tiny complaint about the paint.  In most on screen appearances, the nacelles seem to be a darker color than the rest of the ship.  In fact, the other two models that I am about to review, seem to have gotten this fact right.

Honestly, I liked everything about this model, until I turned it over.

What the heck is that monstrosity???   I think that Eaglemoss went a little overboard on the size of that landing pad.  I've seen in some cases where it is actually circular.  I will admit that Eaglemoss is correct that this piece is rectangle, but as you can see from this photo of the freshly restored full size film prop, they made it a bit too big.  For a company that is taking pride in being screen accurate, umm, try again folks.

Every time I look at this piece, that Eaglemoss has slapped on here, I want to snap it off of my model.  All of their other shuttles are presented in a flight mode, so why they felt the need to show the landing gear is questionable to me.  I think that Eaglemoss would have been better off showing this part in a retracted mode.  Otherwise, they should have also shown the landing pads that extend from the bottom front of the nacelles. as well.  So basically, we are left with a model of a ship that is experiencing landing gear issues.

Here is Eaglemoss' TOS Enterprise displayed next to the shuttle...

...and we will end the Eaglemoss review with a parting shot of the shuttle flying away from her Enterprise.

Moving along, we will now take a look at...

Hallmark

 

 

 

 

Before you get into yelling at me, yes, I know my power cable has been cut off.  I explained in an older article that I did this to all of my older Hallmark ornaments because I display them year round, and that unsightly green cable just looked horrible hanging down in my display case.  The cable would also throw the model off balance which looked goofy in my display cases.

Hallmark released this model back in 1992 and it was their second ship that they produced.  When you pushed the button on the bottom of the ship, you would hear a special holiday greeting from none other than Spock.

The model, when fully intact, and plugged into a light strand, would light up.  They put more money into the sound chip than the lighting though.

Photo Credit: Hallmark

I had a couple of thoughts about Hallmark's rendition of this ship.

First and foremost, they went too dark with the dark gray parts of the ship.  Although these areas are indeed a darker color than the upper parts of the ship,  Hallmark went a little overboard with their coloring.

I was pleased that Hallmark decided to at least mold the side door details into their model.

The bussard collectors are lacking any color whatsoever.  Now this would be OK if the ship was idle in a hanger or on planet side, but if Hallmark was going to light her up, they should have done something with this part of the ship.  HOWEVER, back then light technologies weren't that good yet so I suppose they left it unlit for safety reasons.

I know the actual film model is pretty devoid of a lot of details, but I think Hallmark's model is extremely lacking on the belly of the ship.  Most of the surface is pitted with speaker holes thus preventing them from doing anything exceptional down there.

Last but not least, the lack of black paint on the housing on the back of the shuttle really ruined the overall look.  That is compounded with the fact that the openings that they opted to paint black are the wrong shape.

For the longest time, Hallmark had the only version of this ship in this small scale format so we were forced to go with their product.

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.

Not counting the MicroMachines toy, Furuta produced the smallest of the variants.

 Furuta vs MicroMachine

The shuttle was produced during Furuta's Volume 3 era, which meant they were producing much smaller models.  My guess is that they were finding it too expensive to maintain the licensing and therefore cut back the size to save on production costs to compensate.  Unfortunately, this meant that in most cases, the ships were no bigger than MicroMachines.  It also afforded Furuta less model to actually detail.  I was not really happy with a lot of their volume 3 models.  However, since this shuttle craft was already pretty plain to begin with, they were able to do a good job of representing it.

For me, the first bad thing I noticed was the single window on the front of the ship.  And for that reason, when sitting next to all my other shuttlecraft models, it becomes the most glaring inaccurate issue.

The molding in the plastic is good and the paint job is decent as well.

I'm on the fence about the landing pads with this model.  Furuta obviously attempted to make their model appear to be in a landed mode.  Unfortunately, their model is not film accurate with these parts, especially the circular landing pads on the nacelles.

HOWEVER, I have seen some Do It Yourself models from very reputable companies that have these same round pads on the nacelles as well as on the rear landing assembly too.

I am not sure where that interpretation is coming from and if you know, I'd love to hear about it in the comments section.  Since those other reputable companies also use round landing pads, I won't detract points from Furuta for doing the same.

As far as the nacelle work goes, I was sort of happy with the outcome.  Furuta could have done with a little red on the bussard collector, but other than that, the details and paint work are not that shabby.

All in all, for a cheap little toy, this model was pretty decent.

Class F Shuttle Conclusion

Due to the nature of this particular Eaglemoss vs. The World article, I'm going to break slightly from my normal traditions.

At this point, I would 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 writing.

Furuta = $10
Hallmark = 13
MicroMachine = $8
Eaglemoss = $25

NOTE: When I first wrote this article back in December 2015, the shuttle set was still VERY new and hard to come by.  In fact, eBay sellers were only selling the shuttle individually and at VERY steep prices.  In fact, this shuttle was going for $75 by itself!!!  Thankfully, some Top Rated sellers have gotten their hands on the sets and pricing has come down to matching what Eaglemoss is selling the set for.  The $25 I am quoting as the price is based off the fact that if you separated out a $100, four ship set, you would be left with a $25 model.  

Currently (as of April 4th, 2019) the set is out of stock on the US Eaglemoss WebStore, HOWEVER, eBay sellers are still not gouging us on pricing.

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.

I'm going to do a recommendation for this shuttle as a separate entity and then at the end of the article I will give my final thoughts on the entire shuttle set from Eaglemoss.

I have to say that of the three models, I did like the Eaglemoss ship the best.  Even with that ugly landing pad attached, and given that the pricing has stabilized, it is far better quality and I would dare say, worth paying twice as much as you would for another manufacturers model.

Type 6 Shuttle

TNG Era

The next vessel in the shuttlecraft pack is the Type 6 vessel that we first see in The Next Generation.

My collection of these shuttles is rather small and only consists of an Eaglemoss and an MicroMachine model.

Per Memory Alpha and Beta, "The Type 6 shuttlecraft was a short-range Starfleet auxiliary vehicle carried aboard Federation starships and space stations during the 24th century."

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

Type 6 Shuttle Information: Memory Alpha LINK and Memory Beta LINK

Here's a quick look at the MicroMachine toy.

 

Galoob did a pretty nice job with such a small toy.

Since I don't have any other larger versions of the ship, we'll just jump right into looking at the Eaglemoss model.

Eaglemoss

 

 

 

 

Eaglemoss did a fantastic job with this model.

The mold and sculpt work is crisp and clear, showing off tons of details across the model.

The molded details are highlighted with a well placed paint job that just screams Eaglemoss excellence.

Eaglemoss even managed to use some clear plastic on the nacelles for the grill work.

I can't find anything wrong with my model and this shuttle makes for a nice companion to your Eaglemoss Enterprise D.  You can check out my review of that ship as well as some other manufacturers take on it at THIS LINK.

And like I did with the Class F shuttle, here is a parting picture of the Type 6 leaving her home base.

Type 6 Shuttle Conclusion

And now, we'll do that quick check on eBay...

MicroMachine = $6
Eaglemoss = $25

Well, the choice is quite clear as there is only one to choose from, but in all honesty, anyone else trying to make this ship in small scale is going to have a hard time topping Eaglemoss' work.

Type 10 Shuttle
(AKA Chaffee Class)

DS9 Era

The next vessel in the shuttle pack is one that we get to see as an auxiliary craft for the USS Defiant.  It was apparently meant as a replacement to the Type 18 shuttlecraft.

Per Memory Alpha and Beta, "The Chaffee-type was a shuttlepod design used by the Federation Starfleet. This class of shuttlepod was carried aboard the Defiant-class starships in the late-24th century."

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

Type 10 Shuttle (AKA Chaffee Class) Information: Memory Alpha LINK and Memory Beta LINK

I only have one manufacturer's version of this ship to show off so here it is...

Eaglemoss

 

 

 

 

Compared to the last two Eaglemoss shuttles, this one is a bit on the small side.  Which is why I was so surprised with just how well they detailed this ship.  

The plastic and metal parts are molded really well, showing off all sorts of little details on this ship. 

In fact, she is far more detailed than the last two Eaglemoss shuttle models that we just looked at.  Take a real good close look at the top and bottom of this ship and you will see what I mean.  

Eaglemoss also managed to squeeze in some clear plastics into the nacelle housings.  

The painting is superb and highlights all sorts of things on the model.  

I honestly thought I was going to be disappointed with this model when I realized how small it was, but as I held her and looked closer at her, it instantly became a favorite of mine.  

Of course this model isn't to scale with the Eaglemoss USS Defiant (check out my Eaglemoss vs. The World Article on The Defiant at THIS LINK).

That would be rather difficult to do, but with some angle perspective shots, you can make a nice little escape picture with the two of them.

Since Eaglemoss is the only company to produce a pre-built and pre-painted version of this ship I'll just jump into saying you can get one on eBay for $25 if you buy the whole set.

It really is a nice little model and will display well next to your USS Defiant.

Type 9 Shuttle
(AKA Class 2)

VOY Era

The last of the four shuttles is the Type 9 that we first see in Star Trek: Voyager.  These are also referred to as Class 2 shuttlecraft.

As with the Type 6 shuttlecraft, I have two of this kind of shuttle in my collection, the Eaglemoss and an MicroMachine.

Per Memory Alpha and Beta, "The Class 2 shuttle, also referred to as a Type 9 shuttlecraft, was an auxiliary space vessel utilized by Starfleet for use as an embarked craft from starships.  This class was widely used during the 2360s by Starfleet Academy as a Training vessel, and were often the cause of "Class 2 claustrophobia" for the cadets who served aboard them, as they were, according to B'Elanna Torres, "fast, maneuverable, but not built for comfort." Tom Paris added that "they used to shoehorn half a dozen cadets into one of these things for weeks at a time," adding, "you did not want to be around when they opened up that airlock.""

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

Type 9 Shuttle (AKA Class 2 Shuttlecraft) Information: Memory Alpha LINK and Memory Beta LINK

First up is the Micromachine model...

 

This was another one that Galoob impressed me with, for doing a really nice job with something so tiny.  It's a shame they stopped making Star Trek starships as there were so many other models that  they could have done.

Eaglemoss

 

 

 

 

This is the smallest of the Eaglemoss shuttles, yet they still managed to pack it full of details.

This was another model that I thought the small size was going to lead to disappointment, but was very happy to have been proven wrong.  Eaglemoss had yet again, done fabulous work with molding and painting details into the model.

The rear access door is crisp and clear.

The paint work also is nice a precise, accentuating the molded details.

For this model, Eaglemoss was also able to squeeze in some clear blue plastic on the nacelles too.

This shuttle makes for another great companion to it's mothership.

If you wish to check out my review of the USS Voyager and several other manufacturers versions of this ship, you can read that review at THIS LINK.

And we will wrap up this shuttle review with a parting shot of the shuttle leaving Voyager.

The type 9 model ended up being a very pleasant surprise.

Type 9 Shuttle Conclusion

And now, we'll do that quick check on eBay...

MicroMachine = $20
Eaglemoss = $25

OK, apparently, the MicroMachine version of this ship is more on the rare side and I was lucky to obtain one at some point in my collecting hay-day.  And once more, you should figure that Eaglemoss price to only be $25 for the ship if you buy the entire set.

And once again, the choice is quite clear as there is only one to choose from.  Quite frankly though, as with the other shuttles, other manufacturers may not be able to compete.

Is It Worth It?

So ultimately, the question that will be asked is, "Is it worth buying this set and from where should I get it?"

I could go into all sorts of comparisons of how much physical matter is being used up by these models and the special edition models.  I could go into the differences of the magazines of the shuttles compared to all the other releases.  Eaglemoss did include the Okudagram's, but I could also say that I didn't really need them.

Let's face it though, you end up with three shuttles that no other manufacturer (other than Galoob) has produced.  Even though they are smaller than the traditional Eaglemoss ships, they are in some way better quality than a lot of their bigger cousins.

I will admit though, that as a long time Eaglemoss collector, it did sting a bit paying more for these.  Ultimately, I would have to say that for what I paid for the collection, it was definitely worth the investment of $75.  Now that the collection is going for $100, I'm going to say that I'm still impressed and hoping that Eaglemoss will produce another set in the future.

My original article stated that Eaglemoss is the best place to go to get them if you don't want to get ripped off on eBay.  The $75 a ship that I was seeing on eBay at that time was way too overpriced for what you would be getting.  At this point, I really think that getting them from either eBay or Eaglemoss directly is about the same.  I just hope that Eaglemoss can keep up with the supply and demand side of it though.  I remember horror stories of people waiting for months to get thier DS9 station.  This in turn made me go and order my station from a third party.  I paid a little more, but got it a lot sooner.  But that is in the past?  From what I've seen on Facebook and other review sites, it seems that most people are getting their shuttle collections in a somewhat timely manner.  I think the longest I read that someone waited was a month.  Mine came in two weeks.  So, it seems to me that Eaglemoss is indeed keeping on top of the supply and demand.

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.

I had shared that the magazines for the shuttle set are a lot smaller than the Standard Edition magazine.  And to this day, Eaglemoss has yet to sell a binder to store those little magazines in.

I finally got tired of waiting after the third shuttle set was released and set out to modify a binder to hold the smaller magazine.  You can read that adventure 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:

Class F Shuttle (TOS): Eaglemoss     Furuta     Hallmark     MicroMachine     Comparative

Type 6 Shuttle (TNG): Eaglemoss     MicroMachine     Comparative

Type 9 Shuttle (VOY): Eaglemoss     MicroMachine     Comparative

Type 10 Shuttle (DS9): Eaglemoss   

Other Reviewers Take On The Eaglemoss Model:
Some Kind Of Star Trek
Star Trek Starship Collection PART 1 & PART 2