EMvTW Bonus 05 - Borg Cube

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

Rewrites: March 2017 & September 2018

I've now reviewed several Borg ships, and I guess that it is time that we take a look at the Borg Cube which was the first one we were introduced back in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode called "Q Who".

When I was a subscriber, Eaglemoss kept insisting that I be part of the second run of ships in our country (the United States), which left me a bit behind the other U.S. collectors, and that bothered me for some reason.  I eventually had to cancel my subscription to the standard sized Eaglemoss collection back in January of 2015 because finances had gotten a bit tight.  After things settled down, I opted to just buy the models online from reputable sellers on eBay.  For the most part, I pay slightly more in cost and shipping than I would through Eaglemoss directly, BUT, I have more say in when I get my ships.  The downside to this approach is that you are no longer eligible for the free subscriber gifts.  I was a member long enough to get the dedication plaque and the future Enterprise D, HOWEVER, I did not make it to the Borg Cube.  People are now selling it on eBay but for quite a while, the prices were really high, like $150 or more kind of high and judging from the pictures, I was certain that it wasn't worth that kind of money.  I just happened across a seller that had the cube for considerably less and hopped at the chance to add it to my collection and get to review it.

With the addition of Eaglemoss' model, my collection now consists of theirs, a Furuta, a Hallmark and several MicroMachines models.


Per Memory Alpha and Beta, "The Borg cube was a type of starship used by the Borg Collective in the 24th century. It was the primary type of vessel for its fleet.  Borg cubes were described as massive in size, measuring over three kilometers along an edge and possessing an internal volume of 28 cubic kilometers. In 2366 Commander Shelby estimated that a cube could remain functional even if 78% of it was rendered inoperable due to the decentralized and redundant nature of its key systems."

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

Borg Cube Information: Memory Alpha LINK and Memory Beta LINK

Before we get into the closer looks at all of these, I am just gonna say that I have yet to find a model of a Borg Cube that has wowed me.  Let's be fair, they are rather boring.  They are perfectly square and most manufacturers opt to be lazy and duplicate the same side on each facet of the cube.

From my collection picture, you can see that the Eaglemoss model dwarfs the others and it also lights up.  Hallmark comes in second in size, and it also lights up and it talks too.  Then you have Furuta's version and the model I have from them lights as well.

I've had my MicroMachine Borg Cubes for quite a long time.  Apparently, I have two variants of thier ship.

 

Unfortunately, due to the fact that they are all cubes, and in order to keep costs down, each side mirrors the other.  Because of this, the pictures are rather plain and there are not a lot of angles I can show.

For giggles, here is a "gravy shot" of all three of them next to a quarter for size comparison.

Moving right along, let's get into the closer look at the other manufacturer's cubes...

One of the cool things about going back and doing re-writes of my older articles is that I can give them all a sense of likeness across the board.  In the case of this article, I never shared a "gravy shot" comparison picture of all the models together.  So with that being said, let us rectify a great injustice.

Eaglemoss vs. Furuta vs. Hallmark vs. MicroMachine

While I don't normally include MicroMachine in the main comparison picture, I felt that this time around, it was necessary to give my readers a good idea of the sheer enormity of the Eaglemoss model.

Eaglemoss

 

 

Well, let's start with the fact that it's HUGE when compared to all the other Eaglemoss models.  It measures in at a whopping 6" X 6" X 6".  Five of the sides are completely identical with a plain black/grey molded plastic that has a couple of holes with a white screen filling in the back of those holes.

I think that if they had gone with a "clear" grayish plastic, it would have been better when displaying the model in an unlit state.  Actually, splashing the model with a little grey and green paint in random places would have improved the look of the model too.

The bottom of the model is where they break the pattern as they needed to put the battery access plate somewhere.  The power switch is located in this area too.

Handling the model just feels all wrong.  It feels like I'm holding a cheap plastic toy, not a well crafted Eaglemoss model like I've come to expect from them.  There didn't seem to be a lot of thought put into it's design.

As I stated earlier, I ended up having to buy this instead of getting it for free.  This fact may be part of the reason why I'm so disappointed with it.

I also stated earlier that the cube is lit.  When turned on, it glows green.

One last note about the Eaglemoss model is that, because it is a Subscriber gift, it does NOT come with a magazine.

While I was searching for the measurement of this thing, I saw someone do a photoshoot of thier cube next to thier Eaglemoss Borg Sphere.  It looked cool, so here is my two models.

 

Apparently, Eaglemoss had a manufacturer in Japan produce this model as well.  It looks way batter, but is very rare and very expensive to get your hands on it.

It even lights up.

But at the time of the re-writing of this article, the price tag on eBay of  $800 (shipping included), makes it way too expensive for my collection.

Furuta

Furuta's Borg Cube ship is actually part of a two ship set.  The set includes a tiny Borg Sphere which I covered in my my "Eaglemoss Vs. The World: #10 - Borg Sphere" article, which you can read at THIS LINK.

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.

Once again, the design of this model is rather simplistic.  Unlike the Eaglemoss model, Furuta did add a splash of green/grey paint on the sides to break up the monotony of all the sides looking the same.

 

 

Furuta's cube also lights up, however, for some reason, Furuta chose to use a red light instead of a green one.

 

I did like the fact the the power switch is recessed into the model.  You actually need the stand or a small screwdriver to turn the switch on and off.

While man-handling my model, it accidentally popped open.  for those that are curious, this is what it looks like on the inside.

Overall, the complete set (cube and sphere) makes for a nice little display on your desk.

There is also a non-lit Furuta model you can get for a slightly lower price.  This model was part of Furuta's Volume 3 line-up which consisted of a bunch of smaller scale models than thier previous releases.  While this other model is slightly cheaper, make recommendation is that if you wan a Furuta variant, than go the distance and get the "deluxe" set?

Modding the Furuta models is not that difficult apparently, and with a little bit of paint skills, you could make the Furuta models look a lot nicer.  If you are so inclined, simply lightly spray paint the sphere black and then lightly splash some green paint on both ships to give them that ominous dark look that we come to expect from the Borg

Hallmark

 

 

NOTE: YES!  I know the wires are cut off from my model.  As I stated way back when I started writing these reviews, I cut the wires off of all of my older Hallmark models because those wire detracted from the looks of my displays, and they threw the models off balance when I tried to hang them in those displays.

Released for Christmas in 2000, Hallmark threw thier hat in the ring and released a Borg Cube.  Honestly, they did a fairly decent job with this model.  

Although the sides are repetitive, they crammed a lot of pattern into the molding to make it not look repetitive.   They also gave the model a bit of a black wash to give it a more "dirty" look.  Overall though, I think the entire thing looks a bit too silver in color.  This could be because they were going for the look of the cube as we first see in in the TNG episode titled "Q Who" in which the cube was a bit on the bright side.

As with the other manufacturers, the Hallmark model does break the repetition when you look at the bottom of it.  This is where they needed to bring the wiring into the ship so that it could light up and talk.  

I can honestly say that I liked how they accomplished the eerie lights from within effect.  The only thing they could have done differently, which would have knocked this out of the park for me would have been to make the light a green color, or molded the plastic in green to really give it the Borg effect.

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 (with shipping included in that price) from eBay at the time of this article's (re)writing (September 2018).

Eaglemoss = $66 (Or free if you are a long term subscriber)
Eaglemoss (Japanese Version) = $800

Furuta = $38 (For the two ship set)

Hallmark = $17

MicroMachine = $7

NOTE: Prices were researched last on September 20th, 2018.  As of the writing of this article, you can typically order the Eaglemoss model right from thier webstore, without being a subscriber, however, they are currently out of stock, which means, you have to play the eBay game.

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.

This was ultimately a tough decision for me.  As I said in the beginning of this article, the very nature of the Borg cube tends to leave you with a rather boring model.  I was not super impressed with any of the Borg Cube ships that I've collected so far.  Had I gotten my Eaglemoss ship for free, I would probably have given it higher marks.  They did what they could with a relatively boring looking ship and of the three models I reviewed, they did get thier lights the right color.  And it is dark and foreboding.  HOWEVER, my final say is also based off of pricing and trying to help you the reader find the best model for the best price.  If you are not a subscriber of the Eaglemoss collection, and are buying them from other sources like me, then thier cube is going to cost you money to obtain.  And it is NOT worth $60 or more depending on your source.  In fact, if you were lucky enough to actually buy it right from Eaglemoss, I dare say that it is not worth the $40 they were asking for it either.  Of the two remaining contenders, I like the look of the Hallmark model, although, with the advent of today's LED Christmas tree light strands, you will need an adapter and can only plug three Hallmark ships in to any given string.  Not being self powered is a bit of a drag too, and unless you cut the wire off like I did, thus ruining the ability to light, it really looks ungainly when trying to display it in a collection.  Which then leaves the surprise winner, at least in my book.  Although the color of the light in the Furuta ship is wrong, the fact that it is self powered, and that it comes with a small sphere ship as well, makes it well worth the money if you are collecting on a budget.

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.

With the writing of this article, I have now talked about all the Borg ships in my collection, including my Resin Modeler 1:1400 Borg Probe ("Coffin" Ship) and the Borg Sphere.  I wanted to share my entire Borg collection as it looks at this time.

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     Hallmark   
MicroMachine (v1   v2   v3)
Comparative Shots

Other Reviewers Take On The Eaglemoss Model:
Some Kind Of Star Trek [NO REVIEW YET]
Star Trek Starship Collection