EMvTW 58: Borg Tactical Cube (Class 4 Tactical)

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

Rewrites: March 2019

As I started getting into collecting small scale Star Trek starship models, and then wanting to expand my collection, I found a serious lack of  comparative data out there showing me the various small scale pre-built and pre-painted ships available to the collector.  And so I set out to provide this information myself and hopefully help someone make a wiser decision in which model to buy.

The bittersweet news for my Eaglemoss vs. The World series, is that looking ahead, it appears that we will actually see very few comparative articles coming from me in the future.  I'm sad, as it means that my sole purpose for writing these sorts of articles is coming to an end.  But, I'm also happy in that Eaglemoss has far surpassed my wants in a manufacturer who would make models of ships that no one else has produced.   And unlike Hallmark, they are not wasting production time by producing the same model in an updated format every several years.  Check out my articles on the Galaxy Class (article link HERE) and the TOS Era Constitution Class (article link HERE) to see what I mean.

This review is going to focus on the Borg Tactical Cube, also known as the Class 4 Tactical Cube.  We get to see this type of ship in the Star Trek: Voyager episodes called "Unimatrix Zero", parts 1 and 2.

As I alluded to initially, I only have one manufacturer's model to talk about this time, and that would be Eaglemoss.


Per Memory Alpha and Beta, "The Borg class 4 tactical vessel, or Borg tactical cube, was a type of heavily-armed Borg cube utilized by the Borg Collective in the 24th century. The tactical cube differed from the standard Borg cube in several ways, the most notable being the extensive hull armor that covered large portions of the exterior hull of the ship. The interior was also slightly altered from what is known of Borg architecture. The vessel's central plexus was protected by multi-regenerative security fields."

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

Class 4 Tactical Cube Information: Memory Alpha LINK and Memory Beta LINK

The ship is actually called a Class 4 Tactical Cube and in person would measure over 3 km on each side.  Unlike her generic Cube sister ships, this baby comes with heavy duty armor.  The scale of the Eaglemoss model throws you off when you try to wrap your head around the "real" size of this ship.

Also, while researching the ship for this article, I had learned that, "By 2377, the Collective had developed a way to join eight tactical cubes together to form a single large vehicle called a tactical fusion cube."

Since I only have the one model to talk about, let's jump right into reviewing Eaglemoss' rendition.

Eaglemoss

 

 

 

Unlike most starships there really isn't a lot of different angles I can give you of this thing.  There are three distinct sides to the ship, and then these sides are repeated a second time to give you all six sides of the cube.

Don't get me wrong.  The sculpting and molding on this thing is stunning.  From all the intricate pipe work on the exposed hull, down to the paneling and other greebles on the armor, is just really nicely done.  It does get slightly repetitive, but that is the nature of Borg vessels in general, so I expected this to happen.  I do feel that the repetitive nature was far less noticeable than on other Eaglemoss Borg ships.

I really liked the paint job that Eaglemoss did as well.  The brushed metallic paint on the exposed cube gave it some depth that the larger regular cube was missing.  The armor plating has some nice panel paint work as well as a light aztecing all over which really causes the model to stand out well when compared to other Eaglemoss Borg ships.

My only recommendation to Eaglemoss, which would have made me really psyched, would have been to add a little brushing of green paint to certain random areas of the exposed cube.  Having some sort of "greenish glow" would have been super cool to see.

This appears to be the first of the STANDARD LINE of Eaglemoss models that is completely plastic.  It is also hollow.  I felt like I had to emphasize that standard part as I know that the regular Borg Cube was also completely plastic, but it also was a special edition and a harder to get model.  If you wish to check out my review of Eaglemoss' Standard Borg cube, as well as a few other manufacturer's versions, check out the article at THIS LINK.

The seam joins are near perfect though and hidden from eye sight very well.

Like the Borg Sphere, there are no clear plastics on this model, however, I think it would have been a manufacturing nightmare to try to include any.

Honestly, this is a very well done model on Eaglemoss' part.  Don't let the light weight full you, she is indeed well made.  I have to say that I like her a lot more than her much larger, light up version.  I would even dare say, that I think she is better than the Borg Sphere.

Conclusion

And that is all 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 (March 2019).

Eaglemoss = $32

NOTE: Prices were researched last on March 1st, 2019.  Unfortunately, at the time that I am re-writing this, Eaglemoss does not have this ship in stock on their website, so we are at the mercy of the eBay sellers.

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.  In all honesty, when I write these, I am trying to give my opinion of which model is the best for the least cost.

Ummmm... yeah....  As I have been saying, I really dug this particular Borg ship from Eaglemoss.  When I am forced to feed my addiction trough eBay sellers, I am most comfortable paying anywhere from $25 to $30 for a standard Edition ship.  Given the better quality of this model, I'm willing to let the extra $2 slide.  And quite frankly, of all of Eaglemoss' attempts so far at making Borg ships, this is a very nice rendition and would look very good in your fleet.

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