EMvTW 64: Phoenix

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

Rewrites: April 2019

The third of my newest four Eaglemoss vs. The World articles covers The Phoenix, Earth's very first warp capable vessel.  We get to see this legendary vessel in action during the movie "Star Trek: first Contact (1996).

It has been quite a while, but I actually get to treat my readers to a real comparison of two different manufacturers' models for this article.  My collection consists of an Eaglemoss and a Furuta model.

Per Memory Alpha and Beta, "The Phoenix was an Earth spaceship used in the 21st century. It was the first Earth-made, manned spacecraft to achieve light speed using warp drive. The Phoenix is remembered as the ship that instigated Earth's First Contact with Vulcans.

Dr. Zefram Cochrane, the inventor of warp drive, built this warp ship inside a missile complex in Bozeman, Montana. The ship was initially a United States Air Force nuclear missile with a titanium casing. It took six months for Lily Sloane to scrounge enough titanium to build the four-meter cockpit of the Phoenix. Dr. Cochrane was the pilot, and Lily Sloane was initially intended to be one of the co-pilots."

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

Phoenix Information: Memory Alpha LINK and Memory Beta LINK

As I started getting into collecting and wanting to expand my collection, I found a serious lack of  comparative data out there showing 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.

So now I present to you what I like to call "the gravy shot", a series of pictures I wished I had seen long ago, and the main reason I started this blog.

Top: Eaglemoss vs.  Bottom: Furuta

As you can see, Eaglemoss' model dwarfs the Furuta one by a landslide.  The other major difference between the two is that Furuta's nacelles can retract into the body of the ship while the Eaglemoss one does not have this ability.

So, besides those two things, let's take a closer look at each manufacturer's offering and see what you get or don't get with them.

Eaglemoss

 

 

 

 

The first thing I noticed about the model, was the big glaring seam along the bays that would house the nacelles.  These joins seams are also very noticeable along the neck of the ship right behind the command module.  I think the thing that made them stick out to me like that was the fact that those areas are devoid of any other details what-so-ever.

I think that if Eaglemoss had molded in some sort of rough machinery looking details, like pipes, conduits, anything, along this area, it would have gone a long way to hiding the join seam.

And once my eyes were drawn to that, I could not help but notice that my nacelles actually were not an even horizontal positioning with the rest of the ship.  The rear ends of of both nacelles angle slightly up when you look at the ship directly from the side.

I do confess that I read a couple other people's reviews and their takes on the Eaglemoss' models.  This allows me to get a feel for whether I missed something or to see if my model has something out of the ordinary.  And in this case, I'm not alone with these two issues.

Since we're on the topic of kicking Eaglemoss' butt, there is one last issue that I found with my model as well as my fellow reviewers models.

There seems to be two small plastic spurs on the main rocket exhaust.  I believe that these are part of the plastic molding process, but they did detract from the look of the model a tiny bit for me.

 

There!  Done!  OK!  I got all that out of the way!

Not quite.  The biggest complaint that I actually have about this model, and this complaint seems to resonate among many fellow collectors is over the fact that the nacelles are statically placed and can not retract.  I will address this myself though and call myself and my fellow model collectors out on it.  What do you want for a model that is supposed to stay at around $20 plus shipping?  Had Eaglemoss put the work into making movable nacelles, then production costs would have sky-rocketed, which would then had to have been passed to us the consumer, and the next thing we would have seen is either, Eaglemoss would not have produced this model, or the cost would have been absurd for it's size.  I do understand why Eaglemoss didn't make them movable.  I'm just merely pointing out that I would have been ecstatic if they were capable of moving.

Now seriously, let's talk about the things that I liked.  :-)

This little ship comes out looking fantastic at this scale.  Because of the size of the model, it afforded Eaglemoss the ability to cram all sorts of cool little details into the model.

The sculpting and molding of the plastic and metal parts is superb!  Other than the nacelles bays, the ship is covered from nose to engine with all sorts of panel lines, pipes, conduits and other fiddly bits.

I think that the main rocket engine itself is a masterpiece.

The painted on details really highlight the sculpted in details.  The color choices stand out in a nice way and make the ship rather colorful in a pleasing way.  I don't know if I would have went with the pastel blue color though for the top panels, or maybe a quick weather wash would have made it look more realistic.

This model also makes nice use of clear plastics for the nacelle grilles, bussard collectors and nacelle exhausts.

 

I know that the start of my close-up look at the Eaglemoss model made it sound like I was very critical of this ship.  I am however, very pleased with the overall package that Eaglemoss delivered.  It's a nice piece of work that looks great on my desk.

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.

 

 

 

 

Furuta's rendition of The Phoenix was released during their Volume 3 line up of starships.  At this point in time, I believe that they were looking to cut down production costs, probably because the licensing for Star Trek was expensive.  What this meant for the consumer was that the Volume 3 line-up was much smaller than it's predecessors.  In some cases, the model was not much bigger than a MicroMachine model.  In my opinion, most of the Volume 3 ships were not that great.  

This model was one of the few exceptions to Volume 3.  I was really excited when I got this model because at that time, it was the only one you could get of The Phoenix. 

The molded details were great, giving you a very rough looking ship, yet all the important details were present.  

They even did a pretty decent job with the engine.  This impressed me considering how small the model is.

The paint job is pretty good as well, highlighting all the key parts of the ships, like the windows on the command module and the bussard collectors.  

Furuta didn't paint the nacelle grills though so the blue glow is missing.

 

I think the thing that impressed me the most was the fact that the nacelles on this model are movable.  That could not have been an easy feat to pull off, especially at such a small scale while at the same time keeping the production cost down.

Furtuta did pull it off though, which is why I raised an eyebrow at Eaglemoss' approach with a static display. 

As a silly little bonus, I wanted to share that my model's command module could be ejected in case of an emergency.

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 (April 2019).

Eaglemoss = $29

Furuta = $12

NOTE: Prices were researched last on April 1st, 2019.  As of the writing of this article, you can also currently order the Eaglemoss model right from the company's US WebStore for around $23 (shipping unknown).

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.

I'll be honest, this is a tough call.  If I stick with my gut and go with the primary reason that I write these, then the Furuta model is the better deal.  It costs less, looks good and you have a model with movable nacelles, but it is a bit on the tiny side. If you are looking for a super accurate as well as super clean looking model (needs some weathering), and don't mind paying more than twice as much, then the Eaglemoss model might be right for you.  Like I said, a bit of a tough call for me.  And that is, as they say, that.

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   
Comparative Shots

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