I am really excited to bring you this next Eaglemoss vs. The World article. For the first time in a long time, I am actually able to give you a real comparison article.
For this article, we are going to cover The USS Franklin (NX-326). She was a warp 4 capable vessel that predated the NX Warp 5 ships. The Franklin was presumed lost and we finally discover her fate in Star Trek: Beyond. You can read more about this ship at the following Memory Alpha and Memory Beta links.
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. My collecting preferences is that the model be between 4 to 6 inches which is why I don't include certain manufacturers like HeroClix. The only reason I show MicroMachine from time to time is because I happen to have obtained the full collection of them years ago and want to show them off.
Here is my current collection:
Hanging: Hallmark. Standing (from left to right): Eaglemoss, Snapco and QMX
This isn't my first go around at showcasing the Franklin though. Back in November of 2016, when the DVD release of Star Trek: Beyond came out, there were some box sets that came with models of the Franklin. I wrote an article reviewing those ships and if you feel like being nostalgic, then you can read that article at THIS LINK.
I wanted to get a head start and talk about the only Franklin models available at that time so I wrote the article then, knowing full well that I'd be re-visiting those models when Hallmark and Eaglemoss released theirs. For all intent and purposes a lot of the material about those models will be repeated here just so that I can keep all that review stuff together.
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. I am excluding the Snapco model from these pictures as she is considerable smaller. Think of her as a MicroMachine on steroids. You will see what I mean later one in this article.
Eaglemoss vs. QMX vs. Hallmark
Eaglemoss vs. QMX vs. Hallmark
And with those out of the way, let's look at each model individually and talk about there merits.
Snapco:
Since the Snapco model was left out of the gravy pictures, we'll talk about her first. If you are a follower of my writings, you will know that I typically gloss over the MicroMachine models rather quickly as they are not really what I collect because of thier small size. HOWEVER, I'll make an exception here.
I acquired my Snapco model buy purchasing the Star Trek Beyond Giftset from Walmart.
I was pretty excited when I first saw this as the advertising pictures don't give you a lot to go on.
As the time grew near to me getting my set, I learned a little dark truth about the set of ships that came with this.
Apparently, Walmart used the same manufacturer (Snapco) that released the cup topper models that you could purchase in the theater.
And as you can see from the picture with the quarter in it, they are not all that big. This set comes with three different ships; an Altamid Swarm Ship, the original (NuTrek) USS Enterprise (no Bloody A), and the USS Franklin.
I'll make one observation from a collector's point of view.
If I was one of those lucky people who managed to buy a full set at the theater, I would probably be very upset right now because the collector's market has just been flooded with even more of these models, thus depreciating the value of what I currently have.
I on the other hand, was not one of those "lucky" people and as such, would probably have paid out the nose on eBay to get my hands on that set. So Walmart did me a big favor by re-releasing them. And if you do some simple math and compare prices on Walmart's site, the gift set is only $6 more than just buying the DVD by itself. That means the ships are only $2 a piece which is even cheaper than what I would have paid in the theater! Let's keep that $2 a ship in mind when looking at the Snapco model.
I think that the most glaring problem with the Snapco model is the oversized warp nacelles.
They were pretty big in the movie, but DANG!
"She is one well-endowed lady! I'd like to get my hands on her ample nacelles, if you'll pardon the engineering parlance."
I'm sorry, I just couldn't help it. LOL.
The over-sized warp nacelles just make the ship seem more like a bobble-head doll than a model. I'm not sure what Snapco was going for there since the Enterprise and thier swarm ship were OK proportionally.
I really don't have much more to nitpick on in regards to thier model though. It WAS the very first model of the Franklin you could get you hands on at the time.
The molding and sculpting are decent given the price and size. The paint job is decent, and she even appears to be old and battered.
Since this ship does not have a visible deflector dish, I'll nitpick on something else across all the models. 😛
The only other issue I'll mention is in regards to the ship's registry markings.
Here they are in the movie...
And here is Snapco's...
The ship's name should be a little further toward the edge of the saucer, ...
...while on the bottom, we are missing the markings altogether.
Honestly, for a cheap little toy, Snapco did a pretty decent rendition of the Franklin. They managed to capture all the important looks and traits of the ship given the budget and size that they had to work with.
Quantum Mechanix (QMX)
Next in line, we'll talk about Quantum Mechanix and thier version of the Franklin.
The QMX model came as part of the Star Trek Beyond Amazon Exclusive Gift Set from Amazon. When I furst wrote my original article in November of 2016, you could buy this online from Amazon for around $49.99.
Wait! What? That's like $50 for this!!!
I'll admit, I was a bit uncomfortable shelling out the money for this one, not knowing what I was getting for it. The promotional picture does not give me a very good sense of size for the model and using the same math as before, after deducting the cost of the DVD by itself, I was now paying $30.03 for a model.
Amazon chose to pair up with Quantum Mechanix for thier special gift. I've only ever purchased two other QMX models before, but I was not disappointed with them. And so, with that knowledge, I bought this set, expecting something along the same lines as far as quality and size.
First of all, it's much bigger than what the promotional picture leads you to think. It's way bigger than the Snapco model from Walmart.
Quantum Mechanix vs. Snapco
Quantum Mechanix vs. Snapco
Since it predates the NX class Enterprise from Star Trek: Enterprise, I decided to measure it up to Eaglemoss' model of the NX to see a size comparison.
As you can see, it's a bigger model than even Eaglemoss' Enterprise.
Unlike Eaglemoss' models, the QMX model is all plastic. The sculpting and molding that they did on this model is really good.
Close-Up View Of Top
They did a really solid job with putting it together and I have a hard time noticing the joins and seams.
Close-Up View Of Bottom
The paint job is what really sells me on this model. The ship is painted in an old drab grey, however, there are some nice little touches painted on all over the ship, thus giving it some color. Then, just to give you the impression that this is an OLD ship, they chose to give it a dirt wash paint job to make her look nice and dirty. I think that if they had given the bridge window a little color, it would have knocked this out of the park as a home run for me.
Like Eaglemoss does on it's ships, QMX choose to use some clear orange plastic parts for its bussard collectors, thus giving them a nice glowing effect. I love that they did this and it just makes the model look that much more cooler.
Let's take a look at those registry markings. The top looks pretty good...
...and so does the bottom. HOWEVER, now that I'm looking closely here at the bottom of the saucer section, I am noticing a serious lack of weaponry, namely those phaser banks.
At the time of it's release, this model was the best you could get.
Now let's see how the 2017 released models fair.
Hallmark
Hallmark is the newest entry into the Franklin models. It excited me that I would have one of these to compare against other models of the Franklin. Hallmark can be a hit or miss kind of deal. sometimes they have really good models and sometimes thier model come in a "meh" kind of quality. And I'm a very impatient kind of guy, so waiting an entire year to see what they were going to do can sometimes drive me nuts. It also excited me that they were finally doing something new. Last year, they decided to release a "gold plated" re-release of thier TOS era Enterprise in celebration of 30 years of star Trek. Since this would be thier 5th release of the Enterprise over the years, I just flat out refused to buy it last year. I also have had issue with them just releasing NuTrek stuff, but I'll forgive them on it this year.
The molded and sculpted details on this one are really well done. All the key elements, including the phaser banks that are missing with QMX are present.
Seam and join lines are hidden pretty fairly. The only two places that they really stand out is where the batteries are installed on the bottom of the model, and around the bay for the viewscreen.
The paint job is fairly decent as well. The ship has a nice dull grey going for it with a dirt wash along all the panel lines. Instead of scratches being painted on, Hallmark opted for rust stains, which although not super screen accurate, still convey the old age of the ship.
The registry markings on the top of the ship are OK, however, the actual registry number should be a bit closer to the ridges that were reportedly going to be a bay door.
The bottom registry numbers look good though.
So, let's now hyper focus on Hallmark's viewscreen, after all, it's only fair. Although it isn't painted, it does light up, which is a nice bonus for this model. And this picture shows you what I mean about those joins and seams. I think they have something to do with the lighting mechanism.
Since this is an ornament that is meant to be hung on a tree, there is a hook sticking out of the ship's "spine". The power button for the lights is cleverly disguised as the ship's top sensor dome.
As you have seen, this model lights up. It uses Hallmark's Magic Light technology where you no longer need to plug the model into a string of Christmas lights to power it. Pressing the power button lights up the bussard collectors and the viewscreen.
All in all, Hallmark has produced a decent enough model that has the bonus features of lighting up under its own power.
Eaglemoss
And finally, we have the Eaglemoss Special Edition model of the USS Franklin. Because it's a special edition, it was produced as one of thier larger scale models. It is also because of it being a Special Edition, that it costs more to purchase it. When Eaglemoss produces these larger scale models, I tend to be a bit harder on them when it comes to issues that I find on the model. If I'm expected to pay more for it, then I expect better quality from them.
First of all, the sculpt and molding of the model are fantastic. There are oodles of little details that have been etched into and all over the model.
The joins and seams are very well blended with the natural lines of the ship which gives you a nice solid looking model.
The paint job, for the most part, is what really makes this a phenomenal model.
They did a awesome job of making the ship look aged and weathered. Even the registry markings have a worn appearance to them. This all makes it very believable that this ship has sat in some very dirty conditions for a very long time.
The registry markings on the top and bottom of the model are all in thier proper place and they even dabbed a little paint on the phasers to make them stand out. The painted on details to the bussard collectors was a nice touch that other model builders did not venture to do.
My only two issues are in regard to some tiny paint problems that you will only catch if you are looking for them.
The first issue is with the paint on some of the windows along the edge of the saucer section. They are misaligned with the molded details for those windows.
The second place where the paint was not that impressive was on the viewscreen. The way they painted that with a small square, and off-center at that, makes it look like the ship is glancing slightly to it's right.
Eaglemoss' use of clear plastics for the bussard collectors and nacelle exhaust manifolds was well executed. The only place it might have been cool to see more clear plastics would have been for the impulse engines. Clear red plastic back there instead of paint would have been a great bonus for the model.
Conclusion
And that is all I have to share with you of this type of ship. At this point in my articles, I like to do a quick check on eBay to get some prices of the ships I've shared with you. 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 writing. Since this model is still fairly new in regards to it's release dates for all the respective companies, I did a little more digging for prices and have shared those as well.
Eaglemoss = $50 or directly from Eaglemoss for $45 + shipping
Hallmark = $31 or directly from Hallmark for $33 + shipping
QMX = $50 (model only) or directly from Amazon (Box Set) for $60 + shipping)
Snapco = $35 (Box Set) or directly from Wallmart for $55 + shipping)
In the case of the Amazon and Walmart purchases, the price is for the Box Set which includes the DVD or BluRay disc. If you subtract the $15 that the movie costs by itself, then the actual cost for the QMX model is $45 (+ shipping) from Amazon and $40 (+ shipping) for the set of three Snapco models from Walmart.
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.
Right off the bat, I'm ruling out the Snapco model due to it's size and lower quality. Remember, these were nothing more than soda bottle toppers. As cool as it is to have a light up version of this ship, Hallmark's painting of the ship was a bit lacking when compared to QMX and Eaglemoss. So for just under $20 more, you can get some super quality models. Since those two models are VERY close in pricing right now so I'm going to rule on quality for the price. That being said, although I liked both Eaglemoss and QMX, Eaglemoss did come out with a better looking ship with a LOT more detailing. So if I were to choose just one based of what I know now, I'd put out the little extra money and buy the Eaglemoss model.
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:
Snapco QMX
Hallmark Eaglemoss
Comparative Photos
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