Moving right along with my Eaglemoss vs. The World reviews, I bring you the UTS Aeon, a ship that we were introduced to in the Star Trek: Voyager two part episode titled "Future's End".
According to this Memory Beta LINK (non-cannon), "The Epoch-class, also known as Model No. 86 timeship or Aeon timeship, was a class of Federation shuttlecraft in Starfleet service in the 29th century. Epoch-class shuttles were affiliated with the Federation Timefleet, supervised by the Temporal Integrity Commission." The UTS Aeon was involved with an incident with USS voyager and was presumed lost, then destroyed, then... well... not.
To quote Captain Janeway, "...I swore I'd never let myself get caught in one of these godforsaken paradoxes - the future is the past, the past is the future, it all gives me a headache."
You'll need to watch the episode to see what happens. You can read more about this class of ship at these Memory Alpha and Memory Beta links. You can also read Memory Alpha's article about the Aeon at THIS LINK.
Let us start this review off by showing you the different angles of the model.
This was one of those models that I originally wasn't looking forward to because I didn't know what to expect. I'm glad to say that I was very pleasantly surprised by what was delivered.
I have to say that this little ship looks a bit like a F-117 Stealth Fighter, especially with all those panel lines and the recessed impulse engine exhausts.
The UTS Aeon is the second time capable ship that Eaglemoss has brought us, the first being the USS Relativity. You can read my review of that model at THIS LINK.
Given the fact that the Aeon is considered a shuttlecraft, it is very conceivable that the USS Relativity might actually carry a couple of these on board.
I found the sculpting and molding on the UTS Aeon to be very simplistic. There just isn't a ton of details etched into the model. Eaglemoss relied more on thier paint to show off details this time. This worked really well except for one area of the ship which came out looking awful. We'll touch on that more in a bit.
With the lack of molded details, the paint job surprised the heck out of me and is why I think this model really stands out as a good collector's item. The model is rather colorful in a dark sort of way.
The paint scheme is equally covered both on the top and the bottom of the model which makes it nice to look at from all angles. The futuristic Starfleet markings and the blue pin-striping really stand out on this dark colored model.
I feel like Eaglemoss went all out with the painting on this model which is why it scores so well for me. They did a great job of highlighting the disruptor on the front of the ship. I was even more impressed with the engine exhausts on the rear of the wings. Both the upper and lower ports were painted which made them stand out. The blue paint around the temporal field generators really draws your eyes to this part of the ship.
Speaking of the temporal field generators, Eaglemoss knocked it out of the park with how they represented these. They used thier trademark clear plastics for this piece of the ship. I originally thought it was done with one purple piece of plastic on each side, but apparently, they used two halves to cover the top and bottom, but it is really hard to tell.
Although the joins and seams of where the model is pieced together are highly visible when you look at the bottom of the ship, the blocky nature of the model and the darkened painted on panels makes the join lines feel like they belong there and they just sort of blend in as part of the vessel.
Anytime I review a Starfleet ship, I like to hyper-focus on the deflector dish as it usually gives me a good idea of the level of attention to details that a manufacturer puts into thier models. Let's face it, this is a very important part of the ship and should be accurately represented.
Ummm... are you kidding me?
I would say that Eaglemoss' defense, there really are not a lot of good reference pictures on the web to go on, HOWEVER, they have access to the original CGI model, so what gives?
I guess that Eaglemoss blew the paint budget on the rest of the ship. This was probably going to be a no-win situation for them, because had they just blobbed some paint in that area, I still would not have been happy but something would have been better than the nothing that we were given.
So what do I really think about this model? At the time that I am writing this article, the price seems to have jumped a bit and I'm finding them on eBay for around $35 (shipping included). This has me at odds. You see, I write the reviews and then give my opinion on what model is the best to get for the price. Personally, I don't like to spend a lot of money on my collection. I managed to acquire my copy of this ship for around $25 and at that price, I would say it is well worth it and highly recommended that you add one to your collection. I know we are only talking about a $10 increase, but you need to draw the line somewhere, right? However, I would dare say that if you like these super futuristic ships, then it might even be worth the extra money to get this one as she will stand out as an attention grabber 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
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