The last review that I have from this/last month's purchases of Eaglemoss models is the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-J as was seen in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode titled "Azati Prime".
Per this Memory Alpha LINK and Memory Beta LINK, this type of ship was classified as a Universe Class and "was a Federation starship class, a multi-mission explorer in Starfleet service in the 26th century." The Enterprise J was a massive vessel, around 2 miles in length, and we only get a brief glimpse of her in that episode. You can read more about the Enterprise J at the following Memory Alpha and Memory Beta links.
I was really looking forward to adding this ship one to my collection. It would complete my collection of canon Enterprises, or at least for now, until the special edition Declaration class and the "new" refit from Star Trek: Beyond is released sometime in the future.
My biggest problem with the model stemmed from waiting so long to purchase the darned thing. Unfortunately, I was on hiatus from collecting and writing reviews for a few months. The cost of the model ended up sky-rocketing during that break. That in itself is irony, because I took a break for financial reasons, so go figure, LOL. As it was, I consider myself lucky that I only paid $40 for my copy... now let's see if it was worth it.
WARNING!!! The second thing you need to know about this model, besides the price, is that it is VERY spindly and fragile.
I am surprised that my model, as well as the models of my fellow reviewers did not come in a broken state. I'm thinking that maybe Eaglemoss learned a lesson from the Bajoran Sail ship (check out that review at THIS LINK) and packaged this slightly different. That being said, I still recommend that you be careful when removing it from her packaging as well as installing it in her stand.
Putting the price and the fragile nature aside, this model suffers from a matter of scale. The normal sized starships seem well suited to the standard Eaglemoss size and box. The most most important details of the vessel can then be molded and painted without much loss to quality. Smaller sized ships, like shuttles and fighters usually benefit greatly from this standard box size that the Eaglemoss models come in as they tend to be a larger scale, thus allowing us to see more surface details. Now enters the Enterprise J and we take a ship that is supposed to be two miles long and rather wide, then try to shrink it down to the standard Eaglemoss model sized packaging. It is inevitable that details are going to be lost, muddled and just plain wrong.
The sculpted and eventually the molded details are present, but muted due to scale of the model. The model almost has a plain feeling about it which is why I believe that Eaglemoss chose the paint scheme that they went with.
Unfortunately, the paint job is what messes up this model's appearance for me. Eaglemoss attempted to aztech the entire ship, which seems to throw off the sizing. I'm used to seeing that sort of azteching on a standard sized ship and when they use the same size block pattern on this vessel, it destroys the size aspect in my mind. The lit and unlit windows further mess up this model's appearance. They are just painted as lines which comes off looking like a lazy way to show this detail. I would even dare say that this detail is on the sloppy side as the window lines don't even line up with each other and on some areas on the saucer section, the windows are painted over each other.
Since the magazine was missing any sort of labeling of the ship's vital areas, I really don't know what this square is. Is it the impulse engines? Is it a shuttle bay? We don't know, which is a shame because I would love to say, "Great job Eaglemoss for including blah."
The ship's registry also doesn't feel right. I don't know if they were trying to make it look like they were being lit up, or felt that thee letters would have been lost in a sea of silver, but this overall effect of this block of paint is "meh" at best.
One of the bright sides to the model is that Eaglemoss did manage to squeeze their signature clear red and clear blue parts into the nacelles. The problem, which is due to the scaling, is that they look like they are ready to break off if you sneeze on them wrong. Even so, I'm still glad Eaglemoss included this detail.
Eaglemoss also managed to include a small translucent dome, and attached it to where I am assuming the engineering section is located. It's cool to look at, but the magazine's lack of labeling parts can be to blame again for me not knowing what this is.
The differences in color is also a bit offsetting because I believe that all the parts are supposed to be the same color. At least that is what it looks like from the pictures I can find.
Whenever 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.
I am actually going to cut Eaglemoss some slack when it comes to this model and thier handling of the deflector dish. We once again have to remember the issue of scale as well as include the issue of the lack of canon source materials that they had to work with. I have to say, based off the few actual pictures and video we have seen of this ship, they did a decent job in representing this section of the ship. The pearlescent colored paint gives the dish a bit of a nice glowing effect.
I'm going to preface the final part of this review with this... Eaglemoss is a great company that has provided us with some great models of ships that no-one else has produced in the pre-built and pre-painted area of collecting. I typically love thier models in the Star Trek universe, especially when the price is right. I write these reviews to help my readers decide on what to buy and I hope to save them from breaking the bank in the process of acquiring the best model for thier collection.
I stated at the beginning of this article that I was able to get my copy of the ship for $40. At the time that I'm writing this, it looks like the best prices I could find on eBay was $45 (shipping included). And that just leaves us wondering, is this model worth that sort of markup?
As a stand-alone model, I would say outright that I don't think this model is worth that kind of money. I base this decision on the lower quality details brought on by the scaling issue, and how I feel that other details were represented badly.
As a collector of ships named Enterprise, or a collection completionist, I would even dare say that this model still isn't worth that sort of money. Since we only see her for the briefest of moments, the quality to cost ratio really doesn't justify me buying this model again at that high cost.
Had the model not become so popular and rare, and in the process, driving up the pricing, my feelings would be vastly different and I would be overjoyed and elated and excited about recommending the model to you. It truly is a unique piece for anyone's collection, but gosh darn it, that higher price tag just ruined it. Unless Eaglemoss does another run of these to drive the cost down on the open market, I'm afraid that this model will only be one for dreamers or big wallets. On the bright side, there is always a possibility Eaglemoss doing another run. When I reviewed the Aventine a few articles ago, I never thought I would actually get my hands on one of those because of pricing, and then all of a sudden, I was able to order one right from Eaglemoss. One can dream I guess.
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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