EMvTW 92: Medusan Ship

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

Next up in my Eaglemoss vs. The World series is a small and single entry.  I bring you the Medusan Diplomatic ship that we are introduced to in the remastered version of the Star Trek: The Original Series episode titled "Is There in Truth No Beauty?"

This starship was rather unique for several reasons.  Per my reading on these Memory Alpha and Memory Beta links, the ship was actually manned by standard Starfleet personnel who resided in the sphere area, while the Medusan diplomats, who had non-corporeal bodies, would reside in the blue stripped area of the ship.

Since I only have one manufacturer's version of these ships to show off, let us jump right into looking at the Eaglemoss model.

 

 

 

 

Not to long ago, I reviewed the Gorn vessel (Check out that review at THIS LINK).  This Eaglemoss model has a lot in common with that one.  The first common denominator is that it was only seen in the remastered version of Star Trek: The Original Series.  The second commonality is that it is rather small.

In fact, it takes up less space in the standard Eaglemoss packaging than the Gorn ship.

 

Unfortunately, the first thing I noticed right out of the box was the join and seam line that splits the ship into an upper and lower half.  I don't know if it was the quality of the build, or the paint color differences that make this stand out for me, but when you use a flash, BOOM, it stands out like a sore thumb.  You can clearly make out the plastic and metal halves for this model.

The sculpting and molding for this model are rather simple.  There really isn't much surface detail to show off.  After all, we only get a brief glimpse of the ship in the episode.  Eaglemoss does manage to squeeze in some windows on the primary hull and the windows for the observation deck though so kudos to them.

For the most part, I really liked the paint job on this ship.  Eaglemoss went with a very subtle aztecing which breaks up the monotony of what would have been a very plain looking model.  Remember that the original series ships never showed any aztecing, and instead were always a plain color.

My issue with the paint job is really kind of an old complaint.  Eaglemoss has a hard time aligning window paint with the molded details for windows and this model is no exception.  Not only are there a few windows on the primary hull that are mis-aligned, but we also see a slight lack of coverage on the Medusan Observation Deck as well.

 

There also seems to be a lack of any sort of impulse engine on this ship.  This is probably because the ship was never meant to move in the episode and in thier haste to produce thee CGI model for the remastered edition, the producers left it out.  So I'm not going to fault Eaglemoss on this.

I was very impressed with the job that Eaglemoss did on the nacelles.

 

The nacelles are a nice combination of well done molding, painting and they even include Eaglemoss' trademark clear orange plastics which represent the bussard collectors.

It's not until you turn the model over and take a closer look at the nacelles that you can really appreciate the molding that Eaglemoss did.

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 really liked how Eaglemoss handled this area of the ship.  Given the size of the dish, it stands out a lot when you look at the model.  Because of this, it was wise for Eaglemoss to give it a little love and attention.  They did a great job with shaping and painting it.

Sadly, I wish the magazine would have gone into what the spikes sticking out of the back of the ship were for.  It seems kind of silly to produce a model that has such a noticeable part to it and not try to explain that section of the ship.

So we now come to the part of my article where I give my thoughts on if it is a good buy.  At the time that I write this, you can get the Eaglemoss model on eBay for around $27 (shipping included), and Eaglemoss is out of stock on them.  The cost is around average for the standard sized Eaglemoss models these days, HOWEVER, this model is not standard sized in any way.  I would dare put it at a shuttle set sized model and because of that, I'm not feeling really comfortable with that $27 price tag.  Honestly, if you look at that package picture again, Eaglemoss could have given us something a bit bigger that would have still fit in that box.  Sure, it's a nicely made model and it is something unique in the Star Trek universe, but given it's size, if I had to do it all over again, knowing what I know now, I might not actually buy this one.

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