EMvTW 134: Vulcan Survey Ship (20th Century)

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

And we are moving right along with my catching up on the reviews since the new job situation.  Next up is the Vulcan Survey Ship that we are introduced to in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode called "Carbon Creek".

In the Star Trek Universe, this is a relatively small starship, which plays to our advantage because when recreated at this scale, Eaglemoss has a much larger canvas to work with.


Per Memory Alpha and Beta, "A Vulcan survey ship was a type of spacefaring vessel utilized by the Vulcan High Command for conducting survey missions during the mid-20th century. Among other duties they performed were statistical scans from high orbit."

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

Vulcan Survey Ship (20th Century) Class Information: Memory Alpha LINK and NO Memory Beta LINK

The 20th Century Survey Ship marks Eaglemoss' fifth entry into the Vulcan race's line of starships.  In my opinion, some of those models were not the best in terms of collectibles.  So with that said, how does this one fair?

For this review, I'm going to go a little out of my normal order of things, so we will first start with talking about the paint work.

The ship and model come to use in the standard orange brown color that we have come to expect from Vulcan starships that we have met in Star Trek: Enterprise.  However, this time around, we are treated to some other painted on details like white windows, and some off colored panels.  There is also a very noticeable gold strip along the upper hull that stands out nicely against the duller primary paint job.

I think that the most exciting thing about the paint work though is the amount of weathering that Eaglemoss painted onto the nose of the model.  They have clearly given us the appearance that this ship has seen A LOT of service.  This fact is also highlighted by a light purple washing that the entire model received, giving it a nice dirty look.  that washing can been better seen in the panel lines and along the top of the model.

The model also sports some of Eaglemoss' clear plastics, this time in the form of the impulse engines of the ship.

I was originally going to make a comment about some very noticeable joins and seams along the back part of the ship, but given that these areas have also received some paint attention, I think that this is actually part of the ship.  And when you look at the magazine, it clearly confirms this thought.

Lastly, I would like to talk about the sculpt and mold work on this model.  As I said earlier, when a small craft is rendered at a larger scale such as this model, it is far easier to show off some of the smaller details.  The top side of the ship has all sorts of intricate details that were molded into it.  That purple wash that I mentioned earlier really makes these details, as well as the panel lines stand out nicely.

Another cool feature of the ship that was molded into the model was what clearly looks like a docking port on both sides of the ship.  While the magazine doesn't do a good job of labeling this feature for us, it would make sense that this type of vessel would have such things on it.

Last but not least, we have to talk about the wings on this ship and model.  While these things are clearly not a warp ring like we are used to seeing on some of the other larger Vulcan vessels, the curved nature of the wings does lead your mind into thinking about such things and you can almost imagine a clear lineage from this very old style of ship leading into the larger style of ships that come further along in the ENT timeline.

At this point in my articles, I usually will look up pricing on eBay and give you the lowest price I can find with shipping included.  Currently (at the time that I write this), it doesn't look like there are any sellers in the United States that have the model, which means that prices are rather costly, and way over what I would feel comfortable paying for a Standard Edition Eaglemoss model.  Lucky for us U.S. folks, you CAN get the model directly from Eaglemoss via thier webstore for $23 (shipping unknown).

While a lot of the Vulcan ships were a little less exciting, this model does deliver in all aspects.  and as long as you can get it for under $30, I would strongly suggest that you try to add it to your alien fleet.  I would even dare say, that it is now my favorite of all five of Eaglemoss' Vulcan ships.

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   

Other Reviewers Take On The Eaglemoss Model:
Some Kind Of Star Trek
Star Trek Starship Collection [NO REVIEW YET]