Eaglemoss' Orville Collection - Issue # 1 - USS Orville (ECV-197) [Mid-Level Exploratory Class]

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

Rewrites: None

My next review is going to veer away (sort of) from my usual Star Trek and Space Battleship Yamato materials.  Yes, I actually do watch other sci-fi material, LOL.  This review is going to focus on a new line of models from Eaglemoss.  This new line-up comes to us from the TV series called "The Orville" and the first model in that series is of course of the hero ship itself, the USS Orville (ECV-197).

The ship makes it's first appearance in the show's very first episode called, "Old Wounds".

Per Wikipedia, "The Orville is an American science fiction comedy-drama television series created by and starring Seth MacFarlane as series protagonist Ed Mercer, an officer in the Planetary Union's line of exploratory space vessels in the 25th century. Inspired by several science-fiction sources, but mainly the original Star Trek as well as its Next Generation successor (both of which it heavily parodies and pays homage to) the show follows the crew of the starship USS Orville on their episodic adventures."

IMDB describes the show as such, "Set 400 years in the future, the show follows the adventures of the Orville, a not-so-top-of-the-line exploratory ship in Earth's interstellar Fleet. Facing cosmic challenges from without and within, this motley crew of space explorers will boldly go where no comedic drama has gone before."  I like this description as I feel it best sums up the show. 

Per The Orville Wiki, "The USS Orville (ECV-197) was a mid-level Exploratory-class vessel in Planetary Union service in the early 25th century. The ship was led by an unnamed captain and first officer until 2419. Captain Ed Mercer and First Officer Kelly Grayson assumed command of the Orville in September 2419.  The Orville was designed for long-distance exploration and cartography of uncharted space. Therefore, nearly 300 crew members and their families lived on the Orville, working in Science, Medical, Engineering, and Security sections. The ship hosted a quantum drive capable of brief spurts of speeds over 10 light years per hour.  The Orville was not intended for combat though it was equipped with essential military and defensive armaments. The ship participated in many military conflicts, most notably the Battle of Earth in early 2421."

Eaglemoss has released two different ships from the series so far.  The USS Orville itself was released in two different sizes.  The first one, which I will be reviewing, is around the same size as Eaglemoss' standard sized Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection (will refer to this as STTOSC from now on) models.

The other size model you can get from Eaglemoss is in what they refer to as the XL sized model.  The XL sized model comes in at around 10 inches long.  Since I don't normally collect models that large, I had to do some searing around for a good comparison picture.  That was harder to do than type, but I finally found a reseller that had the two models side by side for comparison.

Photo Credit: 300Toys.com

Now that I got all those introductions out of the way, I think it is time to dive into a review of the Standard Sized model.

 

 

 

 

Part of me wants to treat the reviews of The Orville models differently than I do in my reviews of the STTOSC models.  However, that format works great, and this new line of models is mostly the same size as that collection, so I'll probably stick with my methodologies somewhat.

Right away, the one difference that you will find with The Orville models is the fact that Eaglemoss has molded a 20th Century Fox stamp onto the bottom of the ship.

My guess is that this was part of the licensing agreement between Eaglemoss and 20CF, but I am going to say that I think it should be considered a blemish on the overall look of the model.  Granted, it is on the bottom where you would not normally see it, but if I decided to do some stop motion filming with this model, I certainly could not do a flyover of the ship.

The paint work on this model is decent.  It certainly is colorful along the top of the model with lots of panels, pinstripes and windows painted in and on.  A lot of Eaglemoss' STTOSC models suffered from misaligned paint, which unusually manifested with window paint not aligning up with the molded window details.  And, unfortunately, this Orville model suffers from this ailment as well.  It became such a norm for me to see this occur on my models, that I just started accepting it, and given that the model only cost me around $30, I wasn't usually upset about it.  I'll be honest though, if I spent $75 on the XL model and this misalignment issue was present there, I'd be pretty annoyed given that higher price should also mean higher quality.  

The sculpt and mold work, which is what gives the model all that tactile feel to it, was also decent.  There are plenty of panel lines and windows etched into the model to compliment the paint work.  Along the rear of the main hull, you can see that Eaglemoss even molded in the shuttlebay.  

Which brings us to another carry over issue from the STTOSC models.  What surprised me is that I haven't talked about this issue in a long time because it appeared that Eaglemoss had improved their production process.  However, it looks like the problem has returned.  That problem is something that I call Eaglemoss Melted Marshmallow Syndrome.  This is best described as a softening of details where they appear more rounded, less edgy and a bit out of focus.  Sort of what happens to a marshmallow as you heat it up to it's melting point on a camp fire.  You can see this affect on the top side of the model around the nose of the ship, and it is especially prevalent on the shuttlebay where those doors look like they have been crashed into by some sort of large object.

I focused a lot on the top side of the model.  Flipping the model over, we find that the misaligned paint is a bit more noticeable, especially on those torpedo launchers.  The join seam also stands out a bit, however, with is following along with the bottom lines of the ship edge, it isn't horrible looking, and it can be a forgiven issue.

The sculpt and mold work on the bottom half of the model are a bit more crisper.  After all, we can't be accidentally blurring out the 20CF logo, now can we?

Last but not least, we should take a closer look at the ever important Quantum Drive Rings.  This is a very important part of the ship, so I feel that Eaglemoss should devote some Tender Loving Care to this part of their model as well.  The sculpt and mold work on the rings is really well done and come off looking elegant.  They are pieced together nicely as well.

The paint work for the rear facing parts of the rings is done well, and does a good job of conveying that this is a glowing section of the ship.

The forward facing side of the rings seems to be missing some paint.  I did a lot of looking at pictures on the web and they all seem to convey that the grills are supposed to be painted black. 

You can clearly see this on the studio model.

Photo Credit: The Orville Wiki

And that is all of the pictures that I am willing to share and discuss with you.  Currently, (on November 5th, 2021), the Eaglemoss US based WebStore is sold out of the Standard Sized model.  They do have the XL version for $75 (not sure on shipping costs), but I can not speak for the quality of that model.  I did some searching on eBay and apparently, the smaller model is a rare one to come across.  I found one that a UK seller had listed for $66 (shipping included).

WOW!  I'll be honest, that is A LOT of money for this model, and given the quality issues that I can spot, I really don't think the model is worth that amount of money.  If you could get the smaller model for $30, I would still be on the fence as there are some quality issues with the model.  Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that I now own a model of this ship, however, I would have thought that Eaglemoss would have put more effort into the very first model of the series.  I would almost say that it would be better to spend the extra $9 and just buy the XL version right from Eaglemoss, however, as I said earlier, I can not attest to the quality of that model, so I don't feel comfortable with that option either.  And so, I sadly have to say, that as a collector, I'm not recommending this model if you have to spend more than $30 for it.  

Once again, if any of my readers have the XL model, please feel free to share your thoughts on it in the comments section.  I would particularly like to hear if your larger and more expensive model suffered from Eaglemoss Melted Marshmallow Syndrome or misaligned paint.

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:
TrekMovie.com