EMvTW Special 25 - Son’a Collector Spaceship

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

Rewrites: None

The Shuttlecraft Collection took longer than expected because I had to essentially write four reviews for one article.  Then, to top it off, I had to go unbox ALL of those tiny little shuttles to take some extra pictures for the article.  Anyway, we have crawled past that review and have moved on to the next Special Edition offering from Eaglemoss, The Son'a Collector, also known as The Injector.

We first get to see this starship in the movie "Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)".

Per Memory Alpha and Beta, "The Son'a metaphasic collector, also referred to as the Injector, was a massive spacecraft designed by the Son'a for the specific purpose of harvesting metaphasic radiation from the rings of Ba'ku. The collector was designed to launch an injector assembly that would produce a cascading thermolitic reaction within the rings, allowing the collector to harvest the radiation that emanated from them. A major side effect of this process, however, was that the planet would be rendered uninhabitable for generations."

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

Son’a Collector Spaceship Information: Memory Alpha LINK and Memory Beta LINK

 

 

 

 

This is the second Son'a ship to come out of Eaglemoss, and once again, they bring it to us in their Special Edition size.  At this point, I give up making heads or tails over Eaglemoss' logic behind which models come to us in this larger scale.  I once thought it was because of licensing, HOWEVER, as we will soon learn in a few Bonus Edition models from now, that must not be the case as we will be getting several models from "Star Trek (2009)" in a Standard Edition size.  Whatever the reason, I suppose we can be thankful that both Son'a ships are close in size, even if they take up way more room on the display case than necessary.  Like the other Son'a model, this one could have been brought to us in a smaller scale without losing to much in detailing.

Well....   NOPE.  The other thing to point out is that the Son'a Collector comes to us with it's collector sails neatly packed away rather than in their very glorious deployed state .

Deployed Mode (Forward View)
Photo Credit: Memory Alpha

Deployed Mode (Aft View)
Photo Credit: Memory Alpha

I can understand why Eaglemoss chose to go this route though.  Especially after the fiasco we experienced in the super fragile Bajoran Solar Sailor ship that we see WAAAY back in Issue #18 of the Standard Edition line of models.

Issue #18 - Bajoran Solar Sailor (REVIEW LINK)

The collector's sails would have been too fragile and Eaglemoss would have lost tons of money sending people replacements.  I also think that the sails would have made the model just too darned big for the box, and in the end, Eaglemoss would have needed to scale the model down to a point that some of the details of the ship could have been lost.

Due to the shape of the ship, there is some repetitive nature to certain parts of the ship, so instead of my usual talking about paint work and then commenting on sculpt and mold work, we'll instead take a closer look at each part of the ship and talk about both things for each section.

Before we do that, I will say that Eaglemoss did a good job with the overall paint scheme, and the ship comes off with a blotchy look, which in my opinion gives it a dirty, and heavily used look.  You could almost feel that the ship got a bit roughed up when it flew threw the Briar's Patch.

The sections of the ship that store the collector sails are separate model pieces that jut out from the central core.  There is some nice tactile panel lines that have been molded into these pieces and the mottled paint work is well applied here.

In between each of these panels is some support structures that join them together.  They almost look like the Miranda Class weapons pods, and given the Son'a nature, may very well be weapons.  We'll never know though as this ship isn't seen fighting back.  The sculpt work on these pieces is nicely done as well.  When you look at this part of the ship, you can see that Eaglemoss got a little sloppy in some of it's painting when you take notice that the grill paint is not well aligned with the molded details.  

If you peak down the ship's bow and in between the sail storage panels, you can get a glimpse of the ship's power core and injector assembly.  I am impressed that Eaglemoss took the time to paint that core a light blue.  It's a nice detail that you could miss if you are not looking over the model very closely.

The ship's engines have been painted in which is a nice added detail.

The main body of The Collector continues the tradition of lots of sculpted and molded details.  More panels and grids are highlighted across the entire length of the ship with the same paint scheme we find on the panels.  Sadly, the misaligned grillwork paint also continues on the area of the model as well.

I have some mixed emotions about the ship's stern.  This entire section has very nice molded in details.  The paint work is a little off though.  While the tail fins are pretty heavily painted, even with the misaligned grills again, the areas that lie between the fins seems a little barren of paint.

In the end though, I have to admit that my model was well built.  I had a hard time spotting the join seams on it.

And that is all the pictures and comparisons I have to share on this ship at this time.  As for pricing, I will continue with the tradition of looking up pricing on eBay and finding the most inexpensive Buy-It-Now prices at the time of this article's writing.  Prices were researched last on November 2nd, 2021, and as of the writing of this article, I was able to find the model from a seller for around $62 (shipping included).  You also can currently order the model right from Eaglemoss' US WebStore for around $55 (shipping unknown).

I have had some pretty bad Special Edition models come to me from Eaglemoss where I could lament about the cost versus the quality.  In the case of the Son'a Collector ship, I don't have these complaints.  Other than the misaligned grill work paint, this ship comes off as some pretty nice model work.  If you are into the Son'a ships, then this one might be worth buying and adding to your alien fleet.

BONUS ROUND!!!

Every once in a while, I'll have a little extra stuff to share with you that sort of fits in with my comparison articles.

As I stated early on, the Son'a Collector was is the second ship we have seen from that race in the Eaglemoss collection.  Pictured here is that current fleet.

The other ship pictured is the Li'seria (Ru'afo's Flagship / Son'a Destroyer), which Eaglemoss presented to us for their nineteenth Special Edition model.  You can read my review of that model at THIS LINK.

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