NOTE: You can click on most pictures to get a larger view of them.
In July 2022, Eaglemoss' bankruptcy brought an end to my review writing... or so I thought. There were several unreleased models that I thought I would never get to see or review. But then a company called Master Replicas purchased the rights to the remaining stock and suddenly, those "lost" models have slowly come to market. Being the completionist that I believe myself to be, I have been buying those models. This next model excited me immensely as it allowed me to bring back a feature of my reviews that I have not been able to do in a long time. I'll talk more about that in a minute, but for now, here is the Reman Scorpion Fighter.
What you see pictured here are Eaglemoss' model and the 2003 Hallmark ornament. We first get to see this ship in the movie "Star Trek Nemesis" (2002).
Per Memory Alpha and Memory Beta, "The Scorpion-class was a type of small attack fighter used aboard the Reman warbird Scimitar in 2379. They had been introduced by 2375 by the Romulan Star Empire for use for their Reman troops. They were still in use as of the 25th century as attack fighters, utilizing disruptor turrets and standard photon torpedoes, as well as shields and cloaking devices."
If you would like to read more official stuff on this type of fighter, feel free to check out the following links:
Scorpion Class Fighter Information: Memory Alpha LINK and Memory Beta LINK
When I first started collecting small scale, pre-built, pre-painted, Star Trek models, I was solely a Hallmark collector. I liked the size of the models (5" to 6" length) and let's face it, they were decent models to put on display. Back in the early days of Hallmark's Star Trek ornaments, they had wires attached to each ship that you would then need to plug into a Christmas Tree light bulb socket in order to get it to light up. When I decided to start displaying the ornaments in bookcases, those wires looked really dumb sticking off the ships, as well as they threw the ship off balance so that it would not stay in a nice position. And so, I cut all the wires off. The annoying part of Hallmark ornament collecting though is that you traditionally only get one model a year. This irked me a lot as I am a very impatient person who didn't like waiting. In recent years, Hallmark has additionally annoyed me by re-releasing the same ship. To date, there are at least four releases of the TOS era Enterprise. With hundreds of choices of starships to produce, it got boring, and so I looked to other manufacturers.
Over the years, several companies came and went with small collections of Star Trek ships. Furuta, Johnny Lightning, Galoob and even Hot Wheels produced pre-built and pre-painted models that were in my size range tastes, but all of them eventually stopped making the ships. Around 2014, I discovered a company called Eaglemoss that was producing models exactly the right size for me and so I started collecting. Given that most of the past companies all produced the same ship (i.e. Enterprise A, B, C, D, E, and even the one without a bloody letter.), I often lamented that there were no comparisons of these different companies, thus forcing me to have to buy all of them in order to get the best one for my collection. And by "best one", or as I would often say in my old reviews, "best bang for the buck", I personally wanted the best model for the least amount of money. And so, the idea came to me to help other collectors and provide the information that I had been searching for myself.
Eventually, Eaglemoss' collection far surpassed the other manufacturers and my comparison articles got fewer and fewer and eventually stopped, and those articles instead evolved into just a review of the Eaglemoss model by itself.
Well, I am happy to say that for the first time in a long time, I am getting to revive the tradition of writing a comparative article. I have been sitting on the Hallmark version of this ship since 2003, and now, 20 years later, Master Replicas released Eaglemoss' version of the same model. I have also learned that Polar Lights released a model of this ship, but since you had to build and paint that model, it doesn't fall into the scope of what I write about, and therefore will be skipped.
Eaglemoss vs. The World
Now that we have that trip down Memory Lane out of the way, let us look at the two models that I have for review. I am going to apologize in advance about the condition (embedded dust, scratches, etc.) of the Hallmark ornament. As stated earlier, that model is 20 years old and has been on display on and off in various capacities during that time frame. I tried cleaning it with a paint brush, but sometimes, that dust is just a bit too difficult to remove.
Eaglemoss vs Hallmark (with U.S. Quarter)
Eaglemoss vs. Hallmark (with U.S. Quarter)
I'll talk about the most visible differences here, and then get into more details with the individual reviews.
As you can see, the Hallmark ornament is a bit larger than the Eaglemoss model. The exterior of the Hallmark ornament has very little paint, instead, it relies of the color of the molded plastics. While both models have a clear canopy allowing you to view into the cockpit, only the Hallmark ornament has anything to see on the inside. And the last major difference is in regard to the landing "foot" on the Hallmark ornament. I never liked having starship models that had extended landing gear, so I was happy to see the Eaglemoss model missing this piece.
HallmarkSince I have had the Hallmark ornament for 20 years, I decided that it was only fair to review that model first. I am going to remind you that the example that I'm about to talk about is 20 years old and shows the wear and tear of an elderly model. It also can no longer light up.
With all the embedded dust, scratches and faded plastic, my model looks more like a screen used prop that was used to crash down a starship corridor and out a window. For the sake of this review, let us ignore the aged effects of 20 years, and pretend that we are looking at an unblemished model fresh out of the box.
The Reman Scorpion is quite a sleek little two-person vessel. The fact that Hallmark made an attempt at producing one was rather cool in itself.
I am going to cut to the chase and talk about this model's coolest feature which is the cockpit area. Normally, for these types of vehicles, the manufacturer will simply have a blacked out canopy or windows. This time around, Hallmark chose to go with clear plastic and insert a painted version of Data and Captain Picard inside. With how small the figures are, Hallmark did a decent job of painting them.
And to further wow us collector's, Hallmark inserted detailed control panels, and when the model is powered, those instruments light up.
The sculpt and mold work is well done giving us crisp and clear details across the entire model.
The details are equally crisp both on the top as well as the bottom of the model. Unfortunately, Hallmark has stamped thier logos and the year on the bottom of the Scorpion, but this is a normal thing for them. Otherwise, the model has the basic parts represented, like thrusters and torpedo launchers.
The Scorpion fighter boasts a rather large disrupter mount on the dorsal stern area. This is represented with molded grey/silver plastic. As with other areas of the ship, the details are well done. The engine intake is detailed with yellow plastic.
Other than the passengers, it appears that the only other paint work is the Reman logo on the wings, and the warp nacelle Bussard collectors. The remaining ship colors are done up by colored plastic rather than paint.
When the model is powered, these intake glow brightly.
Underneath the model is the fighter's landing strut. I am not a fan of my models flaunting thier landing gear, however, the details look good.
The rear of the ship details the engine exhaust nicely and once again, when the model has power, this part will glow yellow.
For the longest time, the Hallmark ornament was the only representation of this ship in my collection. It has served that distinguished place for all these years with a well-designed dignity. Even with me disliking the landing strut, I never hated the model.
Eaglemoss
Once I got into collecting the Eaglemoss models, I often wondered if they would ever attempt to produce this ship. Eventually, we learned that they were going to do it, but then the bankruptcy occurred, and we thought that the dream was forever lost. And then in August 2023, Master Replicas found, and sold off a stockpile of the Reman Scorpion that they had managed to acquire.
As you saw earlier in this article, the Eaglemoss model is a bit smaller than the Hallmark version. In fact, the Eaglemoss version is smaller than other models that they have produced in the past. This is probably a good sign that they were starting to try to save production costs and most of us collectors didn't catch on to potential money issues.
In order to give both models a fair shake, I'll try to review the Eaglemoss model's parts in the same order. That of course brings us to the cockpit area. Eaglemoss opted to go with clear plastic for the canopy glass.
This is not the first time Eaglemoss has done this. Most of Eaglemoss' models of shuttles and other smaller vehicles would sport painted on windows and windshields. Eventually, Eaglemoss gave in to the collectors' demands and produced two shuttles with clear windshields.
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| Sphinx Workpod | Workbee |
The two shuttle also boasted interior views and we got to see the seats and some representation of controls.
For some reason, the Scorpion fighter does not have this interior detailing, which leaves me scratching my head as to why we were given a clear canopy? In all honesty, if we were not going to get to see the insides of the cockpit, Eaglemoss should have gone with the cheaper option of a solid model and painted the window black.
The sculpt and mold work are crisp across the model and the join seams are hidden will into the natural curves and other parts of the ship.
The tactile detailing is especially nice along the bottom of the ship where panel lines are neatly etched into the hull. The torpedo launchers are less pronounced, but gives the ship a bit more sleeker look than the Hallmark version.
The Eaglemoss model does not sport the landing gear that we find on the Hallmark ornament either. As I stated earlier, I'm not a fan of seeing landing gear on the models, so for me, this was extra points towards this model.
The paintwork was neatly done across the model, splitting the colors of the ship from top to bottom. I felt that the Reman logo was more clear on the Eaglemoss model than on the Hallmark one. The Bussard collector was decently done while the engine intake had no discernable paintwork to help differentiate it.
The disrupter mount on top of the ship was well executed, and does not leave you wanting.
When you look at the back of the ship, you can see that Eaglemoss also included the bottom thruster ports. The main engine exhaust port is well done with some paint applied in there to represent the engine glow. I'm very impressed with the fact that the paint is not misaligned in such a confined space.
In the end, the Eaglemoss Scorpion Fighter would be a really nice model if not for the clear canopy over the cockpit. In my opinion, it mars a beautiful ship by drawing your attention to an absolutely disappointing fact about the model.
Conclusion
And that is all the pictures and comparisons I have to share on this ship at this time. Which brings us to the pricing portion of my article. As was the tradition way back in the day, I will round up the most inexpensive Buy-It-Now prices from eBay at the time of this article's writing (August 2023).
The Hallmark ornament goes for anywhere from $14 to $30 (shipping IS included) depending on whether you are looking for a brand new one, or a gently used one. As for the Eaglemoss model, while Master Replicas still has it listed at this time for $30 (shipping NOT included), this stock is going to probably be gone within the next few weeks, thus leaving us at the mercy of eBay sellers, and currently, those prices vary from $70 to $300 (shipping IS included).
I would now like to wrap this article up by giving you my opinion on which ship gives you the best bang for your buck. That's my crude way of saying, which one is the best buy. And I have been waiting a long time to be able to write that again.
Given the major cost hike of the Eaglemoss model, I can not in good conscious recommend it. And to be honest, even if Eaglemoss hadn't gone bankrupt, and the prices remained at what was normal for a model this size, I most likely would have still recommended Hallmark over Eaglemoss. If I had both models for $30 each, the choice would have ended up being the same. Let's face it, the Eaglemoss model is smaller, and boasts less details, especially in the cockpit, than it's Hallmark counterpart.
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.
With the release of the Reman Scorpion, Eaglemoss complete the collection of Reman ships as seen in the movie "Star Trek Nemesis" (2002). Regardless of the price, I was probably going to try to acquire the little fighter just so I could pose it next to the Scimitar.
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:
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