EMvTW 36: USS Grissom NCC-638 (Oberth class)

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

Rewrites: May 2016 & September 2018

It has been quite a while since I've written any of my Eaglemoss vs. The World articles.  As I stated in a previous post, life got in the way of my modeling and collecting.  Now I'm back with what I hope to be a good revitalization of posts.

The first of the next six comparative articles will focus on the Oberth Class vessel.  We are first briefly introduced to this type of starship  in the movie, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984).

Although there have been some companies producing a pre-built and pre-painted version of this ship, they have tended to be on the small side, like MicroMachine size small.  There also isn't many model kits of this ship either.

My current collection consists of an Eaglemoss, a Furuta, several Cozmo Heavy Industries resin kits (some of them kitbashed), and a MicroMachine model.

Oberth Class Variants

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

Rewrites: May 2016 & September 2018

Oberth Class Information: Memory Alpha LINK and Memory Beta LINK

I have never been a big fan of this class of ship.  It seems like it was simply designed to be nothing more than cannon fodder, or if it was lucky, a personnel transport for a brief walk on appearance in an episode.  When you sit down and actually read the specifications on Memory Alpha and Memory Beta, it really isn't well suited to do any sort of deep space exploration unless it was part of a small fleet of more heavily armed vessels.  Although it is unique in it's looks, there are some design issues with the ship that have caused all sorts of fan confusion in regards to the secondary hull and what it is actually used for and whether it is manned or not.

I say all of that because, when you actually look at my collection of this type of ship, I apparently am a big enough fan to collect and built quite a few of it.

In this article, we WILL NOT be discussing the pre-built and pre-painted models from Eaglemoss, Furuta or MicroMachine.  If you want to see a more in depth discussion of those models, check out my review of the at THIS LINK.

I also shared at the end of my Cozmo Heavy Industries 1:2500 Oberth Support Vessels Review that I had acquired enough parts to build a third ship.  As a result, I imagined these three ships serving together as a mini fleet.

Resin Kit Review: Cozmo Heavy Industries 1:2500 Oberth Class

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

Rewrites: May 2016 & September 2018

Moving right along now with my resin kit reviews, I'd like to now focus on a two ship set from Cozmo Heavy Industries called the 1:2500 scale Oberth Support Vessels.

C.H.I.'s eBay Advertisement

This kit gives you enough parts to build two different ships.  One of them is the classic styled Oberth that we all know as the USS Grissom.  The other ship that you can build is a cargo hauler and Jay, the guy who owns and operates C.H.I., includes a hospital ship module.