Star Trek: Starships Model/Magazine Subscription

Discussion in 'General Trek Discussion' started by trekker670, May 21, 2013.

  1. BillJ

    BillJ The King of Kings Premium Member

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    They said in an email from several days ago that they would send replacements for the damaged ships I received. Haven't heard anything else from them. :lol:
     
  2. Michael

    Michael Good Bad Influence Moderator

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    Do any of you have first hand experience with the Furuta line of Star Trek models? Are they any good and how do they compare to the Eaglemoss models? I'm thinking about getting the Stargazer, in the hope that it's more accurate than the Eaglemoss one, but I'm not sure if it'll be worth it.
     
  3. 137th Gebirg

    137th Gebirg Admiral Premium Member

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    No experience but (I could be wrong) I got the impression they were all-plastic, whereas the Eaglemoss line had varying quantities of metal in them. Can't be 100% sure, though.

    Update: I found an article here that compares the E-D versions by Faruta, Eaglemoss an Johnny Lightning and it does appear that the Eaglemoss one is the superior design, in terms of accuracy, size and materials. The JL one is okay and the Faruta one, IMO, looks simply horrible. There are a number of comparison & review videos on YouTube that look at various mini-ship designs to give an idea of which ones are the best. Based on what I've seen, nobody comes close to Eaglemoss, especially when it comes to overall product quality and variety.
     
    Last edited: Dec 10, 2017
  4. Captain of the USS Averof

    Captain of the USS Averof Commodore Commodore

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    I own the Furuta Voyager and Ent-C. No comparison whatsoever. Eaglemoss’ ships are (mostly) faithful heavy diecast models, Furuta’s ships are cheap-looking lightweight plastic toys. The ones you’d find in a kids burger happy meal.
     
  5. Michael

    Michael Good Bad Influence Moderator

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    Thanks, that helps. I think I will take a pass at them then. :)
     
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  6. Markonian

    Markonian Fleet Admiral Moderator

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    I’ve got most of the Furuta ships. They were my first screen-accurate models.
    I find the Enterprise-B and Stargazer turn out better than those from Eaglemoss. The former is larger, the latter smaller but gets the saucer shake right and is nicely detailed.

    Best to check out YouTube for a good analysis.
     
  7. Asbo Zaprudder

    Asbo Zaprudder Admiral Admiral

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    Eaglemoss research for the Stargazer seemed very lacking - I assume they thought the original studio model was nothing more than a simple kitbash.
     
  8. Tomalak

    Tomalak Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Did they use the CGI model from some book covers for that one? It is really inaccurate, but thankfully they appear to have learned from that. I can't think of any subsequent models which have been quite that bad.
     
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  9. 137th Gebirg

    137th Gebirg Admiral Premium Member

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    Yeah, it's almost like they had some intern put that thing together. And yes, I believe that model has been around for quite some time - possibly making its first appearance in the older "Star Trek Fact Files" from over a decade ago and showing up again, as you say, on one of the "Ships of the Line" book covers. I think it's this one which I picked up from Doug Drexler's site "Drexfiles" when it was still online. I'm assuming it was a pure money-saving move to use the existing model rather than fix it or make a whole new one for accuracy's sake. The Enterprise-C had some accuracy problems too, like its missing impulse engine (there were other things but that one comes to mind most quickly), but nowhere near as glaring as Stargazer's issues.
     
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  10. Nate

    Nate Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Anybody in the US who preordered shuttle set 3 still missing it ? My package shows in New Jersey as of Tuesday the 5th and that's it. I'm thinking it's about time I call Eaglemoss to report it lost.

    It doesn't take a week to go from New Jersey to Virginia even with the slowest post office shipping.
     
  11. 137th Gebirg

    137th Gebirg Admiral Premium Member

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    USPS has been royally screwing up shipments this year since before Thanksgiving weekend - I do my Christmas shopping super-early and both my wife and I have had things get re-routed and misdirected several times already. I've also even had FedEx AND UPS screw up large tractor parts shipments, sending things almost a thousand miles away by mistake, only to have them show up on my doorstep 2 weeks after the expected arrival time. All the shipping companies have gone to complete shit this year for some odd reason - worse then any I can recall in the past. As we get closer to the main holiday season, I can almost guarantee it will get worse based on current trending patterns, sad to say. :(

    Edit: Case in point - article from Washington Post confirming this.

    That being the case, I did get my shuttles late last week. Just luck of the draw, at this point.
     
    Last edited: Dec 12, 2017
  12. mindx2

    mindx2 Commander Red Shirt

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    Just got my shipping notice that they're sending out one of my missing issues, #100. Now only missing issue #101 which has been in stock on their website store for months.
     
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  13. 137th Gebirg

    137th Gebirg Admiral Premium Member

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    Wow - they're actually shipping missed ones? I honestly didn't think they were keeping track. Learn something new every day...
     
  14. Nate

    Nate Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I got my missing #99 with my last shipment. Just missing #98 now.
     
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  15. 137th Gebirg

    137th Gebirg Admiral Premium Member

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    Damn! I had to backfill 8 separate issues on my own through the store, Amazon and eBay, including all the ones you and mindx2 mentioned. Finally got them all done months ago. I kind of hope they don't try to backfill mine now after all this time. :eek:
     
  16. Markonian

    Markonian Fleet Admiral Moderator

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    Would it be sensible and ask them (not to)?
     
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  17. 137th Gebirg

    137th Gebirg Admiral Premium Member

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    Problem is, I actually don't know if they will or not until I get an email saying they're already shipped. Their intelligence quotient they've demonstrated from other encounters I've had with them makes me afraid that any correctional action I try to preemptively take may inadvertently break other things I do want to get. This was the reason I didn't cancel the shipment of a new XL TOS-E and Designing Starships Vol. 2 book (neither of which I ordered and came as a surprise when I got the notification) that just recently arrived, because I was afraid I'd break the settings on my account to get all the specials. They flat-out couldn't stop the delivery of a duplicate XL E-D in their "system" when I subscribed to the oversize line (already bought it separately and wanted to start the line at the E-E), so I got an extra one of those as well, along with an extra E-D dedication plaque. Although the latter of those two things actually came with a cardboard box this time, as opposed to the first one I got years ago that just arrived in a taped-up styrofoam container. If I detected a higher level of competence in their customer service department, I might make a case for it for being more proactive, but those people seem to barely be able to tie their own shoes, much less handle complex requests on 3 different subscription lines on my account.

    I'll certainly make all my money back by flipping them on eBay, so I'm not really too put out about it, I just resent having to waste my time doing such things due to their own incompetence when I clearly have better things I can do. Small price to pay, I guess, considering the quality of the models is still exceptionally good in general. :shrug:
     
  18. drt

    drt Commodore Commodore

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    Lol, yeah, anymore it seems any interaction with their customer service you’re risking getting fucked on something.

    If these models weren’t nice, I would have bailed from this operation a long time ago.
     
    Last edited: Dec 17, 2017
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  19. 137th Gebirg

    137th Gebirg Admiral Premium Member

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    Exactly. The level of excellence from Ben’s team is the only thing keeping me going with Eaglemoss.
     
  20. F. King Daniel

    F. King Daniel Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Pretty sure that CG was the work of Doug Drexler, made in the same way that Picard's ready room model was from the TMP-DE Enterprise model. He detailed it's quick-and-dirty creation (for the Stargazer novel covers IIRC) on his now-defunct Drexfiles page.