Building the Eaglemoss Enterprise-D partwork

This may be a "Too soon?" type thing to say, but what would you guys say is the next best thing? I assume (don't know of course) that was attracted most of us to this build was

• the size of the model
• the fact that it's mostly die-cast
• and that it has lighting

Surely there must be some E-D model out there that fufills at least two of these criteria. Has anyone built e.g. the Polar Lights one? Is it comparable in size?

(Then again, another main part of this for me personally was the fact that I'm just shitty at classic model-making with the glue and especially the paint. Building in instalments made me focused and patient, which I probably wouldn't be with your typical model kit. Man, this SUCKS - I want my Enterpriiiiiiiiiiseeeeeeeeeee)

 

Is this the remaining hope for us?

https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/De_Agostini

I mean, if you already do it in Japan, why not acquire your competitor's assets altogether? Surely, they have a vested interest in not allowing their business with the line over there to stop - and while they're at it, they would take it to the European and US markets as well. I'm no business expert by any means, but I see a sliver of an opportunity here. @Timofnine maybe you can raise your crashed saucer off of the surface of Veridian III and get it flying after all? Fingers crossed.

 

I'm actually not 100% sure they're a competitor. They may be a foreign branch of Eaglemoss exclusive to Japan. I remember ordering my monthly STFF subscription from them back in the day, not from Eaglemoss in the UK, whom I have never heard of at that time. Yes, there may be hope there.

 

They're a seperate company, like you I remember getting some other collectables from them prior to Eaglemoss.

It appears like they did a lot of joint venture arrangements, which seems odd since their business models were essentially the same - but those ventures look to have been regional arrangements, which is probably better than trying to set up sales/distribution channels in a region with an established competitor.

 

So, how many people are screwed because of the Eaglemoss debacle?

 

Me! It’s turned my Star Trek dreams in to nightmares. See above for details.

 

I needed 3 more ships and 2 shuttles for my collection...

 

Amazon or other vendors to make up for gaps in your collection?

 

They all have only one or 2 of the 3 ships, and none of the shuttles - I'll keep checking every now and then.
(Hope it won't come to trading my 26 for the new ones )

 

Just looking thru online places, seems like the hardest to find stuff is the Lower Decks stuff. Even on eBay.

 

Precisely. De Agostini is an Italian company as far as I know. And from prior experience, they've had a good number of partworks out at newsstands here in Germany - the Fact Files among them, which I collected religiously back in the day. So they seem to have an infrastructure in certain regions that lent itself to such cooperation, I imagine. Also localization of the product, translating magazines and so forth. Eaglemoss did that too with the Starship collection, but not the Enterprise build.

 

I feel for you. I really do. I'm in the same boat; different subscription....

I was half way through the James Bond DB5 build subscription when this debacle unfolded. I've got a box full of very expensive parts and not much to show for it and little hope of finishing it. I mean the tires, rims, interior, and engine are nice, but I don't have the body, chassis, doors or suspension components!

 

There is a great pre built model out there of the D. It was made by Aoshima, it lit up beautifully, used rare earth magnets for saucer seper and came with a shuttle. The detail was fantastic, much, much better than this partwork, which has terrible windows on the star drive section. Hell, all the promo pics had crooked nacelles and panel gaps!

 

The Aoshima does look like the best Enterprise-D model ever made. I just wish they were more affordable! I've got the DST toy, which is really pretty good and roughly in scale with the Eaglemoss XL Voyager and TOS Enterprise, and the standard Defiant on my shelf.

I was always a bit worried about this part-work, because they never were able to display a completed prototype. There was one that lit up but was the wrong model, and another that they told us was the finished model but didn't have any electronics.

 

Yeah, the DST isn't too bad, great sculpt, but poor paint application IMHO. Honestly, the Aoshima is excellent - BUT, there are plenty of modellers out there that do commission builds of plastic kits. For the same money, you can get a far, far superior product. I am currently toiling over a 1/350 Polar Lights Refit model and it will be better than any of these pre-built ones. Actually, Eaglemoss made far better BSG models than Trek ones. I dunno, but the Trek stuff is all over the shop in terms of quality. My XL Voyager is a joke. I removed all the windows with nail varnish remover and then used custom decals to make the windows line up. Then it looked great, except for the giant panel gaps - always a problem with die-cast and even that Tomy one that people are trying to get made has a huge seam on the saucer section.

For TOS, Polar Lights did a pre-painted one that is a glory to behold. Just lacks lighting. But it is magnificient.

 

Any hints at where one might find the Aoshima Enterprise D for sale?

 

Ebay - and for insane prices too I might add.

 

This is why I got the Eaglemoss kit! I always wanted a beautiful Enterprise D model. This was too expensive for me as it is, but it was paid in instalments so just about affordable.

Now I might just have a load of scrap metal starship panels and pieces, with not enough pieces to ever be able to complete the blasted thing! I feel robbed that this was allowed to be a subscription project which could be distributed without it ever having the potential to be finished. It’s almost like they knew that it would never be finished looking back at it. Maybe they knew they were going under as a company and needed one final hook to try and balance the books, taking advantage of us loyal Star Trek fans as they know how dedicated we can be to things like this? I’ve paid well over $1k/£1k for this already… and it is useless and probably never to be finished.

Maybe someone else will pick up the contract one day so that I can complete my beautiful starship, but there is nothing but silence about it all at the moment.

If another company does not pick it up, I don’t know what else to do with it! I doubt that I would be able to sell it on eBay in it’s incomplete state… no one would want it! It’s a scrap starship!

This makes me so sad and angry I might write some more 25th century Borg doom fan fic to get it out of my system… but I don’t want to write that whilst I am angry or I might write something that I regret. So I will wait until I have calmed down again maybe before I assimilate the Metron’s or the Q Continuum now that the Borg have the ability to assimilate non corporeal life forms and entities…

 

Do you know much was it originally?

I have a couple of Aoshima items in my collection, but seemed to have missed that one.

 

I know you're upset and I agree you should be, but there's no reason to suppose malice on their part. I'm sure they are just as gutted that everything has to come to an end. It's not a happy outcome for anyone.