They're box scale - to save money in production costs. There was never any intention on the part of Eaglemoss to make them all one scale, which would have been impractical considering the comparative sizes of some of the more massive vessels involved (Fesarius, Borg Rebel Vessel, Enterprise-J, Voth City Ship, Think Tank, etc.) That's all that needs to be said about it.
No, I am glad for it. Scale is all well and good if all you care about is the “Hero” ships, but as you aptly demonstrated, somebody who wants a set of the Enterprises to scale can pretty much get them from AMT, or one of the many small independent modeling companies. But I didn’t want yet another iteration of the same 7 or so ships. I HAVE those ships already, sometimes twice over.
I am. I just received my Enterprise E, and it looks ridiculous sitting near my other ships. The damn thing is almost dwarfed by the Runabout.
I looks good, just not in comparison to the other ships.
It's dictated by the length-to-width ratio of the box. The further you get from those proportions, the smaller the ship has to be, which is why you have such a small scale for long, thin ships. Conversely, ships that are closer to the proportions of the box like the Oberth and the Enterprise-C get to be larger scale.
If there wasn't multiple scales in play there wouldn't be such a wide-ranging line. If you want a Danube and V'Ger, you gotta roll with the punches.
Thank you for your replies.
I understand where Eaglemoss is coming from. Really, I do. I mean, just take a look at their official scale chart -- the in-universe size of these ships varies widely.
So I agree that it wouldn't be commercially feasible for Eaglemoss to produce an Enterprise set in 1:5000 scale. Anything smaller than the Enterprise-C would be pretty tiny, indeed -- and I don't know if their production design/materials would even allow them to do that.
But as I wrote before, Eaglemoss would have to produce just
two more models to get a full Enterprise set in 1:2500 scale (again, Federation, alpha canon ships only -- which excludes the NX-01, Enterprise-J, etc). They already have:
NCC 1701
289 meters (actual length)
0.129 meters (model length) = 1:2240 scale
NCC 1701-A
305 meters (actual length)
0.135 meters (model length) = 1:2260 scale
NCC 1701-D
643 meters (actual length)
0.220 meters (model length) = 1:2913 scale
NCC 1701-E
686 meters (actual length)
0.270 meters (model length) = 1:2537 scale
So for NCC 1701-B, just produce a model that's in-between the sizes of the two they've already made.
NCC 1701-B
467 meters (actual length)
0.139 meters (model length) = 1:3360 scale
0.267 meters (model length) = 1:1749 scale
Splitting the difference between the two would lead to an "in-scale" model that's 0.203 meters (model length) = 1:2300 scale.
Same with the NCC 1701-C: all Eaglemoss would have to do is produce an in-between model that's halfway between the two they've already made.
NCC 1701-C
526 meters (actual length)
0.140 meters (model length) = 1:3714 scale
0.256 meters (model length) = 1:2031 scale
Again, splitting the difference between these two would lead to an "in-scale" model that's 0.198 meters (model length) = 1:2657 scale.
If Eaglemoss does that, then they've effectively reproduced the 1:2500 Enterprise series by AMT -- but without all the tedious decal and paint work associated with building plastic models:
*****
Sure, it's not perfect. Some ships would be slightly too big (NCC 1701 is in 1:2240 scale) and others are slightly too small (NCC 1701-D is in 1:2913 scale). But it's pretty darn close to a complete Federation Enterprise series (and again, at no effort beyond purchasing).
And given the fact that Ertl/AMT has produced in-scale, multi-Enterprise plastic model sets for decades (literally), surely there's money to be made by Eaglemoss? Wouldn't an in-universe set of "hero ships" be more commercially successful than releasing random conceptual models (e.g. no disrespect, but are people lining up to buy all three variants of Nilo Rodis' Excelsior sketches?) and/or ships that only appeared in beta canon (e.g. USS Aventine)? Or do the marketing gurus at Eaglemoss know something I don't know?
