The FE models just seem ridiculously priced, while being nowhere near as nice, compared to previous super high end models, I kinda doubt they sell any.
Indeed.
News TOMY Star Trek Diecast Ship Replicas
- Thread starter Blackout
- Start date
Yeah not crazy about the stand either it looks like it's raked from the rear. I hope people are giving them hell on Facebook about it....
That is odd, I would have thought the quality would be better, here sure as heck weren't visible decal backing, exposed screws, etc., on the QMx models. With regard to the much higher pricing, I suppose it possible that QMx may have acted more as a sales agent and took little profit (say 10%), while FE is shooting for a higher margin.
Please tell us you have a signed contract.
They just sent an update:
"Dear Star Trek fan,
Greetings Star Trek Fans! Thank you again for your support on the NCC-1701 U.S.S. Enterprise.
We are sorry to keep you waiting! As promised below are the pictures of the final sample with the highlight being the plug holes on the right side. We also included a copy of the Certificate of Authentication that will be included with every NCC-1701 U.S.S. Enterprise. While production is in full swing, it will be ready to warp over to Earth before you know it! We will continue sharing more pictures of the NCC-1701 U.S.S. Enterprise next month, including the shuttles."
As well as a picture:
Not liking the plastic base stand at all. It looks terrible. A solid clear piece would be better than that jigsaw looking monstrosity.
This stand looks much better on their web page:
I am troubled by the decision to put all the plugs on the starboard side. the original enterprise model already has a beauty side and an ugly side, why not take advantage of that?
put all your plugs and seams on the port side, fill them as best you can but then if anything peeks through with age it isn't a huge loss because the "filming" side is still pristine. seems like an easy choice.
a metal model plus putty filling? That's just asking for temperature expansion/contraction to crack open some seams eventually. bondo cracks. which would be a lot easier to live with if they're not on the standard display side.
wish they would flip the molds and put all that junk on the other side, then I'd have little reason to worry about it.
Yeah, I mentioned above I would have also preferred all of the plugs to be on the port side, with all the help they had from the Smithsonian folks, it seems like they would have done it the other way.
Sorry, I must have missed something, what putty?
apparently someone asked about the exposed plugs in the recent photos and a response from tomy said that this represented the final product, despite earlier assurances that they would be hidden. so the starboard display side might be an ugly mess, and a lot of folks are searching for refunds for the false prototypes and promises. especially considering they decided to place them on on the typical display side.
hoping it's just a miscommunication or confusion on the part of the answerer, and that they still plan to cover their plugs/seams as previously promised. one way or another we'll be finding out soon!
hoping it's just a miscommunication or confusion on the part of the answerer, and that they still plan to cover their plugs/seams as previously promised. one way or another we'll be finding out soon!
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False promises? I think some people mistakenly thought $600 was going to buy them a $10000 studio model. $600 for a nearly three foot long diecast model is still in the fancy toy price range. The Eaglemoss XL 1701 was $75 for something 1/3 the size, mostly plastic and with wonky paint applications.
realistic expectations for the price are one thing, yes. for the price it is still likely to be a nice model. I am looking forward to getting a good look at the final product.
but the thing is that tomy explicitly told people that the plugs would be filled and sanded and not be visible on the final model, and sold it with photos of prototypes with all seams filled, which is why people take issue with that possibly not being the case. people wouldn't be upset if tomy hadn't specifically promised otherwise.
and in the case of overpromising and underdelivering, if they realized the budget would not allow for what they originally planned, it's better to be upfront about that rather than just sort of sneak it through without mentioning it until somebody asks.
(and it sure would be nice to have all those plugs on the opposite side rather than the display side, baffling choice)
if you go to a restaurant and order a burger that doesn't come with fries, you're not gonna be upset when you don't get fries. but if the menu says it comes with fries, you're gonna want your fries, right? and if they're out of fries, the waiter probably should warn you instead of just delivering your plate and hoping you don't complain about it.
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The plug holes look considerably better than on the test shot, but you are right, they did specifically state that they wouldn't be visible, so TOMY are filthy bait-and-switch liars and people should be able to get their money back. Then TOMY can sell those models to people who originally missed out, but aren't overly bothered by such things.
I don't think anyone mistook anything. They said they wanted to produce the best looking ship based on the studio model EVER. They wanted to make it diecast. They needed 5000 backers. They could not get it and lowered it twice. Now I understand that if the budget no longer allowed little extras or things like seams puttied or plugs hidden, ..... BUT....WHY DID THEY NOT TELL THAT TO THE EARLY BACKERS??? The ones that were promised all that??? Before they decided to lower backers. Maybe give people a chance to bail out. They decided to press on still saying stuff like, This will be puttied , bondo, no seams, no plug holes. Even a little bridge under the dome and detailed hanger bay...lol ..I'm doubting even those two things now..
I'm hoping maybe the pictures are just bad. But from where I'm sitting the early prototypes they had in plastic, look way better then what we are getting in diecast. Also Im trying to figure out why the ship is dipping with the stupid stand they decided to ultimately use. It looks like it's stuck in glue and being sucked downward.
Also the color looks way off. Maybe it's the pictures. I can't believe that Gary was really that involved with it as much as they said he was.If this is what we are getting. I'm gonna try to return mine or offload them somehow. Just stick with my smaller scale diamond select that display great and they were only $25.
Now if it turns out awesome (which I really doubt) I still will not ever back a TMP ship if they do it. The fact that Chris and Dan are not answering emails says a lot...
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In my experience, the failure of many a project nearly always lay in a failure by the project management team to actually manage expectations. People who promise the world can rarely ever deliver what was promised, if ever at all. It's a dubious practice to acquire venture capital, but when the VC doesn't materialize, they are left with broken promises that invariably piss off those who did invest in said project. I've lost count of the number of times I've seen this happen to software development teams in my career. There are other factors that contribute to a projects failure to be sure, but failure to manage expectations is the top #1 cause. Nobody ever learns...
Lesson learned from me. First and last time I ever back a crowdfund. I thought with Tomy it was a good bet we would get something nice. My stupid mistake. Maybe it won't be all that bad but just the stand and the way it leans forward is off putting to me.
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It's sad that things come to this, though. Everyone wants to believe that good intentions are behind such projects, especially when it appears that they are fans doing things for other fans who love a particular subject matter. You can see the potential in them, and you want to support them. It's a roll of the dice and sometimes we get snake-bit for our trouble.
Case-in-point: I'm a former Axanar fan-film contributor, myself, from the early days (2014) of the project. If you are unfamiliar with that dumpster fire, you can look it up here. Close to 400 pages of crunchy goodness full of people that once believed in something that went totally sideways from (arguably intentional) project mismanagement and running afoul of corporate lawyers. Continuation from the first thread here (over 1700 pages!). It still simmers and bubbles on to this day, like the Centralia, Pennsylvania coal mine fires.
Case-in-point: I'm a former Axanar fan-film contributor, myself, from the early days (2014) of the project. If you are unfamiliar with that dumpster fire, you can look it up here. Close to 400 pages of crunchy goodness full of people that once believed in something that went totally sideways from (arguably intentional) project mismanagement and running afoul of corporate lawyers. Continuation from the first thread here (over 1700 pages!). It still simmers and bubbles on to this day, like the Centralia, Pennsylvania coal mine fires.
Yeah, it's a bummer so many people are upset.
I guess I just had a better idea of what the final product was going to be. The initial announcement video showed that the guys heading up the project were Tomy guys that made large scale diecast cars and agricultural equipment (who knew anyone collected the latter? lol), so I figured it would be built and designed by teams that normally do diecast real world vehicles, so the final product would be more similar to those than say if Eaglemoss had decided to make a big ass Enterprise with electronics. I will say that Tomy should have forgone making it out of diecast, as that just adds unneeded weight and complexity, but when you are a hammer (i.e. the diecast team) everything looks like a nail...
I also took other offerings into account. As it happens, I collect diecast race cars, and a high quality 1:18 scale (about 15-16 inches long) race car is about $200-250 for a reasonably finished mass-produced model that has no electronics. I have a few of Tomy's Masterpiece Transformers, so I had an idea of what you got for your money from Tomy on what they consider a "high end" product. Currently those are $150-200, not all that big and definitely still toys (shoot there was an Optimus last year that retailed for $450 because it had a trailer and some other junk). I have the Franklin Mint 25th Anniversary Enterprise from 1991. It was diecast, about 15 inches long, no electronics and cost $200 ($450 in today's money). Then we have the closest thing to the Tomy model. Master Replicas's 1:350 Enterprise, which was $1200 in 2008 ($1700 today), i never picked one up, but it had similar light up features, and we'll be generous and say a better final finish than the Tomy one probably will, but even there I recall people being pissed at mistakes in the mold, noisy nacelle motors and crooked markings. (On that note, a new collectors' store opened up near me and they have the 1:350 MR on display, which is where my biggest concern about the Tomy comes in, seeing a model that size in person shows that it's stupid huge, I guess I never appreciated how large it actually would be
) Finally, the cheapest "close to perfect" model you could get, is to have Bill Krause build you one for $3000 (and that's for a 1:1000 scale model, presumably a 1:350 would be a bit more).
Heh, maybe I should have made this post 15 months ago so people could have set their expectations accordingly, although back then the major concern seemed to be that Tomy was a fly-by-night company and was going to take the money and disappear (Axanar flashbacks I guess). All that being said, considering what people will pay for hard to find Eaglemoss models, I doubt anyone will have trouble making their money back and then some by reselling a Tomy Enterprise.
I guess I just had a better idea of what the final product was going to be. The initial announcement video showed that the guys heading up the project were Tomy guys that made large scale diecast cars and agricultural equipment (who knew anyone collected the latter? lol), so I figured it would be built and designed by teams that normally do diecast real world vehicles, so the final product would be more similar to those than say if Eaglemoss had decided to make a big ass Enterprise with electronics. I will say that Tomy should have forgone making it out of diecast, as that just adds unneeded weight and complexity, but when you are a hammer (i.e. the diecast team) everything looks like a nail...
I also took other offerings into account. As it happens, I collect diecast race cars, and a high quality 1:18 scale (about 15-16 inches long) race car is about $200-250 for a reasonably finished mass-produced model that has no electronics. I have a few of Tomy's Masterpiece Transformers, so I had an idea of what you got for your money from Tomy on what they consider a "high end" product. Currently those are $150-200, not all that big and definitely still toys (shoot there was an Optimus last year that retailed for $450 because it had a trailer and some other junk). I have the Franklin Mint 25th Anniversary Enterprise from 1991. It was diecast, about 15 inches long, no electronics and cost $200 ($450 in today's money). Then we have the closest thing to the Tomy model. Master Replicas's 1:350 Enterprise, which was $1200 in 2008 ($1700 today), i never picked one up, but it had similar light up features, and we'll be generous and say a better final finish than the Tomy one probably will, but even there I recall people being pissed at mistakes in the mold, noisy nacelle motors and crooked markings. (On that note, a new collectors' store opened up near me and they have the 1:350 MR on display, which is where my biggest concern about the Tomy comes in, seeing a model that size in person shows that it's stupid huge, I guess I never appreciated how large it actually would be
) Finally, the cheapest "close to perfect" model you could get, is to have Bill Krause build you one for $3000 (and that's for a 1:1000 scale model, presumably a 1:350 would be a bit more).Heh, maybe I should have made this post 15 months ago so people could have set their expectations accordingly, although back then the major concern seemed to be that Tomy was a fly-by-night company and was going to take the money and disappear (Axanar flashbacks I guess). All that being said, considering what people will pay for hard to find Eaglemoss models, I doubt anyone will have trouble making their money back and then some by reselling a Tomy Enterprise.
Well fellas....two people in Australia have received theirs from a vendor who were able to order them. (Yeah I don't get that) Anyhow they have taken a dozen photos. It's looks really good if you can get past the seams and plugs. They have a rod type of stand for the saucer which doesn't have to be left on all the time but it's understandable due to the heft of the model. I think they didn't realize how much of a substantial stand they would need initially to hold up a 20lb plus metal model ..lol
Here's a link to the thread....
https://www.therpf.com/forums/threa...s-enterprise-tomy-crowd-funded.345718/page-53
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