News TOMY Star Trek Diecast Ship Replicas
- Thread starter Blackout
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no, we're just speculating
Sorry about that...Ah ok...
I wouldn't be surprised if it happens down the road, I don't recall anything in the original campaign about being a limited edition (but maybe I'm wrong) and I'd bet there would be enough demand to justify another run. It also had to have been profitable for Tomy, otherwise they wouldn't be doing the refit and Klingon ship. I know originally some people were put off by concerns over the Kickstartiness of it all, but those should be allayed now that there's an existing physical product. The biggest complaints were the screw hole covers and the stand, I dont think they can do much with the former, but the latter seems like they could go the route of the newer offerings and use a stand like the refit with more subtle saucer supoorts plus USB-C connections for power.
Sorry about that...
I wouldn't be surprised if it happens down the road, I don't recall anything in the original campaign about being a limited edition (but maybe I'm wrong) and I'd bet there would be enough demand to justify another run. It also had to have been profitable for Tomy, otherwise they wouldn't be doing the refit and Klingon ship. I know originally some people were put off by concerns over the Kickstartiness of it all, but those should be allayed now that there's an existing physical product. The biggest complaints were the screw hole covers and the stand, I dont think they can do much with the former, but the latter seems like they could go the route of the newer offerings and use a stand like the refit with more subtle saucer supoorts plus USB-C connections for power.
I do believe they said the molds were destroyed after the run. So they would have to start from scratch again.
Oh wow, I hadn't seen that, seems weirdly shortsighted of them.
Definitely! Why in God's name would they do that?? 
Oh, FFS...
Oh, FFS...
I think they learnt a lot from that first ship, because the TMP Enterprise seemed to be a big step up in terms of quality.
The TOS Enterprise had a really bad stand and people were annoyed about the screw covers.
So I suspect it they ever revisited the TOS Ent later down the line it would be improved.
The TOS Enterprise had a really bad stand and people were annoyed about the screw covers.
So I suspect it they ever revisited the TOS Ent later down the line it would be improved.
I posted about the last batch of FE models in the Eaglemoss thread, but they're really more like the Tomy ships (if I'm not going to give them their own thread and I don't think that's warranted). Anyway, TrekCore reports, with images, that Factory Entertainment has announced four more of their multi-thousand-dollar ship models, the Enterprise-E (First Contact-style) at an eye-popping $20,000 (at an admittedly equally eye-popping size of 54 inches/137 cm in length), the Reliant for $16,000, Voyager for $18,000, and the Shrike from PIC season 3 at an unnamed price. If you go to FE's pages for each model, they also have their trademark relaxing slow-pan videos, which are as close as most of us are getting to them. The video for the Reliant is embarrassingly bad, they must've left that one for a Thursday afternoon before a holiday weekend or something.
Checking back, it looks like I'd forgotten that FE's prices were triple those of Quantum Mechanix's similar offerings back in the day, so these figures aren't entirely shocking. The photos still seem to exhibit fit, finish, and accuracy issues that weren't present on the QMX models, but were on the earlier FE models, like visible seams, visible polygon segmentation from not using high-enough resolution CG models for their obviously-3D-printed masters, and decal silvering. It still seems that if you have the means to spend the price of a nice used car on a Star Trek model, you'd be better off directly commissioning one from an experienced builder in the fandom, getting a better price and better quality. Depending on the dollar value you put on your time, you might be better off getting a bunch of kits and an airbrush and becoming an experienced builder in the community yourself rather than buying one of these.
For context, here's a direct link to the page for the FE refit-Enterprise, which I haven't looked at since well before the TOMY version was announced. Revisiting it, yeah, the TOMY model seems to be a bargain. There are some places it doesn't quite compete, like the small visible interior spaces like the shuttle bay and officer's lounge, and it looks like TOMY haven't actually figured out how to get rid of the stilts holding up the saucer like they hoped, but the saucer paintjob on the TOMY version is miles ahead of the FE model, and the rest of the paneling seems to be about equal.
Checking back, it looks like I'd forgotten that FE's prices were triple those of Quantum Mechanix's similar offerings back in the day, so these figures aren't entirely shocking. The photos still seem to exhibit fit, finish, and accuracy issues that weren't present on the QMX models, but were on the earlier FE models, like visible seams, visible polygon segmentation from not using high-enough resolution CG models for their obviously-3D-printed masters, and decal silvering. It still seems that if you have the means to spend the price of a nice used car on a Star Trek model, you'd be better off directly commissioning one from an experienced builder in the fandom, getting a better price and better quality. Depending on the dollar value you put on your time, you might be better off getting a bunch of kits and an airbrush and becoming an experienced builder in the community yourself rather than buying one of these.
For context, here's a direct link to the page for the FE refit-Enterprise, which I haven't looked at since well before the TOMY version was announced. Revisiting it, yeah, the TOMY model seems to be a bargain. There are some places it doesn't quite compete, like the small visible interior spaces like the shuttle bay and officer's lounge, and it looks like TOMY haven't actually figured out how to get rid of the stilts holding up the saucer like they hoped, but the saucer paintjob on the TOMY version is miles ahead of the FE model, and the rest of the paneling seems to be about equal.
Maybe I’m naive, but who the hell would pay this for any ship model?
(I mean, for thousands of dollars — let alone tens of thousands — you’d better actually physically fly me to distant stars and back.)
Homeowners with a den or two large enough to display them.
It is a lot of money. As @David cgc said, commissioning one from a pro model builder would be the better use of one's finances if the quality is, no pun intended, paramount.
I'd love to see a fully fleshed out Voyager which everyone can agree is breathtaking in its detail and size.
It's a virtual model, but I've been enjoying Daniel Korican's periodic updates/tours on his full-scale interior/exterior Voyager model. He's taking a few liberties, but I see where he's coming from with most of them. The original viewscreen is too small, and a giant cargo bay under the fantail is the perfect place for Neelix's ship to have been stashed for seven years. As 3D printing improves, it might one day be a source for someone's masterpiece of a studio-scale cutaway model of the ship.
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Holy crap that's a labor of love!!!
I saw the QMx models in person, they were works of art that were totally worth the $8000 or so price tag. The FE offerings seem laughably crappy by comparison, particularly since you’d think the prototypes they’d use for advertising would be better than the actual production pieces. I’d happily give Bill Krause the $3000 and have something 100x better than these underwhelming FE efforts.
That's essentially what it means, however, by "studio" they just mean "large" - none of them are really the same scale as the filming models (although, i guess the 1:350 model is close enough to the three-foot TOS model.
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