Sunday, December 2, 2012

Star Trek Enterprise

Presenting the Enterprise from the 2009 Star Trek reboot, AKA the Star Trek - Enterprise Iconic Vehicle. 

While I'm more of a Star Wars fan than a Trekkie, I did really approve of the Star Trek reboot. I thought that the movie both paid tribute to the legacy of the original cast (Now if only they'd reboot STNG - seriously, Janeway has more balls than Picard - probably literally as well), and gave the series a modern day twist - though I found it fascinating that the reboot Kirk's idea of interstellar diplomacy is still to sleep with everything gendered as female.

I also appreciated the wonderful soundtrack in the movie that accompanied every appearance of the NCC-1701 that was always very moving and emotional. It was excellent how the producers kept being able to stress how the Enterprise was the Galaxy's last hope and bring the audience to the edge of their seats simply through music.

So when Playmates released the Star Trek -  Enterprise Iconic Vehicle, I had to get one.


The Playmates Star Trek NCC-1701 measures in a pretty decent 15" from stem to stern and the main saucer boasts a healthy 7" in diameter.

Now if you're a purist of the movie, you'll note something wrong about those measurements, but we'll discuss those later.

The Star Trek Enterprise comes with a Delta shield base with a ball joint mount that attaches to a point at the hull of the ship - allowing you to display the Enterprise in different angles - and raises the ship around 8" off the ground.




Now if you're a purist, you've have noticed by now that the saucer hull is slightly smaller than it should be - (Probably a half-an inch or a full inch more on both sides?) and that the struts to the nacelles should be closer to the saucer section, but these difference are quite cosmetic.

The lights are powered by three triple A batteries that fit into the casing of the hull right next to an on/off switch and the mounting for the stand. Pressing the command cap - or "hat" - on the top of the Enterprises, lights up the bottom cap, Deflector Dish, Bussard Collectors, Nacelles, and Impulse Engines.



Pressing the button also activates a plethora of sound effects (engine noises/whines, phaser fire and even a red-alert) and voice recordings from  Kirk (Chris Pine) and Spock (Zachary Quinto).


Now unfortunately I'm sure you've noticed that the lights keep going out. Personally I expected more from something that has such a huge power supply. Half the time or more often than not the NCC-1701 Enterprise sits dead like this:



That's probably the biggest let down that the Playmates Star Trek Iconic vehicle has. It would have been nice if this "model" - yes, it's more of a model than a toy - would have had a "lights on" mode regardless of how fast the batteries would be drained.



If you could, then the Enterprise would make an absolutely wonderful display and conversation piece that I would never part from thanks to the fine detailing - just don't look at it from the bottom where the screws and the battery pack become obvious.

The Playmates released the Star Trek -  Enterprise Iconic Vehicle, is still available on Amazon for quite the low price of US$ 12.98 (Roughly PhP 532.18 plus shipping). Roughly half the price of what I originally paid for it - sadly I thought it would appreciate, but if memory serves, I think Playmates may have overproduced the Enterprice so its price dropped and eventually it went on sale.

Still, the NCC-1701 Enterprise is a nice thing to have for any Sci-Fi collector, regardless of whether or not you're a pure blood Trekkie.




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