Orionblamblam

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Tomy is crowdfunding a 20-pound lighted 1/350-scale die-cast replica of the starship Enterprise, NCC-1701. The goal is to get 5,000 backers at $599 each. That sounds like a lot, but when Quantum Mechanics did some 1/350 lighted ships a decade-ish ago, they were in the area of five or ten grand, IIRC.

Perhaps not the most obvious relevance for a forum on secret aircraft projects, but this appears to be a quality bit of craftsmanship. And such is always to be lauded and shared. And if it succeeds... who knows, maybe their next project will be a one-hundred pound 1/32 scale die cast XB-70. Kinda unlikely, but less unlikely if the enterprise does well...

https://startrek.tomy.com/

To me it looks pretty good. Not perfect... the saucer separation line is weird, but it might be less obvious on the production units and can doubtless be fixed up easily enough.

View: https://youtu.be/w0BBP_9Wncc


C1F7AB98-E0F6-11EC-856C-2C2CCE8206F8-image-e86c2a9d03a4168b54ee38215fd1a2b611ab145022157cef4ed8d189bdbec111.jpg


457489D2-E0F7-11EC-856C-2C2CCE8206F8-image-77df6966c4c8ce7cae0b4b774b28d1736686047abdd13025f2b59d4997185979.jpg


So far, they're about 2 days in and have 380 of the 5,000 orders they need to proceed. About a month left to go. I don't know if that's good progress or not; I would have expected a large percentage of the orders would have come in right at the get-go.
 
Nice model. Note that you don't get the model until 23 August next year, should it go ahead.
 
So far, they're about 2 days in and have 380 of the 5,000 orders they need to proceed. About a month left to go. I don't know if that's good progress or not; I would have expected a large percentage of the orders would have come in right at the get-go.

Its only been going a day and a bit. It may take some time for Trek fans to know about it.
 
Nice model. Note that you don't get the model until 23 August next year, should it go ahead.
A year or so is not unusual for this sort of thing. I believe that was the lead time for the big-ass Hasbro "Razor Crest" from the Mandalorian... more than time enough for the ship to get blown to flinders on the show and cease to be relevant. I recall a lot of people were annoyed by that.

It may take some time for Trek fans to know about it.

It has been advertised here and there for a week or three. Dunno how effectively, though. Hasbro wanted 6,000 backers for "RC," got 28,000. I would feel saddened if the RC has that much greater cultural cache than the Enterprise. The RC went for $350... now I see it for sale on the secondary market for nearly a grand. You'd think a lot of people would snap up these sort of things just to sell 'em on ebay.
 
People are a lot more reticent right now, investment opportunities can take a while to mature and other things have more immediate call on the wallet.

I would not even entertain the idea and probably not for the next ten years.
 
At CultTVMan you can get 1/350 Enterprises a lot cheaper than that.

Not so much cheaper:
$150 for the kit. Plus:
$130 - $200 for the lighting kit on ebay
35 hours to build: assuming a burger-flipper salary of $10/hour, that's $350

My math says doing it yourself will run you $630 or so. Not sure how that's a lot cheaper than $599. Even if your own labor is free, it's still likely over $300.
 
Now were to put it where it won't fall and brake something, like my foot.
 
Get the Playmobil one instead, its pretty accurate, 1:300 scale, available now (with a few deals if you search) and heavy enough to break your foot if required.
 
At CultTVMan you can get 1/350 Enterprises a lot cheaper than that.

Not so much cheaper:
$150 for the kit. Plus:
$130 - $200 for the lighting kit on ebay
35 hours to build: assuming a burger-flipper salary of $10/hour, that's $350

My math says doing it yourself will run you $630 or so. Not sure how that's a lot cheaper than $599. Even if your own labor is free, it's still likely over $300.
I was wondering, do you commission other people to build your kits OBB ?. And I would forgo the lighting kit, and the Photo Etch, maybe add the decal sheet, but even then $200 is better than $600.
 
The nacelles
View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tgIBZYRa3c8&feature=emb_logo


More:
View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=b7VCDbSJ0Hg&feature=emb_logo

Round 2 looks to offer the Kronos One K’tinga
View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hkXyNeublYA&feature=emb_logo


Greeble source for it
 
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The CultTVMan newsletter I got this morning has some news from Round 2, they'll be producing some 1/350 Klingon ships. And Revell have announced a new 1/500 Enterprise plus the old 1/600 kit too.
Not being a total Startrek nut, I was curious as to the size the model OBB posted about, if I got the scaling right, the 1/350 kit would be over 3 feet long, about a metre. That's on par with the 1/72 Boeing 747 and 1/72 Lockheed C-5 kits I have.
 

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