Polar Lights

USS Enterprise from the original Star Trek series

Product Article by Justin Davenport on Sept 29 2003

 

 

 

"To boldly go where no man has gone before" - the opening lines of a show that has engaged the attention of millions of TV viewers and sci-fi fans world wide.  Yes, Star Trek only ran for 3 seasons on NBC from 1966 to 1969, but it became a cult hit, then spun off into Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space 9, Voyager, Star Trek: The Animated Series (in the 70's), and lately Enterprise, the prequel to them all.  Many model kits of the spacecraft in these series have been kitted by AMT, Revell-Monogram, and others.  The latest kit to show up is from Polar Lights, a company that bought many Aurora molds and specializes in sci-fi and TV show/movie kits.  As I have been told by a hobby shop owner, this is not an ex-Aurora mold
but is new tooling.

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This kit grabbed my attention the moment it hit the shelves, mainly due to its very reasonable price ($12.50 USD) and excellent box art.  It just looked "cool" and a little bit retro.  Also, I used to watch Star Trek religiously for a time and still like the show.  I eventually succumbed to its lure and got it.
The kit has over 50 parts, but is designed to be simple enough for beginners, yet detailed enough for more advanced modelers.  It's got waterslide decals plus stickers for less experienced modelers.  Also, you can make three different Enterprises (one from "The Cage" episode, one from "Where No Man has Gone Before", and the one from the rest of the TV series, which I'll probably build), plus the USS Exeter, Defiant, and Constellation, as well as the ISS Enterprise from the mirror universe (I forget the name of the episode, but it was a great one, it had the evil Kirk and Spock).  The  decals look decent, fairly crisp, somewhat matte, some of them do have a lot of carrier film so I would definitely use a good gloss coat before putting them on.
I didn't see a scale given anywhere in the instructions or on the box, maybe it's a box sized kit?  (Another "retro" flavor?) 

The moldings look pretty good, and the detail looks OK.  There's not much surface detail, but then again the "real thing" somewhere in Paramount's lot didn't have much surface detail either.  (In essence, you're making a model of a model ).  The clear parts look good.  Due to the snap together nature of the kit I didn't want to do a test fit until I was ready to actually start building.  My only criticisms are these: there were some scratches I saw on the saucer section that I'll need to smooth out, and there's a copyright watermark and text on the lower right saucer section that will need to be sanded off.  Also, the sprue gates are thick, as are the attachment points, so I'll need to use a hobby knife instead of my Tamiya sprue cutter, and one of the deflector dishes looked a little out of round, I think a sanding stick will make it look OK though.  None of these points detract much from the kit, they're relatively minor issues.  For me, this kit will be a fun "sanity build" after more involved work with the Aggressor build and other kits. 

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All in all a good kit for a reasonable price that will be fun for everyone from a 8 year old child starting out in the hobby to a die-hard Star Trek builder.

Happy Modeling!
Justin

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Photos and text © by Justin Davenport