One of the more intriguing subsets of Eaglemoss’ Official Starships Collection is their ongoing focus on Federation shuttlecraft, with three four-ship sets now released and a fourth, focused on the shuttles of the Kelvin Timeline, to follow sometime in 2018.
We took a look at the first shuttle set back in August, and now we’ve got our hands on the second round of auxiliary craft models, which includes the Star Trek VI-era Executive Shuttle, the Type-7 and Type-15 shuttles of the Next Generation era, and the well-known Earth Starfleet shuttlepod from the days of Star Trek: Enterprise.
These small models range from two to just-over-three inches in length, with the tiny Type-16 shuttle being the smallest Eaglemoss release to date, and each includes a new Mike Okuda-designed LCARS diagram detailing the technical layout of each shuttle.
Keep in mind that our photos below are significantly magnified from a real-world viewpoint, so what may appear to be imperfections in paint lines or lettering generally aren’t really visible with the naked eye.
Measuring just over three inches long, the Executive Shuttle is the only member of this set to come out of the Original Series-era of Starfleet development, having first appeared as a studio model built for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
Only appearing for a brief moment, used to bring Captain Kirk and crew up to Spacedock from Earth, the model later appeared in its original configuration in Star Trek: Generations as re-used footage from Trek VI (with new labelling applied digitally) and in a matte painting during the final moments of the film.
The SD-103 studio model would later be modified with warp nacelles and become, among other Trek television appearances, the crashed USS Jenolan aboard which Scotty is found in “Relics.”
This model is a great representation of the Trek film ship design and signage seen throughout the 1980s movie era, with a comparatively primitive United Federation of Planets logo and lack of modern ‘mandatory’ Starfleet design elements, like glowing warp nacelles or big sensor clusters on the hull — but thanks to the 100% plastic body of this shuttle, the detailing that is on this small ship is quite clearly rendered, from the engine components on the underside to the yellow engine grille on the rear.
At last, Shuttlepod 1 joins the fleet! While I would have preferred this craft as a larger, standalone release similar to the Eaglemoss Delta Flyer or runabout models for such a well-loved vessel, but I’m glad to see this Enterprise-era ship finally get a display model.
Used throughout the run of Star Trek: Enterprise — and even glimpsed in archival footage from the Franklin in Star Trek: Beyond — the 22nd century shuttlepod appeared on-screen nearly 60 times during the run of the series, ferrying the crew of the NX-01 to planets and other destinations all through Archer’s captaincy.
From the pair of entry hatches on each side to the black and orange hull markings, the Shuttlepod 1 model is one I’ve been waiting for since Enterprise was still airing on UPN with detail to rival any other release from the Official Starships Collection to date.
The hull coloring is a bit more copper-colored than one might have expected, and not quite as silvery as its on-screen counterpart, and there’s a simple black circle on top in place of the expected docking hatch, which is a curious design change, but it doesn’t much detract from the overall look of the model. (I do wish the engines were ‘lit’ blue however!)
Curiously designated the Aldrin, a shuttle name not used during TNG’s run, the little Type-15 shuttle is such a relic of its time in Trek production, especially compared to the much larger and intricately-designed Shuttlepod from the Enterprise era, which was produced over a decade from this shuttle’s first appearance in TNG’s “Time Squared” back in 1989.
With the practical set piece just large enough to carry two actors, the two-inch Type-15 model is so tiny that it couldn’t even carry two Lego figures inside its diminutive hull — and that’s okay, because what this shuttle lacks in size it makes up for in molded detail and cleanly-applied red-and-black markings around the sides.
While the underside is a bit lacking in substance, the overall production on the attached warp nacelles and other features of the craft give this little pocket-sized ship character.
The Type-7 shuttle was a mainstay of the early days of The Next Generation, seen as early as Season 1’s “Coming of Age,” though the long side windows seen on this Eaglemoss model never appeared quite this way in any of the screen-used filming models (though it did originate in an early study model of the design).
The extravagantly-curvy design of the Type-7 was never really able to be recreated will in a full-sized set piece, and frankly doesn’t even hold up that well as a miniature in the remastered TNG Blu-rays, but this model does a nice job of bringing the unusual shuttle to life for this release.
However, there’s a major labeling error on this shuttle, as the rear markings assign this ship to the USS ENTEPRISE, inadvertently dropping the first ‘R’ in the starship’s name. We’ve confirmed with Eaglemoss that a replacement run of this craft was not produced, making this a pretty disappointing element of a generally impressive set of ships.
This set completes the Next Generation-era shuttlecraft designs, leaving only the Voyager-era Type-8 shuttle yet unproduced, though with only two appearances it’s not likely that will be produced anytime soon unless Eaglemoss decides to move forward with a fifth shuttle set after their planned Kelvin release.
Keep coming back to TrekCore for more Official Starships Collection reviews, as we have a number of new releases to cover including the XL USS Voyager, the Enterprise XV-330 ringship, Andy Probert’s concept-version Enterprise-C, and of course the third shuttle set as well.
In the meantime, you can pick up the second shuttle set at Eaglemoss’ web store now.
In Eaglemoss’ US store, TrekCore readers can use promo code TREKCORE at checkout for 10% off any ‘Star Trek’ collectible purchase $60 or greater (some exclusions apply).