It’s been about five months since the last member of the XL Starships model starship series debuted, but today we’re back with a look at the latest entry in Eaglemoss’ larger-sized Star Trek collection, the Constitution-class USS Enterprise NCC-1701-A.
Making its first on-screen appearance in the final moments of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, this ship was a reuse of the original Constitution-class refit starship design introduced in the first Trek film, with the studio model repainted and relabeled to represent the second Kirk-era Enterprise in 1986.
Eaglemoss has released two versions of the refit Constitution-class in its subscriber-sized model program, a original Motion Picture version of the Enterprise in 2013, as well as the the Enterprise-A itself three years later — but now, they’ve added the movie-era ship to their XL Starships line, scaling up the starship to a 10.5″ length, more than double the size of the smaller editions.
Some of the previous XL Starships releases have faced criticism for seeming to be just enlarged versions of the standard size Eaglemoss productions, but in this case, the Enterprise-A stands apart — this ship is clearly a new sculpt compared to its smaller-sized predecessors.
From the bridge, to the saucer, to the secondary hull and nacelles, there are differences all over this model — in ways that both elevate and detract from the final presentation. While we’ll cover some of the fairly notable problem areas a bit further down in this review, let’s start with the standard “What about the windows?” question.
This model finally gets things right in this department, as just about all the sculpted windows found in the smaller editions have been removed in the XL edition, replaced with painted black or white window markings on the rim of the saucer and on the secondary hull.
Only a few textured portals are included in this version of the ship — the six blue windows on either side of the drive section, the circular docking ports, and a set of eight markings underneath the saucer — and all of them are painted properly without the alignment problems found on prior Eaglemoss releases.
It’s also good to see the correct presentation of the ship’s blue bussard collectors, which in all previous releases have been missing the ‘split’ at the front of the translucent nacelle caps.
This point of detail has been a sticking point with fans of the model series since the first version of the Constitution-class refit was put out in 2013, so it’s nice to see this part of the ship corrected for the larger-sized model.
The areas surrounding the deflector dish have also been much improved compared to the smaller editions, as the yellow portions of the ship are much closer in appearance to the original studio model, though the dish itself — while bright blue to emulate the look of the illuminated model as seen on camera — still lacks the radial markings included on the ‘real’ starship.
The photon torpedo launcher situated above the dish also receives a nice bit of two-toned paint on the XL edition, matching the original filming model; the smaller Eaglemoss versions of this ship remained unpainted in this area, leaving the launcher white.
The rear of the ship also does a good job representing the back half of the starship, including a fairly accurate recreation of the raised ‘rib’ running the top of the secondary hull, the blue coloring adorning the hull plating, and the Enterprise shuttlebay area.
Unlike the smaller version of this ship, the entire top half of the drive section — including the neck and nacelle struts — are made from die-cast metal, giving the ship a much more solid feel compared to the 3.5″ models.
Moving to the primary hull…. well, this is where we start to run into trouble.
Let’s start with the rim of the saucer section, which is unfortunately void of just about all detail found on the actual studio model — including detail that was present on the small-size Enterprise-A ships previously released.
The ‘real’ Enterprise-A model features three radial sets of grooves ringing the saucer, several clusters of rounded windows dotting the hull, along with a few airlocks and tiny text identifying the starship.
While the XL Enterprise-A carries over the white window markings from the subscriber releases, it drops the grooved textures all together — something that was on the smaller model — and adds the STARSHIP U.S.S. ENTERPRISE and UNITED FEDERATION OF PLANETS text to the rim in large lettering.
Without the rim textures and airlocks, this text seems very much out of place with the surrounding details missing. Just take a look at this Star Trek VI screencap, and you can see how much that rim detailing adds to the look of the starship.
While that is a bit of an annoyance, it’s not the biggest issue this model has — that takes us to the top of the saucer.
Strangely, the bridge module on the XL Enterprise-A is totally different from the starship seen in the three Star Trek films where this vessel appeared. What’s more: the bridge shape was correct on the smaller version of this ship, meaning that this new sculpt is actually less accurate than the 2016 edition.
We’re not sure what reference information Eaglemoss was using when they sculpted this edition of the Enterprise-A, but compared to the studio model used in filming, the actual shape of the bridge is way off from the ‘real’ starship — not to mention the notable color differences in the model’s paint work.
In addition, the two sets of hull markings on the top of the ship are unusually positioned compared to the studio model; the USS ENTERPRISE text in front of the bridge is positioned much too close to the center of the saucer, while the registry number to the rear of the bridge is about twice as large as it should be.
Normally we can give minor discrepancies a bit of leeway when it comes to the Official Starships Collection model series, but the issues with the saucer section on this larger Enterprise-A model are things that are difficult to overlook.
Here are some more photos of the new Enterprise-A model, including some additional comparisons to the Star Trek VI-era studio model:
The Constitution-class refit is many fans’ favorite version of the Enterprise, and while we shined a spotlight on some of the improvements found in this larger edition, the strange changes made to the saucer — changes that removed correct details found on the smaller Eaglemoss version — are a bit disappointing.
That being said, if you want to add the XL Starships version of the USS Enterprise-A to your collection, you can preorder now from Eaglemoss (for $74.95 in the US, and for £49.99 in the UK) — it’s already shipping to subscribers to the XL series in some areas.
The next XL release in Eaglemoss’ pipeline is the 9″ edition of Captain Sisko’s USS Defiant, so watch for our review of that “tough little ship” later this summer.
All Enterprise-A studio model photography comes from the ST-Bilder.de image gallery.