Star Trek: Picard is the first show in the franchise to have a non-Federation starship at the center of its adventures, and today we’re taking a look at Eaglemoss’ debut model in its Picard lineup, Cris Rios’ La Sirena!
This Kaplan F-17 Speed Freighter, designed by artist Mark Yang, debuted in “The End is the Beginning” and was a somewhat controversial design among Star Trek ship fans, with its garish red-and-white coloring and outboard impulse engine pods.
Earlier concept designs of La Sirena included versions of the ship featuring a tighter configuration or different coloring, but eventually the final design seen on screen won out — a fire-engine red hull with slashes of white across its many protrusions.
Yang designed the pods to move the impulse engines away from the rear of the ship’s main hull, to allow the ship to have easier cargo-loading capabilities; there’s a large double-door hangar at the bottom of the ship’s aft section, where an engine would basically be “in the way” had it been in a traditional placement.
If you’re curious to know the backstory of the ship and how Cris Rios came to own La Sirena, the recent Rogue Elements novel has you covered!)
Eaglemoss’ standard version of the La Sirena model measures in at about 7.5″ long — a larger 10.5″ XL edition is also available — with the freighter’s dynamic shape and coloring well presented in the metal-plastic form.
The top side of the model, featuring its bright coloring, is produced from the company’s standard die-cast metal forming, while the all-black (but significantly detailed) underside is rendered in solid black with just a few thin red or white stripes to break up the darkness.
The ship’s engines are touched with a nice pop of bright blue, both at the ringed intake manifolds on the front of the ship, as well as 14 different points on La Sirena’s aft section; it’s an unexpected color that stands out well, much better than if it was just more red or white, certainly.
The ship’s nose art, which to date has really only been seen well as a FanSets collectors pin, is hinted at on the model, but the pair of tiny decals hardly illustrate the mermaid for whom the ship was named after. If they had been traditional “sticker” decals, the detail may have been more evident, but in their current form it’s more of a blue-green smudge on the ship’s hull.
It’s also a curious decision to release both standard and XL-sized La Sirena models to market at virtually the same time; each size of the ship became available to collectors in the same few-week period earlier this year, but the size difference between the two isn’t really enough for us to recommend one over the other — it’ll all depend on what people want to spend, and how much space they have available.
In all, however, the La Sirena model is a nice representation of the Star Trek: Picard hero starship — here’s hoping the upcoming second season of the show will give us a better look at its on-screen counterpart!
If you want to add Star Trek: Picard’s unique La Sirena model to your personal Alpha Quadrant armada, you can pick it up today from the Hero Collector web shop for $54.95 in the United States, and fans in the UK will find it retailing for £39.99.
We’ll be back soon with our next exclusive preview of what’s on the way to Hero Collector’s Official Starships Collection fleet, so keep your sensors locked on TrekCore for all the details!