We’re back from hiatus with a review covering some of Factory Entertainment’s new Star Trek prop replicas, announced last fall and finally arriving into waiting fans’ hands in December.
 
Following their Ressikan Flute and Starfleet Medical set prop replicas released in 2021 and 2022, the company launched their next high-end Star Trek: The Next Generation replicas last September with a pair of early-season Type 1 “cricket” hand phasers.
 
Modeled after the Starfleet hand weapon first used in the series pilot episode, “Encounter at Farpoint,” but was largely obsoleted after the first year due to its lack of visibility on screen — though it did appear occasionally in later episodes such as “Up the Long Ladder,” “The Bonding,” “The Mind’s Eye,” and even Star Trek: Voyager Season 5 story “In the Flesh.”
 
The company has produced two versions of the Type I phaser, based upon its two appearances: the first is the dark-barreled edition meant to represent the weapon as it appeared in TNG Season 3 and beyond, and a second limited-run edition featuring a painted silver barrel representing its initial design in Season 1 of The Next Generation.
 

We thank Factory Entertainment for sending us both versions of their cricket phaser replica to check out for this review.

 
Each features identical electronic light and sound integration, controlled through the two copper-colored beam intensity buttons. Once powered on — by holding down the left beam button for a few seconds — this allows users to raise the phaser’s strength from a low-level stun setting (Level 1) to a high-powered vaporization setting (Level 8) with a simple press of either button.
 
The phaser also has two additional engagement options, starting with a power overload. By holding town both beam intensity buttons for a few seconds, a power buildup sound plays as the beam strength indicator rises rapidly, resulting in a loud ‘explosion’ when the overload discharges.
 

The second is a setting called “Crusher Mode,” named after Wesley Crusher’s use of the cricket phaser in TNG Season 5’s “The Game” — press the trigger and the right beam intensity button at the same time, and the phaser goes into rapid-fire mode for about five seconds, flashing the red beam light in time with the discharge sound to emulate Wesley’s tactic.

Thankfully, unlike some replicas these additional settings aren’t a hidden feature — the included instruction pamphlet clearly spells out how to activate each mode, so there’s no need to press random button combinations just to figure out how to make it work. (The electronics themselves are powered by four LR44 batteries, located below the removable trigger panel.)

Finally, like the TNG medical set last year, the cricket phaser replicas come packaged in a wood-and-glass display case, which also includes a metal plaque indicating the product’s edition number. It’s kind of overkill for a product this size, honestly, since the phaser itself measures in at less than 3.5 inches in length — but if this is the only replica in your collection, it does make for a nice display piece when it’s in the case.

While it looks nice, unless you’re a completist — or if you prefer the early look to the later color scheme — there’s not really a reason to buy the Season 1 limited edition over the standard dark-barrel version of the cricket phaser.  All of the electronics and sound effects are the same, and the $50 price bump isn’t really justified for the simple addition of silver paint around the front of the device.

It’s also not quite as accurate to the early-look model as it could be: the original had silver ‘lips’ at the front of the device (seen here in “Justice”) not replicated on Factory’s build, and the silver paint has a bit of castoff where the pattern was stenciled for application.

That said, both versions of the cricket phaser replica are nice pieces to hold, as their weighty all-metal bodies and clicky, responsive electronic buttons make each a remarkable upgrade from the old 1990s-era Playmates Toys playtime edition, which was inflated to a size nearly three times larger than the actual prop.

The price on each is nothing to scoff at, either — the standard edition is $299, with the Season 1 variant running for $349 — but in this case, for the build quality and functionality of each one, these replicas are very much in line with the cost you’d face if you commissioned a fan-built replica to the same specs. (We know it’s not affordable to everyone, of course, please don’t misunderstand us!)

These are just the first phaser replicas in Factory Entertainment’s planned Star Trek arsenal; the company has already teased plans for a TNG Season 1 “dustbuster” phaser which we expect to see go up for preorder fairly soon, and there’s certainly more Trek to come from this company in 2023 and beyond.

Factory Entertainment — 'Star Trek: TNG' Cricket Phaser Replicas

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If you’d like to add either edition of Factory’s cricket phaser replicas to your collection, you can find them right here at the Factory Entertainment website.