Shuttles 2: Four Small and Several Years Ago

Continuing our step back and move for completion, the second set of shuttles produced waaaaaaay back in 2015 have now been added to the collecton.

Packed up in one box, the four small units come with their own mini-mags plus a lithograph LCARS print for display. I have however chosen to keep the prints in their wrapping and fortunately away from my own greasy fingerprints(!)

In Pack 2 there is the Spacedock Shuttle from The Undiscovered Country, the larger Type-7 and the Type 15 from TNG plus the Pod 1 craft from Enterprise.

As with boxes one and three which we've covered previously, there is the option to display the ships on their own individual mini-stands but aside from the odd one, they look far better standing on the ground - as they naturally would in the "real" world.

Tackling these in numerical magazine order, we have the NAR-25820 Spacedock Shuttle up first. More recognisable if you flipped it over and stuck some warp engines on as the USS Jenolan from Relics, the Spacedock Shuttle is the most distinctive of the four. Showing off a more sleek design there is a good amount of hull detail although the painting doesn't line up exactly with the hull lines that indicate where it should be - especially along the side windows. 

What is good here is the application of the decals and some of the smaller thruster detail. That pennant on the side doesn't quite line up with the text which is horribly noticeable on this scale - just as much as the occasional paint bleed. The marking out for the entry doors is nice and clean but the grey misaligned paint just knocks it from being a good 9/10 to a steady 7.

The underside is more filled with greebles and also two very recognisable borrowed warp engines from the Galaxy Class Enterprise-D. Certainly a franchise that likes to reuse items. it's one of the most obvious I've seen on a replica for a while and is nowhere to be seen by the time it's refitted out as the Jenolan. 

Some of the joint lines are gaping around those engines and at the rear however the curving nature of the hull sides seems to be hiding a multitude of building sins and works in favour of the finished article.

Second in here it's the gorgeous Type-7 from early days TNG. When I sat this on screen it looked cumbersome, ugly and just terrible but I've clearly matured over time with the model from Eaglemoss looking stunning. The curves and lines of this one are so heavily '80's it almost hurts but importantly and in contrast to the Spacedock Shuttle, the paint all lines up!!!

The decalling is at A+ levels on the Hawking right down to the tiny registry on the sides and the alignment of the sharp Starfleet pennant. The joint lines from the main hull to the pylons and then to the nacelles aren't ll that clean but the fact that we have translucent bussard collectors and translucent warp field grilles more than makes up for it. The shape of this thing is just stunning and Eaglemoss have done it more justice than I ever expected even down to the tiny RCS thrusters and impulse engines to the rear. Magnificent.

The third is also an early TNG shuttle, the rather TV budget friendly shuttlepod that cropped up a lot in season two. Named here as the Aldrin, the pod was a boxy sprite that this scale suits perfectly.

Allowing for not just clear decalling, the surface features here are distinctive and easy to make out with hatch lines and particularly to the rear where there is a single porthole and some shaded surface greebling. The join line are stealthily hidden under that black central stripe but again, what's not to like with this result. Upping the scale for these shuttles has nailed the quality that can drop off on some of the larger-made-very-small models we've seen so many times. Ok, the windows are blacked out but creating the interiors would be a mammoth and expensive task on a £75 asking price (at time of writing £60 on sale). 

Finally and the only one of the four not to be in a shade of white, we have Pod 1 from the NX-01. Bullet-shaped and more in line with the design lineage of 20th Century space shuttles, the shuttlecraft from the Enterprise is a mix of eras combining the winged atmospheric capabilities of a chunky plane with the need to operate in space.

The work on this one again is excellent with that paintwork being spot on the mark. More impressive than the other three is the fact that the more metallic finish also has lines criss-crossing the hull in a lighter shade plus a lot more distinct panel lines. The hatch for example is a much more intricate (and timeline basic) design with multiple divisions in a fairly small space. Somehow it works.

The black paint around the engine block to the rear is a tad scruffy on the edges and sadly there's no good way of covering up the hull section lines with the central horizontal one very evident when viewed from the back and behind the wings. It's cleverly (slightly) concealed forward of this thanks to the alignment with the bottom of the passenger hatch so hats off to Eaglemoss for that clever positioning.

I do prefer the Type-7 just based on its look and design especially when it comes to the translucent sections on the engines which even the Aldrin pod doesn't manage but on detail you can't get better here than the NX-01 Pod 1. As a pack though these are among the best released together with four blindingly good and "realistic" replicas from the franchise. Could we get a few XL versions in the future perhaps?

Check out all our Starships (and shuttles!) posts HERE

You can find out more on the Star Trek: The Official Starships Collection by visiting the Hero Collector website HERE

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