SciFiUSA

It took about 2.5 weeks to arrive, but I think it was worth the wait. Open it and you get the chirping sound, a spinning moire and a green light. Press a button and you hear subspace static. A button on the back generates a starship hail sound. A few months ago I built a prop replica from a Roddenberry kit (http://www.roddenberry.com) and it was a lot of fun, but it was also a lot of work (and a bit of cost) so I hesitate to take it from it’s display. But this toy prop is just the ticket for fun and play. I’ve compared it to the Roddenberry prop I built and it’s not exactly the same, as it’s a little shorter in height, but the same width. The sound quality isn’t as good either. But it is a great looking prop none-the-less.

I did some on-line searching and have heard rumors that it is a knock-off of the one made by Master Replicas. I’ve done a few comparisions via photo’s from the web (I wish I could see it side by side with an MR) and I’m starting to believe that. It has some convincing similarities, like the location of the hailing tone button on the back and how the shape of the bodies look to be very alike. The back panel has 4 screws and is flat just like the MR version. The metal center line that goes around the body is not present on the top, just like MR. Also the spinning moire, the order of the light colors seem to align with that of Master Replicas. But the sound quality pales in comparison to MR from what I’ve read, but for the price, who cares!? Anybody care to comment on a comparison they’ve noted?

Anyway, where did I get this cool prop? I saw them being sold on Ebay (for about $30 more than what I paid for it - including shipping) and found out that they were being purchased from the Star Trek Experience in Vegas and resold. So I ventured over to http://www.startrekexp.com/ and found that I could purchase it on-line! It was painful waiting two and a half weeks for them to process my order, but it was worth the price. If you don’t want to wait, you could try your luck on Ebay.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 14th, 2005 at 3:43 pm and is filed under Science Fiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.