Glad to see you can post, but cannot seem time to reply to PM's about your questionable past. But then, that's right in line with your questionable character, so I guess I'm not surprised!! :lol
ANYWAY, I am pretty sure the HMS/Rodd.com tricorders are a combination of vaccum formed plastic and resin. Just like they were on the show. I think they even re-tooled the rear lip on the main body to be laser cut acrylic. I forget.
But the exact same statements apply to the tricorder too. What you get from Rodd is pretty much the same thing as what HMS sent to the set, with some minor clean up for buildability. The collectors market version is an idealized, cleaned up version of that. There were also some subtle differences, like the way the hinges are installed. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's not great. I think both are super cool.
Aquaman also makes some great observations, but again it's a matter of preference. I own a couple screen used pieces (both trek and non-trek) that look like utter trash. They are beaten up, have paint chips, look like they've been dropped a NUMBER of times, and are well worn. But for me, the value is in their history, not in their displayability, or playability. There's also usually a pretty severe cost differential which the casual trek collector might find startling. For example, you can get a brand new, shiny phaser from Master replicas for a couple hundred bucks, or you can get a beaten up, trashed phaser that was screen used for a couple thousand. Go figure.
Oh, and a point of clarification. SOME of the onscreen phasers did have working lights. Certainly no sound, but lights, yes.
