Die Cast Lighted 1/350th TOS Enterprise (TOMY crowd funded)

[Lord Abaddon]

Buyer's gonna return. At seller's expense. Hence the REAL surprise.

I don’t think there will be as many returns as people are assuming. This forum and some others like Starship Modeler are full of OCD equipped individuals or ones who wanted to speculate on the market (hence buying two) which are a niche group, while the vast majority of buyers are likely just Star Trek fans who really wanted a good, inexpensive, incredible looking ship with lights, effects and more. They won’t be taking their rulers, magnifying glasses (as many are likely older!), paint swatches, and photo comparison guides looking for perfection.

They will open this massive box with great artwork, see the instructions, piece it together, turn it on, and marvel that they own something so big, and hefty, and detailed, and cool looking for a series/movies they’ve been a fan of for decades.

I think Tomy will be just fine financially, it’s not like they are some tiny company making this, they have huge loss insurance, they know the secondary market will generate further interest, and they’ll learn from their mistakes having never done something this massive before. Will they do more ships? Maybe. It’ll be up to the bean counters in the end, but if the BTTF DeLorean goes good more likely we’ll see specialized cars (their forte) like the Batmobiles or Mad Max or some such. But I hope they do a refit Enterprise anyway.

 

[Captain Dunsel]

The returned models will likely show up on eBay being sold by third party resellers (like the Master Replicas customer returns did…I picked up quite a few “scratch and dent” MR items that way).

 

[vageek]

I don’t think there will be as many returns as people are assuming. This forum and some others like Starship Modeler are full of OCD equipped individuals or ones who wanted to speculate on the market (hence buying two) which are a niche group, while the vast majority of buyers are likely just Star Trek fans who really wanted a good, inexpensive, incredible looking ship with lights, effects and more. They won’t be taking their rulers, magnifying glasses (as many are likely older!), paint swatches, and photo comparison guides looking for perfection.

They will open this massive box with great artwork, see the instructions, piece it together, turn it on, and marvel that they own something so big, and hefty, and detailed, and cool looking for a series/movies they’ve been a fan of for decades.

I think Tomy will be just fine financially, it’s not like they are some tiny company making this, they have huge loss insurance, they know the secondary market will generate further interest, and they’ll learn from their mistakes having never done something this massive before. Will they do more ships? Maybe. It’ll be up to the bean counters in the end, but if the BTTF DeLorean goes good more likely we’ll see specialized cars (their forte) like the Batmobiles or Mad Max or some such. But I hope they do a refit Enterprise anyway.

I agree with you. I'm just cautioning everyone on how much eBay sides with the buyers on "not as described" claims, I found that out the hard way. Selling these without checking them out first at least I'm afraid is a real roll of the dice but people may do fine this way (sell unopened).

 

[Fizzbin]

I don’t think there will be as many returns as people are assuming. This forum and some others like Starship Modeler are full of OCD equipped individuals or ones who wanted to speculate on the market (hence buying two) which are a niche group, while the vast majority of buyers are likely just Star Trek fans who really wanted a good, inexpensive, incredible looking ship with lights, effects and more. They won’t be taking their rulers, magnifying glasses (as many are likely older!), paint swatches, and photo comparison guides looking for perfection.

They will open this massive box with great artwork, see the instructions, piece it together, turn it on, and marvel that they own something so big, and hefty, and detailed, and cool looking for a series/movies they’ve been a fan of for decades.

I think Tomy will be just fine financially, it’s not like they are some tiny company making this, they have huge loss insurance, they know the secondary market will generate further interest, and they’ll learn from their mistakes having never done something this massive before. Will they do more ships? Maybe. It’ll be up to the bean counters in the end, but if the BTTF DeLorean goes good more likely we’ll see specialized cars (their forte) like the Batmobiles or Mad Max or some such. But I hope they do a refit Enterprise anyway.

 

[Fizzbin]

Not sure at this point, with the seams, and dozens of visible screw plugs, that I would describe it as an "incredible looking ship".

 

[JiminSTLouis]

Not sure at this point, with the seams, and dozens of visible screw plugs, that I would describe it as an "incredible looking ship".

I’ll reserve judgement until I have one in my house, with my lighting, and at a reasonable viewing distance (not with a magnifying glass).

 

[Fizzbin]

I’ll reserve judgement until I have one in my house, with my lighting, and at a reasonable viewing distance (not with a magnifying glass).

My big concern now is if I should keep an extra one to sell? I'm afraid I'll never make a profit if I try to sell one. Not even sure I could even get what I paid for it.

 

[Ant1988]

Not sure at this point, with the seams, and dozens of visible screw plugs, that I would describe it as an "incredible looking ship".

Well for $600.... Getting 20lbs of diecast and all the details you could want in a pre-built TOS Enterprise...... some Star Trek collectors will look past plug holes and seams. There will never be another 1/350 Enterprise in diecast. As I said before Star Trek Collectors pay big bucks for the old Diamond Select toys. Warts and all. So for some people this is indeed an incredible looking DIECAST ship....

 

[Ant1988]

My big concern now is if I should keep an extra one to sell? I'm afraid I'll never make a profit if I try to sell one. Not even sure I could even get what I paid for it.

You will eventually get what you paid for. But since Tomy is going to have several hundred to resell it may take a bit of time.

 

[Ron]

I could see it going either way but my guess (and it's just a guess) is that they'll sell well on the secondary market. As stated previously, most collectors aren't as obsessive as we are. If you bought multiples, start adding all these ebay listings to your watchlist and monitor their activity and see how well they're selling.

You will eventually get what you paid for. But since Tomy is going to have several hundred to resell it may take a bit of time.

I wonder if they'll sell them directly or distribute them to vendors. If it's the latter, I'd imagine they'll get marked up significantly over retail.

 

[Fett_Ish]

For all the defenders, and I have no problems with defense of this product, this is the general MODEL BUILDING thread on the REPLICA PROP FORUM, lol. It may have had fewer “detractor’ in another thread. I am unsure of why it was never moved. That said, I expect to see it in threads describing mods, repaints etc etc.

 

[vageek]

 

[dlbsyst]

Just as I suspected, it looks amazing. IMO this models value is going through the roof on the secondary market after it sells out.

 

[xlowes]

Well for $600.... Getting 20lbs of diecast and all the details you could want in a pre-built TOS Enterprise...... some Star Trek collectors will look past plug holes and seams. There will never be another 1/350 Enterprise in diecast. As I said before Star Trek Collectors pay big bucks for the old Diamond Select toys. Warts and all. So for some people this is indeed an incredible looking DIECAST ship....

This Pre Built one with no lights was $400 !

 

[dbrussee]

Thanks for posting. My guess is that much of the angst of the past few weeks could've been alleviated (prevented) from a similar, comprehensive video from TOMY when they had the final production model. This video does a much better job of representing the final product than the still photos from TOMY that always seem to either miss something or raise further questions. Hope TOMY learns from this. I still hate the display stand and saucer support, but when viewed in its totality vs. close-ups of pieces, the overall piece seems impressive. Not as impressive as what was promised, but still very nice for the price.

 

[Lord Abaddon]

I’m loving it!!

 

[vageek]

Thanks for posting. My guess is that much of the angst of the past few weeks could've been alleviated (prevented) from a similar, comprehensive video from TOMY when they had the final production model. This video does a much better job of representing the final product than the still photos from TOMY that always seem to either miss something or raise further questions. Hope TOMY learns from this. I still hate the display stand and saucer support, but when viewed in its totality vs. close-ups of pieces, the overall piece seems impressive. Not as impressive as what was promised, but still very nice for the price.

Couldn't agree more. They took a somewhat slippery approach that was really counterproductive. I'd really like to see a (smaller scale) refit which could be a really popular piece if this experience doesn't make them gun-shy.

 

[Fizzbin]

I'd love to see this in the dark. Another short video with the room lights out would be much appreciated.

 

[Fett_Ish]

This Pre Built one with no lights was $400 !

Yeah, those pre builds are way overpriced IMHO. That said, the seam work is hand done, so always pricey. Still though $400 and no lights?

 

[MARK M3]

So Tomy contacted me to help with the lights and colors when they were putting together the replica. I sent them photos and diagrams on how I did my lights and what colors to use on the ship. The lighting initially put it was wrong(engine lights), and they wanted to copy my effect as close as possible. Here's some of what I sent them...