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

[Ron]

I sent them an email demanding a refund based on their fraud. We will see.

Hope you get it, James. One of us mentioned a customer service rep told them you can’t cancel an order for a refund but you can return it for a refund after you’ve received it (which makes no sense).

Tomy better provide return shipping labels. Otherwise, we’ll find out if you can “return to sender” a package this big.

 

[Phoenixblazes]

It truly does sucks, but for anyone who buys any statues and figures from companies like Sideshow, Prime 1 etc, know the usual get out of jail free card that manufacturers tend to use to defend their position, that just because their production pieces are hand assembled/hand painted items that they will nearly always differ ‘slightly’ from what has been promoted to customers.

Then then question becomes what is more than slightly? In the statue/figure game, the divide can be quite wide and dependant on their customer service, returning a piece can either be an easy process or a truly painful one.

 

[JiminSTLouis]

I sent them an email demanding a refund based on their fraud. We will see.

Unfortunately it’s not fraud based on the terms you agreed to when ordering:

11.Purchases Made through the Site​

All descriptions of the Products and the Services, and pricing thereof are subject to change at any time without notice, at the sole discretion of us.

 

[JiminSTLouis]

Tomy better provide return shipping labels. Otherwise, we’ll find out if you can “return to sender” a package this big.

Shipping costs of any returns are the responsibility of the customer:

12.Crowd-Funded Products​

Returns and Refunds
We cannot accept for return or replacement any item that has been opened, unless it arrived damaged. If a refund is issued, the purchase price of the item plus applicable sales tax will be credited. You will be responsible to pay the return shipping costs.

 

[Miles Kendig]

The difference with this versus the usual statue figure is that the project heads were out there continuously promising such and such would or would not be on the actual production piece we'd receive. There was no hedging or cautioning. Everything was emphatically stated as "this is what we will make sure you get".

It's because of that, that many will be PO'd-. Despite when you compare what you are still getting here, as imperfect as it is, for $600 (a full shipped price) to just about anything else in the collectible figure/ship community.
How much is a 12" Hot Toys figure with die-cast elements? How much is a 32" x 13" x 20" resin-composite diorama? How much is shipping on top of it?
But no, it's not what was promised over, and over, and over.

It's going to take a little more money, and a little more skill and work on the part of the owners, to get this closer to what people expected.
But I have faith that people here can bridge that gap. When people see it can be done, I think people will start viewing this a bit differently.

Bottom line is- there is going to be a lot of disappointed customers out there ready to unload these for a little over what they paid, just to break even. People with skill sets and experience are going to snap them up, put the work in (far less than a full kit build would entail) and end up with something worth multiples of what they put into it.

May take a little while, but I'm certain that is what will happen.

 

[Ant1988]

The difference with this versus the usual statue figure is that the project heads were out there continuously promising such and such would or would not be on the actual production piece we'd receive. There was no hedging or cautioning. Everything was emphatically stated as "this is what we will make sure you get".

It's because of that, that many will be PO'd-. Despite when you compare what you are still getting here, as imperfect as it is, for $600 (a full shipped price) to just about anything else in the collectible figure/ship community.
How much is a 12" Hot Toys figure with die-cast elements? How much is a 32" x 13" x 20" resin-composite diorama? How much is shipping on top of it?
But no, it's not what was promised over, and over, and over.

It's going to take a little more money, and a little more skill and work on the part of the owners, to get this closer to what people expected.
But I have faith that people here can bridge that gap. When people see it can be done, I think people will start viewing this a bit differently.

Bottom line is- there is going to be a lot of disappointed customers out there ready to unload these for a little over what they paid, just to break even. People with skill sets and experience are going to snap them up, put the work in (far less than a full kit build would entail) and end up with something worth multiples of what they put into it.

May take a little while, but I'm certain that is what will happen.

True. There are some elements of the piece that look well done. The little bridge, the shuttle bay etc. Im thinking the metal made it difficult to make these look seamless. Not giving them an excuse because they should not have promised it.

As for redoing the entire thing. Would it even be worth it??? With the piece being so heavy and I'm thinking about a dozen pieces screwed together.....would anything less then welding all the pieces not crack over time with differing temperature and movement of the piece????

A lot of work indeed.

As for price.....people pay a lot for Enterprises that look like toys. I'm sure these will gain value over time. There are many collectors of Enterprises out there that would pay for it....

 

[Ant1988]

Shipping costs of any returns are the responsibility of the customer:

12.Crowd-Funded Products​

Returns and Refunds
We cannot accept for return or replacement any item that has been opened, unless it arrived damaged. If a refund is issued, the purchase price of the item plus applicable sales tax will be credited. You will be responsible to pay the return shipping costs.

Yeah returning it sounds like a pain in the butt...

 

[Phoenixblazes]

Here’s a few photos.

More to come.

 

[Ant1988]

Here’s a few photos.

More to come.

Well one good thing. The color looks correct. The last update they did whoever took the photo did a poor job at lighting the photo...

 

[Phoenixblazes]

My initial thoughts are that I don’t regret my purchase at all. But obviously I wish they had followed through with their promises.

If you can get past the seams and plugs, the piece does look great. My first thought was that I would display it from its Port side, so I wouldn’t need to see the plug holes on the secondary hull. However that leads to the stand for the saucer section obscuring part of the secondary hull, as the stand is placed at an odd angle. Because of that it may actually be better to display it from the Starboard side.


With the lights on, it really brings it to life. But given that they’re powered by batteries, it’s not something that you can leave switched on 24/7. I truly wish it were powered via cable/s.

With regards to the motors, when I was holding the secondary hull in my hands, the motor sounds were extremely quiet. So quiet I had to put it right up to my ears to really hear them well. But once I placed it on the base, the motor sounds increased quite a bit, as I’m assuming it’s vibrating through the base and the IKEA furniture I had it on top of.

Even though the motors have 3 speed settings, I don’t visibly notice much of a change.

Because of it’s diecast materials, it’s got quite a bit of heft. And even though they’ve got a base for both the saucer and secondary hull, I don’t really trust the saucer’s base holding up the saucer on its own over the long term. So I’ll definitely be having the saucer bolted to the secondary hull. The base is pretty much made out of various plastics, with not much weight at all. I’m thinking they should’ve used a sturdier material.

I don’t know much about the paint accuracy, but it and the placement of the various decals all over the ship are extremely clean, with no misalignments at all.

Given the price they charged, I personally think the production piece is well worth it. If only they didn’t over promise, this I think would’ve been well received.


I‘ll post some photos of it assembled in a couple of hours.

 

[JiminSTLouis]

My initial thoughts are that I don’t regret my purchase at all. But obviously I wish they had followed through with their promises.

Nice write up! I look forward to your next set of pictures. I’m curious if the saucer support rod is actually needed when the ship is assembled. The dots on the bottom of the saucer look strange. I wonder if they show up more in photos than to the naked eye. The nacelle caps look less orange than in TOMY’s last update.

 

[Lost in Trek]

I didn’t order one so have no skin in the game…
Out of curiosity, were the promises to cover the holes and seams made before or after the go fund me?

Either way they should have done that but if people committed before then there was no expectation made that would be done.

 

[Fizzbin]

Well one good thing. The color looks correct. The last update they did whoever took the photo did a poor job at lighting the photo...

I think they were trying to hide the additional stand and make the screw plugs the least noticeable as possible.

 

[dbrussee]

Thanks for the detailed photos and reviews! Helps to see it in totality vs. close-ups of its flaws. Happy surprise that the bridge and hanger deck are lit -- I'm not sure I remember that those were ever discussed; at least, I didn't expect them. Yes, screw cover inserts are appalling. There was clearly over-promising by TOMY. It happens, but it should've been addressed and explained when/as it was discovered ("We tried real hard but found that blah blah accommodations had to be made to work with manufacturing blah blah..."). Just going silent is totally unacceptable.

 

[Ant1988]

I didn’t order one so have no skin in the game…
Out of curiosity, were the promises to cover the holes and seams made before or after the go fund me?

Either way they should have done that but if people committed before then there was no expectation made that would be done.

Before, during and after crowdfund and during production. Here is a video from April when they said we would not see them...

I noticed that Tomy has took down the video but YouTubers had already referenced it...

Right around the 3:30 point .....

 

[Captain Dunsel]

Before, during and after crowdfund and during production. Here is a video from April when they said we would not see them...

I noticed that Tomy has took down the video but YouTubers had already referenced it...

Right around the 3:30 point .....

“…these ‘fill holes’…these ‘plugs’…will be completely Bondo’ed and sanded over and you won’t even see those again…”

 

[Phoenixblazes]

Another batch of photos.

 

[Ron]

Another batch of photos.

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Nice pictures! What a shame as it looks like a really nice model otherwise.

 

[Phoenixblazes]

Last batch of current photos.

 

[JiminSTLouis]

Last batch of current photos.

Thanks for the pictures! It looks like I’ll be displaying mine on the starboard side because of that stand for the saucer. That seam on the saucer is disappointing. That is probably the easiest to fI’d prior to paint. The nacelles look nice and straight and level.

Did you try to display it without the saucer support?