JiminSTLouis
Sr Member
Maybe you could post side-by-side pictures?
Enterprise from Catspaw
- Thread starter Ronldheld
- Start date
WinstonWolf359
Sr Member
It seems like whoever is making these for Factory underestimated the process of getting these right, and seems to be sending out their first tries. Hopefully as they get better at pouring the resin correctly (and not bending the $#! out of the ship in the process) there could be hope for an improvement down the road. I'm just surprised that there isn't a QC standard set high enough to catch some of the really bad ones, and even the good ones posted so far aren't really all that good, they're just lucky-er than some others.
I wonder if Factory is even looking at these as they arrive stateside, or if they're just blindly shipping whatever they get in hand.
I wonder if Factory is even looking at these as they arrive stateside, or if they're just blindly shipping whatever they get in hand.
The Factory Entertainment lucite-encased Enterprise is truly incredible, and the perfect addition to my "Catspaw" props collection. A friend encased a Rylo version (slightly smaller) several years ago -- which has started to yellow just like the original in the Smithsonian. SDStudios has a few of the "Sylvia and Korab" dioramas left, and another prop friend fabricated amazing Transmuter crystal replicas a few years ago. I don't much care for this TOS episode, but the props of "Catspaw" are amazing!
alensatemybuick
Well-Known Member
Got mine today. It seems not to suffer from the worst of the QC issues some others experienced. Side by side with the "NicksDad" piece, some differences can be noted, and it is definitely a bit bigger (I don't think that's an optical illusion). I'd say if it missed the mark at all, it'd be in some "steps" on the saucer being too sharply defined compared to the original. Still, I think it's great.
By the way, here's a letter referring - obliquely - in the first paragraph to the donation of the original Catspaw Enterprise and the Klingon ship by Matt Jefferies to NASM.
By the way, here's a letter referring - obliquely - in the first paragraph to the donation of the original Catspaw Enterprise and the Klingon ship by Matt Jefferies to NASM.
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Yikes I'm not to happy with these pictures. I ordered two. One for me and another for a friend. I will decide if I want to keep them. If I return them I won't want a replacement. I never expected a 100% match with the original. They said as much in all the articles I read. It's close to the original was implied, so I knew that getting into it. But crazy crooked like some of the pictures I saw is unacceptable. The original is almost 100% perfectly centered and level.
Anyhow I have no qualms about getting my cash back. They have over 500 of these left yet and it's not exactly setting the collectable fandom on fire.(They made 1000) I guess it could be a sought after collectable one day but I doubt it.
Looks like Okuda got the best one ..lol. he has promoted it both on x and Instagram the last few days. I'm betting he was gifted one. Which is understandable...
Anyhow I have no qualms about getting my cash back. They have over 500 of these left yet and it's not exactly setting the collectable fandom on fire.(They made 1000) I guess it could be a sought after collectable one day but I doubt it.
Looks like Okuda got the best one ..lol. he has promoted it both on x and Instagram the last few days. I'm betting he was gifted one. Which is understandable...
alensatemybuick
Well-Known Member
Yeah I'm waiting but dang it doesn't look promising. I will be getting them Wednesday. Will let people know what I get.
Right. Their description of the ship said based on. So it's close but not exact. Which I don't mind. From the pictures it's a little sharper in areas than the actual prop. But it was a nice presentation.
Well, the original was a one-off, hand-made aluminum ship encased in hand-poured acrylic…while these are massed produced items.
“Kmart sucks, Ray…”
WinstonWolf359
Sr Member
It's just a shame that Factory's, um, factory, couldn't do even close to as good as something turned out quickly 60 years ago on equipment that was probably old in the 60s.
I said something similar in the TNG tricorder thread but it really seems like every one of Factory's Trek items is designed to be as cheap/easy for their factory to produce as possible, and the lack of accuracy is defended by calling it idealization and not the cost-cutting it obviously is.
This should have been a slam dunk for them, since not only are the Smithsonian's reference photos really good, but there are plenty of replicas that are more accurate than their final product that they could have used. It's like EVERY one of their products goes from first prototype to final production with absolutely no notes.
Honestly, if it had simply been the case of the ship model not being 100% accurate I really wouldn't have cared all that much. It's the fact that they aren't able to consistently or correctly encase the ship in resin and seem to be shipping out their test runs/rejects that bothers me.
IMHO I think it sits too high in the acrylic.
WinstonWolf359
Sr Member
I just would like to see everything on the ship parallel. Exactly halfway in the block would be great (though seemingly beyond their abilities), but there's no excuse for the engines and the saucer to not be parallel with each other.
