Some great points. Yes, these are the toy versions. But yes, they look a lot like the real props. For example the communicator, which has already been revealed in prop form
The toy seems to have a thicker back black section. And where does the thumbwheel come from. Perhaps the prop flips open "magically", but the thumbwheel lets you crank the lid open manually.
The pivoting phaser barrel... well maybe it looks cooler in the film. Maybe it's not painted RED and BLUE. Maybe maybe maybe.
I'm seriously underwhelmed by that phaser. It reminds me of the fugly designs that were rejected for earlier movies, such as the Brick Price TMP phaser, or the Ed Kline phaser designs.
This new design is inelegant, overly busy, clunky looking. Its lines do not flow. Stuff just looks "stuck on" rather than made into an integrated whole.
Now granted, this is the Playmates toy version, and not the actual prop. So there's still a chance that something got lost in translation and the prop is actually not that bad. We shall see.
Comm... ugh. I may eventually grow to accept it like I have the WOK comm, but at this stage I'm still not impressed.
Tricorder. Well when I saw the tiny action figure accessory version, I thought it might have potential. Now I'm thinking it looks dumb, like the Mego version of the TOS tricorder. Or maybe some kind of Dell PDA from 1998.
The control panel and display "sticker" on the tricorder seem undesigned and clunky too. Things do not line up or seem balanced. Again, not elegant.
The Bridge.. well I still fail to "get" the Bridge. It looks like about three bridges just crammed together. The crew complement seems to be about 20 people on the Bridge, just way overmanned. Consoles point all sorts of directions... I guess the overall idea is to let everyone see the viewscreen, but there are still consoles at the rear that point backwards, just like TOS. And much like the Enterprise-E bridge, this set seems to have way too many little design elements and flourishes, giving it the ambiance of a luxury hotel lobby and not a command center.
The two versions of the ship... well as has been pointed out, maybe the "pennant" version is Kirk's command later on. The ship is apparently just being BUILT during the movie, so maybe it launches without all the "decals" in place, as it were.
OR perhaps it's alternate-universes again. Two timelines and two ships. We'll have to wait and see about that I guess.
None of this means I'm not going to see the movie of course. LOL
BUT it does mean I'm disappointed. I was really looking forward to loving the ship, and the sets, and the props. Right now I'm just not feeling it.
- k
