ShipNerd

Some may of remembered I had a boo boo with a missing screw cover on my 2013 TWOK .



Well anyways, A Customer Service Representative for Diamond Select Toys, named Amy took my case. She tried to get the part, tried to get a replacement ship..the problem was the Line in China was completed at that time. There was nothing she could do and she expressed an unusual amount of sympathy for someone who got a injured bird.

Fast forward 3 months into the future, She emails me regarding some moving around going around at DST and things had to go...she said she remembered me, and offered me ..I think...her ship. I was like blown away..I have never heard anyone do that before..in my ...frak...20 years of collecting Toy Starships. Amy sent the TWOK 2013 Starship she had to me arrived a few days ago.

I cannot emphasize enough that customer service of this type is nearly a non-existent thing in this world these days.  What Amy did was beyond any customer service Rep I have ever dealt with do for me. I mean she handles hundreds of customer issues different products..and recalls me?  Wow.

So Amy, A big 
 

Thanks a Million!
Live Long and Prosper!

ShipNerd

     The Romulan Warbird of Star Trek The Next Generation was unlike her predecessor from TOS.  She was HUGE. Far more Powerful, yet still Romulan with the use of her Cloaking Device.  Her technical name translated into Basic was the D`deridex Class Warbird. More than a match
for anything Starfleet could handle.  But the Romulans despite the enormous size of this vessel preferred subterfuge than outright confrontation.



The TNG Romulan Warbird was designed by Andrew Probert; The same artist who designed the Enterprise D.  Probert was well known and still is for many other projects outside Star Trek, for example Back to the Future's Delorean had a lot of Probert to her.

Interestingly enough, Probert visualized the Warbird designed along a Y-axis. Basically if you took the Playmates Warbird and put it on her Nacelle, upright like below. Her Engines ..and Beak were also designed to fit the Y axis. But the Producers of TNG wanted her to be along the lines of the
Enterprise D.  They also trimmed down the size of Probert's design as to not to dwarf Picard's Enterprise.  Years later Mr. Probert got a bit of fun revenge in a Ships of the Line Calendar (again a Calendar I recommend to all TrekToy board members) creating a Romulan CapitalShip even dwarfing
his original TNG Warbird design.



The Playmates Warbird had many features from Probert's original conceptual work.  The toy featured many odd "knob" like features on the ship.   I asked another Trektoy board visitor Wayne on what they were. We could not come to
a conclusion. There were at least Eight of them on the Toy. Four Aft, Two on top and two more on the beak.  Wayne finally just said..ask the guy.  I did not expect a response from his Blog site, but surprisingly I did. And we learned their true purpose. They were the equivalent of a Federation Starship's Phaser Arrays, except these were Knob-like Disruptor Arrays. When all considered the fields of fire from these "knobs" would protect the ship from all angles of attack.  A big thanks to Andrew Probert for solving our mystery!  On the  image below Red Circles are the "weapons Knobs" The Yellow oval highlights the sound buttons on the Playmates Warbird.  It's important to note the Knobs were never shown on any of the Star trek TV series doing what they were intended to be. Oh and that big primary weapon featured on TNG; on the Warbird's beak, Mr. Probert envisioned as a Nav Deflector!




Below you can see the Playmates Warbird Light up her Nacelle beautifully. You can also note the main disruptor array on the "Beak" of the Warbird (Which Prober mean to be a Nav Deflector) And one of two "Knobs" on the beak as well. Just imagine..if the artist had had his way..the Warbird would be firing not one but two Green beams Forward. One from each "Knob" on the "Beak's head.



So the Playmates Romulan Warbird in 1993 may not be up to level of sculpting as a AA or DST ship. But traces of her origins were actually correctly placed on the Toy!  As portrayed Below...perhaps there was meant to be only one "Bird" in the TNG-DS9-VOYAGER era.




(Note Toy Stand in for Klingon Bird of Prey in this shot is a "Hot Wheels" Star Trek Series Toy)

Shipnerd