14 replies to this topic

[TheHSBR]

I just got one boxed off of ebay for less than $20 shipped and I have to say what a great ship. I love the gold paint app and the stand is very cool. It has the extra 7th anniversary metalicized delta and the TNG logo on the base. I was really surprised by these "extras" from the regular release. I only put on a few of the main stickers as opposed to all the cargo bay doors and little lights because i think simpler is better. Ill hopefully take a few pics soon but...WOW... what a great ship!! Now I just need DSTs TOS Gold ship!

[FHC]

I have one but I have never taken it out of the box. How about a few photos? The gold Enterprise D has always been one that you either love it or hate it.

[slayerone76]

I always thought mine was pretty cool ... until I left the batteries in too long causing them to leak and eat the paint away on the bottom. I will have to pick another one up again some day.

[Frontier]

For all the good and variety Playmates did for Trek Toys, I truly dislike their ships. Ships are something that, IMHO, have no room for error. They can be made to be perfect scaled replicas of the original filming models or digital models. It's not the same as an action figure, or even an accessory like a phaser, which can have a little artistic license. I have always felt the ships need to be 100% spot on or not done at all - something Playmates did not achieve, and which is why I've sold most of my Playmates over the years, to date only keeping my Voyager and DS9 (as no superior AA/DST variant exists yet) and my non-functional 1701-D which I've given to my 2 year old nephew, who likes to watch the "Prise go!" LOL.

I'm actually a little worried about what the Trek XI toys will turn out like - will they be the "90% identical" representations, or will they be the 98% aiming for 100% like the AA/DST stuff?

[TheHSBR]

Using that philosophy the only ships you would get would be the MR studio replicas. I think the Playmates ships wre very good for the time period that they came out and to me they have truly withstoof the test of time. I dont need perfectly accurate ships just like I dont need perfectly accurate figures. Yes its nice when more effort is put into them but certainly I dont think anything playmates or DST has done should be considered bad for the general collecting community. I personally would rather see more ships made that have playmates like quality than have a singualar version of an extremely accurate ship.

[New Frontier]

it must be noted that DST's toys are not as accurate as your saying Frontier. the Classic Enterprise for example has a few error's in scaling on it - the shuttle-bay for example is too small. The Enterprise - E is another one, this time it's missing detail and lifeboats (it's like the titanic of starfleet) plus the paint job is not accurate to the computer model used in the NG films. as TheHSBR said, if you wanted as accurate as your saying then by rights the MR Enterprise would be the only ship you'd have.

I don't think PM ships were bad - the defiant was awesome, DS9, Klingon Vor'cha battle ship, the Classic Enterprise and Classic Romulan ship were good (although there was a bit of saggage to my warp nacelles) and of course Playmates favorite ship, the Enterprise - D was pretty damn good - plus their Klingon BoP and their Borg ships. However yes they have had their moments when they've lacked: The Enterprise E both versions being the most noticeable one lacking in everything from looks to sounds. Voyager with those motors under it, the dull Romulan ship. et... however as toys go they were cool to have when you were of that age. nowerday's people want toys to look like their from the movie their made from so the new Enterprise needs to look like the Enterprise in the movie.

What worries me is that Playmates have only their past Star Trek toys to go on - their only action adventure license is TNMNT and errrm well that's hardly Star Trek. However, as Hasbro was the other company bidding for the license, Playmates must have impressed CBS consumer products with their line enough to go with them rather than THE biggest toy company on the planet.

[TheHSBR]

Im hoping to do pictures today

[knightone]

...TheHSBR said, if you wanted as accurate as your saying then by rights the MR Enterprise would be the only ship you'd have.

There were plenty of people who were unsatisfied with the accuracy and quality of the MR Enterprise. The only way to get a truly accurate and completely satisfactory replica would be to have a professional model maker study the actual models or a 3D scan of them and recreate it exactly with someone double checking each step and you giving your input. Since most of us don't have the time and money to go that route, I think DST has done a much better job than Playmates in regards to both style and accuracy considering they cost less than $50 and are mass produced overseas. For a similar price range, the DST ships were mostly chunky and clunky in comparison. So DST has a few minor details wrong here and there, they are still more accurate and stylistically much better than the Playmates releases.

[FHC]

Everyone

I have yet to see a ship released by anyone that did not have some very cool points to it. I have a clock radio built into an Enterprise E I could point out have some major issues, it's still cool though.

[TheHSBR]

as promised

tow thing to note are the stand and the warp nacelles. The stand has the extra gold logo with collectors number and the TNG logo on the base. As for the nacelles they are permanently attached to the ship.





PS...imageshack is not loading very fast today so I will have to update this later and I guess just leave you with the two for now! I have about 10 more.

[reverie]

That's pretty sharp looking!

[BadBunnyMike]

The Gold Enterprise was the First Enterprise D I got when it came out. I was only a kid then, and didn't relaize how limited it was, so of course I opened it up and played with it. I brought it out to play with my friends ships, they had the Romulan Warbird and stuff...so yeah now mine has no sounds and is like this dull gold. I need to pick up another one!!

[Alex]

Wow, someone who decaled their gold Enterprise-D; You're a very brave man HSBR! Seriously, I couldn't bring myself to decal my gold 1701-D, and I'm kicking myself for opening it.

Speaking of the Gold Enterprise-D, is it just me, or did Playmates change the sound chip between the "standard" release from 1992 and the "gold" variant? If anyone else has both ships, please try this and let me know that I'm not out of my mind: First, play the "impulse engine" (top button) sound on both ships--the "gold" 1701-D's sound lasts longer and is much clearer and more accurate than the original release. Second, go to warp by pressing the second button on the ship. The "gold" 1701-D has a version again has a clearer and more accurate warp drive effect--it might be longer to, but I can't really tell. The original release of the ship has a "crackly" sound to it. Third, test out your phasers by using the third button on the ship. The original release sounds "tinny" and almost like a "Looney Toons" stick of dynamite going off for lack of a better term. The gold 1701-D once again has a clearer and more accurate phaser sound leading up to the big "boom" at the end. As far as I can tell, the only thing that's the same is the photo torpedo sound effect.

So am I nuts, or is there an actual "difference" outside of the paint scheme and inclusion of a display stand between these two ships? Any help would be appreciated.

As far as the "gold" 1701-D itself goes, personally I like it, but I recommend not decaling it--if you leave the decals off it looks like a "ready-room" piece. Some people can't stand the gold 1701-D for the "gimmick factor," but if someone can confirm that I'm right about the sound FX being different on the "gold" ship versus the regular one, then I'm going to have to go find two more "gold" 1701-Ds. One to keep in the box (remember, I'm an idiot who opened his gold 1701-D and never bought a second one,) and one to cannibalize to "fix" his standard 1701-D's sound FX.

Finally, if TheHSBR could take some pictures of the bottom of the ship decaled, I would love to see them.

[TheHSBR]

The warp engine sound is definately longer. I dont know if the other two are longer but as you said they are clearer. As for the ship itself I think I picked it off ebay for about $30 shipped. You just have to wait for an auction style listing and they are pretty reasonable pricing. I dont have any pic of the bottom of the ship but here are a few other that I had on my pc:







Its really one of my favorite ships.

[Alex]

Out of curiosity, I just checked the display base on my Gold 1701-D, and adding insult to injury, it's collector's #00364 out of 50,000...now I'm really kicking myself for opening it.

The warp engine sound is definately longer. I dont know if the other two are longer but as you said they are clearer.

The warp engine or the impulse engine? (Impulse engine is the very top button--warp is the second button.) I just set off my Gold and "Standard" 1701-D next to each other and the impulse engine sounds are remarkably different. The original ship has a "crackly" sound that's analogous to static on an AM radio while the gold ship has a believable impulse engine effect. The impulse engine is definitely longer--I could walk across the room before it went off on the gold 1701-D; the original version of the ship goes off within seconds.

This of course raises the question, "why didn't Playmates reissue their "classic" 1701-D with updated sound FX," and/or "why didn't Playmates use the superior sound chip from the gold 1701-D in the first place?" I honestly wish I had an answer for the first of these questions--by the time I got my gold 1701-D off of eBay in the late-90s, my original ship from 1992 was already looking kind of banged up and I'd have gladly purchased another one for display purposes--especially if it came with a display stand the way the "Generations" and gold 1701-Ds did. As for the second question, the only thing I can think of is that the technology for a superior sound chip didn't exist in 1992, but by the time the gold 1701-D was released, Playmates either had an improved sound chip or an improved method of transferring the sound to the chip.

As for the ship itself I think I picked it off ebay for about $30 shipped. You just have to wait for an auction style listing and they are pretty reasonable pricing. I dont have any pic of the bottom of the ship but here are a few other that I had on my pc.

$30 sounds about right; I think that's about what mine cost off of eBay, I know the ship shows up for auction every now and then, so here's to hoping. Thanks for the additional pics of ship HSBR. I've always wondered what it'd look like decaled but as I mentioned before, I couldn't bring myself to decal the one I have on my shelf--after most of the decals had worn off of my "classic" 1701-D I decided not to take any chances with my gold 1701-D. Likewise, my Enterprise-B has no hull markings on it for the same reason... of course when AA/DST release the Enterprise-B and Excelsior, I'll likely box up my Playmates ship and put the AA/DST version on display and the lack of hull markings will change.

Its really one of my favorite ships.

I'll be honest, it's hard not to like the Playmates 1701-Ds, in part because it's probably one of Playmates' best molds and most well-designed ships. Sure, even as a kid back in 1992 I was disappointed with the lack of saucer separation, (again, AA/DST is about to fix that problem,) but that and the perpetually detached warp nacelles were really my only gripes with the Playmates 1701-D. Ironically, the nacelles on the gold 1701-D don't come off AFAIK, and the "Generations" ship fixed the warp nacelle problem as well, so I guess my only gripe with the ship is the lack of saucer separation, which in retrospect I'm guessing Playmates couldn't do back in 1992.

Everything else though from the ship's proportions, to the light-up nacelles, to the number of sounds on the ship to the ship's color seemed excellent though, and as a kid that made the Playmates 1701-D one of my favorite toys. I felt that the "Generations" ship could have had better sounds and I was admittedly disappointed with the "battle damage" Playmates created for it, and that admittedly played a role in my affinity for AA/DST's battle-damaged ships which are far more accurate. However, in defense of the "Generations" 1701-D, Playmates did fix those pesky warp nacelles and managed to have the common sense to include a display stand, which became something I wish the original 1701-D had come with as I grew older and "stored" my ships on their stands rather than on the floor

The gold Enterprise-D is definitely my favorite variant of the original Playmates ship though--the improved sounds, the display stand, the warp nacelles not flying off, coupled with a "ready-room" style ship really make it a toy that I'm fond of. Likewise, this is probably one of Playmates' best molds as I mentioned before, and the gold 1701-D is an excellent example of what Playmates did right.

For some reason it just seems to me like the Playmates ship line got progressively worse sometime after TNG ended. The "Generations" 1701-D had its moments, but overall the toy was a let-down, the Defiant needed better paint apps, the Enterprise-E was a disaster with the First Contact version quite possibly being Playmates' worst ship ever, and while I love the "gold" buzzard collectors on Voyager, the inaccuracy of them drives me nuts. However, the one ship that Playmates seemed to do really well with was the 1701-D. In fact, my gold 1701-D and AA/DST Enterprise-E are on the same shelf which I've reserved for my two favorite starships, and that's saying something. (For the record, the AA/DST Enterprise-E "dethroned" a Playmates INS Enterprise-E on the aforementioned shelf.)

I never could find AA/DST's gold 1701 to go with my gold 1701-D from Playmates, which is really a shame. Maybe one day AA/DST will make a gold 1701-E and I'll be able to display each ship named "Enterprise" commanded by Captain Picard next to each other in gold. (And if AA/DST is looking for another 1701-E variant, I hope that they have someone reading this.)