71 replies to this topic

[Zodou]

Okay, I just received an email from Chris Myers at DST and he said he would replace my ship. All I have to do is break off one of the nacelles, send it to them and they'll send me a new ship. Hopefully the new one is in better condition than the last one! lol

[Zodou]

Oh and for those that do not know this, unless somethings changed in my 20 years of collecting, when a dealer like New Force trades you a new product, they have to eat it. I'm almost sure of it. Of course I'm new to the hobby. LOL

BTW That's not what the DST customer service rep told me over the phone. He said they won't replace a customers merch directly, that we must go through the retailer and that they (DST) would send a replacment to the retailer (In this case Newforce). And now I get an email from Chris Myers saying they'll do the exact opposite!

I guess the moral of the story is, never assume the first person you talk to knows what's going on.

[JMW326]

Chris is always good about going the extra mile to help out. I just contact him directly now when I have a problem.

[Zapp Brannigan]

Today I received both the ISS & HD in the mail from New Force.

My overall impression of the ISS is favorable, 4/5.

There really wasn

[Commodore Kor'Tar]

You know it just occured to me that with all these lemon HD ships and lemon Ent-Ds out there and AA's break off a nacelle and send it us us policy that there are going to be alot of non working , one nacelled ships out there , throw on a bit of black paint to simulate battle damage and take some pics and we could post pics and create our own poor-man's Wolf 359 lol

[FHC]

BTW That's not what the DST customer service rep told me over the phone. He said they won't replace a customers merch directly, that we must go through the retailer and that they (DST) would send a replacement to the retailer (In this case Newforce). And now I get an email from Chris Myers saying they'll do the exact opposite!

I guess the moral of the story is, never assume the first person you talk to knows what's going on.

I do not know current policy on these things I'm just speaking from 20 some years of collecting.

[VulcanFanatic]

The more posts i read here about these ships the less enthusiastic i am about ever buying any more of them unless i happen to see them at a store and can verify that they look good and the electronics work. I am getting tired of returning internet purchases. The convienence of online purchasing goes out the window when you have to repackage the item and make a trip to a post office during lunch time, wait in line and wait weeks more for the item you paid for to return to you.

[Whirlygig]

I do not know current policy on these things I'm just speaking from 20 some years of collecting.

I find it odd that DST customer service is easily contacted by and responds to end collectors (particularly ones who made purchases from anywhere other than their online store), given that they quite often revert to the "end collectors are not our customers, retailers are our customers" line of defense...

I still haven't gotten either of the new ships yet, despite having ordered them months and months ago from ShopAFX.com.

[Zodou]

You know it just occured to me that with all these lemon HD ships and lemon Ent-Ds out there and AA's break off a nacelle and send it us us policy that there are going to be alot of non working , one nacelled ships out there , throw on a bit of black paint to simulate battle damage and take some pics and we could post pics and create our own poor-man's Wolf 359 lol

Anyone want to send thier damaged one nacelled TOS ships to me feel free!

[Alex]

Okay, I just received an email from Chris Myers at DST and he said he would replace my ship. All I have to do is break off one of the nacelles, send it to them and they'll send me a new ship. Hopefully the new one is in better condition than the last one! lol

Zodou--

Any chance you could tell me how long it took DST to reply to you? I haven't heard back from them yet and I'm worried that they're going to run out of HD ships before they get around to telling me to break off the nacelle from the lemon that they sold me. I mean, I just want to get this defective ship out my basement as quickly as possible, and get the replacement that DST should be sending me, but they've yet to offer me so much as an e-mail.

FHC, I think you're right in most cases, but I think DST might be doing "damage control" here and trying a new method. This wouldn't be the first time DST has done something unorthodox either; look at the waterslide decals they're sending out for the Ent-Ds.

As far as "poor-man's Wold 359" goes, I wonder, does DST specify which nacelle to break off? Maybe a couple people could break off the right one on their damaged ships and a couple could break off the left one, and someone with modeling skills could turn our space junk into a U.S.S. Constellation or other ship that met an unfortunate end. It beats just throwing these away. I figure that between the HD, Cage, and WNMHGB ships I have that are defective, I might be able to throw together a single functional ship.

Also, if this is such a widespread problem on the HD ship, I really hope DST comes forward about it like they did with the 1701-D window debacle. For some reason, this mold just produces lousy ships. Whether it's the factory, the mold itself, or something else, I don't know, I just know I've had more problems with stuff coming from the 1701 mold than any other.

Oh, VulcanFanatic, it's not all of DST's ships that are like this, it really seems to be the 1701 mold that produces the most duds. Maybe it's because their are more ships from that mold being produced than others (I'd certainly hope not) when variants are counted, but I constantly hesitate to purchase anything from the 1701 mold because of the exact problems we're talking about here. The 1701-A mold (used for the TWOK ship as well) is excellent and I've never had a problem with it.

The light-bleed is probably because DST was using the same plastic that they used when their ships had "rice bulbs," and they didn't expect the LEDs to cause such a major light-bleed issue. Remember, the TWOK 1701 was also the first DST ship to use LEDs (the 1701-E was the last to use rice bulbs,) so I can forgive them for the excess light bleed on what was arguably a new technology for them at the time. If the reissue has the same translucent plastic, then we can complain, because DST has demonstrated that they know how to block out light bleed now--just look at any ship produced after the TWOK 1701's initial run.

Seriously, VulcanFanatic, check out DST's Enterprise-A if you can find one; it's an excellent ship, it uses the same mold as the TWOK ship, but it doesn't suffer from the light bleed issue, proving that the LEDs were the cause of said problem, and probably won't be an issue on new TWOK ships. Look at the AGT-D and Enterprise-D toys, both are well built and DST replaced any defective ships relatively quickly, and offered decals for the missing detail on the standard Ent-D. Despite what some people have said, the Enterprise-E is an excellent toy. It's far better than anything Playmates ever built, it's better than most model kits of the ship, (Thomas E. Johnson can attest to its accuracy,) and it really is a good toy that just needs to be reissued with LEDs--especially in the blue portion of the warp nacelle, a "play cover" or retooled battery cover that's like the one on the Enterprise-D, and maybe some additional detailing on the top of the nacelle pylons. However, it's one of DST's best designs to date. The NX-01's first run was good with the exception of the warp nacelle problem (Art Asylum was using Playmates' playbook for separable engines,) on the first batch of ships, but every reissue and variant has been solid. Give me DST's ships over Playmates' ships any day. The 1701 from TOS just seems to be problematic for DST, I don't know why, but it's this one mold that seems to have the same problems pop up on every run; whether it's at a different factory than the other ships, or built to different quality control standards I don't know, but don't let one poorly designed ship turn you off from DST's good designs.

Finally, let me be clear, my complaint here is less about returning the defective ship, or opening it and snapping off a nacelle than it is about receiving yet another defective ship from this particular mold. I'm not happy that I had to chase down The Cage and WNMHGB versions of the 1701 on eBay because the ones I received from Rick were sold long after DST stopped producing them and both were defective. I'm not happy that I seem to be dealing with the same problem yet again on the HD 1701 of DST drags their feet, and if I had money to blow, I'd just purchase another HD 1701, keep trying to get DST to replace the defective one, and then sell the replacement to cover the money I spent on the second ship in case DST didn't deliver, but that's what's bothering me: I shouldn't have to spend money on a second ship "in case DST doesn't deliver."

Oh, one more thing, I looked on Newforce, BBTS, and Entertainment Earth just in case I wanted to do what I just mentioned. Newforce lists the HD 1701 as being "out of stock," BBTS still has it listed as a "pre-order" item, and EE has it listed as "temporarily out of stock." I wonder, did all of these places actually sell out of the HD 1701, or did DST get wind of the problems that we're having tell the retailers to pull the ships while they go back and work out the bugs? If it's the latter, I just wish DST would level with us; I believe the cliche that would apply here is "it's not the crime, it's the cover-up."

[Zodou]

^
Alex,

I emailed DST last Friday and received a response yesterday. I don't think it matters which nacelle you break off (I dissasembled mine) just as long as you send one, I took off the Starboard (right) nacelle, which was the one with the glue smear.

[Zapp Brannigan]

You know it just occured to me that with all these lemon HD ships and lemon Ent-Ds out there and AA's break off a nacelle and send it us us policy that there are going to be alot of non working , one nacelled ships out there , throw on a bit of black paint to simulate battle damage and take some pics and we could post pics and create our own poor-man's Wolf 359 lol

I plan on simulating battle damage by using the BBQ lighter, and then eventually lighting the whole thing up and watching it melt on the driveway. Oh how it will remind me of when I was young and I use to torch my AMT/Ertl models. No matter how easy those directions were, I still sucked at putting them together, even the snap on ones. I was only doing those models a favor

[Alex]

^
Alex,

I emailed DST last Friday and received a response yesterday. I don't think it matters which nacelle you break off (I dissasembled mine) just as long as you send one, I took off the Starboard (right) nacelle, which was the one with the glue smear.

Zoudou, thanks for the info; I'll be waiting to hear from DST within the week. I'll probably attempt to "dissasemble' the nacelle myself once they request it; I have a feeling that attempting to break it off will only result in the skin on my fingers breaking and being bandaged up. The irony here is that your ship and my ship both have glue (and maybe paint in my case) smeared on the starboard nacelle...and now I have Star Trekkin' by "The Firm" stuck in my head with that line about "Klingons on the starboard bow;" ah well, what can ya do? I just hope DST replies to me within a week from when I e-mailed them, and if this is such a widespread problem, I really wish they'd make a statement about it like they did with the Ent-D's missing windows. Honestly, someone came up with a good name for the other problem my ship has, "split hull syndrome," now if only we had a name for those voice chips that sound like their coming from a tin can. I mean geez, the only compliment that I can give my HD 1701 is that the box is pristine, of course that'll change once DST makes me open it. I'm seriously tempted to take video of the thing so people can see just how damaged the ship actually is.

Zapp Brannnigan, if I didn't want to potentially inhale toxic plastic fumes, I'd admittedly consider this for one of my defective ships to get accurate damage on what would become the "U.S.S. Constellation," but I think there's probably a better way to achieve that effect and still have a semi-functional ship.

[Hirogen]

Why did DST change the sound effets on the ship? It clearly states on the box there is phaser effects but nothing when I cycle through. Also, anyone having issues with the ship falling off the stand? Sometime I walk by and it is laying on the floor still attatched to the piece that holds it to the base.

[yiggy]

Can someone post pictures of the trouble areas for the rest of us? Thanks!

-Y

[Prometheus]

My HD arrived today..... It has some minor problems..... but not too bad. The paint is messed up in a few places and my port nacelle is split at the end..... I'll post some pictures.

[Prometheus]

Here are some pics ( Sorry not the greatest)











The windows arent painted on the AB Deck in this 3rd photo.

[Prometheus]

I took a Sharpie permanent marker and put on the windows on the AB Deck. Here is what it looks like now.....

[Alex]

Can someone post pictures of the trouble areas for the rest of us? Thanks!

-Y

Yiggy--

I have pictures that I'll be posting shortly; I had to open my ship once Chris Myers replied to my e-mail to DST with the "break off the nacelle" message. If anyone knows how to get those "screw covers" off of the nacelles so I can unscrew, rather than actually "break" the nacelles if this happens in the future, I'd appreciate some tips. (I really didn't want to break the nacelle, but I had no choice.)

As far as defects go, my ship was worse out of the box than it was inside it; in addition to the noted defects, my saucer section looked like it had extra "gold" paint on it similar to a very light coat of what's on the "rust ring" section. That's not even the worst of it though. The whole saucer just looked scuffed and damaged. Also, the screw covers were missing from this hull of the ship. The saucer and engines (go figure) had them, but the secondary hull had visible screws like the old playmates style ships.

The nacelles also had more paint damage that I initially missed.

Having actually opened the ship, I'm disappointed in the lack of sounds; the "try me" sound isn't even in the regular set of FX; we have a bunch of Kirk voice clips, a photon torpedo, the transporter, and warp drive, and that's pretty much it. There are far more FX on the original ship unless my FX chip was damaged and missing sounds, which honestly wouldn't surprise me; this ship was a real dud. The only positive I noticed was that the "orange slice" (buzzard collectors?) portion of the nacelles now have LEDs that "rotate" to green briefly which creates a "spinning" effect. I'm sure that once DST sends my replacement ship, that'll be a nice touch, but my current ship is such a mess that even the engine improvement (on what's now a one-nacelled ship) seems like little consolation.

Pictures are coming soon guys, I just have to pull them from my camera; some came out pretty well, others didn't come out as well as I wanted. There was one large crack above the sensor dish I really wanted to have a picture of, but the flash kept washing said crack out.

['E']

I got my replacement today from EE and I have to says it looks pretty good. I could nitpick but there's really no major problem with the new ship I got. I still think the sound effects suck, though.