This is a quick comment but uh Zack if you guys rerelease the Enterprise-E again you might want to strengthen the plastic on the nacelles. Ive got 2 and they've both developed large cracks near the screws.
Razorgeist, I believe you previously mentioned that your Enterprise–E was the most recent (2013) release and not the original one, correct? If so it might be worth making a note of that since it's a lot newer than the original (2006) release, and definitely shouldn't be fatiguing the way it sounds like yours are. Jay K, I would love to know if you're having the same issue as I have a few of these ships as well and would hope that they're not all damaged from a latent manufacturing flaw. Out of curiosity, I just checked my nearest original (2006) ship, and didn't see any cracking on that one, so if it is a widespread flaw, it's likely only in one of the more recent releases. (That still doesn't bode well for me, but at least it's not a flaw in every release.) I would also suggest sharing some photos just so Zach can see what you're describing and others know exactly what to look for.
The way I was thinking of displaying them wouldn't be lighted but I got to thinking about something that I wondered if were possible since I hadn't really ever seen it but it appears they do exist. An ac connector that takes the place of the standalone batteries that might allow the lights to run without running down batteries all the time. Has anyone ever used/tried one of these?
How this related more to the ships is that I have the first releases of the TOS Enterprise, the two pilots and the production version as well as the NX which as I understand it use what I've heard called rice bulbs? I don't really know anything about them other than I had seen they are less bright and have died in some cases so I was wondering where the new NX release uses LED's does the newer TOS Enterprise's as well? I guess the HD and what looks like another since the HD without the apparent rust ring?
The Ent D and B have always on lights right but not the Enterprise A, only like 20 seconds or something? Figured I would upgrade to the newer NX and the classic if it used LED's now as well.
Skippy, let me try and answer a couple of your questions.
1. To the best of my knowledge, no one has come up with an AC to DC converter that could power these ships off of a wall outlet (yet,) although it is an idea that some fans have proposed on AskDST before. The biggest engineering obstacle is that all of the ships use DC power and wall outlets use AC power, so you need some sort of transformer "brick" even if it's a small one to convert AC to DC power, and then a way to fit the connector into the various ships through the battery compartment, which isn't necessarily the easiest thing to do. If someone figures out how to do this though, I'm sure they're going to have quite a few requests for such a power system.
2. Rice bulbs are basically really tiny incandecent lightbulbs, which is why they burn out over time in a way that LEDs don't. All ships released prior to the TWOK 1701 used rice bulbs including the original NX–01 and its variants, the original Enterprise–A, and I believe the original "40th Anniversary" TOS 1701 and some of its variants as well. Note that the current NX–01 with voice clips, the new 1701–A, and newer TOS 1701s all use LEDs. Also, the "HD 1701" and the current 1701 are largely identical except some new voice clips have been added and the "HD" branding has been removed. The Enterprise–E is a bit of a unique situation; the first release only used rice bulbs, despite being released after the TWOK 1701. (This was because design on the ship began before the TWOK 1701 was released while everything was still in the hands of Art Asylum before DST bought them out, and there were supposedly some miscommuncations during the ship's initial development.) The newer releases added LEDs to the nacelles for a blue glow, but supposedly retained (very bright) rice bulbs for other lighting within the ship to make use of surplus circuit boards. Given what Razorgeist has mentioned though, I wouldn't mind seeing DST do another run of Enterprise–E's with new circuit boards and all–LED lighting as the icing on the cake for yet another upgraded reissue, and would definitely encourage it. (2016 would have been a good year for such a release too since it's First Contact's 20th anniversary as well as the overall franchises 50th anniversary.) As for the TOS Enterprise, I believe DST toned down the rust ring a bit on the most recent release, but the last time I looked into one, I believe the place I looked at was currently out of stock on them or I would have grabbed one.
3. The Enterprise–A has (I believe) a 15–second "lights on" mode unlike that of the newest TOS 1701, NX–01, Enterprise–D, and Enterprise–B. If you press the bridge dome on the Enterprise–A in "lights on" mode, you get an extra voice clip of Scotty though, which I found to be a nice bonus. Looking at that list, I think adding a "lights on" option to the Enterprise–E and keeping the current "cycle through all sounds" option should be part of a future update; it's the only ship on that list that doesn't have any lights on mode, and the only one outside of the Enterprise–A that doesn't have a perpetual lights on mode.
I hope that this is helpful to you Skippy!