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Has anyone ever disassembled a Playmates Enterprise-D?


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#1 Destructor!!!

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Posted 09 December 2010 - 08:43 PM

I want to upgrade the lighting rig, starting with my burnt-out starboard nacelle.

I was wondering if anyone has successfully taken one of these suckers apart, and had it live to fly another day? As I recall, I tried once before, but it seems like they glued them together, or snapped together, in addition to the screws.

I'm hoping someone has experience in this, and can post some guidelines on what to do and what to avoid?

It's the original issue of the toy, from '92.

#2 Commodore Kor'Tar

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Posted 09 December 2010 - 09:22 PM

QUOTE (Destructor!!! @ Dec 9 2010, 08:43 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I want to upgrade the lighting rig, starting with my burnt-out starboard nacelle.

I was wondering if anyone has successfully taken one of these suckers apart, and had it live to fly another day? As I recall, I tried once before, but it seems like they glued them together, or snapped together, in addition to the screws.

I'm hoping someone has experience in this, and can post some guidelines on what to do and what to avoid?

It's the original issue of the toy, from '92.


I tried once with the old '92 version I had and it was a bear to get apart, and if I recall correctly there are no screw holes on the nacelles so it seems to me there'd be no way to open them up short of cracking it open along the seams which would have to be done very carefully so you don't break either the nacelles themselves or the warp grilles.

#3 Destructor!!!

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Posted 09 December 2010 - 09:57 PM

I already had a go at the burnt out nacelle a few months ago. Pretty sure there's glued pegs in there. Seriously tough cookies!

*easily disassembles Trek '09 Enterprise*

They literally don't make toys like that anymore!

#4 Commodore Kor'Tar

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Posted 09 December 2010 - 10:20 PM

The toys back then were high quality and built to last. Today's toys however are made to break 5 minutes after opening them so collectors gotta buy a new one.

#5 Destructor!!!

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Posted 10 December 2010 - 09:06 AM

Yeah, unfortunately they were built to last, but not built to be repaired!

I had a go, after posting last night, at opening the saucer. There are pegs along the interior, glued. The screws were pretty well in there, too. My previous attempt to open the ship broke or unglued a number of the pegs, but the ones nearest the saucer impulse engines are very resilient.

There's so many redundant fasteners in this ship, I won't be too worried about breaking pegs and the like, so long as they don't shatter or strip the screw holes. So long as they don't shatter, i can glue them back to most of their old strength when I'm done, anyway.

#6 Destructor!!!

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Posted 15 December 2010 - 05:22 PM

Requesting a Moderator change the Topic Title to "Disassembling the Playmates Enterprise-D"

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Detailed write-up to follow. And Google, if you're reading: "Disassembled Playmates Enterprise-D" "How to Disassemble a Playmates Enterprise-D"

#7 Alex

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Posted 17 December 2010 - 03:20 PM

Wow, the disassembly of the Playmates Enterprise-D actually looks a lot easier then the disassembly of the Playmates Ent-E and VOY, both of which had incredibly redundant designs. Getting my ship apart shouldn't be too difficult, but getting the nacelles apart looks like it's still the hardest part of disassembling the Playmates Enterprise-D.

#8 Destructor!!!

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Posted 17 December 2010 - 08:02 PM

QUOTE (Alex @ Dec 17 2010, 09:20 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Wow, the disassembly of the Playmates Enterprise-D actually looks a lot easier then the disassembly of the Playmates Ent-E and VOY, both of which had incredibly redundant designs. Getting my ship apart shouldn't be too difficult, but getting the nacelles apart looks like it's still the hardest part of disassembling the Playmates Enterprise-D.


Those saucer pegs are a force to be reckoned with. I definitely strained the plastic in the saucer rim sensor array trying to break them. Luckily it's a very small blemish, and will be painted over.

It took a bit of lateral thinking to finally defeat them. I had to disassemble every other part of the ship (the lower engineering hull is a real scary bitch), and attack them from inside the neck, where the leverage was sufficient to pop them.

Incidentally, you can see that I've done a practice mask for the Aztec pattern. It's going to be based on the pattern evident on the model used in the photos on the back of the box.

I'll have part one of the disassembly tutorial, Nacelles, up tomorrow.

#9 Destructor!!!

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Posted 18 December 2010 - 08:22 PM

Unfortunately, I'm now in a different timezone from my dismantled Enterprise-D, so I can't get any new photos of the nacelle disassembly process. I can describe it, though, with the aid of the handful of photos I DID take...

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First, I took an x-acto-esque knife, and wheedled it in under the bussard bracket to separate the bussard from the glue and plastic above (circled in red). Then I went at the seams, (in blue), and worked at them til the knife could enter the cavity behind the bussard.

I was able to insert the blade vertically behind the widest part of the field coil (also in blue) and separate the glue here too.

I also ran the knife along the bottom of the field coil's narrow strip, to sep the glue there, though this proved unnecessary. When it came to it, the coil parted company with the upper nacelle half, not the lower. So don't bother with that, it left a slight mark.

You can work from the top or the bottom of the nacelle, in terms of the fittings, they're pretty symetrical.

With the glue separated in the starting zones, it's time to pry!

I used a medium-sized Swiss Army Knife blade to pry up the the hull under the bussard. It unlocked the seams with a snap. There will be many blood-curdling snaps, but worry not, it's more than likely just glue.

I then Pried it until the gap behind the field coil fan-out was revealed (green) I could use the pointy tool you see in the photo to lever the nacelle half off, working my way down the coil from the green place.

That's more or less it. Try to work on both sides roughly symetrically, and go cautiously. I abandoned the quest for weeks at a time and came back to it in surges of determination, and luckily, it came out well enough in the end. The Nacelle still fits together snugly, and takes a good pull to open again!

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See?

Good luck, all who try this. I hope I'm as successful when I open the other nacelle. Post any questions you have here!

#10 Guest_1701_*

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Posted 26 December 2010 - 05:18 PM

Does anyone else think that for a toy, this model has the better sculpt than many other D's including the DST version? The proportions just look better?

#11 Commodore Kor'Tar

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Posted 27 December 2010 - 03:25 AM

When I had one as a kid I loved it . Though later I grew more discerning and I longed for a more detailed D with the ability to seperate the saucer. I broke down and bought the AMT model kit, a few paints and some glue. While the kit is highly detailed I found my skills as a model builder lacking. Thankfully when DST came out with their version , it was finally a D with all the detail and size of the AMT kit and the ability to seperate, but also it has the lights, sounds, voice clips, and it is already painted, and had all of the hull markings, aside from the minor quibble with the missing neck windows. That and the sheer size of it in comparison with the other ships. Though I do love the playmates version of it, it seems to be lacking the details that the DST and AMT versions have. But I'm not knocking it. It is an awesome ship to have. biggrin.gif

#12 Destructor!!!

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Posted 27 December 2010 - 05:09 AM

Overall, the DST version is a far superior sculpt. There is one area where the Playmates effort beats it, though. The back of the neck, connecting the engineering hull to the saucer, is a smooth curve on the DST model. The Playmates one gets it better, as it has a bend just above the shuttle bays.

The detailing on the DST ship is miles better, though. It really sells itself as a model, to me.

I also bought the model kit, and also found myself to be deficient in the realms of paint and glue (back then, when I was ten or something). Unfortunately, this culminated in me taking a scalpel to the kit, trying to convert it to a Nebula class. It was very ill-advised, and I recently found what's left of the kit. Little more than debris.

I still love the playmates version, to the point that I want to upgrade it back to "original intentions".

#13 Destructor!!!

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Posted 31 December 2010 - 12:13 AM

While searching for pics of the Playmates Enterprise-D prototype model (you can imagine what image search produced using THAT search term!), I found this.

File that one under "WTF?!".

It would seem someone else HAS disassembled the D before. AND they bashed it into a nebula, as I failed to do with my ERTL kit... sigh...

#14 Commodore Kor'Tar

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Posted 31 December 2010 - 12:23 AM

Could you post a link to that please?

NVM I found it lol

#15 Destructor!!!

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Posted 01 January 2011 - 12:58 PM

QUOTE (Commodore Kor'Tar @ Dec 31 2010, 06:23 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Could you post a link to that please?

NVM I found it lol



lol, the underlined "This" in my last post IS a link wink.gif

#16 Commodore Kor'Tar

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Posted 01 January 2011 - 01:39 PM

Yeah I noticed that after Iposted the question, which is why I edited it a minute later lol

The ship looks pretty cool!

#17 sbamah

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Posted 01 January 2011 - 06:31 PM

QUOTE (1701 @ Dec 26 2010, 06:18 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Does anyone else think that for a toy, this model has the better sculpt than many other D's including the DST version? The proportions just look better?


I do have both and, though, Playmates version is robust, ... in terms of better details and accuracy, the DST version wins; moreover, the DST version offers a separating primary/secondary hull capability which scores big time.

#18 Destructor!!!

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Posted 01 January 2011 - 09:30 PM

Playmates' D was a cartoonified toy for kids. It was great, and if you mentally de-cartoonify, and rectify some of the lazier details (like the neck shuttlebays and windows... blech!), the ship actually shows a lot of attention to detail, even including the windows inset in front of the captains yacht that the AMT model left out, and the DST one leaves too shallow.

But side by side, with neck decals applied, the DST ship might as well be a studio model.

#19 Destructor!!!

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Posted 06 January 2011 - 07:32 AM

Right, I'm still intending to write up a full stripdown guide, but for the moment, I HAVE MADE PROGRESS!

Feast your eyes on this!

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It's a dry-run lighting test! Nothing is soldered, and these photos were taken over the course of many hours, and many revisions and additions to the lighting model.

Initially, I only lit the nacelle field coil and the Bussard collector, but you'll notice that in the later photos, the port saucer impulse engine is also aglow. I have plans afoot to light the main impulse engine and the deflector array. It's all very doable! biggrin.gif

Isn't it amazing how sickly green the original lighting in the port nacelle looks!?

My friend said it looked as though I'd sawed the DST and the playmates D in half, and recombined them!

#20 sbamah

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Posted 06 January 2011 - 08:42 PM

Nice job ... keep the progress photos coming smile.gif




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