Enterprise-D Model from the Magazine

StarfleetSecurity 2018-03-29 14:08:03 UTC #1

Jump in the time machine for a second to when Star Trek: The Official Fan Club and Star Trek Communicator were on the shelves at the supermarket. There was an ad for an extremely expensive, light up Enteprise-D model.

I seem to remember it was something to be bought in “installments”

Did anyone here ever buy it?

Does anyone have one of the magazines with the ad and can share a scan of the ad? Think it was a quarter page ad.

clarksworth 2018-03-29 14:11:30 UTC #2

I think it was a non-starter - Rick Sternbach posted some of the prototype parts on his facebook a few months ago. Looked incredible though!

Lt.Washburn 2018-03-29 17:24:11 UTC #3

There was the Steinbach one, and there was an older one, I believe, made of brass.

StarfleetSecurity 2018-03-29 17:25:21 UTC #4

The brass one is what I am thinking about because they showed pictures of it before they painted it. It was fully lit and the saucer separated. If think it was probably about 2 feet long.

Safetyman 2018-03-30 01:10:54 UTC #5

Over at Starship Modeler, a builder has in development Enterprise D kits for around $400.00 a kit. I believe it is around 2 foot long when complete. He is building it to 1/1000 scale according to his thread.

kertratz 2018-03-30 01:25:04 UTC #6

I too drooled over those ads in starlog and the Star Trek magazine. It’s a big brass beast, 28” Long and damn near as wide. I’ve come across a few, only one that still work (light up). This one belongs to my buddy hank. I don’t think he would mind me sharing, these pics are in his public Facebook album.

StarfleetSecurity 2018-03-30 01:48:37 UTC #7

That’s it! That’s the one I used to drool over too.

NickDaring 2018-03-30 02:19:58 UTC #8

So is it made of pieces of stamped brass sheets that were soldered or glued together? Wild way to make a model if so!

StarfleetSecurity 2018-03-30 05:09:58 UTC #9

But look how awesome it is!

ponyboy88 2018-03-30 06:01:56 UTC #10

I had one of these many years ago but I sold it to a guy at work because it was so big and I didn’t want it taking up so much room anymore. I think I sold it to him for around $500. It was very cool and when the lights on the saucer blinked, it sounded like a turn signal in your car. I don’t believe the saucer separated on mine though unless I just didn’t know it had that feature. I bought mine at Starland. Does anyone know how many of these were made? I’ve only seen a couple on the net over the years. It was a great piece!

Oxymoron 2018-03-30 09:20:39 UTC #11

Fantastic piece! I‘d appreciate a few detail shots of it.

It‘s absolutely time for a whole new „D“ model kit out there. This AMT thing with its horrible aztec is a piece of crap in my opinion.

jwfoust 2018-03-30 12:17:51 UTC #12

Was it made by Unobtainium? I know they made an TOS E, but I can’t recall who did the brass “D”.

ponyboy88 2018-03-30 13:55:34 UTC #13

I don’t know who made it. When I bought it, it didn’t have a box. It was in a display case. It was made of brass because there was a small chip in the paint and you could see when you got the light on it right that it was brass underneath. I can’t remember if it had a manufacture’s mark on it. It was quite a few years ago.

ponyboy88 2018-03-30 13:58:31 UTC #14

I agree! And it needs to be big! Like the 1:350 scale TOS Enterprise. And it needs a decal sheet for the aztecs that look correct without the colors being too dark.

StarfleetSecurity 2018-03-30 14:21:59 UTC #15

I’m not sure how long Unobtanium has been around but I’m pretty certain they weren’t around when this enteprise came out.

Eric_Ardros 2018-03-30 19:15:41 UTC #16

It was offered by a company called Masterpiece Replicas Inc. back in 1994. Retailed for about $2200.00 USD and was limited to a run of 5000 models, however there were only a small number of them made as I believe the company went under shortly thereafter. Despite its impressive size and the light-up feature, there were a few inaccuracies.

ponyboy88 2018-03-30 22:45:39 UTC #17

That’s it!!! I couldn’t remember. Thank you! Yes I got mine sometime in the late 90’s but I only paid around $500 for it. There was no box and I think Starland acquired it from a private collector since they didn’t have any of the original packaging or the box. I had it for several years and sold it as it is a room hog (although now my UCS Lego Millenium Falcon is doing that!) but I knew there wasn’t that many made. I bet there was less than 20 produced. As rare as they are, I’ve never seen them get a large dollar amount on the rare occasions they come up for sale on ebay.

NickDaring 2018-03-31 08:20:28 UTC #18

Chdvk our this at about halfway down the page-

http://m.maritimereplicas.com/site/welcome-read-more.html

“Our journey -in the last few years in this wonderful world of ship-modeling- also brought us many varied projects, one being from Paramount Studios, to produce a limited edition (in brass) of the STAR TREK ship -1701 ENTERPRISE ‘D’, which we started marketing just as Paramount was taken over by VIACOM –and our project was cancelled!!”

ponyboy88 2018-03-31 21:58:06 UTC #19

So that’s what happened! Maybe they or some other company will bring this back if there’s enough demand. It really was a great piece.