For me and all other Star Trek fans/modellers, it has really been great to watch Round2 pull out the old AMT Star Trek kit molds, re-work a few things and then re-release the oldies, in new form, and on top of that release super new kits in the same genre and in comparable scales. In the first quarter of 2013, among several other great releases, Round2/AMT re-packaged the original series (TOS) USS Enterprise with her two primary adversaries, the Klingon D-7 Battle Cruiser and the Romulan Bird-of-Pray (BoP) as the newest entry into their familiar 1/2500 scale, Cadet Series.

I want to start by thanking Round2 Models for providing this kit for review and IPMS USA for giving me the opportunity to review it.

Introduction

As a long time fan of the original Star Trek TV series (I watched it during its original run on NBC), I remember anxiously waiting for the release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979. After seeing how far Hollywood had come with special effects on the Star Wars series, I thought The Motion Picture (TMP, in fan lingo), with its great story lines and history, had the potential to be a great movie. Then, there in the opening sequences, were the three Klingon K'T'inga ships on the big screen with all the additional hull detail, approaching the big, unknown cloud-ship. Shoot first, ask questions later, right? Klingons...

Introduction

Growing up building all genres of AMT/ERTL/MPC kits, it was sad to watch the demise of the company to a shell of its former self. Being a particularly big Star Trek fan and with AMT being the only game in town all those years ago for Star Trek models (before the internet), it was a sad to see them go.

Then, a few years ago, along came Round2 – acquiring the AMT/MPC molds, fine-tuning several of them, and re-releasing most of the old kits we all remember. Many are being re-released with Retro-Style packaging, while others are being issued with all-new box art and packaging. In late 2012, Round2 re-released Star Trek Deep Space 9 (DS9) in a new, colorful package with a short history of the space station on the box bottom. Thanks to Round2 for reviving those old Star Trek kits, for updating a few of them like DS9 (to include the USS Defiant), and especially for bringing out the new ones!

“Space, the final frontier…” The thrill that my friends and I felt that evening in September of 1966 for the premier of Star Trek on NBC (we were all of 11 or 12 years old) is still resonant in my mind. How cool was that new spaceship named Enterprise with its saucer-shaped main hull and cylindrical appendages – like nothing that we had ever seen before. To this day, I am still blown away by all that Star Trek technology and the original series is still tops in my book. So you can imagine my anticipation and delight upon hearing of this new 1:350 kit from Polar Lights of the U.S.S. Enterprise from the original series. Sure, we had the refit in 1:350, and even the NX-01, but c’mon, what’s life without Captain Kirk’s original mount in that same big scale? But enough of all that memory lane stuff, let’s take a look at this kit and see how my anticipation and delight have fallen short and been fulfilled.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1...

This countdown started each episodes of the British Supermarionation show Thunderbirds. I remember watching this and other Gerry Anderson shows when I was a wee lad. I, of course, watched them for the very cool models.

Thunderbird 1 was always first on the scene to check out what rescue equipment Thunderbird 2 would need to haul in. It was piloted by Scott Tracy. The launch sequence for TB 1 was my favorite, blasting off from its underground hanger through the pool area.

Aoshima has rereleased their 1/144th scale kit and it is probably the best rendition of this machine on the market. It is not one of the many “toy” versions with the pull back wheels but an actual scale model consisting of 50 silver plastic parts and 6 plastic bars which the instructions have you glue 4 of in the bottom of the rocket, probably to help it sit when on its spindly landing gear.