I too took the saucer apart on the JJprise.
Though I didn't do it, if you remove the Impulse engine crystal, the "Docking Clamp" (or "screw" if you're feeling saucy) appears to be beneath that. I was impressed with the quality of the inner workings, especially the light conduits bringing light to the registry floods. It's a pity the hull detailing isn't as impressive.
I do love the subtle veining effect in the bussard lighting, it harks back to the TOS Enterprise's bussard light pattern, though here it's blue.
I can imagine that a well executed model of this ship would be gorgeous, but the hull detailing is so minimal that this ship looks very underwhelming next to the TWOK refit ship.
Funnily enough, the toy tries to avoid the curse of the drooping nacelles by mounting the nacelles slightly further forward on the pylons. This has the unintentional effect of making the ship more familiar to those used to the proportions of the TOS ship.
As for the "Tilt" of the Saucer, it's an illusion, at least on my ship. The bottom of the secondary hull and the nacelles angles up as they go back, this gives the same effect during flybys as the TOS ship did when it flew past tilted "at warp". It's a nice touch in the design, but I can understand why it would make you think the saucer was tilted up. Look at the starfleet pennant. On mine, the edge of the saucer and the pennant are parallel.
Can't wait for the AA Enterprise D. Or the TOS HD one. I lack a classic Enterprise.
I got the Playmates Nero figure from a friend.
The likeness is very very good, and the detailing is fantastic, down to the tatoos and scars. His leather trench coat is modelled here in rubber, so it flows around his poses very nicely. The articulation is superb as well, with the arms ball jointed at the shoulders and elbows, and the legs sturdy enough to stand in a variety of poses. It makes my old TNG playmates action figures look like cartoonish dwarfs.
I got 2 for one on the Kirk and Spock action figures in Smyth's toys in Cork. I gave them to a friend, but had a chance to inspect them before hand. They are nice likenesses, not as good as Nero, and Kirk's neck was a tad dodgy. They too wear rubber tunics, a nice detail I hadn't noticed in the preview pics. They have lots of accessories, including a "Live Long And Prosper" hand for Spock.
If you're a fan of SlashFic (I'm definitely not), we discovered that they can be posed with each other in passionate and romantic embraces. Not that that's my kind of thing, ladies
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I also got the Playmates Star Trek XI Phaser at 33% off in Smyth's toys in Cork. For 12 bucks, it's not too bad, though I wouldn't pay much more. The sound is terrible, extremely crackly and tinny. There are 3 sounds, best to worst: Power up (little dial on the back), Stun (with blue nozzle forward), and kill (red nozzle forward).
Like in the movie, the nozzles flip around from stun to kill, with separate sound effects for each. I prefer the stun sound. However, this feature is simple spring loading, and you have to manually set it back. In addition, on my particular toy, the kill nozzle tends to bounce back, out of alignment with the rest of the phaser, and stay there.
The finish on the toy is overly shiny, and looks as plasticky as it feels, which is a lot. The movie version was more of a matte effect chrome, this is just tacky silver.
Other than that, it's a good replica, shape wise. I have issues with the design in the movie, it reminded me too much of Galaxy Quest, both visually and audibly. The toy faithfully recreates the shape, though.
I dipped into Burger King and shouted "STAR TREK!" at them. They gave me a communicator for €1.25, which was nice. This is the BK stylised communicator. It's modelled on the movie one, but is shorter, and more colorful. The screen at the top is solid purple, and the controls at the bottom are all one button which play a quote, "Beameup!!". I type it like that because it's extremely quick. And angry.
For a buck 25 it's extremely nicely detailed, though I would have preferred a chirping sound instead of "BEAMMEUP.".
