Who made the best toy/model of Voyager itself?

[t_smitts]

The question, I think, is pretty self-explanatory.

I've never built any of the AMT/Ertl models, so I can't really comment on that.

I don't have the Eaglemoss model (one of the few hero ships I don't have from them), but from what I see, I'm not impressed. I can get over the lack of pivoting nacelles, but not the fact that the font for the lettering is all wrong, or the noticeable seam lines along the side.

The Micro Machines set from Galoob released Voyager towards the end of its run. Not bad in terms of detail, and the nacelles do pivot, but the trade off is the struts look unusually large, with big honking hinges.

I don't have the Furuta model, so I can't comment on that either. Same goes for the Playmates ship.

In terms of detail, I think Johnny Lighting did a really great job in detail. Interesting that they managed to get the name and registry right, and with a smaller scale and lower price point than Eaglemoss. The nacelles do pivot, but there's nothing to keep from just drooping down. (I've always thought collectors could just glue a small piece of metal or plastic across the bottom to "catch" them and keep them level). In my case, I unfortunately broke the port nacelle off some years ago. I reattached it recently with glue, but now that side doesn't pivot at all.

What do you think of the ones above? Are there any I missed?

 

[Richard Baker]

Bandai made an excellent Voyager model kit some years ago. It was 1/850 scale, prepainted, fully lighted and had optional landing gear (you could swap out extended or retracted). The kits are long out of production and a quick check on eBay shows one going for about $500.
Monogram released two Voyager kits (in1/677 scale). - a later edition had a shuttle bay interior and an expanded decal sheet.
The Monogram kit has some clear pieces (the larger bay windows- the regular ones are just depressions)
I believe Revell has gotten a hold of this kit and is releasing it under their name. There are a number of aftermarket add ons you can get for this kit also.
Both kits have the moving warp nacelles.

Between the two the Bandai kit is the better one but much more expensive. The Monogram/Revell kit is larger and can be built up for a much cheaper price.

 

[Ghost]

I have the playmates toy and it is pretty awesome in general regarding details (much better than their Enterprise E).
Sadly the designer kind of screwed up the bottom of the saucer section, it is actually to big a underside bulge that is in the way of the front torpedo launcher.

Oh and the nacelles can mechanically move up and down.

Edit: necessarily can move up and down? I meant nacelles.

 

[jaime]

Bandai made an excellent Voyager model kit some years ago. It was 1/850 scale, prepainted, fully lighted and had optional landing gear (you could swap out extended or retracted). The kits are long out of production and a quick check on eBay shows one going for about $500.
Monogram released two Voyager kits (in1/677 scale). - a later edition had a shuttle bay interior and an expanded decal sheet.
The Monogram kit has some clear pieces (the larger bay windows- the regular ones are just depressions)
I believe Revell has gotten a hold of this kit and is releasing it under their name. There are a number of aftermarket add ons you can get for this kit also.
Both kits have the moving warp nacelles.

Between the two the Bandai kit is the better one but much more expensive. The Monogram/Revell kit is larger and can be built up for a much cheaper price.

Am building the revell kit at the moment...it has the shuttlebay, but no extra names on the decal sheet. I think the moulding is different in a few areas too. It probably is the most accurate affordable one, the Bandai being probably the best overall.

Finding decent references of the studio model is hard though, so deciding which bits need a bit of fixing is difficult. Also...every bugger on YouTube is lighting the kit and using aftermarket parts, so it's hard to find tips on the damn thing for a budget build. And don't get me started on the colourscheme. Deckhouse sodding blue.

 

[Richard Baker]

As far as I know there is no voyager kit which has alternate names for the ship.
There was an article some years ago which took the Monogram kit and showed step by step how to accurize it. I do remember you have to add some lifeboat hatches in a couple of places. This article was online and was about the time the kit was first issued, IIRC it was written by one of the designers of the ship (Sternbach?). It should still be out there with a good Google search.

 

[jaime]

As far as I know there is no voyager kit which has alternate names for the ship.
There was an article some years ago which took the Monogram kit and showed step by step how to accurize it. I do remember you have to add some lifeboat hatches in a couple of places. This article was online and was about the time the kit was first issued, IIRC it was written by one of the designers of the ship (Sternbach?). It should still be out there with a good Google search.

Yup, I read that one and will be sorting the few bits doable without resorting to photo etched parts that cost more than the kit xD.
There was a kit or a separate decal sheet with the Intrepid and Bellepheron names on.

 

[Rick Sternbach]

While the Revell-Monogram Voyager kit will make a pretty decent looking build, the smaller Bandai kit is in many respects better proportioned and sharper in detail. And I'm not just saying that because I've got one of my last copies up for auction. The R-M kit can be painted up with a basic Light Ghost Gray to closely replicate the way the VFX folks desaturated the look of the miniature on screen, and IIRC all the aftermarket parts and decals you could ever want are still available online (including the AeroShuttle and Delta Flyer and little shuttles). The FS color approximations listed over at Starship Modeler (somewhere down in the reference pages) are still valid for all of the detail bits like the RCS thrusters and lifeboat chute covers, etc.

 

[Kor]

^ I would say this is the final word on the matter, without a doubt.

Kor

 

[Rick Sternbach]

When I put together the FS color guide for Voyager, I tried my best to nail the -actual- miniature hull color, which came close to that Deckhouse Blue (I have a piece of hull scrap with the paint used by Brazil Fabrication), but those post-production color tweaks kinda threw the hull color to the wind, and folks were left to their own devices to get it right, as well as the second, slightly darker shade. We worked with Bandai to try to get the geometry and visual quality of the hull as close to what was seen on a home TV, and I personally believe they got the hull and all the pad-printed details bang-on. Certainly better than the distorted CGI model that's been used for a number of other products. Darned shame they stopped making the kits.

 

[jaime]

When I put together the FS color guide for Voyager, I tried my best to nail the -actual- miniature hull color, which came close to that Deckhouse Blue (I have a piece of hull scrap with the paint used by Brazil Fabrication), but those post-production color tweaks kinda threw the hull color to the wind, and folks were left to their own devices to get it right, as well as the second, slightly darker shade. We worked with Bandai to try to get the geometry and visual quality of the hull as close to what was seen on a home TV, and I personally believe they got the hull and all the pad-printed details bang-on. Certainly better than the distorted CGI model that's been used for a number of other products. Darned shame they stopped making the kits.

Aftermarket kit parts and Bandai kits are out of my range xD
I also don't have an airbrush, so will be handpainting the whole thing...going with tamiya acrylics. Have a few different greys for differentiating the panels a bit, and will be fixing the details with styrene. Am considering using my technical pens for some of the non moulded panel lines I can see in the reference I have got...and am considering using the new coloured glow in the dark paints to add that detail, maybe including painted on cast lights like the main flood light over the ship registry.
Had to repaint a little eagkemoss die cast lately, my four year old loves starships and the Voyager is his favourite. He literally sleeps woth it and takes it everywhere. Of course it's paint rubs off and it's stanchions are mostly repairs at this point....he tends to simulate phaser fire and 'armoured voyager' quite a bit with spittle flying as he makes the sounds and fingertapping the phaser arrays.
I tend to agree with him though..
Voyager is probably the best hero ship design next to the Galaxy and refit Constitution...and most days I put it ahead of those.

Oh...I will probably be drawing in the backs of the big deck windows too. thank goodness for . 35 rotrings.

 

[Richard Baker]

One thing I really like about the Voyager is that it is the first hero ship since TOS that does have hull aztecing- looks a lot less fussy.
The Bandai kit IMO is the best representation of the ship- I am so glad I got one when it was first released. Even though prepainted snap kits are generally looked down upon by the modeling community the engineering is so well thought out it is more fun to assemble than a glue kit.
I had heard Bandai had a Galaxy class kit as far as prototype before they cancelled the product line- I can just imagine what that would have looked like!

 

[jaime]

One thing I really like about the Voyager is that it is the first hero ship since TOS that does have hull aztecing- looks a lot less fussy.
The Bandai kit IMO is the best representation of the ship- I am so glad I got one when it was first released. Even though prepainted snap kits are generally looked down upon by the modeling community the engineering is so well thought out it is more fun to assemble than a glue kit.
I had heard Bandai had a Galaxy class kit as far as prototype before they cancelled the product line- I can just imagine what that would have looked like!

My father is the big model maker, I dint get into it as much, but...Yeah. Pre painted basically makes it a flat packed toy or an overgrown kinder egg. The work in making a model is what makes it model making, an acquisition of skills over time, applied each time.
I still wouldn't consider much below scratchbuilding as an art form however. It's kind of snobbish I grant you, but it's all about what your end intent is. The Bandai model is great, i won't deny, but once it's done you can't say 'i did this' with as much honesty as a kit. And not as much as someone who scratchbuilt one. Somewhere out there is someone who builds their own designs to the quality level of our copies of the in universe designs...That's where the artistry is, and all model builders, whether kit or kinder egg toy, are basically painting by numbers in comparison. Myself included.
(cue tut tutting, but everything that has techniques applied had levels of skill, otherwise we just buy the finished product. I know I am not anything special in the starship construction area xD)

 

[Richard Baker]

I have been building models since the middle 60's and rarely do them out of the box- I do understand the idea of 'making it your own'. I am currently teaching my 12 year old step son how to build- he is now on his third glue kit.

What I mean about the Bandai is that while it is prepainted and snap, it goes together like an exotic watch. They went overboard on the engineering- to allow everything, including navigation lights to be well lit and hide the light leaks. My first kit was the NX and I eventually got every kit in the series.
While it is a wonderful head space to get into with scratch building and enhancing regular kits, it is also nice to be able to relax and just put together a bit of fun.

BTW- Bandai's line of Star Wars kits is awesome- even better and more accurate than FineMolds. They are snaps also, but I am cutting off the pins and building them like a regular kit.

 

[jaime]

I have been building models since the middle 60's and rarely do them out of the box- I do understand the idea of 'making it your own'. I am currently teaching my 12 year old step son how to build- he is now on his third glue kit.

What I mean about the Bandai is that while it is prepainted and snap, it goes together like an exotic watch. They went overboard on the engineering- to allow everything, including navigation lights to be well lit and hide the light leaks. My first kit was the NX and I eventually got every kit in the series.
While it is a wonderful head space to get into with scratch building and enhancing regular kits, it is also nice to be able to relax and just put together a bit of fun.

BTW- Bandai's line of Star Wars kits is awesome- even better and more accurate than FineMolds. They are snaps also, but I am cutting off the pins and building them like a regular kit.

Ah I see, that level of engineering. Nice job, so many third or fourth generation starship builders now.
'I paint this deflector for you...as my father painted a deflector for me...as he painted his first deflector when...Oh sod, the engines are drooping again..'

 

[publiusr]

I missed the chance to get the Bandai offering.

Something to consider. BTE Dan may never get the Enterprise in orbit--but the design of the Voyager is such that I can see a 1:1 airship replica--since everything is pretty much one piece. Aeroscraft could look like Voyager.

I can see the deflector being see through plastic windows above a gondola at the bottom of the secondary hull.

 

[Seven of Five]

I never owned a Star Trek model, but the one thing I remember having was a Voyager alarm clock.

"The USS Voyager is 70,000 light years from home, and we are desperate to get back. Are you going to lie there all day?"

It used to drive my sister batty.

 

[CT0760]

Does the bandai kit have nacelles that can move/stay in different positions? (I have the playmates one and while a part of me feels a tad bothered by the saucer underside bulge, I can honestly say that the motorized nacelles make it worth having for me)

 

[F. King Daniel]

I have the playmates toy and it is pretty awesome in general regarding details (much better than their Enterprise E).

That Enterprise-E was an awful likeness. It was like they only had a top view to work from and just kinda guessed that it probably had the same saucer rim as Voyager.

Plus, one of the sound effects was "cloaking device"

 

[Lance Warren Baylis]

Playmates really lost the plot near the end IMO. I remember thinking the Voyager era figures were also much much more obviously cheaply produced than the TNG, TOS and DS9 figures, which were in the main pretty good.