Bought these two Klingon Birds of Prey from the same seller. Well, when you like a thing… you buy two of it :P.
First up, the Eaglemoss figure:
Evidence Eaglemoss can make decent stuff when they want to. Not quite sure what’s going on with the Klingon logo on the wing – seems to have more colours than it should? Maybe a Star Wars buff can comment.. However, the paint job gives a good weathered look to the ship, and the model is detailed. This model shows how little splashes of colour can really bring out a colour, with the gold accents on the end of the wing & gun, the gold accents on what I assume are auxiliary thrusters on the top and the red for the windscreens.
Front:
Birds of Prey have quite a thin profile from the front, so not a lot to see here. Menacing though.
Left:
Same details as the right, so I’ll pass a few comments about the stand – it stands fine, as long as you leave it alone. However, it is a bit easy to knock it out if moving/handling it. If you want to move these ships around, I’d suggest taking them off the stand first prior to moving. Don’t want to ding any weapons off!
Back:
Here we see the red of the main engine. I do like this stand’s general design – it does allow you to see all the angles, without getting in the way. No complaints about this angle.
Top:
Here we get a much better look at the details – this Star Trek series has some impressive entries, which is why they hold their value on reselling sites. Star Trek is a bit of a weird one for licencing – they have a bunch of Playmates merch, which is largely meh, then they have really good things like this.
Bottom:
Glad to see they didn’t skimp on the mould detail here, but… shouldn’t the undersides of the wings be red? Seems to be a different design underneath, than the one I’m familiar with. Pleased to see they did detail it, but not sure it’s entirely accurate, but I like it anyway.
Overall, I’m really happy with this model. I do really like some of the “enemy” ship designs in Star Trek.
The second Bird of Prey I picked up was a Hallmark Keepsake:
No stand for this one, as it’s a Christmas tree decoration, so here it is, with its butt parked on the floor. As expected for an ornament, it is less detailed than the Eaglemoss one, but still looks good imo. Here they’ve painted what looks like a heat sink in silver, which makes me realise the other one had this part in green. Hm, looks better in silver. Nice detail in having some Klingon writing on the wing. No idea what it says though.
Top:
Here’s the wire that is designed to plug into a light string, but may get modified to work off USB, as the manual suggests it should work just fine on 5V. The “1994″ on the back above the thruster is because this ornament was manufactured in 1994. Interesting detail there, lol. No thread on the eye, but I’ve got plenty around here to supply my own. Top of it looks good at a distance.
Front:
Yep, still small profile, though this one’s chunkier construction makes it stand out more. The yellow light at the front will light up when powered.
Back:
Here’s a red light, which represents the thruster. I believe this one is meant to flicker when powered, but as I’m yet to test it, I haven’t seen it, only read about it in the information leaflet. This isn’t a particularly attractive angle for the ship.
Bottom:
Red wings! Yeah, this is how I remember them! Despite the lack of shading, the paintjob on the bottom of this one outdoes the Eaglemoss one. Shame we’ve got some copyright info slightly spoiling it. This is probably one of the neater angles of this ship.
All in all, this is a nice ship considering it’s an ornament. If you’re looking for an epically detailed display piece, this probably isn’t the ship for you, but if you like a Bird of Prey that lights up, this is an option. I’ll try to post an update if I get the lights working, but they’re yet to be tested. If I get it working, I may choose a display shelf that I’ll have powered items on, and have 5V available for LEDs.