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Tonight's my final, for now, Ary Asylum Trek ship review.
This is going to be of the NCC-1701-A, which was seen from The Voyage Home, The Final Frontier, and The Undiscovered Country, while the actual model was the original 1701 seen in The Motion Picture ( Which is my personal Favorite trek movie ), The Wrath of Khan, and In Search for Spock.

A little history: The 1701, after the original 5 year mission under Kirk, came back to Earth and was to undo go a complete make-over, getting newer technology and extending the lifetime of the space frame. After a year and a half, the Enterprise was pretty much a new ship grafted over the bones of the old. Before it could be properly tested, the mysterious V'ger entity was causing havoc and destruction, and Earth was in its path. The Enterprise, after the V'ger incident, went on one more 5 year mission, and was then made into a training ship for Starfleet Academy. The Enterprise was called to take a look at the sudden communications silence of Space Lab, Regula 1, which was conducting the Genesis experiment. Khan, who was causing the trouble, was defeated in the end, but at the cost of Spock's life and the Enterprise took heavy damage from the now destroyed Reliant. The Enterprise limped back home and was scheduled to be decomissioned. Kirk and company hijacked the Enterprise to retrive the body of Spock to reunite it with Spock's katra, or soul if you will. The ship was lost when Kirk had it self-destruct to keep it out of the hands of the Klingons when the ship was crippled by the Bird of Prey. Kirk was given the 1701-A, a new(er) Constitution class ship ( which the original Enterprise was one of ) as gratitude for saving the Earth from the 'Whale Probe'. The ship had lots of bugs to get rid of, half the systems did not work right. The ship was then sent to Nimbus 3, the so-called "Planet of Galactic Peace" to rescue the Klingon, Terran, and Romulan diplomats who were held hostage by Sybok, Spock's older brother. The Enterprise-A was taken over by Sybok's forces and traveled past the Galactic barrier to find Sha Ka Ree, the world wear, according to Vulcan legends, God was to be found. The planet they found was actually a world that a hostile, non-coporial entity resided....and needed the ship to escape, since he/it was imprisoned there, the barrier was keeping him/it from getting out. After a brief skirmish with a Klingon Bird of Prey, the Enterprise returned to Earth so Kirk and crew could continue their shore leave. The last ( last seen, anyhow ) story with the 1701-A was after a Klingon moon, which was a key energy production center, exploded and caused heavy damage to Qo'nos, the Klingon homeworld's, atmosphere. The Enterprise was sent to escort the Klingon representatives to a conference to begin peace talks, to end over 70+ years of hostility between the Klingon Empire and the United Federation of Planets. The 1701-A went into Klingon space to rescue Kirk and McCoy, who were both exiled to an icey Klingon prison world for the assassination of the Klingon Chancellor. After the breakout, the Enterprise then engaged the real killers, the Chancellor's own millitary advisor, in a prototype bird of prey that can cloak and still open fire. The Enterprise, along with the Excelsior, destroyed the Klingon ship and were able to prevent a second assassination and allow the peace talks to continue.

Now with that bit done, let's go to the miniature itself.

The ship's about 18 inches long, like the TOS one I reviewed before. I read that Art Asylum used computer scans of the actual filming model to make this one, and it seems evident, from the detailing. It's made of a VERY sturdy plastic, this won't bend or sag. The support pylons seem a little thicker than the film model, but that's fine, I actually like the thicker ones. The "Aztec Paneling" seen on the NX-01 is replicated here, but they are actually sculpted into the surface....it's hard to see from a distence, but up close you can. I also noticed the large gangway doors on the port of the primary hull, like we saw in the dry dock scene in TMP, where an access tube was attached to it.....nice to include that. Unlike the TOS 1701 I reviewed, this ship, like the NX-01, has no ugly skrewhole plugs to deal with. Only one skrew is seen, which is to hold in the bottom panel, which conceals the battery compartment and the "Try Me"/"Play Mode" switch. The panel can also be swapped with a similer one that has a hole for the display stand to pop into. Now paint applications are good, very little uneveness in some places, but not terrible. The small font...and I mean super small font, on the nacelles and secondary hull are very legiable, easy to read. The deflector dish section has a nice blue metallic paint on it, and the secondary hull has varying blue, ranging from light blue to a darker in various sections. The neck has the wide, vertical line on both sides, which is often overlooked in many other miniatures of this ship. However, the torpedo launcher is all black, making the details hard to see sometimes. Same goes for the doors on the port side of the primary hull, the doors and the frame are unpainted. All the phasers on the secondary hull are also unpainted. Same goes for the molded-in windows, why a few extra dabs of paint were omitted is beyond me. A few custom-made decal/sticker sheets were put out for collectors to rectify this problem. The button for the sound & lights, once again, has been concealed as the bridge dome. Press it, and the sounds and lights come on. The sounds are:

Enterprise impulse, heard only in TMP
Going into warp
Traveling at warp
Transporters
Phasers
Torpedos
Taking hits

The lights includes the windows begind the bridge dome area, the deflector, the impulse housing, the impulse dome, and the warp engines. Pressing down on the bridge longer makes the sounds all be heard, one after another.

This is a very good miniature, one of the most accurate TMP era Enterprises, and very well made and durable, and mine was only $20.00 when I picked it up from a Meijer's in December of 2003. There were over 30 of them in the toy isles, but in less than a week, they were all gone. The only drawback is the lack of paint on some of the small places, but the aforementioned decals, or a spot of paint can fix that.
Over all, I give this one a 4.5 outta 5.

Here's the images.



















New and improved Constitution-Class starship is a sleek, sexy import, with turbo handling!






As you can see, it's hard taking pictures of this with the lights going.




Comparison shots