Bandai's Enterprise NCC 1701

Man, I hope Bandai keeps expanding their ranges from Gundam to other kits. I've built some of their stuff and it is beautiful.

If only they would finally release the Heavy Gear models for the license they bought a couple of years back.

I have never heard of the Bandai line (forgive me I don't get out much) is it available
in Calgary? Does this mean AMT has givin up the Star Trek contract?

I built the AMT kit, the one with the lights and tho' I don't think it was a bad reprisentation, it definatly could have been better.
It was very weak where the warp pylons connect to the secondary hull and was very front heavy, which you unfortunatly you don't find out until you try to put it on its stand which is then to late to add any weight. A heads up by the way if anyone is in the progress of building one. The detail could have been better as well, its currently in the "need to be repaired" pile.

Any possible guesses on price or size? alittle larger than the AMT would be nice.
Keep me updated I'm keen

Madd Dawg

bandai is a Japanese company. You'll find most of their stuff online. You can find their anime kits in most china towns (and Toys r Us, Zellers, Walmart)

They make a lot of Anime kits, high quality, nice hard plastic, injection-molded, nice detail. Usually lots of gimmicks in their kits, like posability. Crap decals (usually silve foil stickers)

www.bandai-asia.com

A good hobby shop that stocks sci-fi kits wouldn't go wrong with a Bandai enterprise kit. Personally I dislike the ships from Star Trek, but if I think of all the bad experiences I've heard about from from trek modelers, a kit from a different manufacturer would be looked at with interest, and once word of mouth got around, it'd fly off the shelves.

In fact, go in to your local hobby shop and ask for one. Tell your friends about it, have them ask for one, the hobby shop will get the message.

The Bandai kit will be smaller than the old AMT/Ertl offering, but larger than the upcoming release of the 1/1000 TOS Enterprise from Polar Lights. It will be about 14.5 inches long, and is 1/850th scale.

It should be available for about $50-$60, more or less.

The link ignatz provided above shows prototype photos, but apparently the release has been pushed back a month or two for tweaking. Just let them get it right!

Qapla'

SSB

AMT/Ertl and Revell-Monogram did not renew their option on the Star Trek licensing quite a while back. Polar Lights now has the domestic licensing and will premiere new, more accurate models starting this year. No mention of a TMP or 1701-A Enterprise yet.

What the Bandai one lacks in overall size will be more than made up for in accuracy. There's been reams of information documenting the innaccuracies in the AMT one and how to fix them. The innaccuracies have spawned a small industry of aftermarket producers specializing in resin accurizing bits to try and whip that model into shape! The nacelle pylons are a case in point. As AMT engineered the kit, they are nearly half the thickness that they should be! There's no excuse for the lack of attention to detail and accuracy. Although a little expensive, it the Bandai one is prepainted and will include a lighting kit. Heck ,after buying an old AMT kit, all the resin accurizing bits, painting templates for the aztec paneling, and accurate decals, you'd wind up easily spending double the price of hte Bandai kit.

Bandai kits are not pre-painted, but come molded in the appropriate colours, often with multiple colours on a sprue.

check out http://www.starshipmodeler.com/mecha/tp_death.htm
please forgive the bad grammar and spelling. I don't know why I did such a horrible job on that review.

Hi Iggy, Hi S.
I believe Mega Hobby said the kit will sell for $57?

Yo John! That's the lowest price I've heard yet! Those guys are good.

The Enterprise that Bandai is putting out, from what I've heard is a prepaint, with parts molded in black plastic to facilitate the internal lighting. Check out this link:
http://www.hlj.com/ths/ent/index.html

I hope the Bandai kit will be everything it's being promoted to be!

Accurate would be GOOD!

However.... here in Canada, I fully expect this model to top $100Cdn. That's quite a bit of coin for a smaller model. But I guess I will have to wait and see once it arrives.

Looks like you can pre-order them for an April delivery at around $55 at Hobby Link Japan. Here is the link:

http://www.hlj.com/cgi-perl/hljpage.cgi?BAN916192

quote:

---

Originally posted by rossjr

Looks like you can pre-order them for an April delivery at around $55 at Hobby Link Japan. Here is the link:

---