Unfortunately, one of the leds in the screen went out during the procedure, but I can live with that.

I am disappointed in the medical scanner not being motorized. The instruction page even claims that it spins when the button is pushed. No mention of a manual thumbwheel, so I’m guessing that they planned to have it motorized and changed it at the last minute.

There also seems to be an annoying intermitant contact issue w/ hood power as it flips open….I have to repeatedly open.close it until it functions, which I believe is in regards to the bad battery contact spring. Seems to be no end to production design issues w/ this toy.

I “was” excited when my postal carrier rang my bell and my toy had arrived. That joy, extended to seeing the outer pkging, very nice. However that feeling faded as I popped the toy out of it’s tie downs and ejected it from the backing panel.
The body shell is adequate, but not not thick enough to take rough play or god forbid, be dropped.
The black texturing is fair, but it’s silver accent paint ops will soon rub off with much use.
The faux-leather/pleather strap is a form of thin rubber.

The medical scanner unit is for the most part a complete let down. The sound aspect is controled by depresssing a thumb button, you hear a very low-level audible familiar sound. The spinning center action is achieved by a very lame thumb wheel you must rotate sideways to achieve motion. This cannot be accomplished in tandum w/ the sound at the same time. very dissapointing to say the least.
On to the static display screen of the Tricorder you have a depiction of the sick bay vitals readout w/ a poorly done light up effect which can only be described as a very sml. light bulb to the extreme right of the frame corner. Thus only an 1/8th of the display has any sort of illumination, and the rest is left dark. What the heck?

My toy did work on sample mode, nor play intially. After opening the faux face front memory disc panel, and playing with the on/off/Try Me switch/battery compartment, I got it to work. My toy seems to have a gliche where it will/will not work momentarly, unless I fiddle w/ this switch.
The drop down bottom drawer has a very lame node/recessed shallow hole hinge-like design that did will come apart/away and can easily be broke,unless cautious care is taken. This will drop open completely downwards to facilate access to the battery/power/disc area, and allow you to tilt the unit towards you to have the scanner drop out, unless you have smaller fingers and can pry it out. The battery well, has a micro-screw panel to cover, but I find it un-necessary and after opening it once, the screw was easily stripped. My suggestion is remove it and leave off and save yourself the grief of it’s removal.
This drop down door has 2 side niches to barely keep the door in 3/4 open mode, and again, design so poor and shallow, it’s guaranteed to fail or break unless you take great care.

The middle drop down door does so completely forward and down(unless bottom door closed, then it stops 1/4 way from fully down) to reveal the star moire that does move and look great, but does make a modest hum when activated but the 3 action button on the top hood section.
And now the most sadest aspect deal killer for me. The sound of Dr. McCoy(DeForest Kelly’s) voice sped up to a laugh-out loud speed to make the playback a complete and utter dissapontment!
The far right button activates 5 phrases from the tv series. The middle and far left you’re treated to 2 different diagnostic scanning sounds that are correct and true and at the correct playback speed! Each must be pressed & depressed to activate, and cannot be accessed by simply pressing each back and forth randomly. Each sound does sustain until disabled. If you wish to to sustain your playablility, you can relish the Tricorder’s actual sounds, and sadly avoid the McCoy voice option if you want to make this toy a hit for your next con, halloween party, or showing friends & family. While unit is on, light up left/right blue remain lit, and middel/yellow light blinks untill you switch unit off.

Design: C-
Sound Phrases: 1/2-A+/1/2-C-
For $40.00, it’s great batteries are incld. But, when Hallmark can make a Communicator ornament that so tiny,I t fits in the palm of my hand w/ multiple sound phrases in the correct playback speed mode for far less than 1/2 that price, somethings wrong w/ DST’s R&D team and production in China. I soon will get the science version of this tricorder from New Force, but now I’m less-excited knowing the voice phrases may also have Spock sounding like an Alvin- Vulcan chipmonk. *sigh* I have to contact EE and return mine, as it mostly doesn’t function and may appear to have a bad wiring/connection issue that prevents continual consistant use, and has ceased functioning before I actually finished this review! 6/6/09