Review: Eaglemoss Takes Control With XL USS Discovery And Section 31 Station Models

The Discovery visits Section 31

Eaglemoss started their line of Star Trek spaceship replicas while there was no Star Trek TV series on the air; their unstated goal was to reproduce every ship seen onscreen in the franchise’s TV shows (from TOS to Enterprise) and the movies (from TMP to the Kelvin features). Since CBS launched Star Trek Discovery and now Picard, the goal of getting every Star Trek ship and vehicle made has gotten harder as the shows keep producing new ones.

The USS Discovery as introduced in “Context is for Kings”

Eaglemoss Hero Collector XL U.S.S. Discovery

Discovery is now in its third season and its rococo design aesthetic (particularly where the Klingons are concerned) has provided Eaglemoss with some dazzling collector pieces. The line started with the USS Shenzhou and the Discovery itself, inspired by Ralph McQuarrie’s designs for the unmade 1976 Star Trek feature Planet of Titans. McQuarrie and production designer Ken Adam came up with the idea of an Enterprise whose familiar saucer hull was connected to a triangular, Star Destroyer-like secondary hull.

Eaglemoss XL edition USS Discovery

Discovery’s artists (including Trek veteran John Eaves) tweaked the design to feature a rotating section of the saucer (I’m still rebelling against that idea), breaking up the saucer into donut-like sections with a spherical pressure hull at the center to hold the bridge and other areas (that’s actually a neat concept) and adding extremely slender, elongated warp engines. As with everything on Discovery, there has been resistance from purists about the ship’s look, but compared to a lot of other Starfleet designs on Discovery and Enterprise, the Discovery’s simple geometric shapes actually seem to me to fit in better with the TOS era even if the icicle-like warp nacelles seem a bit out of place.

Eaglemoss XL edition USS Discovery

Eaglemoss’s XL reproduction of the Discovery is relatively big—it has to be in order to incorporate the full length of the nacelles, so the overall length of the piece is around 12”. That’s actually very close to the size of the Polar Lights 1/2500 snap together kit of the Discovery, and while the Eaglemoss replica is a bit more expensive, it has some real advantages over the model kit. The Eaglemoss replica reproduces all of the ship’s subtle panel coloration and detail and particularly at the bridge area gives you an authentic look that would be hard to reproduce putting the model together. The model reproduces the panel colors with decals which means you have to cover every surface of the model with them, which is time-consuming and difficult to do perfectly. With the Eaglemoss ship, unbox it and you’re done.

Eaglemoss XL edition USS Discovery

The Eaglemoss line tends to fog the definition of “diecast” a bit—this generally refers to molded metal replicas but most of the Eaglemoss ships have plastic components—many are all plastic, with the diecast metal element just being the black metal stands. But many of the larger Eaglemoss ships are done in metal and quite beautifully too—the Discovery seems to be mostly metal apart from the clear components, and particularly with the spindly, delicate-looking engines this is a real advantage—you can actually pick the ship up by those needle-like warp engine ends with no danger of breaking the ship.

Eaglemoss XL edition USS Discovery

Eaglemoss Section 31 Station

Discovery season two ended up with the Discovery battling an A.I. from the future that takes over Section 31 and is unleashed from the Section 31 Station, a byzantine starbase located in remote space.

The USS Discovery approaches the Section 31 Station in “Project Daedalus”

Discovery art director William Budge based the Section 31 headquarters on brutalist architecture and wanted it to reflect famous prisons like Alcatraz, which explains why the structure includes flat, open landing pads, the visual equivalent of prison yards with guard towers looming over them. It’s a good example of Star Trek’s generally “gravitized” approach to space hardware where there’s an obvious up and down to everything.

Eaglemoss Section 31 Station

Eaglemoss’s replica of the station is BIG. Once mounted on its stand it towers over 13” in height, and with its blocky, chain-like levels, radiating fins and column-like external structures it’s tremendously detailed and interesting to look at. The paint job is superb, giving the whole station a grimy brown patina with dull red highlights, black solar panels and intricate paneling detail.

Detail on Eaglemoss Section 31 Station

From the details too it’s theoretically in scale with the Discovery replica and the two make for interesting companion pieces, with the flatness of the Discovery emphasizing the Section 31 Base’s towering height and the compact footprint of the Base doing the same for the starship’s elegant length.

Eaglemoss Section 31 Station with XL USS Discovery

Available now

Together or separately, these are two of the most impressive pieces in the Discovery line. You can pick up the XL Edition USS Discovery for $74.95. (the smaller regular edition can be had for $54.95). And the Section 31 Headquarters is also $74.95.

Coming next from Eaglemoss

Eaglemoss has a few more models coming out in 2020. First up will be the Star Trek: Discovery Starbase 1 available for pre-order for $74.95. And the next regular ship in the Discovery series this year is the Klingon Balth class starship, available for pre-order for $54.95.

 

Also coming in 2020 is a set of four shuttles from TOS and TNG available for pre-order at $99.95. And finally, from the 2009 Star Trek movie, an XL version of the USS Enterprise is available for pre-order for $74.95.

 

Eaglemoss to make 32nd-century ships

Fans got buzzing over some of the 32nd-century Starfleet ships shown in this week’s episode of Star Trek: Discovery, including the USS Voyager-J and the USS Nog. Eaglmoss’s Ben Robinson confirmed on Twitter that models from these ships will be joining the line in the future.

32nd century Starfleet coming to Eaglemoss

More images of Eaglemoss XL USS Discovery and Section 31 Station

 


Keep up with all the Star Trek merchandise news and reviews at TrekMovie.com.

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That space station model looks like something that got pulled put of an old car.

lol so true

I’m still not sure if I like the discovery. New ships normally grow on me: but this ones three seasons in now…

I actually feel the same way. Trek usually had the tradition of the ships being a character onto themselves but I still haven’t got that feeling even after 3 seasons of Discovery.

Same again. Don’t hate it, but doesn’t feel like home.

Agreed, I’m even less impressed by the 32nd century ships.

I’m even less impressed with the inspirational speeches.

Uss discovery still the ugliest star fleet vessel ever. There’s a reason this design was rejected for Star Trek phase II. Yet Kurtzman does a JJ Abraham’s move to bring rejected ideas to fruition.

Defiant.

NX-01 is the ugliest by far. And “Battlestar Voyager” is not much better.

Bryan Fuller was the one to decide to use the abandoned 70’s aesthetic.

That was not phase 2, phase 2 had the same tos engineering and saucer section but with TOS movie necelles

Eaglemoss had one chance to fix the bridge window with this xl release but didn’t take it. C’mon guys! It’s one wide opening not two splotches!

Not the most beautiful ship, but excited to see the new ones! At some point, they are hidding it, according to Calypso.

I wonder if this is because Zora getting in the way of Starfleet, dangerous missions and decisions, Zora may refuse taking risks to protect itself. Or because EVERYONE will try to steal the ship.

If they get a new ship, like Sisko getting the Defiant (ninth episode of the Season 3), that will be nice too. See them with a new ship, USS Discovery A, with the crew with the new Lt. Willa uniform!

The only thing I will miss is the spore drive, the jump, hope they can move the technology to a new ship!!! =D

I still have no clue who thought this version of Discovery would be a great design for this show? It’s still so freaking ugly.

The design aesthetic from season 1 established by Bryan Fuller didn’t carry over to season 2 and what we’ve seen so far in season 3 feels like a natural evolution in design from the TMP era onward.

Yes, thankfully! But the ship itself still remains, which I’m still not a big fan of all this time. While it was a long shot, part of me was hoping they drop the ship completely and come up with something completely different to represent the new era it’s in. But that is asking a lot I guess.

But can you cut an XL pizza with it? ;)

There actually is a pizza cutter in the shape of the TOS USS Enterprise :D
https://target.scene7.com/is/image/Target/GUEST_54c8ab51-e0a2-48f3-a71a-eed7544f47ae?fmt=webp&wid=1400&qlt=80

LOL, nice!

I have it! It’s actually a really good pizza cutter.

The show would look so much better if they used CGI and models. Models on screen look so much more real.

Eaglemoss’s move to $75-level models is not working for me. $50 I’m in. These are over-priced in my opinion.

For $75, I’d rather buy the Diamond Select models if they ever come out. I like the Eaglemoss standard size and $25 price point. I can buy and display more.

I personally like the Discovery. Cool they are using/rebooting the background aliens from TMP in the show. Kind of the missing 70’s era of Star Trek.

I’m a subscriber to the Eaglemoss XL line of ships and generally happy with them. However, Discovery may be the first I return or exchange. I like the show all right, but I hate the ship, it’s just ugly. I don’t want it on the same shelf as the Enterprises or Voyager or Defiant.

And it’s so long and badly proportioned

I hadn’t looked very closely at the Control station — what a great design! That could have come out of the original series.