:: Captain's Personal Blog ::

Stardate: Monday, January 20, 2003

Murphy's Law in Effect:
Well, not quite, but it did sound good.

For those who don't remember my post from a few months ago, I had purchased (over a year ago - waiting for it to arrive) an 33" Clone of the Original Star Trek - U.S.S. Enterprise filming model, complete with working lights from Unobtainium Ltd.

Here is a picture of said model:

Now, I am faced with the following from Playing Mantis' model division, Polar Lights:

2002 International Model & Hobby Expo: Playing Mantis

Now granted, these versions don't have really great lights and they are not 33" long (which may actually be a good thing) but they do feed into my inner model-maker that wanted desperately to build this model. Years ago when AMT ERTL (the long-time copyright holder for Star Trek models) released their U.S.S. Enterprise model, I had to buy the Enterprise Model Rocket (which was the only one to have exacting decals and a few extra pieces) as well as do some SERIOUS sanding to make my model as exacting as possible. Now, after all these years, Playing Mantis is serving this up on a silver platter in THREE DIFFERENT VERSIONS!!!

Now, to make matters worse, AMT ERTL had also released a passable version of the U.S.S. Enterprise from the STAR TREK film series. I took great pains (especially in my hands) to hand draw and paint that model to the exacting specifications seen in the film.

Living with that mildly inferior version for many years, and eagerly praying that
Unobtainium Ltd. would produce a version of my favorite ship, I now am confronted with this:

Bandai Licenses Star Trek!

Now, I know what you are thinking. This should all be good news right? I suppose so, and you do know who will be first in line to purchase them both. I just feel a little dejected by the fact that after all the hard work I have put into these models, someone snaps their fingers and something better comes along. KUDOS! to both Playing Mantis and Bandai, for making my little wishes come true. Now, I just have to work through my issues.
:: J 10:38 AM [+] ::
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