Hallmark Ornament Spotlight- 2011 Romulan Bird-Of-Prey

Item Name: Romulan Bird-Of-Prey Keepsake Ornament
Manufacturer: Hallmark



Hallmark released this ornament as part of their 2011 keepsake assortment. Here's the back of the box if you care to read it-



The Rundown: As the old saying goes- Third time's a charm! After the mediocre showings of the first two 2011 Hallmark ornaments, I'm happy to tell you that I saved the best for last. This year's ship entry, the Romulan Bird-Of-Prey, definitely rules the roost amongst his 2011 brethren... but that isn't really saying much, is it? Let's take look at her and see if she is actually worth plunking down the money for.



The first thing you may notice when getting your BOP out of the box is how "smooth" it is. The ship lacks the intricately sculpted lines and details seen on some of Hallmark's recent ship offerings, like 2009's Klingon Battle Cruiser and 2010's "JJ-Prise". There's a reason for that though: The TOS Romulan Bird-Of-Prey isn't supposed to have hyper-detailing! Duh. Take a look at this picture of the shooting model-



Now look at the ornament-



Not only did Hallmark maintain the integrity of the shooting model by not adding silly things like unnecessary gridlines, but they also did an incredible job of recreating what small details were visible on the original prop. Compare the number of "portholes" and their placement between the two pictures. Go ahead. I'll wait for ya. Done? Yeah, they match pretty darn well, don't they? Good job Hallmark!



Of course, the most integral element to a good Bird-Of-Prey replica is the fowl decoration located on the underside. I have zero complaints with Hallmark's rendition here. The paint lines are nice and tight, with no mismatch between the pattern and the coloring. I also have to give them kudos for incorporating the battery cover into the tail feather portion of the image. Pretty sneaky sis!



Speaking of the batteries- The Romulan Bird-Of-Prey is part of the "Magic" series of ornaments... meaning you're going to get some kind of electronic feature built in. Press the button located on her top side, and this happens:




Pretty sweet, eh? Not sure how well it translated in the video, but the nacelle lights are SUPER bright. Some folks may have issue with the color chosen for the effect, but I personally dig the blue. It looks really sharp. Oh.. and I actually had no idea that the front part lit up until it started blinking. Excellent work all around!



At $32.95, the Romulan Bird-Of-Prey is the most expensive of this year's Hallmark Trek offerings. Thankfully, it also happens to be the best of the bunch. If money isn't really a factor, but you only have room on the tree for one 2011 Trek ornament, make it this one. It really is quite cool, and it would look great hanging near the original Enterprise (if you have that golden oldie). With the high price, you may be tempted to wait out the inevitable post-season clearance, but I have a feeling this one will be the first one to "disappear". After all, it is a Romulan Bird-Of Prey... Ya get it? "Disappear"? Because it can cloak! Ha!

Corgi Spotlight- Klingon Bird-Of-Prey

Item Name: Klingon Bird-Of-Prey ("Regular" and Silver Versions)
Manufacturer: Corgi



Corgi released this standard colored BOP in this oddly shaped package...



... and the silver "Limited Edition" in this swanky fold out display box featuring a ton of little facts about the Bird-Of-Prey. Here's what it looks like all folded out-



The Rundown: Ah, the curse of clearance. I can't tell you how many items that I've been perfectly content to pass on at regular price... only to then gobble them up when they hit clearance. A perfect example is the Star Trek 2009 Playmates lines. I told myself, "Self- You only need to collect one scale, so just pick up the 3.75" stuff and be happy with it". Which I did. Then the 12" line hit clearance and I bought those. And the 6" line. And a carded set of the 3.75" line. And a carded set of the 6" line. Sigh. I kinda hate clearance since it makes me buy stuff I was perfectly fine not having. BUT.... sometimes it works out well, like with these Corgi releases! I passed on them at their ridiculously high original retail price, but snagged them on the cheap just recently. They were so cheap in fact that I even snagged both versions. Let's take a look at 'em!



First up is the standard painted version. This is the one most folks will want, so it's nice that Corgi made the "regular" paint jobs as the cheaper versions, and saved the silver repaints for the limited editions.



I was pretty happy with the Hot Wheels BOP, but man, this Corgi version puts the HW version to shame! All the colors are great, and the lines and details are all very clean. Incredibly nice work here!



The biggest complaint I have on this is the non-moving wings. At the original retail price, they should have found some way to make them work. I understand that they probably didn't want to compromise the sculpt, but Mattel pulled it off with their Hot Wheels version and it looks fine.



Both BOP's include this nifty Klingon display stand. The ship attaches via a hole in it's underbelly. Feels pretty sturdy and I'm not too worried about it breaking off any time soon.



And here we have the silver "Limited Edition". Again, I give Corgi credit for making this the more expensive, limited version. It would stink to have to pay the extra money for all the bells & whistles just to get a standard BOP. It was a pretty big gamble on their part to do a silver version as the pricier piece (which apparently didn't pay off all that well since these hit deep clearance just about everywhere that carried them).



I've never been a fan of "solid color repaints". I just don't get the point. Why would somebody want a plain silver version of something? Maybe to see the details more.... I don't know. I much prefer the painted version to this one.



Another odd thing here is that some of the parts are molded in clear plastic. I have no idea why. Are the guns cloaked or something? Oh, and the silver plastic doesn't quite match the silver of the metal, giving the whole thing an odd mismatched look.



So by now you're probably thinking "what's the point of getting the silver one?". Glad you asked! The silver version includes an extra piece for display! Plug your BOP into it's stand, and then set it down on this nifty electronic base. Hit the button and...



Yeah. That's pretty darn cool. Corgi's original solicitations stated there was supposed to be a sound feature too (in fact some ads for this piece still state that), but nope, just lights. The lights do look awesome in my opinion though, and the cool thing is that since the lighted base is separate from the stand, you can easily switch out which BOP is resting on it.



So there ya go... I picked these up for the very affordable sum of $15.99 each over at Amazon. At that price, the standard version is a pretty great value. The ship is very nicely detailed, and looks great sitting atop an entertainment center or computer desk. The silver version is a bit of a tougher sell, since I can only recommend it for the lighted base to use on your standard version. Unless of course you dig silver Klingon ships...

-James

Playmates Spotlight- Klingon Bird Of Prey (Star Trek Strike Force Collection)

Item Name: Klingon Bird Of Prey
Manufacturer: Playmates Toys



Playmates released this BOP in the "Warp Factor" style packaging as part of the "Star Trek Strike Force" line.



The Rundown: Playmates Strike Force line seems like the counterpart to the Star Wars Action Fleet line. Both feature tiny little figures which sit inside ships that are sometimes "slightly" out of scale. Unfortunately, the Strike Force Series(like it's predecessor the Innerspace Series) didn't quite catch on like the Star Wars stuff, and the line was canceled fairly quickly. This Bird Of Prey marks the only "classic" release in the line, since it's inspired by "Star Trek III The Search For Spock".



Let's look at the crew first. You get Valkris and Kruge with your BOP. This is Kruge's second figure from Playmates (to go along with his 4.5" figure), but this is the only Valkris ever made. I'm a little curious why Valkris was chosen for this, since she was never actually on the Bird Of Prey. She sure is showing a lot of skin there. Maybe that's why. The figures don't look very detailed, but you have to remember that they are only a little over an inch tall. Not too bad for that size.



If you're looking for the most accurate representation of a Bird Of Prey, this ain't it. The ships of this line are built with the gimmick of the line in mind, so certain liberties are taken with size and scale. The Bird Of Prey features 2 different play features. First, there's the wing deployment. Press the little switch on top to change the wing position to this:



Yep, that's it. I didn't accidentally post the same pic twice or something. that really is it. Pretty disappointing, huh? The wings don't really move up all that much. I actually thought maybe mine were broken or something, but no, that's it. Oh, and they are really floppy when they are down too. Lame.



The other feature is the opening cockpit for you to place Commander Kruge in. You'll notice he's coming out of the seat quite a bit there. That's because he's too big to fit in the cockpit all that well. In fact, I couldn't even get the thing to close with him in it.



The ship is kinda short on detailing too. I'm trying to cut it some slack, since again this is a toy, but this thing is pretty bad. It doesn't have the weathering shown in the packaging pics, nor does it have the red "feather" detailing on the wings. Even a decal would have been better than nothing, and I hate decals.



The ship includes a stand which is actually pretty nice. There's even little spots for you to plug the figures into, which is good since they can't both fit in the ship.



There's the box bio for ya...



This is one best left for the young Trek fan. The ship is light on detailing and heavy on size inaccuracy. I'll bet it would be a ton of fun for a 7 year old though...

-James

Playmates Spotlight: Klingon Bird-Of-Prey

Item Name: Klingon Bird-Of-Prey
Manufacturer: Playmates Toys



Playmates released the Klingon BOP in both a Star Trek Generations and a Star Trek: The Next Generation box (I don't have a TNG version for pictures). The ships are the same inside.



The Rundown: I've been on a "Klingon Ship" kick lately with these spotlights...so I figured why not throw in one of Playmates' finer efforts: the Klingon Bird-Of-Prey! I'm a huge fan of this ship design, so it's nice that Playmates did a pretty decent job with this one-



As you can see, the detailing is pretty nice for a Playmates product. You have to remember that these aren't like the Art Asylum/ Diamond Select ships; the Playmates ships were made really as toys first and as a display piece second. At the price range these were released in though ($25 usually), there's a good amount of bang for your buck.



Here's the bottom of the ship...again, good strong detailing and a nice, clean paint job. Sure, the ship could have used a little more weathering...but this is pretty much what you'd expect of a mass-market toy at the time.



As with most of the Playmates ships, there's some nice electronic features to add some play value to the piece. There are 3 buttons on the top of the ship to activate it's 3 different sounds: torpedo launch, engine cruise, and disruptor. The sounds are all very clear and pretty loud. The ship has 2 lighted areas that are also activated by the buttons. There's the engine exhaust as seen above and...



...the torpedo launcher as seen here.



The BOP also comes with a stand with an attached battery compartment covery. Switch out the battery compartment cover that is on the ship in 'play-mode' with the stand for a very nice display piece! I much prefer this 'switch-out battery cover/ stand' to some of AA's 'pegged' stands (which sometimes don't hold up well over time).

So it's a really nice ship, even by today's standards. My only gripe is the lack of movable wings. I'm guessing it has to do with either leaving space for the electronics, or Playmates just getting cheap. Either way, it's a feature that I hope DST squeezes into their rumored version...

Oh...read the box bio!



-James

Hot Wheels Spotlight- Klingon Bird-Of-Prey

Item Name: Klingon Bird-Of-Prey
Manufacturer: Mattel (Hot Wheels Division)



The Bird-Of-Prey was released boxed as part of the Hot wheels Die-Cast Star Trek assortment.



The Rundown: There's a whole lotta companies getting a piece of the Star Trek pie right now thanks to the movie hype. One of those companies is Mattel, which recently introduced it's assortment of Star Trek Die-Cast Vehicles. The Klingon Bird-Of-Prey here shipped in the second case assortment and is a bit tough to come by. Here's what you're getting if you take the time to search one out-



The number one coolest thing about the ship is the elevating wings. It's a feature that I think the ship should always have, but is sadly missing on allot of it's releases. Thankfully, this one has it and it works great. The wings have sort of a ratcheting movement which keep them in place in 3 positions: fully elevated, midway, and fully lowered. The ratcheting system works really well and enables you to keep the wings displayed in whatever stage you choose without them flopping around.



The sculpting and paint jobs are beautiful. I have the dies-cast Hot Wheels refit Enterprise and Reliant, and really this one puts those 2 to shame. I really didn't expect allot out of this one after getting those, so I was pleasantly surprised to see such nicely detailed work on this one.



They even cast part of the back half of the ship in a translucent red plastic to give it a more authentic look! Nice job Mattel!



Oh, and I shouldn't forget to mention the base- Mattel didn't skimp on this either. The top half of the base is molded in a translucent green plastic, as opposed to the blue on the Federation ships, and there's a nice little Klingon insignia on there.

Okay, so the ship is great, but the hunt for it is not so great. At one per case right now, the ship is a little tough to come by. So tough to come by that I eventually broke down and ordered mine from toysrus.com. Time for me to get on a soapbox- Toysrus.com has some of the worst shipping quality I've ever experienced. I got the ship 5 days after I ordered it (despite it coming from a distribution facility in my state) and when it did arrive I was incredibly disappointed in their packaging job. They just threw the box in a giant bubble envelope! No packing material, no box, just a giant thin bubble envelope! Oh, and it was half open when it arrived too since they didn't even bother to put tape on the envelope. Nice one Toys R Us! The box had a rather large ding on the bubble, but miraculously survived other than that. Still, I think that was shear luck. If you need one of these, and you're thinking of going the toysrus.com route, be aware that you are taking a risk in it getting to you unscathed.

Okay...rant over...read the box bio!-



-James