Collector Star Trek USS Excelsior NCC 2000

In the early 1990s, AMT/Ertl released a 1:1000 scale USS Excelsior kit as seen first in the film Star Trek III: The Search For Spock and subsequently in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and it was featured prominently in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. One of the most popular designs of ships in the franchise, the Excelsior Class Starship appeared on multiple occasions in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager. Although the kit was popular fans and builders it was well-known for having multiple GLARING issues with accuracy in comparison to its on-screen counterpart.Apparently, the folks at Hot Wheels didn't seem to mind this because they made an EXACT DUPLICATE of the AMT/Ertl kit, right down to all of the flawed parts and inaccuracies. Mind you, this is not nitpicking and this is not just a matter of the details being off. No, this is a matter of very bad tooling on AMT/Ertl's part to begin with and when they couldn't get something right they just made it up so there are many, many parts that are unique and exclusive to the AMT/Ertl kit that Hot Wheels just blatantly copied.I really couldn't believe what I was seeing when I opened this ship up. Here's a list of just what I noticed:1. Recessed docking thrusters (yellow areas) on the edge of the hull. The filming model doesn't have these recessed areas but the AMT/Ertl kit does... and amazingly, so does this Hot Wheels toy. This was corrected with the Enterprise-B kit.2. Two flat blank squares where the forward torpedo launchers should be. Both the AMT/Ertl Excelsior and the Enterprise-B variant of this kit suffer from this lack of detail as does the Hot Wheels toy.3. Inaccurate underside of saucer section... the exact same inaccuracies in the AMT/Ertl kit are present in the Hot Wheels toy. Specifically the lack of a "trench" (look it up) where the dorsal section connects to the saucer and a lack of a "collar" at this connection.4. The aft torpedo launcher is the exact same inaccurate torpedo launcher that AMT/Ertl designed for their kit.5. The most obvious flub of all: they copied the detail-less cargo bay door section in the aft end of the engineering section.Again, this isn't a matter of getting things wrong, it's a matter of copying someone else's mistakes and passing it off as your own work. It would be like copying a counterfeit bill right down to the mistakes of the original counterfeiter. I'm really surprised that Round 2 (who owns the AMT brand and all of the rights to the original kit) didn't catch on and sue Mattel over this.As for everything else, the piece is fine for the $8 I bought it for. I wouldn't give anyone the $20 MSRP for this as it's not even remotely worth it.It's diecast metal and vinyl, which is to be expected for the pricepoint. Heck, even the Eaglemoss Starships Collection is diecast metal and plastic. Sorry folks, but there's only so much you can do with tooling and details when it comes to diecast metal. Will the nacelles bend if mishandled? Yes... if you're four years-old... which is exactly what happened to the nacelles on the Hot Wheels Reliant my four year-old son got at the Star Trek Convention this summer ($10).As four year-olds will do, he kept leaving it on the floor and it kept getting stepped on, bending the nacelles awkwardly outward like baby deer falling down. Guess what I discovered about the vinyl parts on the Hot Wheels Star Trek line? If the parts bend, you can bend them back into place and they'll stay. So this whiny-baby nonsense about the parts being vinyl and easily broken/bent is irrelevant... especially for an adult.As far as detail is concerned, this piece is bereft of nearly any despite a poorly masked airbrush of light blue paint and some very lame decaling. Zero aztecking or anything else to make the piece stand out. Again, not really a surprise considering the pricepoint for the size, but the way they wallpapered the USS Vengeance with Aztecking decals, how hard could it have been? Well, I guess if AMT/Ertl had done an Aztec decal set they might have had something to copy.Another reviewer stated that the proportions were off. Uh, no. The proportions are fine.All in all, it's a poor value for the MSRP but fine for $10 or less. Put it in your wish list and keep an eye out on it but don't pay more than $10.

As a fan of the original Star Trek in movies, I always wanted to get a model of the USS Excelsior. I don't have much shelf space so this model is perfect at 7.5" in length.As it turns out, this model is almost at 1/2500 scale (converts to 476 m vs. 467 m according to specs). This is great as I'm finding several models of the USS Enterprise (and other ST ships) that were built to match the 1/2500 scale. There are a few inaccuracies, like the orientation of the ship's designation underneath the saucer, but otherwise it looks good.This model is solid as the saucer and engineering sections are made of metal. The nacelles are made of plastic, but there is no warping on my model. Even as it is heavy, it sits well on the ball joint of the stand. I can even try to angle the ship with no slip.Over all, this a good model. It looks a bit small from my couch, but that just an open invitation to play with it.

As most reviewers have noted, Hot Wheels advertises these as die cast metal, when in fact only part of the ship is die cast. The warp nacelles and pylons are plastic. So this is a good looking display model, but probably would not hold up well for playing. My son has broken the stand on some of these by taking the ship off and putting it back on the stand. This is a nice looking model of Excelsior, with a pretty good level of decalling. However, I think the NCC-2000 on the bottom of the saucer is backwards from how it appears on film

As a collector, I generally find most Star Trek related toys to be relatively lacking with some notable exceptions, this being one of them. It is very hard to find such a beautiful representation of the USS Excelsior, especially one like this. This die-cast and plastic model was startlingly bigger than I expected, at more than six inches in overall length, and was done very well with only a few minor flaws that are not deal breakers, one being that the ship's registration number (NCC-2000) is backward on the underside of the saucer. Very well done, I'd say, given that it's not a larger toy. I highly recommend this for any serious Star Trek fan.

As someone who remembers the Playmates era of Star Trek toys, I find this Hot Wheels version of the Excelsior to be quite beautiful. It is well constructed, beautifully detailed, and a good size (big enough to see the detail, small enough to go on the shelf). And this was well worth the cost as some of the larger Diamond Select versions can be cost prohibitive and the Round 2 models can be (in my case) skill prohibitive. Well done, Mattel. Now, if you would just release that Original Series Romulan Bird of Prey...

The model itself is very accurate and well made. However, the one I bought has a mark in the paint on the back. And the stand that was made for the ship was too small for the ship. It will not hold the ship so I had to superglue it into place. Overall, the model is very nice despite the problem of the display stand.

I currently have quite a few of the hot wheels collectible Star Trek collection, however, I'm not one of them that purchased for their collectible value. I bought them to display them, and I find them excellent for that purpose there. Neither too big nor too small. The price is good and they look very nice displayed with my other aircraft and other space craft highly recommend them. They're durable, and they don't fade. At least the 1st ones I bought haven't that's been 2 years ago

Beautiful model of a beautiful ship. Sadly though, they got the scale wrong... the stardrive section is too long and the nacelles pushed too far back. It's noticeably off. Still really cool. Oh, I also wish they hadn't made the end caps of the nacelles out of rubber... I mean seriously.... why? You could still put an eye out with those things. lol

Nice size but more detail would be appreciated for future releases.

Great

Sympathique objet, n'est pas un jouet, mais finition moyenne, emballage moyen, boite reçu en état correct.Un peu cher pour ce que c'est, mais quand on aime...:)D'autres modèles dans la collection sont mieux finis.