Small Scale Star Trek NCC-1701-E Enterprise Comparison: Konami, Furuta

Sunday, January 26, 2014


The famous Enterprise E starship from Star Trek Nemesis gets miniaturized for your small scale collection.

After the destruction of the USS Enterprise D, the USS Enterprise E was commissioned on 2372 under the command of Captain Jean Luc Picard.  It is the most advanced starship at the time of its commission and equipped with quantum torpedoes and 16 phaser banks.

Although there are a few large scaled Star Trek starship toys/collectables available from Bandai (NCC-1701-E), Aoshima (NCC-1701-D), and Diamond Select Toys (for just about any domestic released large scaled),  small scale remains the only opportunity to own more variety of ships from Ferengi Mauraders to Federation Nebula class.

There are currently 2 high quality small scaled mass produced toys produced for the iconic starship Enterprise from the hit Star Trek First Contact, Insurrection, and Nemesis movies.  Choosing one as the center piece of your collection is definitely an important part of collecting.  Furuta released an Enterprise E as a "Secret Item" back in 2004 and Konami released one in 2008 that scale very well with FToys' Enterprise D.

From left to right: MicroMachine Klingon Bird of Prey, Furuta Ferengi Marauder, Hallmark mini Defiant, MicroMachine Klingon Battle Cruiser, Johnny Lightning Enterprise D, MicroMachine Excelsior, Konami Enterprise E, MicroMachine Reliant, Furuta Saratoga

Part of selecting the right toy is finding the right scale is important

ManufacturerScaleSize
Furuta1:512513.4cm x 4.8cm x 1.8cm
Konami1:512014.3cm x 5cm x 1.8cm

Inside the Package

Furuta:


The Furuta comes in 4 pieces.  It's nice that the main deflector dish comes as a separate colored piece.  The pieces are hard thin plastic.  As you can see, the pieces are a beige plastic and painted white, blue, red, black, and other colors.

Konami:

The Konami comes in 2 pieces made out of very flexible rubbery plastic.  Here the Enterprise is molded in a bluish grey and painted.

Front

Furuta:

An orange main deflector with a paint of blue in the middle.

Konami:

The powered orange main deflector

Both Furuta and Konami pylons don't angle enough to push the nacelle high enough over the saucer section.  The Konami secondary hull is narrower while the Furuta is more accurate with width.  Because Konami used a rubbery plastic, the lower piece that connects to the main saucer section can bend dowward as you can see it droop to cover the main deflector.


Top of the Saucer Section

Furuta:

The escape pods (triangles), cargo landing hatch (yellow), and reaction control thrusters (orange) are nicely painted.  The USS Enterprise and NCC-1701-E labels are printed.  The USS Enterprise label is a tad too high up but the NCC-1701-E is aligned well.

Konami:

The mid section of the main saucer section has grey paint for the upper and lower part of the top saucer section.  The lower part should've been left lighter bluish grey.

Side

Furuta:

Because the secondary hull is made of two pieces, you can see a slight gap

Konami:

The nacelles on the Konami version angles down at the rear a little more than the Furuta.  The Konami version has windows etched to the sides of the secondary hull that are not found on the Furuta.  Konami also tried to print "United Federation of Planets" between the two strips of red that run along the secondary hull.  But it's much too small to read but nice of them to try.

Back

Furuta:

Furuta has chosen to etch grid lines on the secondary hull which aren't accurate to the movie models.

Konami:

The nacelles on the Konami have more textured details and the paint job is cleaner than the Furuta.


The Whole Ship

Furuta:


Konami:


Comparison of the top for Hallmark (DS9), Furuta, and Konami



Comparison of the saucer section of Konami and Furuta


Th escape pods on the Furuta are painted and much more pronounced.  The impulse engines and black top are also much more accurate to the real one.  I would have preferred Furuta used grey rather than the bluish grey color.

Comparison of the bottom for Hallmark (DS9), Furuta, and Konami




The Konami properly paints the pylons grey and black rather than both black like the Furuta.  Also, oddly Furuta also used yellow and light blue paints just ahead of the tractor bean emitter assembly.  Also Furuta added additional etching on the nacelles that I haven't seen in any photos of the Enterprise E.

Bottom of the saucer section

Konami and Furuta

Konami paints the center of the deflector the same gold color while Furuta painted it light blue probably to show it as active.  Furuta forgot to paint the triangles at the 2 o'clock and 10 o'clock positions which Konami has.  However, the black area around the neck is more accurately painted on the Furuta as it doesn't stretch to the center like the Konami.

Both Konami and Furuta have created small very detailed Enterprise E that are very similar in quality and size.  I personally prefer the overall grey color of the Konami rather than the bright white of the Furuta even if white is the more accurate color scheme. You won't go wrong choosing either of these toys.

Eric Toy Score: Furuta 4/5, Konami 4/5
Year: 2004, 2008
Price: $22.49, $33.99


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