Shuttlecraft Yosemite

I'm a big fan of the Star Trek ships made by Eaglemoss (or HeroCollector? That pseudo rebrand was always confusing to me), so I was very bummed when they went out of business in late 2022. I was just as relieved, though, when Master Replicas re-formed in 2023 to release the remaining stock... including unreleased products! That included a handful of items I'd pre-ordered but evaporated, like the Aliens Sulaco XL, and eventually stuff that hadn't even been announced (as far I know) like this - the shuttlecraft from Star Trek: Lower Decks! Since Star Trek now lives behind a paywall on Paramount+ (a service not particularly appealing, especially on top of all of the other streaming services I'm already paying for), I've never seen Lower Decks, except for a few clips. It does seem like a bit of an odd show to me, though, that both adores and mocks Star Trek. It does have some meme-ably fun deep-cut fan service, but, like that mothballed Star Wars Detours show, it just feels "off" to satirize a franchise from within the franchise (Deadpool movies not aside). But who knows, maybe within context of the full episodes it plays better than it does in clips. This schuttlecraft comes in a nice 10.5" x 7" x 4.25" box that is branded specifically to Lower Decks. Inside is a two-piece white styrofoam shell that holds the shuttle and its base. No magazine or schematic, as earlier releases had - understandable, since Eaglemoss had already phased some of that out and this was a tail-end production piece. Without that for background, I have turned to Memory-Alpha for wiki-style context. A Type 6A shuttlecraft and part of the USS Cerritos' complement, this shuttle is the Yosemite (a.k.a. Shuttle 4) and appeared on six episodes of Lower Decks. Set 10 years after the end of Next Generation and two years after the end of Voyager. This 6A shuttle design seems intended to aesthetically bridge the iconic TNG Type 6 and Type 7 shuttles (the 6 being the iconic TNG Shuttle and probably what you're thinking of when you think of "TNG Shuttle" - it's the one Playmates made a vehicle of - while the 7 is the more curvy version occasionally used in earlier seasons, which Galoob made a vehicle of). This design mainly uses the hull shape of the Type 6 with the bowed "wings" to the nacelles, which are cylindrical, like the TOS Shuttlecraft. This shuttle is larger/longer than the 6 and 7, and seemingly uses side doors in addition to a rear ramp. The sculpt captures the look of the shuttle perfectly. All the panels and doors are sculpted in, including those on the underside, and lined in black to better call them out. The top half, windows, and nacelles are plastic while the bottom and nacelle-wings seem to a single diecast part. Interestingly, the three windows are single separate piece cast in matte black. It gives the shuttle a nice look, though (at least on mine) it does leave some tiny gaps between the side supports when seen at an angle. There is also some slight bulging on the front window too, not to mention it does make one think they could have just made it translucent and included an interior. The nacelles have a seam running down the middle length-wise, which doesn't look great but the blue panels (warp field generators) help distract from it. Those are translucent and on both sides of the nacelles so work as light-pipes for one another. The Bussard collectors on the front and back (?) of the nacelles are also a separate piece and likewise have a horizontal seam/flashing that matches the ones in the nacelles, which... doesn't hurt but seems like it could have been tooled to just avoid seams? They are painted in an opaque almost neon red, which matches the color of the impulse engines on the back of the shuttle. In general, the paint here is good. The whole shuttle is that beautifully comforting beige-white from TNG and has some nice mustard yellow stripes along the front of the nacelles and just under the mid-section of the shuttle. There is black lining around all the sculpted paneling and doors, which adds a nice "premium" sensibility since the detail is present in both sculpt and paint. At first I thought the black was done via a wash but it's actually a series of prints or masks. Unfortunately, those have ended up slightly off from the sculpt on mine, so while it looks fine from a distance, back up close it can be pretty noticeable. The nose has the name Yosemite printed on it, which looks nice. On the back the serial number is printed on, but appears to be incorrect. The U.S.S. Cerritos is NCC-75567, so one would expect to see that here as well. Indeed, most of the screenshots I've found have that number on the shuttle/s. A 6A shuttlecraft from [whatever ship the NCC-77567 is] did appear in an episode... so who knows if this is an Eaglemoss mix-up, or they were given the wrong reference (again). We get the standard two-part stand for the shuttle, a black oval base and a clear plastic stand. The base has a black felt underside for stability, with the typical silver sticker showing the ship's name and production info. The clear stand is only about an inch tall and, very frustratingly, is just a scaled-up version of the effectively useless stands from the mini-shuttle multi-packs. It is just a straight stalk with a flat H-shaped plate. As a result, the shuttle just loosely sits atop it - there is no grip or cradle to it like the ships-proper get, so the Yosemite just slips 'n' slides on it like oil on water. So... what's the point? Really annoying and the one thing I'd really consider a true "fail" here. Ultimately, I bought this on an impulse during its launch since it does look cool, I was in a bit of shuttlecraft phase, and FOMO since it was a brand-new release. But at $78.00 (£59.99) plus shipping, I pretty much had buyer's remorse right way. It is a lot of money for something I have no real personal connection to. Were this half the price and half the size (i.e. the same size as the original "Starship Collection" ships, I'd be raving about it. I totally get why the thin designs of Discovery required Eaglemoss to move everything to this larger size, but it's really a shame that they kept it up for all of the Paramount+ shows, because it's just not necessary for a lot of ships. But this is pretty neat looking shuttlecraft and does aesthetically tick off all the nostalgia sensors. -- 08/01/24