I know that I am one of many modelers out there who could not wait for the reissue of the original AMT
Enterprise kit. Most, or all of us soon knew after the announcement that the kit itself would be the later tooling, albeit with a few refinements, and a new decal sheet. Since the changes it the kit itself have already been shown elsewhere, I thought I would do something different.
That leaves the box. Who wouldn't want a reproduction of the original "large box" release? I certainly would. Now that I have a few of the reissues in hand, I thought I would share some comparison photos between the reissue and one of the originals I still have.
First off - The box cover:
Original on the left, repro on the right.
Other than the slight difference in color saturation with the bottom text, the only real difference is that the reissue box is missing the tiny lettering within the white strip that contains the 1966 Desilu Productions copyright. The reissue also bears a flashy gold sticker on the wrapping in the shape of the uniform delta.
Next, is the "Kirk" side of the box:
Original on top, repro on the bottom.
Nearly the same, save for the original "as seen on NBC-TV" text removed on the far right panel. Kind of figured that they wouldn't include it.
Note: The color of Kirk's shirt in this photo is dead-on to the real on-set color.
On to the "Spock" side of the box:
Nearly the same, save for the change in the text of the "Features" box, eliminating any reference to the lights that were included in the original release. This panel also sports a slightly different shade of blue and a new company name and address.
Now, we see the ends:
Not much difference here at all, except for the kit numbers on the left panels: 921-200 for the original, and AMT610 for the reissue.
The original kit instructions were also reproduced for the reissue. We can see them side-by-side here. First is the front side comparisons:
Aside from the age difference, we can also see that they are not quite the same: The original is a tri-fold, while the reissue in folded in half. Again, the illustrations were altered on the reissue to eliminate any reference to the internal lighting feature of the original kit. A lack of grid lines is also apparent.
On the back side, the lack of lighting, inclusion of batteries, and a different stand are very apparent:
Last, but not least, is the decal sheets:
As you can see - HUGE difference here! This is probably the most noticeable difference between the two, and the best reason (aside from the repro box) to pick up this reissue. The decals are easily worth as much as the price of the entire kit.
All in all, I'm very happy with the reissue of the classic kit. Though not 100% authentic, it is a worthy effort, and I applaud Tom Lowe and Round 2 for sharing our passion of these original releases. I want to see many more.
So far, I have just two of the metal boxes, and many more of the cardboard reissues. The lack of grid lines are a nice change. My old hands thanking Tom Lowe and company for not having to scrape and sand them off ever again. I really am looking forward to the future reissues of the classic Spock kit and the Leif (UFO). I hope that they release the rest of them, too - in their original boxes. Or, as close as they can get.
