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	USS Enterprise NCC-1701-E; Star Trek – Starship Legends, Art Asylum Meat and Potatoes; 5.0 Perks; 5.0 Homer Facor; 5.0
					Description; the latest incarnation of the Enterprise brought to life! The Enterprise E is a beautiful recreation of the ship first introduced in ‘Star Trek – First Contact’.  The ship has the classic look of the Enterprise; two nacelles at the back, a secondary hull attached to them, with an oval primary hull in front.  However the ship has a sleek, ‘aerodynamic’ shape like a Dodge Viper or an X-Wing fighter.  The piece has amazing sculpting and painting which captures many of the details of this amazing ship.  The figure has an assortment of light and sound effects as well as a detachable stand.
		Enterprise.  Such a simple name, and frankly it’s more of a ‘business’ name, really.  Ya know, ‘This enterprise will make us a crap-load of money as long as the IRS doesn’t bust us!’  For most people, though, the name brings up memories of one of the great pop-culture icons; the USS Enterprise.  Kirk in the center-seat... over-acting, but over-acting with such exuberance!  Spock at his station thinking ‘I’ll be a much better director then he’ll ever be!’  When the ship first appeared on NBC in 1966 it freaked out a LOT of people.  Until then most ships looked either like flying saucers or giant missiles.  Yeah, really lame and boring, but then again that’s all we had to work with.  Then the designers went totally bonkers and created something that looked more like modern art then a starship.  But a legend was born.  The Enterprise has gone though seven incarnations, some looking very cool (The ‘refit’ from the first six ‘Trek’ films.) some rather, well, pudgy. (The ‘D’ from ‘Next Gen’.)  And then there’s the E, the Sovereign class!  Equal part F-15 fighter, Dodge Viper, and Battleship Yamato.  Toys and of this outstanding ship have come and gone over the years.  Art Asylum got the license for ‘Trek’ and we wondered what would result.  Fans weren’t disappointed, as the figures were gorgeous.  Good sculpting, good articulation, et al.  But what about the ships?  Well Art Asylum made fans happy with their first ship, the Enterprise A.   So what could we expect for their encore?  An ass-kicking version of the most powerful ship in Starfleet is the result.    Meat and potatoes are just like Art Asylum’s Enterprise A outstanding.  The sculpting and painting are just amazing.  To say this is a ‘toy’ is an insult to the craftsmanship put into this piece.  The ship captures an amazing amount of detail.  Yes, you have the escape pods, the proper likeness of the warp nacelles, even the phaser strips.  It’s the tiniest things that are amazing.  The ports recreated along the ship, the fore and aft photon torpedo tubes that are on the secondary hull on the ‘bottom’ of the secondary hull.  The ship itself is a very nice size.  At 18” it’s large enough to capture all of these details very well and is very sturdy but it’s not so large it looks like a Fisher Price toy.  The perks are very, very cool.  The ship comes with a stand based upon the modified ‘Trek’ logo used as the communicator badge.  Unlike the first stand used on the Enterprise A this one is a LOT sturdier.  Be warned, just the same, the ball-and-socket connection between the stand and the ship is REALLY tight.  I had to sand mine down a bit to get it to fit more smoothly.  The ship has the obligatory sound and lightening effects.  Oh, warning when you get this piece, READ THE DIRECTIONS!  I forgot to open the battery case to switch it to ‘play’ rather then ‘display’ so you can get the full spectrum of sounds.  The effects are pretty cool.  There is a quantum torpedo launch, a pair of phrases from Picard, the classic ‘warp drive’ sound, and a few others.  Over all a nice selection and well done.  Yep, that IS Jean-Luc speaking to you!  Woohoo!  The lightening effects that accompany the sounds are cool too.  The deflector dish, Bussard scoops, (the red things at the ‘front’ of the warp nacelles for you non-believers) impulse engines, and most of the upper section of the main saucer glow.  In addition, rather then the obligatory glows the lights brighten and dim to the sounds.  The Bussard scoops get brighter and brighter with the ‘warp’ effect.  When you hear the ‘ship taking damage’ effect all the lights blink as they would on the ship.  I wish there were a bit more lighting effects, but considering the size of the ship I can’t complain too much.  Homer factor?  Oh come on, it’s the Enterprise E!  The bad-ass ship that took on the Borg and the Scimitar-class mega-battleship in ‘Nemesis’!  And considering what Art Asylum did with their last ship, resistance if futile! (Hey, I couldn’t help it!) The end result is a gorgeous ship!  This piece showcases the beautiful work Art Asylum does.  It’ can be a model-quality display piece, or if you’re so inclined you can... oh heck, you know you wanna play with this thing!  Now if there was only a Romulan warship to display against it.  Oh yeah!