This is pretty cool that they released this in time for the new movie. It’s not too big, about 7 inches. but it looks great and is durable.

Upon purchasing this toy/model, whatever you want to call it, I was very pleased to see that it largely lived up to the billing on the box – the stardrive section of the Enterprise-D is indeed die-cast metal. The saucer section is seperable from the stardrive, a very nice touch from Hot Wheels, but the saucer is not metal. It is plastic, albeit heavy plastic.

My only real gripe with this toy/model is that it is not as elaborately painted as the Johnny Lightning mini-models of Galaxy class ships, such as windows, cargo bays, escape pod hatches, etc.

However, I am pleased to add this ship to my collection of Trek models.

Unfortunately, the box claims that Hot Wheels’ collection of Trek ships also includes the Enterprise-1701 as she appears in the new movie, and a Klingon Bird-of-Prey, which I have yet to locate in either stores or on Amazon.

The 1701-D is the second best of the first three Hot Wheels Star Trek Vehicles releases ( number one would be the Reliant, and it pains me to say, the 1701 Refit comes in third in this bunch ).

The overall sculpt is very good, with the component shapes and molded in details showing a high degree of accuracy. A nice playworthy touch is the ability to separate the saucer and stardrive sections, as seen in the television show and movies. The painted-on details are basic, but adequate, and better than the paint on the Refit toy.

Unfortunately, as with the other ships in this line, this toy is misleadingly labeled as diecast metal, with no mention of ANY plastic pieces. The only part of this model that is metal is the the upper engineering hull and the engine struts, which makes up about 10% of the whole toy. The rest of the ship; saucer, connecting dorsal, engines, and the underside of the engineering hull are all made of styrene plastic
( which is at least firmer than the soft PVC used in the Reliant and Enterprise refit toys ).

So, overall, it’s a nice little display piece with a decent degree of accuracy, but loses points for the amount of plastic used in a product advertised as “DIE CAST METAL”.