We’re onto Issue #9 of Fanhome’s Star Trek Starships Collection. For the moment, we’re still in the realm of Star Trek: Picard starships. Issue #9 is the 25th-century USS Excelsior, as seen in Seasons 2 and 3 of Picard. Officially, this starship is the Excelsior II class – a successor to the Excelsior-class (and USS Excelsior) seen in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock! So, what is this ship like?
The collection is coming along nicely. For example, we’ve had two XL ships already, those being the Enterprise-F and Enterprise-G. However, it seems soon we will be getting some vessels from Star Trek: Prodigy and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds—more on those later. For now, we’re looking at this new addition to the fleet! The USS Excelsior NCC-42037 will be available for Individual purchase on Fanhome’s website from August 2nd onwards. See the link below.
🖖 USS Excelsior NCC-42037 Individual Purchase: https://www.fanhome.com/uk/movie-series/star-trek-starships
The Model of the Picard-Era USS Excelsior
Overall, the model of the USS Excelsior is great. After just having the Enterprise-G and the Luna-class USS Titan, it does feel relatively small. However, this is likely due to the length of the ship. The Excelsior is rather long in the Star Trek Universe, and that is translated well here into Fanhome’s model. The model measures at 22 CM long and 7 CM wide. Given we don’t really see much of the Excelsior in Picard, this model perfectly captures some of the missed on-screen details.
The starship’s main nameplate and number are seen on the top side of the saucer section. We’ll talk more about a nameplate issue in a moment. Details on the saucer section include phaser strips, RCS thrusters, and escape pod markings. If you look closely, we can see the Warp Field Governor as well as where the bridge section is located. The level of detail in this model is well done, to the point that if I look very closely, I can see many of the windows of the Excelsior.
Towards the rear section of the Excelsior, we have these wonderful Nacelles. Thankfully, these are unique and not simply another version of the Sagan-class’s nacelles. However, that is more of an issue from Star Trek: Picard than it is with Fanhome. Still, these are attached nicely. However, they do feel very fragile. I wouldn’t pick up the model by these or grab them at all, as I’m afraid they might snap off or bend. The front end of the nacells also includes the Bussard collector highlights, which work well.
Magazine Insight
Like all Fanhome Star Trek Starships models, the USS Excelsior comes with a magazine. Not only do we get insight into the ship itself, from Star Trek: Picard, but also valuable behind-the-scenes work. The magazine informs us that the producers of Picard wanted a new version of a “legacy” design from Star Trek. Therefore, the art department was tasked with creating a new 25th-century Excelsior-class.
Fanhome’s magazine includes new drawings and sketches by legendary designer John Eaves, as well as Doug Drexler. Check it out below.
A Nameplate Issue
There is one glaring issue with the USS Excelsior model. Now, worry not, my Trekkies, for Fanhome has promised to fix this. Nameplates are big deals on starships. While the USS Excelsior model has the leading nameplate on the saucer section, there is another one on the rear section. This is located on the underside of the ship’s rear end. Now, the name plate here is sadly mistyped as “USS Excelsion”. Honestly, this is a tiny mistake that I overlooked until I took a closer look. However, this would be a big deal to some collectors.
Thankfully, Fanhome have noticed this issue on the model. The company has released a message to customers, which you can see below, and aims to address the issue. Therefore, if you’ve got a misprinted USS “Excelsion”, you can now keep that as a bonus, it seems. In some communities like LEGO, misprints are seen as highly unique and quite sought after by collectors.
Conclusion
I think Fanhome’s USS Excelsior makes a great collection item for any Star Trek fan. Unfortunately, it is one of those ships we didn’t see much of in Star Trek: Picard, Season Two or three. Maybe we’ll see more of it in the future. However, if you want a closer look, then your best bet is likely this model. Make it so and pick it up today! The USS Excelsior NCC-42037 will be available for Individual purchase on Fanhome’s website from August 2nd onwards. See the link below.
🖖 USS Excelsior NCC-42037 Individual Purchase: https://www.fanhome.com/uk/movie-series/star-trek-starships
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