Eaglemoss continues to run some pretty irresistible sales on Amazon every month or so, which means I’ve been stocking knocking a bunch of their ships off my Want List. A lot of them have been Starships from Star Trek, but today we’re taking a trip back to the Classic Battlestar Galactica series and having a look at the Colonial Viper Mk I!

This is one of the big boys, measuring in at a little over ten inches long, so naturally it comes in a fairly beefy box. The package is collector friendly, with the Viper coming fully assembled and secured between two halves of a styrofoam brick. All you need to do is pop the stand together, but if you’re like me, you’ll be whooshing this around the room before you even get to the stand. You also get a full color booklet that has some technical and behind the scenes info about this iconic ship. I don’t always bother with these books, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one.

And this ship is indeed so damn iconic to me. As a kid, BSG blew my little mind, as it truly felt like all the flash and spectacle of Star Wars, but as an ongoing series right in our living room. Hell, I can still marvel at how good the ships and battles look for the time. And while I’m sure it may be sacrilege to some, I would personally hold the design of this Colonial Viper up against that of the X-Wing any day of the week. It may not be quite as distinctive as Incom’s fighter, but I always thought this design looked more realistic and made more sense. It’s basically three big engines attached to a cockpit and fuselage. There’s something about it that just looks more rugged and durable.

The Viper is comprised of both Diecast metal and plastic, but despite it’s size there isn’t a whole lot of heft to this ship, so let’s say mostly plastic. That’s not necessarily a mark against it for me, but considering how heavy some of the Trek ships feel, this one just feels more like a plastic model garage kit. The paint is absolutely exquisite, particularly the weathering work, which really sells this thing. The hull is splotched with wear and tear that looks convincing enough for a studio model. There’s scorch marks around the engine intakes, possible scarring from Cylon laser hits, and of course you get the beautiful deep crimson striping and accents.

And the sculpt is certainly no slouch either. There’s panel lines with interlocking catches, rivets, pipes coming from the exposed parts of the engines, vents, and intakes. I love the cutouts were the front wings almost meet up with the fuselage, and the fact that the laser cannons just sort of float off the wing sections, leaving a stylish gap. I expected the canopy glass to be just painted black, but it’s actually a dark smoked transparent plastic. In just the right light you can almost see inside.

The stand is well designed, with angled transparent arms that slip just in front of the each lower engine. It offers a snug hold on the ship, ensuring that it won’t slip out or topple over, while not obstructing the view of the ship. But because it is pretty tight, it’s probably best to not remove it from the stand too many times as it could lead to some paint wear at the contact point.

I couldn’t be happier that Eaglemoss is doing Classic Battlestar Galactica ships, as I haven’t had an example of this Viper in my collection since I had Mattel’s little version as a kid. It’s perfectly sized to bring out the detail and really get noticed on the shelf, and the quality and craftsmanship is top notch. The MSRP on this fighter is around $70, but I got in on a Buy 2, Get 50% Off Deal, so I paired it up with the Classic Cylon Fighter, only paying $35 for each. And yeah, I’ll try to squeeze a look at the Cylon ship into the mix in the next couple of weeks!