I bought this for my son, who is now going through all of the Star Trek series for the first time. Okay, okay -- it's partially for me as well. I have not seen any of the assembly problems that seem to have plagued previous releases, such as excessive glue or large gaps in the seams. The only nits that I have to pick are 1) that the plugs for the screws that hold the secondary hull together stick out instead of being flush with the hull surface, 2) the marker lights on the saucer section are reversed with the red on the starboard side and the green on the port side, and 3) the stand flexes a bit much due to its design. Re: the marker lights, my friend's father is a pilot and taught me "Red, Right, Wrong" meaning if you see the RED light on the RIGHT side of the aircraft, then it's headed straight towards you, which is WRONG. As I said, they're nits, and I can easily forgive Diamond Select for them in light of what they got right.The toy seems to be very sturdy, particularly the pylons for the warp nacelles, which was a concern of mine, and the warp nacelles are aligned perfectly. The warp nacelles are firmly attached to the pylons and show very little flex if any. The graphics are very well done with great detail, and the "NCC-1701" on the saucer section is lined up perfectly. Despite my satisfaction with its build quality, I have still cautioned my son about not banging it around since it is plastic and he's still a boy! The best thing about this is that there's a running light mode! I have the NX-01, and it was a bit of a disappointment that this feature was absent from it. It just seems to obvious to me, so it's nice that the HD Enterprise has it.The other thing I like about this toy is the way the toy mounts on the stand. On the NX-01, you have to swap out the small battery compartment hull piece with a mounting piece that has a hole in it that's roughly 1/4" in diameter, which is where the ball of the stand inserts to mount it, which allows it to swivel on the stand. Without the stand, there's this big, gaping hole on the ventral side of the hull. On the HD NCC-1701, there's a mounting cylinder that the ball/socket joint to the stand, and it has a small keyed stud that's about 1/8" in diameter that goes into the ventral side of the secondary hull. Without the stand, there's still a small hole, but it's unobtrusive. It does come with a secondary battery cover without any hole, but oddly enough, it does not have the same graphics. I'm going to leave the mounting cover on since it looks great even with the hole. The only complaint I have is that the mounting stud fits VERY tightly, and it took a good amount of coaxing to remove it from the secondary hull. Then again, my plan is to hang the starships from my son's ceiling when he's not playing with that particular ship, so this isn't much of an issue.UPDATE: We have now acquired a number of the Art Asylum/Diamond Select starships, and I have come to the conclusion that the stands simply suck. While the ball/socket joint is great in concept, it sucks in implementation. The plastic from which the stands are made is simply too weak for this design. Even being extremely careful when removing the stand from the starship, 3 of the stands' ball have twisted off. This IS a toy and is meant to be played with, so there shouldn't be any expectation that it be put on a shelf and left there. Even with the additional cylinder piece between the ball joint and ship, it still managed to twist off. I guess this pushes up my plan to hang the ships from the ceiling...With the lights on, the marker lights blink, and the Bussard collectors slowly phase from red to yellow simulating the rotation seen on the TV series. There is very little light bleed through even with the bright white LEDs on the bridge and navigation dome. The lights also function with the dialog clips.If you're looking for a perfect reproduction of the Enterprise without any flaws, then you're probably better off buying a model and building/painting/lighting it yourself. If you're looking for a well-built toy that has great detail, is a faithful reproduction of this iconic starship, and is something that you would be proud to show your friends even if you plan to put it on the shelf, then you'll definitely want to get this. I considered buying the smaller starship models by Hot Wheels or Furata for my son, but they are still a little more than half the price of the Diamond Select line while a much smaller product. I think the Diamond Select line provides much more bang for the buck with the lights, sound effects, and larger size.I don't usually buy toys/models like this but after playing the miniature game Star Trek: Attack Wing by WizKids, I found my love for the Trek ships rekindled. A lot of thought went into the smaller details of this ship. The top and bottom of the saucer have a port and starboard blinking running light, one red and one green. They are quite small compared to the other lights, so the proportions seem correct for what they are. The top of the bridge and the bottom of the saucer (the bottom phaser ports or where the captain's yacht would be on the newer Enterprise models) both light up with a very bright white light. Not too distracting for my tastes, but I can see where some wouldn't like it. Finally, the Bussard collectors on the front of each nacelle are really stellar (bad pun - couldn't help myself). To simulate the motion and lights of the 1960's studio model, a steady but slowly changing color LED or LED's was placed in each. The colors will constantly change from red to orange to yellow and back. It's a fairly subtle effect, but it looks very impressive! There is a tiny bit of light bleed on the top edge of my saucer where the running lights are, but the rest of the plastic is opaque enough to carry forward the intended effect.The sound clips are great: Audio and speech are clear, and the appropriate sound effects are all present and identifiable. A nice touch: hold down the bridge button for 5 seconds or so and all lighting effects come on without sound. Much appreciated!The sculpt of the model is great: the saucer section and the warp nacelles are all spot-on straight and in line; no sagging that I could tell. The details such as port holes, shuttle bay doors, and paint details are all rendered and applied clearly and beautifully. Another nice touch is that Diamond Select used screw hole covers that are the same color as the main body, minimizing the site of silver screw heads popping out. There are no jarring breaks in the exterior visuals due to hardware. The only qualm I have with the sculpt is that the seams where different pieces are joined (like along the warp nacelles lengthwise) are very noticeable. But for this price, I'll live.The glaring issue is the stand. It is nicely shaped with the base looking like an all black command insignia. A thin piece of plastic arcs up and at the top of that is a ball joint and a cylinder that fits over it. the cylinder has a peg that snaps into one of the battery cover doors the ship comes with (the other cover is smooth with no opening if you don't care about the stand. Another nice touch by the manufacturers). The overall stand has me suspicious of its quality, especially the ball joint that only stays in place via friction, and the saucer section of the Enterprise model is heavier than the rest, and off center. The ship will tilt forward over time making me worry about it's safety. If I wanted an Enterprise to crash land, I'd put Troi behind the wheel, you know?I want to display this on a small shelf by my TV because, again, I think it's a great looking model for the price. But I need to figure out some more secure method of mounting this thing.Stand aside, and for the price, I'm actually really impressed by the Enterprise. I don't know how great it would be for younger kids, but for us older kids with a penchant for sci-fi, it fires the imagination!All in all, an outstanding model of the original starship Enterprise NCC-1701 for display purposes, wouldn’t want pre-teens playing with it tho, very fragile.My solutions for the weak stand are as follows: * Glue the base and strut frame together. The sucker will simply not stay in place with any handling of the model.* Pull apart the ball and socket from the strut and pin cap assembly, then wrap a small thin piece of sticky material around the ball. Very thin double-sided tape is ideal.This will allow you to stage the Enterprise in a wide variety of positions without it coming loose and falling all over the place which it will otherwise do consistently.NOTE that the rubber socket should be fully inserted into the pin cap before reinserting the ball into the socket, or the pin cap will be virtually impossible to fully seat back into the socket.I found all the voiceovers to be of excellent quality and in acceptable order. There is only one Captain Kirk introduction on mine, so the double-Kirk intro glitch must have been bugged, but I did expect it to include T for Tiberius. Probably just being anal...This is an excellent representation of the original USS Enterprise. There are one or two minor scuff marks to the saucer section but overall very good. I really like the flashing LED lights on the saucer section. The stand is similar to the 1701A Enterprise, but has an improved connection to the underside of the ship. The colour scheme is darker than in the TV series, but looks good. The sound effects and lights are of better quality than other ships in the same range.This looks great on my shelf with other Star Trek ships and was a reasonable price.This is a BRILLIANT item for the older Trek collector. It's not a toy. Lots of nostalgic fun visually and aurally, but not something that's going to survive any amount of physical 'play'. Negatives? The overall colour is inaccurate - it's too dark. And at least one of the sampled phrases of Bill Shatner's Kirk dialogue is edited too sharply and cuts off abruptly. But the zinger is the stand that the ship comes with. It's not fit for purpose. Try pressing the top button to trigger the lights and sounds - without firmly holding the rest of the craft - and it's going to be in tiny, gray pieces on your living room floor. Even as a general support, without any contact, it's just not up to the job. So you'll literally have to "make a stand."Great for TrekkiesThe version in the photo did not turn up, the latest slightly different in colour scheme and functions/recordings version arrived but it was fine.The lights stay on :-)Unlike 1701 AGood copy and worth the money