Battlestar Galactica Statue

In the re-imagined TV series Battlestar Galactica, a war has raged between the humans of the 12 Colonies and the robotic Cylons. A war between humans and their own creations, who became sentient and turned on their creators. Protecting each of the 12 worlds that make up the colonies is a single Battlestar, a massive ship housing two large bays that act as runways for Viper fighters and Raptor heavy military shuttles.

As a historic peace treaty between the two warring factions is about to be signed, the Battlestar Galactica is being decommissioned and used as a museum to the Cylon war, housing pieces such as Cmdr. Adama's original Viper and other artifacts of the war. Luckily for them, during the decommissioning, their computers were off-network, so when the backstabbing Cylons broke the treaty and attacked full-force, ultimately destroying the 12 planets that house the colonies, the Galactica was impervious to the viral warfare the Cylons used to disable all other computers.

Depicting the Colonial fleet's oldest Battlestar, Diamand Select Toys has produced a polystone sculpture that measures about 15 inches in length and between 4 and 6 inches wide.

Molded according to data files used in production of the series, this Galactica is sculpted by Art Asylum, makers of a good line of Battlestar Galactica 7-inch figures.

The Galactica comes with two sets of landing bays and a heavy two-piece display stand that features the insignia of the ship.

The Galactica ship is a heavy item and comes in three layers of styrofoam, each piece wrapped in plastic and well protected for shipping. The box features the black starfield of space with photos of the statue from various angles and some information on the back panel.

This Battlestar Galactica statue is part of a limited run of 2003 pieces (to commemorate the year the show began) and comes with a postcard-sized certificate of authenticity, signed and numbered.

Detail is relative

Most spaceships designed for TV and film since the 1970s, including the original Battlestar Galactica (on which this version is based), include highly intricate hull detail, and this ship has no shortage of that. This one's detail is a bit different from most, however. Rather than just piles of small squares and pipes, this one looks like a half-skinned skeleton.

The cross-section ribs of the Galactica's superstructure are visible, with some plating left intact, a result of the ship being half-decommissioned when the Cylon attack occurred.

The ship has some red detailing and a yellow insignia near the top of the "neck," with the Galactica's name emblazoned there, as well as on both landing pods which flank the midsection of the ship's main hull, much as the original did.

Adding a bit of complexity to the original, this version of the Galactica has the ability to retract its landing bays for faster-than-light travel, and it has the bonus of protecting the bay openings from attack.

To simulate this, the Battlestar Galactica statue comes with two sets of landing bays, each of which attaches to the main body by way of metal rods fitted into holes in the polystone. One set depicts the bays open, one depicts them closed. Of course you can mix and match at will, leaving one open and the other closed.

The port landing bay has simulated openings, but they only go so far, exposing some of the runway; these are not hollow and there is no interior detail. There are, however, decals on either end where the runways begin. The starboard landing bay's entries are closed for the intended museum.

This hefty showpiece is nice, but I've seen better detail on other polystone sculptures. This medium is designed to hold minute molded detail, but this one's detail seems to be smoothed over, with a lot of the hard edges rounded and generally looking far less sharp than I expected.

Despite the blunted detailing, this Galactica is an impressive piece. Fifteen inches of Battlestar with strong-looking gold and brown base would make a nice desktop display for fans of this new series.

While there is a lot of detail to see on this model, my disappointment with this statue is that in a medium capable of incredible sharpness, it is not properly used.

-Sean