Product Enterprise Diecast Metal
Fireball XL5 Review

Product Enterprise have produced a superb diecast model of Fireball XL5.

The Fireball XL5 model is 10.25" long and is mostly metal with some plastic detailing. It's supplied ready painted and assembled. The model comes with a metal and plastic display stand.
I would estimate that this model is approximately 1:350 scale.
This must be the best ready built, commercially available Fireball XL5 model to date. Admittedly there isn't much competition since there has always been a mysterious lack of good quality Fireball XL5 toys and models.
This model is heavy for its size and feels very substantial.
Fireball Junior, the nosecone of the ship, is detachable, just like in the TV series.
It is held in place by a powerful magnet.
We bought the Japanese version, which has different packaging to the UK release.
Product Enterprise deserve a great deal of Kudos for this model of Fireball. The level of attention to detail is impressive. The quality of craftsmanship is exceptional.
I hope our photographs will show you what a great model this is.

The Japanese box art shows various views of the model and measurements are included as well as the weight.
There seems to be quite a bit of info - but it's mostly in Japanese, which is fine as this is the Japanese version.
The model is packed in a molded plastic tray which can be re-used. There are none of those wire tags that most manufacturers seem obsessed with using.
There is a blue starfield card base and also a similar backdrop card - which we've used in some of these photos.

Here is a photo of the model on its display stand. It's at a nice 'launch' angle and is held securely.
The hull has a nice aluminium sheen just like the large studio prop which was actually aluminium.
As you can see the model has the correct porthole arrangement and correct black 'XL5' lettering on Junior. The ship can easily be detached for 'flying'. This is how it looks straight out of the box.

Here we've left the main section of Fireball in 'orbit' whilst Junior lands on a planet. Look at the great detailing in the docking ports.

	A view of the rear of Fireball.
	Looking down on Fireball XL5.
	The underside of the ship. Nicely detailed - but the landing jet 'holes' in Junior and the main hull have been ommitted. Easily fixed though with some black decals. More importantly they have included the ventral 'booster' and underwing detail.
	A close-up of the cockpit. The figures are rather large but I guess that's 'artistic licence'.

This is the first commercially produced Fireball Xl5 model that we have seen that compares well with other Anderson related models.
Unfortunately, as usual, Product Enterprise have used their rather crude idea of weathering, which does nothing to enhance it. The segmentation panel lines on the main hull seem overly obvious and deeply cut, but at least they are in the right places. The upper hatch on Junior is a decal, and again these lines seem far too obvious for this scale, and it should be a single door not double doors. It is a shame there is no 'mesh' detail in the back of the main wings.
However, overall this is such a high quality model that the few faults are easily overlooked.

This is how the model could have looked.

We cleaned off the black gunge that Product Enterprise had sprayed on the hull, and corrected Fireball Junior's roof hatch.
We think it's a great improvement.

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