Once activated, these small devices enable the user to communicate with any other crew memeber who is also equipped with a smiliar badge. While the activation is done by a simple tap, everything else works through a highly sophisticated speech recognition system. Furthermore, these badged contain a personal ID beacon which can for example help to locate crew memebers in case of an emergency.

My replicas shown here are first generation castings from the original and are painted with authentic colors – unless you own a screen-used piece, this is as authentic as you can get. I acquired all of these items through eBay from the seller “JeepFX“.

TNG

TNG – Acting Ensign

TNG – “Future Imperfect”

DS9 – Bajoran Militia

TNG – “All Good Things…”

DS9/VOY/FC/INS/NEM

VOY – “Relativity”

Because of this, I simply had to bid when I saw these chips from the tenth Star Trek movie “Nemesis” on eBay. They are made of shiny blue plexi and feature beautifully laser etched isolinear patterns. These patterns are silver on one and golden on the other side which results in a really nice metallic effect. Besides, their edges are even sharper than those on my TNG isochips!

As far as I know these chips were made by Paramount’s prop department and are identical to the original props in every aspect (material, way of construction). Probably they are even better in quality!

Here’s a picture from the “Nemesis” Special Edition DVD. On the bottom, you can see some of the isochips that were used in the film. The smaller one of my replicas is identical with the blue one on this pile.

(By the way: Besides the isochips, there are also two PADD-Stylii in this picture, which were made out of butane pen torches.)

These chips were not only used in “Nemesis“, but also in “First Contact” and “Insurrection“.

Here are the pictures of my replicas:

Silver on one side, …

… and golden on the other.

The contours of the isolinear pattern are amazingly crisp!

My ODN Scanner cannot detect any malfunction …

I got this Typ II Phaser as seen in “Star Trek VIII: First Contact ” from a fellow prop collector. The weapon is painted with the authentic automotive color Plasti-kote 7173 and the grip has been rubberized. Furthermore, there is the correct blue holo-tape attached to the underside of the prefire chamber (see last picture).

Up to the point when I got this piece, I had never held a resin prop in my hands before. Needless to say that I wasn’t too much into props at that time. Anyway, since I had heard that resin is a kind of plastic, I thought that this Phaser would be rather light and toy-like in handling. The exact opposite was the case when I unpacked it. The high weight of the prop contributed to the authenticity of it and the hard surface also didn’t let me think of plastic in any way. Together with the beautiful and smooth finish, these facts both surprised and excited me – and the excitement continues to this day.

Some research resulted in the assumption that this prop replica was probably made by “Federation Surplus“.

The “FC-version” of this prop is marked by the red trigger button.

The power bar is also different from the TV-version.

The underside of the handle is rubberized for a better grip.

Off-white buttons for beam intensity and width.

Note the piece of blue holo-tape on the bottom side of the prefire chamber.