Way back in October of 1987, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, I went to my first convention (I think it was a Comic and SciFi convention), and one of the few things I bought (I was 14 and a bit of a skinflint) was a TNG Combadge.
Here it is here:
Now, I touched-it-up over the years, with black marker pen on the edge, and I think I re-did the silver paint at some point but I picked one that looked the same. The gold is original. It has two pins on the back (as shown later), and I remember Wil Wheaton saying (at the con) that it looked just like theirs but was better quality as it wasn't held on with velcro.
The 1987 one (just like the QMx one) is made out of some sort of alloy, and is quite heavy; I assume the screen props were made from something far lighter so as not to fly-off the velcro every 5 minutes. I don't know who made my one, but as I bought it only 14 days after Encounter at Farpoint premièred, I assume it was an authorised company with access to the original prop mould. There's nothing on the back to indicate who made it.
When I heard that QMx were coming out with a new screen-accurate version cast from the original mould, I thought it would be quite nice to have, esp with the new magnetic fixing that doesn't make holes in the fabric when I... er... loan it out to those in to cosplay.
Well here's the QMx version:
Now I was hoping the QMx would replace all these lame lame flat shiny things I see people wearing, and in a way they have - with a lame non-flat shiny thing.
The packaging says:
"Using the original prop molds and with a screen-used badge for reference, QMx has meticulously re-created this prop exactly as it was on the show. We've also taken it two steps further - casting it in polished metal and crafting an innovative new magnetic clasp..."
Well, it's the first of these two steps that seems, to me, to have spoiled the piece. Why make it shiny and reflective when the screen-prop was nothing like that? It's supposed to be a replica.
Side-by-side:
Now perhaps the combadge changed shape a bit over the seven years TNG was made, and perhaps they used one of the later ones as a master, but mine is quite different in shape, and a bit bigger too. Also, the 1987 one is a lot more bevelled, and the oval part has a cut-out in it to allow the insignia to sit inside, so I presume it was cast in two parts. The QMx one is also cast in two parts, but sliced along the middle of the whole thing, that I think looks a bit odd from the side.
Anyway, decide for yourself - some more pics:
Here you can just make out that the 'top layer' of the QMx one doesn't quite sit flat on the base:
Here you can see the cut-out on the oval part of the 1987 version:
Measuring the distance between the upper ridge of the oval part:
Tip-to-tip measurement - exactly the same (despite the 1987 version being curved)
This shot shows how the two parts don't quite fit seamlessly together on the 1987 replica:
Conclusion - I think I prefer my 1987 one.
EDIT: Found this image from QMx that they released before they started shipping the replica. It is a photo where one was a replica, and two were studio props. You were meant to guess which was which (I'm guessing the middle one is QMx's), but whichever it is, it looks like they abandoned the matt finished you see here that made it look authentic - goodness knows why.
