Art Asylum has released probably the best replica version of a Classic Star Trek hand phaser of any company to date, and I was fortunate enough to buy one at the local comic shop here.
The 40th Anniversary TOS Trek phaser that they've produced has a multitude of features in addition to just looking snazzy as hell.
For one, the phaser type I (the small hand phaser) can actually be removed from the type II unit. It has it's own light and sound capabilities. It has an adjustable beam force dial which alters the pitch of the phaser sound, and a targetting sensor button (which the latter only opens up or mutes the speaker for the sound effects). It has a bright red led for the beam emitter. The trigger is found on the belly of the type I (which goes against canon, but in this case serves the purpose of functionality for the total package).
The type II hand unit, which cannot work without the type I (much as the actual phaser according to design) has a beam intensity dial on the nozzle, a beam on/off dial forward of the pistol grip, and the dial on the back can set the phaser to overload. The led of the phaser I is chanelled through a clear plastic beam emitter on the type II. The overload feature is neat because there's a minute vibration that occurs when the sound effects perform the overload. A release pin allows you to seperate the type 1 and 2 units.
For 30 bucks, this was not a bad deal at all.
Live Long and Prosper
or
Q'apla!,
Martok2112
