The Star Trek original series communicator replica from the Wand Company is not a toy, it's a full fledged wireless phone accessory that uses bluetooth to connect to your cellphone so you can use it just like in the original TV series. I bought one from another company at full price last spring and Best Buy had them on a Black Friday sale at a ridiculously low price, so I bought another to match it. This item is precision built with genuine Kydex and machined metal parts and powder coat finishes from laser scans taken of one of the last surviving props from the original series. It's been idealized with the input of several experts and the final design you get to hold is probably the best rendering of a communicator that has ever been created for mass sale. The Wand Company is famous for it's stringent attention to detail and quality, and the matching hand phaser I & II remote is just another example. Both items have machined metal parts and nothing is cheesy about the build quality, in fact they are better than a lot of Master Replica stuff I've seen for sale over the years. Wand says they are thinking about a tricorder, too, but they are weighing the production commitment against how many they might sell to the public. I don't think they will have any difficulty. Every Trek fan wants a full exploration set to compliment their collection. To me the communicator is the crown jewel of those items, so far. My only complaint its that the buttons on this one seem a little strange and wobbly, unlike my first one, which is perfect. But it still works, so I guess I'll keep it in its protective "torpedo" case. TOS Trek fans everywhere will appreciate the various functions for cosplay as well as real life inquiries of your phone's operating system and the ability to make voice calls without having to touch your phone. Yes, it chirps when flipped open and will answer calls on flip and end them when the grill is closed. The volume is decent and can be controlled while connected in media playback mode by just moving the jog button up and down on the right hand side. Each button has a multiple purpose, it can do several things at once. You'll have to read the enclosed sheet to get familiar with all the show clips, sound effects and actual real-world phone functions. The bluetooth is premium and always connects without issue. The light crystals (LEDs) inside do light with different functions, each one has a different job to do. The Lithium battery charges via wireless coil pickup in the back of the communicator. Wand provides a magnetic USB charging stand, you just pop it on and pull it off when you get the pulsing green "charged" light on the charger base. It does want to connect to your bluetooth while charging, and it commandeers your phone's audio system, so if you don't want it to do this, turn off bluetooth on your phone first. Otherwise, for me, it's not a big deal since I use it most every day. I bought one for my brother to give him for Christmas and he loved it!

A must have for any collector of TOS Star Trek. Very accurate representation of the actual hero prop & excellent build quality for the price. Sync with your Bluetooth device or just enjoy as a display piece. Working leds & dialogue from Spock, Scotty etc. A little pricey but definitely worth it. Now someone beam me up already! Now if I could just get it to actually beam me up...

Any fan of the original Star Trek series who grew up on the first runs or reruns that built or owned the hollow plastic models of these instruments would LOVE this, as do I. The build: Nice heavy feel. Not a cheap feel at all. Magnetically mounts for charging on an attractive stand with USB cord input. The presentation: Excellent quality. Very "giftable" in presentation box and well protected. The device: Very detailed and should get high marks for authenticity. The practicality: Not so good. Range from My Samsung Note 3 is not good, much less than comparable speakers and other BT devices. The other issue is a negative inside a positive: There's so many neat things like actual recordings of the crew available by touching buttons that it takes some time to get used to how to use voice activation of your connected phone, and other uses. Speakerphone function: Not bad for it's size. Not a huge volume producer, but plenty of volume for average use in average surroundings. Love the sound effects of the lid opening, just like on the original series. Overall: GREAT display piece, somewhat useful if you have low cell signal and need to relay phone notifications to another device closer to you (as I do)..so you can leave the phone next to a window and put the communicator closer to you, still hearing all your smartphone notifications. For that purpose, it's quite useful. Lovers of Star Trek: Buy when on sale, and use & display proudly.

This is a great Bluetooth device. It was a Birthday present and I love it! Get lots of looks when I use it.

If you are a fan of the original Star Trek show, this is the item you will want to have. It feels and looks like it came right from Star Fleet. You can use it two ways, as stand alone Star Trek prop or as a Bluetooth connected smart phone speaker. When connected to your phone it will sound like the TV Star Trek communicator when a call comes in. Flip it open to answer and talk to the caller. Flip it closed to end the call. If your smart phone supports voice dialing, you can use the communicator to call someone, just say call Bob or call home. Loads of fun. It has all the sounds that the tv communicator had and it has some pre-recorded voice messages from the TV crew. Kirk is the only voice missing. I guess they couldn't get him to sign up for it. Too bad. The lights, dial screen and sounds are all just like the TV communicator. The charging/display stand looks cool as well. The communicator locks to the charger magnetically, so no need to mess around with plugging it in to charge it. The stand is engraved with USS ENTERPRISE STANDARD ISSUE COMMUNICATOR, but it is hard to see. Take a crayon (black, red or white works best) and rub it over the engraving. Then wipe it off and it will have filled in the letters so they stand out. Looks much better. It costs more than the other communicator props, but none of the come close to this one and this is the only one that you can actually use to call your shipmates with. A must have for any true fan.