After receiving a Star Trek 5 Assault Phaser from a member of the Star Trek Prop Forum, I set out to authenticate the item. Now the problem with the Phaser is not that I didn't trust the person I got it from, I did. It was that her story needed to be verified. You can't just take someone's word on where a prop came from.
So the first step was to look on the Star Trek Prop, Costume & Auction Forum, where one member had posted photos of one of the Fiberglass hero Phasers. Per Greg Jein, who made the Phasers, there were fiberglass heros and rubber stunts made. All had metal base plates with different serial numbers down there.
Here are some photos of the hero Forum member Don had of the Hero he had:
