October 2021

Hobby Master, Forces of Valor and Historic Sales Laments, “How Dry I Am”

Somewhere in this corrugated morass, are our September and October Hobby Master shipments, which will likely become the fate of our remaining shipments unless something is done to dramatically improve the situation

If you’re wondering why we and other retailers in North America haven’t been receiving the latest Hobby Master products for several weeks running, you may want to read this insightful article that recently appeared in the New York Times. Several months back, when our distributor for Hobby Master, Historic Sales out of Minnesota, was sold to Collectors Armory in Georgia, the Company re-routed each Hobby Master shipment away from Los Angeles to the port of Savannah, Georgia. This made sense because at the time both the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the principal ports of entry for inbound freight from Asia, were deluged with shipments and unable to keep up with the logjam of ships and containers arriving on a daily basis. Recently, it was reported that there were at least 200,000 shipping containers either ready to be unloaded or parked in a holding area, waiting for their turn to be picked up by local truckers. While both ports are now operating on a 24-hour, around-the-clock basis, the problem is exacerbated due to the lack of truckers picking up their loads and ferrying them to their distribution centers.

It turns out that Savannah is faring no better than the west coasts ports, itself inundated in cargo bound for distributors and retailers around the US. According to this article, over 50,000 containers are either sitting idle or languishing off-shore in any number of cargo ships, thereby suffering much the same fate as other ports of entries around the country. So, while you may be seeing certain Hobby Master products appearing overseas, on Facebook or elsewhere, take heart and understand that these same items will eventually make it to Historic Sales of Georgia and in turn to us and every other retailer patiently waiting to take delivery of their orders.

Mind you this problem plagues every Forces of Valor shipment as well since Historic Sales has once again been appointed the official distributor of the line in North America. Likewise, Air Force 1 has been beset by the same problems, although we recently received a shipment from them, which will likely have to last well into the first quarter of 2022. No matter how you look at it, its going to be a very long holiday season that will certainly extend into the first half of the new year…

Update: Late on Tuesday, we were informed that the trucking company responsible for picking up Historic’s inbound containers has been notified that the September shipment of Hobby Master products has been offloaded, passed customs, and can be picked up in good order. Presently, they are attempting to take delivery of this shipment by week’s end and, if successful, we should be receiving our order sometime towards the end of the first week of November. With Thanksgiving looming, there is no way of knowing if the “October” Hobby Master shipment will arrive before the start of the holiday season. We will post further updates on both the “October” and “November” shipments, along with the Forces of Valor shipment still pegged for a late November arrival once information has been passed along to us.

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The Forces of Valor Update: A Sherman Pictorial

Forces of Valor’s 1:32 scale US M4(75) Sherman Medium Tank with VVSS Suspension – 753rd Tank Battalion, Gustav Line, Italy, 1944 [Bonus Ford GAA V-8 Engine]

Waltersons, the new stewards of the Forces of Valor brand, was kind enough to post pictures for their upcoming M4(75) Sherman medium tank. This is the first of several US vehicles expected in 2021-2022, their British Sherman Firefly, released a couple of years ago, having sold out at virtually every level and now commanding premium prices.

According to the sales literature, this new Sherman is still pegged for a late November/early December arrival here in North America. If true, we’ll certainly burn the midnight oil and work overtime to get them out in time for the holiday season so as not to disappoint all you platoon commanders out there. Also expected is their second Sturmtiger assault mortar along with their eagerly awaited Tiger I heavy tank, something armor addicts have been requesting ever since it was announced a couple years back. While a separate set of metal tracks are expected in the same shipment as the Tiger, Sherman lovers may have to wait a few more months before they too can strip out the vinyl tracks that come with the vehicle for something a bit more realistic. We will make a formal announcement down-the-road regarding the tracks’ anticipated released date and open the pre-order window at that point. Keep in mind several different track sets are in the offing, so its not clear if only one or all of the different tracks will ship in one go.

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Facebook Anyone?

We’ve spun up and launched our latest marketplace site, this time on the social media site everyone seems to love to hate of late, Facebook. Admittedly, we intended to create this shop some time ago, but it seemed as if Facebook was having issues verifying our business information, which prevented us from actually selling merchandise there or on its associated app, Instagram. And, with no one to actually talk to in their “customer service” department, we had to rely upon back-and-forth emails to get the ball rolling even though we’ve been in existence since 2000. Be that as it may, our Motor Pool boutique shop is now up-and-running and we are in the process of adding products to its online portfolio as quick as we can so we can beef up our holiday presence to service its clientele.

In 2022, we’ll be exploring the launch of similar shops on both Target as well as Walmart, although each comes with its own set of hurdles a.k.a. headaches. To achieve this and maintain a reasonable in-stock inventory level across all of our marketplace sites as well as our main web site, we have begun reducing our SKU count by 10% so that we can store more inventory for those items we do plan on selling on a regular basis. In the collectibles business, it’s oftentimes difficult to predict when an item will be available and for how long, so this is no easy task no matter how you look at it.

Once we move to Florida the middle of next year, we will re-examine this scenario, which is also dependent upon the global supply chain straightening itself out some time in 2022, we hope. More about this as we get ourselves locked and loaded for the coming year.

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Schuco Pays Tribute to the Tante Ju this December

Schuco’s 1:72 scale German Junkers Ju 52/3m Tri-Motor Transport – AZ-JU, Crete, 1941

As the week closed out, we learned that no fewer than three Junkers Ju 52 transports are set to fly-in this December. Schuco has always been one of those hard-to-obtain manufacturers, at least here in the States, largely because they haven’t had a dedicated distributor willing to import the line from Germany. As a result, there’s been loads of products we would have gladly added to our product portfolio over the years, that never made the cut since they were difficult to get. No matter, one of our distributors was able to procure three different 1:72 scale Junkers Ju 52 transports at an incredible price, so we’re therefore able to pass along the savings to you this holiday season. Besides the operational scheme shown above, the other two versions expected include:

Schuco’s 1:72 scale German Junkers Ju 52/3m Tri-Motor Transport – D-ABIK “Manfred von Richthofen,” Hermann Goering’s Personal Transport, 1936
Schuco’s 1:72 scale ScSwiss Junkers Ju 52/3m Tri-Motor Transport

We’re hoping that more of Schuco’s military aircraft will be made available going forward and that this isn’t a “one-and-done” anomaly meant simply to reduce inventory. Time will tell….

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Panzerkampf Keeps on Truckin’

Panzerkampf’s 1:72 scale US Oshkosh M1070 Tank Transporter Tractor with M1000 Semi-Trailer – Camouflage

First shown to the public well over a year ago and thought to have rolled out for the 2020 holiday season, Panzerkampf’s pair of M1070 tank transporters is one of those items everyone just seems to want the minute they lay eyes on it. Now with an actual product identifier assigned to it, hi-res images posted to Facebook and even a short glitzy video showing each vehicle sitting atop a rotating base, it appears as if we’re a lot closer to the product’s actual release date than ever before. The problem is that with the global supply chain in such a mess and loads of other items promised by Panzerkampf but have never actually materialized, we cannot say for certain if these sets will make it off the assembly line in time for the 2021 holiday season. And with several of their M1 Abrams tanks still unavailable here in North America, it may be just as well since the set looks a bit naked without the vehicle its meant to be paired with.

Nevertheless, we are still accepting pre-orders for either set although its with the caveat that we think it will likely show up after the new year and not before. Please bear this in mind if you were hoping to give it as a gift to some lucky diecast tank collector.

Panzerkampf’s 1:72 scale US Oshkosh M1070 Tank Transporter Tractor with M1000 Semi-Trailer – Desert Scheme
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Hobby Master Fires Up the Kiln for June with even More Warbirds

Hobby Master’s 1:72 scale French Dassault-Breuget Mirage 2000-5F Multi-Role Fighter – “10 Years of GC 1/2”, 2-EQ, Groupe de Chasse, 1/2 Cicognes, September 2019

While other manufacturers struggle, Hobby Master doesn’t seem to be phased by either the pandemic or slowdown in the global supply chain, announcing its latest flock of warbirds scheduled for a June fly-in. Nothing remarkable was included in the showing although it is important to note that no new toolings were unveiled, meaning lots of current air frames are still viable for model refresh. Also of note are a pair of Dassault Mirage 2000-5s, a model that had trouble passing the scrutiny of the Dassault licensing group years ago. Anyway, here now the latest birds coming your way in mid 2022.

Hobby Master’s 1:72 scale Greek Dassault-Breuget Mirage 2000-5EG Multi-Role Fighter – “237”, 332 Mira “Theseus”, Volkel AB, Greece, 2018
Hobby Master’s 1:72 scale US Navy McDonnell F-4J Phantom II Fighter-Bomber – 157245, VF-114 “Aardvarks”, USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63), 1972
Hobby Master’s 1:72 scale NASA Boeing F-18A Hornet Chase Plane – N850NA/161703, Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards Air Force Base, California, 2005
Hobby Master’s 1:72 scale NASA Boeing F-18B Hornet Chase Plane – N852NA/161217, Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards Air Force Base, California, 2012
Hobby Master’s 1:72 scale German Panavia GR. Mk. 1 Tornado ECR All-Weather Bomber – Taktisches Luftwaffengeschwader 51, Schleswig-Jagel, Germany, June 2014 “Tiger Meet 2014” [Tiger Meet Scheme]
Hobby Master’s 1:72 scale USAF Boeing F-15C Eagle Multi-Role Fighter – 85-0093, “Chaos”, 44th Fighter Squadron “Vampire Bats”, CENTCOM AOR, September 2020
Hobby Master’s 1:72 scale US Navy Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet Strike Fighter – 168363, VFA-27 “Royal Maces”, CVW-5 CAG, USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76), Atsugi Air Base, Japan, 2015
Hobby Master’s 1:72 scale US Navy Grumman F-14D Tomcat Fleet Defense Fighter – 164394, Lt. Cmdr. Meagan V. Flannigan, VF-213 “Blacklions,” USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), Persian Gulf, 2006
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The Forces of Valor Update: Tales of the Sherman

Forces of Valor’s 1:32 scale US M4(75) Sherman Medium Tank with VVSS Suspension – 753rd Tank Battalion, Gustav Line, Italy, 1944 [Bonus Ford GAA V-8 Engine]

Barely a week after we learned that Forces of Valor’s upcoming M4(75) Sherman tank is slated to arrive some time in the fourth quarter, Waltersons, the new owners of the brand, posted a 3-minute video that shows off many of the vehicle’s features, capabilities and accoutrements. While we have embedded the video within the item’s description, we thought it made sense to post it here as well. Again, we are keeping our fingers crossed that the vehicle will be available for holiday purchase but with loads of headwinds working against it and other late releases, we are not guaranteeing that we will be able to supply it in time for it to be placed under the tree. Please bear this in mind if this is your ultimate intent and would rather purchase something else we do have for immediate sale to avoid disappointment.

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Forces of Valor for the Holidays? Maybe…

We woke up this morning with news that Forces of Valor will once again be distributed through our principal supplier, Historic Sales. Under ordinary circumstances this would come as welcome news, however, Waltersons, the owner of Forces of Valor brand, seems to be bouncing between US distributors, claiming they are working with one distributor one minute, then another and finally another. Now, in their defense, its not unusual for a major manufacturer to work with more than one distributor particularly in the key North American market, however, changing wholesaling sources only serves to confuse both the retailer and consumer alike, with no real hard-and-fast information to work off of to either plan advertisements, alert our customers or distill these changes in a meaningful way.

Be that as it may, the latest sales solicitation calls for certain products to arrive during the late November/early December time frame. If its true, this is certainly great to hear since it means we can sell and ship out a lot of product for the upcoming holiday season. Truth be told, with nagging supply chain issues still affecting the distribution network, COVID, slowdowns in mail delivery and finally FOV’s spotty track record of hitting their release dates, we have decided to sell their upcoming items with the proviso that they will likely not make it in time for the holiday season. Prudence being what it is, I just want to make this fact abundantly clear if you plan on ordering any of their fourth quarter releases and hope to have them in hand prior to December 24th. I honestly do not think they will be available for sale until after the holidays, perhaps as late as January given what we are seeing in the global supply chain. I’m not trying to play the part of a Debbie Downer by poo-pooing this latest announcement but the fact remains that there are simply too many headwinds conspiring against them to say for certain that they will be in stock for Santa’s sleigh to go skis up and hit the air ways.

Anyway, the product in question appears under our November 2021 Upcoming Releases section. Anything else FOV may have been discussing on Facebook or elsewhere are more than likely expected some time in 2022. It is certainly possible that several items could be shipped to us by other distributors but that’s neither here nor there as far as this announcement goes. Now I don’t know about you but I’m going back to bed.

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New Zealand is Temporarily Added to the No Fly List by the USPS

Like Australia, the USPS has decided to suspend all carrier operations to New Zealand effective immediately. Once again COVID has been cited as the principal reason for the temporary suspension and no date was give as to when operations will be resumed. So, for the time being, we will not be accepting any orders from New Zealand at least until the USPS has been sufficiently shown evidence that it is once again safe to deliver mail and packages to both the sub continent as well as its nearby neighbor. Further information regarding the decision can be found here.

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