November 2024

Dragon’s Soldiers of Destruction

Earlier today we were surprised to see that Dragon will be bringing back an old favorite from the diecast graveyard. Marketed under their Cyber Hobby sub brand, DRR63281 is a departure of sorts for this model maker, since it resurrects one of their most popular Dragon Armor subjects that was originally released way back in 2005.

For those of you unfamiliar with this release, it contains a 1:72 scale King Tiger heavy tank that sits atop a circular display plinth which simply says DRAGON across the rim. Additionally, there are seven Fallschirmjager figures in varying poses that can be placed atop the tank to signify that they are being transported into battle. “Yellow 222”, as we’ve come to call it, was a German Sd. Kfz. 182 PzKpfw VI King Tiger Ausf. B Heavy Tank that was attached to schwere Panzerabteilung 501 — an integral part of the “Wacht am Rhein” operation — better known as the Battle of the Bulge Ardennes counteroffensive of December 1944.

For now, we will hold off listing this item on our web site since we aren’t certain if our distributor will be able to obtain this item and in any significant numbers. Moreover, we aren’t able to ascertain its price just yet, considering the vehicles comes bundled with a handsome display base and several pre-painted figures. The original set is listed on our site for $149.99 so its a fair bet this new iteration will retail for quite a bit more.

Finally, we aren’t sure if Dragon plans on re-releasing more previously available dioramas in the near- and long-term and how they will come packaged. Its clear they are trying to differentiate this new set from its predecessor by changing up the base and will more than likely alter the outer packaging to further distinguish the past from the present. Beyond that, we aren’t sure where this line will take us or the hobby down the road and how it will impact the prices of their former releases.

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Tales of Transparency: The Checkout & Pre-Orders

Astute customers may have noticed that our checkout process has changed dramatically over the past couple of weeks thanks in part to an update rolled out by our web hosting solution as well as some follow-up calls from yours truly explaining why the update broke some important features, most notably shipping. In any event, after spending some time on the phone with various technicians, the shipping options are now integrated into one drop down menu and includes all three major carriers we use along with different delivery options.

In hindsight, I’ve learned a long time ago that while technicians are great at performing functions such as rolling out highly technical updates, they need to be reminded of the fact that certain commercially important factors — such as making available differing shipping options — need to be present at checkout, particularly at this time of year when some customers may need to receive their parcels in quicker fashion to avoid holiday-related delays.

Now, on to a separate matter that has mushroomed over the past year or so. We’ve decided that after twenty-five years of doing business in the ether we can no longer accept pre-orders without accepting payment first. In the past, we typically had to contact the customer to obtain their billing information so that we could obtain a new authorization code, which then allowed us to get paid for the transaction. We’ve found that sometimes the customer was unwilling to provide their CC information either by phone or via messaging protocol, so we were, in effect, stuck with laying out money for an item(s) without getting paid. Now, I can understand a customer’s trepidation with giving out their information outside of a secure means of payment but from our vantage point, this issue was becoming problematic and was no longer sustainable from a financial standpoint. So, going forward, customers will be billed at the time their order is being placed not upon the date it is being shipped out. We recognize this could be an issue for some but hope you also understand that we can no longer lay out money for a customer in the hopeful event that we will one day get paid for the transaction. Other dealers may feel differently, so we fully understand if you can no longer place your pre-orders with us.

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Tales of Transparency: Panzerstahl

Its been a frustrating year from any number of standpoints, particularly as it relates to getting in new product that in many cases were announced months ago. Several manufacturers seem to be running into regular delays — oftentimes because of customs checks, manufacturing issues or other supply chain problems — which keeps affecting how and when we can expect to receive their items.

In the case of Panzerstahl, we were notified in August by one distributor that a cache of “previously made” product had been unearthed — presumably sitting in a warehouse somewhere in Asia or Europe — and that they could be expected before the start of the fourth quarter. Well, its now coming up on the end of November and we’re still sitting on our hands waiting to hear when they will be dispatched. We’ve told this distributor time and again that it does us no good if the product gets shipped to us at the end of December, when most online shopping has already wound down.

To make a long story short, we decided this morning to cancel our Panzerstahl order and have focused our attention on those lines that ARE actually expected sometime over the course of the next two weeks so they can make it to shoppers before Santa takes wing. Again, I have no idea why its taken this distributor so long to get in product that was made, packaged and sitting in inventory well over a decade ago looking for a nice new home. There’s only so many excuses I can listen to before I have to put on my big boy britches and call them out for not living up to their end of the bargain. Its one thing to get everyone’s hopes up — its another to drop the ball in spectacular fashion.

We apologize for not receiving said product and hope you understand that some things are simply beyond our abilities to properly address. Any orders we may have received to date for this line will naturally be cancelled and the listings will have a block in place to prevent any added orders from coming in.

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Militaria Diecast Swings for the Fences

Earlier today we learned that Militaria Diecast received and is now shipping out seven new 1:43 scale diecast military vehicles to their retail netowrk. Composed of diecast metal and offering great value for the price, we expect to receive their latest batch of soft-skinned military vehicles by the middle of the month, making them perfect holiday gifts. Perhaps the most notable new introductions include this Sd. Kfz. 9 18-tom FAMO prime mover (shown above) and its accompanying tank transporter (shown below), both painted in an early war field grey scheme.

All seven have been listed to our web site under the November New Additions section and the pre-order window is now open.

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The Art of War: Sentinel

The LGM-35 Sentinel, also known as the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD), is a future American land-based intercontinental ballistic missile system (ICBM) currently in the early stages of development. It is slated to replace all 450 Minuteman II missiles from 2029 through 2075. The Minuteman missiles are currently stationed in North Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and Nebraska.

In 2020, the Department of the Air Force awarded defense contractor Northrop Grumman a $13.3 billion sole-source contract for development of the LGM-35 after Boeing withdrew its proposal. Northrop Grumman’s subcontractors on the LGM-35 include Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Bechtel, Honeywell, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Parsons, Textron, and others.

On January 19th, 2024, the USAF announced that the program’s costs had risen to over $125 billion—37% above the initial $95.3 billion budget—and its deployment would be delayed by two years. A revised cost estimate released by the Department of Defense on July 8th, 2024, put total program acquisition costs for the Sentinel program at $140.9 billion.

The United States Air Force plans to procure 634 Sentinel missiles, plus an additional 25 missiles to support development and testing, to enable the deployment of 400 missiles. According to the Air Force, the program also includes modernizing “450 silos and more than 600 facilities across almost 40,000 square miles”

Several months ago, the National Interest published an article discussing the Sentinel ICBM initiative, outlining the impact the updated missile program will have on our national defense, as well as cost overruns and slipping milestones the program has faced since inception. They also point out that not only are new missiles being developed but so too is the infrastructure, which in most cases date back to the Cold War and the use of old analog technology. According to the National Interest, “the program plans to produce over 600 new missiles, upgrade or construct hundreds of facilities, and lay nearly 8,000 miles of new, underground fiber optic cabling for command and control. This massive enterprise spans 40,000 square miles and involves six states. Assumptions were made during early cost estimates that some of the facilities currently in use could be refurbished and reused to save money and time, which has compounded the cost overruns.”

While Congress will have to review the escalating costs of the program, its doubtful they will cut or even cancel the Sentinel since it makes up the all-important land leg of our nuclear triad system — a defensive strategy that has been in effect for over seventy years. The other two legs of our nuclear triad strategy involves long-range bombers flown to the target from deep within the continental US and submarine-based missiles that are submerged and moved about the oceans to help them avoid detection. The three systems are designed to work in concert with one another should an adversary hack or destroy our missiles with a massive first strike. As such, its unlikely the DoD will revamp what has become the bedrock of our offensive ICBM system, one that is meant to deter an adversary from launching their own missiles at the continental US.

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