Modern Marvels WWII is a three-part limited series on The History Channel that explores the defining machines, massive engineering projects, and groundbreaking innovations of the war. Originally part of the network’s longest-running franchise, the series highlights how wartime urgency accelerated scientific breakthroughs that permanently reshaped modern warfare and everyday life.
Modern Marvels explores World War II as the ultimate global arms race—where victory depends on who can invent, build, and scale the most incredible engineering marvels. Across three electrifying episodes, the series moves from terrifying Superweapons and massive Mega Builds to fascinating Gear and Gadgets that change the course of history. It’s WWII as an all-out battle of innovation—where the world’s greatest scientists and engineers decide the fate of nations and influence the technology of today, revealing how urgency, ambition, and imagination accelerate breakthroughs that permanently reshape warfare, industry, and everyday life.
The three-part series focuses on:
Mega Builds: Examining immense engineering projects including the Pentagon and the Maginot Line.
Super Weapons: Featuring innovations like the Bouncing Bomb, B-29 Superfortress, and the massive German Gustav Gun.
Gears and Gadgets: Highlighting devices from the bazooka and cavity magnetron to the Enigma machine and early night-vision.
It seems there’s no shortage of documentaries centering on World War II this Memorial Day, the first, WWII with Tom Hanks, set to air later this evening. A second film, World War II: Saving the Reality also popped up on our radar, intriguing to ay the least since it appeals to me both as a military historian and seller of conflict-oriented collectibles.
Narrated by Dan Aykroyd. World War II: Saving the Reality tells the story of an individual who owns the largest private collection of World War II artifacts in the world. Over 50 interviews with veterans and survivors of the war help tell the story of the meaning of the over 7,000 individual items in the collection of Kenneth W. Rendell. Airing on American Public Television.
Forces of Valor’s 1:32 scale US M4A3(76)W Sherman Medium Tank with VVSS Suspension – Sgt. Daniel “Buttons” Cardell, “Julia”, 761st Tank Battalion “Black Panthers”, Task Force Rhine, Germany, 1945 [Bonus Ford GAA V-8 Engine]
Even though we are still awaiting information concerning products shown at the recently concluded Beijing Hobby how, we were lucky enough to snag a number of products that had been languishing on the back burner for a lengthy period of time. While they haven’t been added to our New Arrivals section, we decided to include them here, so you can better see what’s back in stock without having to scroll through numerous sections. Bear in mind that Father’s Day is fast approaching, so any Forces of Valor product – on the ground, at sea or in the air – makes an ideal way of putting a smile on dear old dad’s face once he eraps his arms around them.
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]
Forces of Valor’s 1:32 scale US M4A3(75) Sherman Medium Tank with VVSS Suspension – Training Vehicle, C Company, 10th Tank Battalion, 5th Armored Division, New York, 1943 [Bonus Ford GAA V-8 Engine]
Forces of Valor’s 1:32 scale German Late Production RW61 Sturmtiger Rocket Assault Mortar with Loading Crane and Zimmerit – Panzersturmmorser Kompanie 1002, Berlin, Germany, May 1945 [Bonus Maybach HL230P45 V-12 Water-Cooled Engine]
Forces of Valor’s 1:38 scale USMC Bell AH-1W “Whiskey” Super Cobra Attack Helicopter – “Never Forget”, Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 267 “Stingers”, Camp Pendleton, California, March 2012
Forces of Valor’s 1:799 scale US Navy Enterprise Class Nuclear-Powered Aircraft Carrier – USS Enterprise (CVN-65), Mediterranean Sea, 2001 [Full Hull Version]
Update: Please note that Waltersons has changed the display stand for this item. The aircraft carrier now comes on a wooden base atop metal pillars as shown above.
Forces of Valor’s 1:700 scale US Navy Pennsylvania Class Battleship – USS Arizona (BB-39), Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, 1941 [Full Hull Version]
Update: Please note that Waltersons has changed the display stand for this item. The battleship now comes on a wooden base atop metal pillars as shown above.
Forces of Valor’s 1:700 scale Imperial Japanese Navy Yamato Class Super Battleship – Yamato, Operation Kikusui Ichi-Go, Okinawa, 1945, Okinawa, 1945 [Full Hull Version]
At CinemaCon 2026, which is held in Las Vegas, Nevada, a panel announced that Top Gun 3 was well underway. While a script has yet to be finished, reports have surfaced that Tom Cruise will mark his return as Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. Additionally, Jerry Bruckheimer is set to come back as the film’s produced and Paramount, who recently acquired Warner Brothers, will once again bankroll the movie. No word as to when the film is set to debut or its story line, which will likely be a closely guarded secret until it finally reaches the big screen.
Top Gun Maverick, which opened in 2022, has reportedly grossed $718.7 million in the United States and Canada, and $777 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $1.496 billion. With figures like these, its no wonder why the ageless Tom Cruise decided to take one more trip in the cockpit of a US Navy fighter jet. No word as to which aircraft will be featured in the next film, although its a good bet that an F-35C, perhaps controlling a mini squadron of collaborative combat aircraft, could be depicted in the film.
Typically, we discuss feature length films or series under our Films in Focus section, however, a recent YouTube video caught our attention. Over the last couple of years, Blue Paw Print has put together an awesome array of in-depth videos designed to explain the inner workings of various combat platforms. Recently, they created one on the German Schwerer Gustav railway gun (a.k.a. “Dora”), which was used with mixed effect by the German Army on the Eastern Front during World War II.
Schwerer Gustav (German pronunciation: (lit. ’Heavy Gustav’) was a German 80-centimetre (31.5 in) railway gun. Two were developed in the late 1930s by Krupp in Rügenwalde, however only one was ever actually fired. They were created as siege artillery for the explicit purpose of destroying the main forts of the French Maginot Line, the strongest fortifications in existence at the time. The fully assembled gun weighed nearly 1,350 tonnes (1,490 short tons) and could fire high-explosive shells weighing 4.8 t (5.3 short tons) to a range of 47 km (29 mi), or armour-piercing shells weighing 7.1 t (7.8 short tons) to a range of 38 km (24 mi).
The guns were designed in preparation for the Battle of France but were not ready for action when that battle began, and the Wehrmacht offensive through Belgium rapidly outflanked and isolated the Maginot Line, which was then besieged with more conventional heavy guns until French capitulation. Gustav was later deployed in the Soviet Union during the Battle of Sevastopol, part of Operation Barbarossa, where, among other things, it destroyed a munition depot located roughly 30 m (98 ft) below sea level. The gun was moved to Leningrad, and may have been intended to be used in the Warsaw Uprising like other German heavy siege pieces, but the uprising was crushed before it could be prepared to fire. Gustav was destroyed by the Germans near the end of the war in 1945 to avoid capture by the Soviet Red Army.
Schwerer Gustav was the largest-calibre rifled weapon ever used in combat, and in terms of weight, the heaviest mobile artillery piece ever built. It fired the heaviest shells of any artillery piece. It was surpassed in calibre only by the British Mallet’s Mortar and the American Little David bomb-testing mortar — both at 36 inches (91.5 cm) — but was the only one of the three to go into action.
We invite you to take a look at the accompanying video because it does a superb job of discussing how it was created and why no one has attempted to build a similar weapon since, including in diecast form.
Ordinarily, we don’t comment on all of the military-themed flicks destined for both the small and large screen unless they are of particular significance to the average enthusiast. In the case of actor, Tom Hanks, he’s agreed to both host and narrate a lengthy 20-part mini series covering the entire scope of the Second World War. Hanks is no stranger to WWII, having produced and starred in a number of pet projects from Greyhound to Saving Private Ryan. He also helped to dedicate the National World War II Museum and played an integral role in the making of the 4-D film Beyond all Boundaries, which has been updated and currently plays in the Solomon Victory Theater in New Orleans, Louisiana.
WWII with Tom Hanks was ordered by The HISTORY® Channel back in 2024 in conjunction with theA+E Factual StudiosTM group and Nutopia. With the 250th anniversary of the formation of the US set for 2026, the series is scheduled to begin airing on Monday, Memorial Day, at 8PM EST. Subsequent episodes are slated to run each Monday thereafter, finishing up some time in October. For more information on the series, you can visit this link.
Update: You can watch the first three episodes of “World War II with Tom Hanks” for free before you need to start paying. Here’s how…
“World War II with Tom Hanks” will be broadcast on the History Channel in the U.S. beginning at 8pm EST. You will need a cable package that includes that channel, but you could sign up for a free trial of YouTube TV and enjoy the show while you can.
Given the first three episodes all drop on Monday, May 25th, you can watch those episodes to get a taste for the docu-series before continuing your viewing via cable.
Even though we are still months away from its eventual release, Hobby Master was gracious enough to unveil images of the prototype YF-23 still in development. The YF-23 is an important release for both Hobby Master as well as the hobby itself, since many aviation enthusiasts have always believed it should have won the fly-off against the then YF-22 way back in the 1990s. In fact, the YF-23 has such a dedicated following that many feel the Japanese military is still looking at ways of using the pancake-like design for its first ever fifth generation air dominance fighter, thereby keeping pace with some of the newest aircraft now being fielded by the Chinese PLAAF. Whether or not the YF-23 or a derivative thereof will eventually get the nod by the Japanese is still a matter of conjecture so it remains to be seen if its a case of wishful thinking or concrete thought. No matter, Hobby Master has indicated that they will at some point offer a Japanese maritime version of the YF-23 as a notional “what-if’ scheme sometime later in 2025 along with other schemes that will help them earn back the costs of developing the model.
One of the principal reasons why the YF-23 lost out to the YF-22 was because it was not equipped with thrust-vectoring nozzles, which made the YF-22 more nimble in close-in air combat maneuvering, an important lesson learned from the Vietnam War. Its entirely possible that Hobby Master may eventually offer a YF-23 with thrust-vectoring nozzles as a gesture towards making a Japanese version of the aircraft as realistic as possible. Right now, the jury is out concerning what Hobby Master plans to do for the foreseeable future to make the model as appealing as possible to both purists and futurists.
We’re guessing that like the F-22, the F-23 proposed by Hobby Master will eventually come clad in a mirror-like coating that is aimed at defeating Infra-Red Search and Track (IRST) equipment now being fitted to some of the latest Russian and PLAAF aircraft. The mirror-like coating is still being tested as a means of hiding stealth aircraft from prying eyes, particularly during daylight operations. So, its a good bet that whatever variants you see amongst the F-22 models will eventually be applied to follow-on F-23 models. Likewise, expect to see fully-armed models of the F-23s further down the road, with all of the prototype models featuring little else in the way of added gear.
Hobby Master’s inaugural YF-23 is currently available for pre-order on our site but we must warn you that it is still months away from making its maiden flight and into your model collection. There are a couple of European-based dealers that have listed the model on eBay citing it as a pre-order but taking the buyer’s money without being able to fill the order. The problem is that eBay quite specifically says that a pre-sale listing must include the actual release date for the item and cannot list the item as being for sale unless the seller can deliver the item within 40 days of posting the listing. As such, we will refrain from listing it on any of the marketplace sites until we know for sure it is in our possession and ready for delivery. While we may lose out on some early sales, our philosophy is that we must follow the guidelines set forth by all of the marketplace sites we deal with and, in so doing, treat the customer with respect by clearly indicating when the model will hit the streets.
After years of speculation and a change of watching venues, it appears as if the third Spielberg/Hanks collaborative effort — Masters of the Air — will finally take wing this January. Its an epic retelling of the US Army Air Force’s bombing campaign over Nazi-occupied Europe, fraught will all the peril and risk that was associated with mid twentieth century aerial warfare.
At long last,the much anticipated sequel to both Band of Brothers and The Pacific finally has a debut date: January 26th. Masters of the Air, which follows the course of the US Air Forces’ bombing campaign over Nazi-occupied Europe, was green-lighted for production some time ago, after much hoopla and consternation from adoring fans. Scheduled to appear on Apple TV+, the series will open with two episodes on January 26th and run until March 15th, meaning a total of nine episodes are in the can. Runtime information for each episode is still sketchy although they’re likely to fill at least an hour’s worth of time without advertisements. It is reported that Apple spent over $250 million on the production of the series, which includes a $7 million dollar set depicting a US air base, so Apple will no doubt do its best to recoup its investment in short order.
Both Band of Brothers and The Pacific are considered by many to be the holy grail of WWII film making, so Masters of the Air has some big shoes to fill from any number of standpoints. Thus far, no trailer has appeared, although its a sure bet several will surface well before the series opens to entice would-be viewers to subscribe to their pay-per-view channel.
From a collectibles standpoint, Masters of the Air differs markedly from both Band of Brothers and The Pacific since a great deal of the emphasis in the series is placed upon the machines of war rather than the men who carried out the aerial campaign. Yes, the morale, training and skill for each airman will be taken into account and examined closely, but just as importantly are the warbirds that carried out each mission, from the early war B-17E and F Flying Fortress bombers to the late war chin-mounted guns that personified the G models. Likewise, the fighters and interceptors will come into play, from the tough but short-range P-47 Thunderbolts to the late war P-51D Mustangs who were able to fly all the way to Berlin and back thanks to their drop tanks and streamlined designs.
Playtone, the production company for Masters of the Air, spared no expense at recreating a realistic set. Shown here is an airfield set built and located at Abingdon in the UK. Two stationary B-17 replicas, a Control Tower and other articles of war were faithfully recreated to help breathe life into their war torn set.
Thus far nothing has been formally announced regarding product tie-ins, although its reasonable to conclude that a bevy of diecast collectibles will eventually be produced from any number of model makers, encompassing everything from heavy bombers to jet interceptors, all faithfully reproduced and bearing the markings, unit insignia and nose art depicted in the series. If you’re an avid follower of WWII, then Masters of the Air will certainly satisfy your aviation ambitions while modelmakers do their best to keep up with and replicate many of the key aircraft depicted in the series.
Hobby Master’s 1:48 scale Imperial Japanese Navy Mitsubishi A6M2 “Zero” Type 21 Fighter – PO Testsuzo Iwamoto, IJN Aircraft Carrier Zuikaku, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, December 1941
The “Winds Code“ is a confused military intelligence episode relating to the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, especially the advance knowledge debate claiming that the attack was expected.
The Winds Code was an instruction from Tokyo to Japanese legations worldwide that diplomatic relations were in danger of being ruptured. While the code was set up, the problem is whether the code was ever transmitted or not. Amid all the other indicators of approaching conflict, it seems likely that the message was never sent, or at least never recorded at a high level in the US command structure.
In any case a code message in a news or weather programs was not needed, as ordinary commercial communication facilities were available to Japan right up to the December 7th attack. Pearl Harbor historians Gordon Prange and Roberta Wholstetter sidestep the issue by saying that the intercepted codes-destruct messages of December 2nd were a more accurate indication of war breaking out. Both Henry Clausen and John Costello see the Winds Code controversy as a red herring and coming close to disinformation (Clausen) or only as an alert to legations (Costello).
The code was set up, so that in case of an emergency leading to the interruption of regular communication channels, a coded message would be inserted into the daily Japanese international news broadcast. Concealed within the meteorological reports, and repeated twice, would be “East wind rain” (“Higashi no kaze ame“), “West wind clear” (“Nishi no kaze hare“) or “North wind cloudy” (“Kitano kaze kumori“), the first indicating an imminent major breach with the United States, the second a break with the British (including the invasion of Thailand); the third indicating a break with the Soviet Union. Presumably if sent both the first and second messages would have been sent, the third referring to the Soviet Union would not have been applicable in 1941.
The signal setting up the code was intercepted and broken by USN cryptographer Commander Laurance Safford at OP-20-G in Washington. Consequently, a close monitoring of the Japanese daily shortwave broadcasts was instituted for the codes, dubbed the Winds Code by the Americans.
USN Chief Warrant Officer Ralph T. Briggs, an operator at Station M, the Navy’s East Coast intercept installation at Cheltenham in Maryland, stated he logged “Higashi no kaze ame” (“East wind rain”) on the morning of December 4; this was transmitted to the Fleet Intelligence Office at Pearl through the secure TWX line. Briggs was subsequently given a four-day pass as a reward (and was away in Cleveland on the 7th). At the FIO, Commander Laurance Safford states he reported this message to his superiors in Washington. At this point there is no further record of the message. Some eight other Army and Navy officers testified that they, too, had seen a winds execute message. But two of the men completely reversed their original testimony and the others turned out to have only vague recollections.
None of the official inquiries took Safford’s statement as fact; the most generous reporting that he was “misled” and that his memory was faulty. His case was not helped by his uncertainty over the date, although Lt Alwin Kramer also agreed in 1944 that he had seen Safford’s yellow teletype sheet.
Hobby Master’s 1:48 scale Imperial Japanese Navy Mitsubishi A6M2 “Zero” Type 21 Fighter – PO First Class Tsugio Matsuyama, IJN Aircraft Carrier Hiryu, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, December 1941
It has been claimed that in the week after the attack there was significant document ‘loss’ at the Office of Naval Intelligence in Washington. In 2008 historians from the National Security Agency went back and analyzed all American and foreign intelligence sources and decrypted cables. They came to the conclusion that “winds execute” message never reached Washington. If there was a message then the blame would fall on the military for not passing it on.
Following the end of the war, Japanese officials advised General MacArthur that no Winds signal was ever sent relating to the United States. This is supported by the testimony of Commander Joseph Rochefort (based in Naval HQ in Pearl Harbor). However an American intelligence team in Japan led by Colonel Abraham Sinkov of Central Bureau in September and October 1945 found they were told “half-truths or outright lies” by Japanese intelligence specialists, partly as there were rumors that the Americans would execute those involved in intelligence. The team was not allowed to reveal American intelligence successes. However some Japanese (Arisue and Nishimura) were more forthcoming when they saw that the Americans were interested in Japanese help against the Soviets.
The coded Winds message was reported from Hong Kong, late on Sunday, December 7th, local time. The signal was “higashi no kaze, ame; nishi no kaze, hare” (“Easterly wind, rain; Westerly wind, fine”); meaning that Japan was about to declare war on Britain and America (and attacked British Malaya before Hawaii). A skeleton staff had been left behind in Hong Kong when the British Far East Combined Bureau (FECB) moved to Singapore in August 1939.
Hobby Master’s 1:48 scale take on the illustrious Mitsubishi Zero is one of their best selling models to date, time and again selling out within weeks of their release. Two new Zeros are scheduled to take to the skies this October, and will no doubt sell out just as quickly as their predecessors. Make sure to pre-order one or both today!
The 761st Tank Battalion was a separate tank battalion of the United States Army during World War II. The 761st was made up primarily of African-American soldiers, who by War Department policy were not permitted to serve alongside white troops; the U.S. military did not officially desegregate until after World War II. The 761st were known as the “Black Panthers” after their unit’s distinctive insignia; their motto was “Come out fighting”. The battalion received a Presidential Unit Citation for its actions. In addition, a large number of individual members also received medals, including one Medal of Honor, 11 Silver Stars and about 300 Purple Hearts.
The battalion first saw combat on November 7th, 1944, fighting through towns such as Moyenvic, Vic-sur-Seille, often at the leading edge of the advance. The fighting that 761st engaged in at Morville-les-Vic was particularly brutal. The unit endured 183 days of continuous operational employment.
The 761st Tank Battalion suffered 156 casualties in November 1944; 24 men killed, 81 wounded, and 44 non-battle losses. The unit also lost 14 tanks evacuated and another 20 damaged in combat. In December, the battalion was rushed to the aid of the 101st Airborne Division at Bastogne. As part of the effort to drive the Germans from the vicinity of Bastogne, the battalion fought to capture the municipality of Tillet, less than 15 km west of the town, in early January 1945. Supporting the elements of the 87th Infantry Division with just 11 tanks, the battalion took control of the city from the 113th Panzer Brigade through two days of combat, losing nine tanks in the process.
After the Battle of the Bulge, the unit opened the way for the U.S. 4th Armored Division into Germany during an action that breached the Siegfried Line. The 761st smashed through dozens of German cities and towns in their rapid advance through the Reich. In the final days of the war in Europe, the 761st was one of the first American units to reach Steyr, Austria, at the Enns River, where they met with the 1st Ukrainian Front of the Soviet Red Army. On May 4th, 1945, the 761st, along with the 71st Infantry Division, liberated the Gunskirchen concentration camp; the German guards had fled not long before.
The 761st was deactivated on June 1st, 1946, in Germany. They have been called “one of the most effective tank battalions in World War II.” In all, the battalion earned about 300 Purple Hearts.
Set during WWII, Come Out Fighting focuses on a small, specialized squad of U.S. Army African American soldiers that are sent on an unofficial rescue mission behind enemy lines to locate their missing commanding officer. The squad, upon battling their way through the German defenses, encounter more then they bargain for when they locate a downed U.S. Army fighter pilot. With the help of their friends at the 761st tank battalion, The squad must find a way to survive and make it back in one piece.
AFV’s 1: 43 scale US M4A3 (76mm) Sherman Medium Tank – “Julia”, 761st Tank Battalion “Black Panthers”, Germany, March 1945
Currently we have in stock a 1:43 scale Sherman tank dubbed “Julia” that pays tribute to this elite fighting unit.Meanwhile, Forces of Valor claims they have a 1:32 scale version of the same vehicle on the drawing board that is set to come out later this year that was debuted at the recently concluded Shizuoka Hobby Show in Japan. The FOV version is not yet available for pre-order nor do we have photos of this particular tank. We’ll post information and imagery just as soon as its passed along to us.
