Armored Fighting Vehicles of World War II French Char 2C Super Heavy Tank – “Alsace”, 51e Bataillon de Chars de Combat, France, 1939
In 1937, Erwin Rommel wrote and published his seminal military treatise Infanterie Greift An (Infantry Attacks), which caught the attention of both the German General staff as well as the Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler. Rommel intended to publish a companion piece entitled Panzer Greift An (Armor Attacks), but was both caught up in his exploits during the second world war as well as his supposed complicity in the plot to kill Hitler.
Fortunately, we are in a different position. After a strong start with the first six vehicles released in 2021, the publisher of the highly successful Armored Fighting Vehicles of World War II series has asked us to pick out no less than 16 new introductions, all of which will be out at varying intervals in 2022. The next batch will include several soft-skinned military vehicles, transports and, as the name implies, a bevy of tanks from all the world’s armies that fought in World War II, both in the ETO as well as the PTO. A number of highly requested vehicles made the cut, including the massive French Char 2C super heavy tank seen here. We will post updates to our web site as soon as we have more solid information to work from. If you previously placed a pre-order for the Char 2C, then we will apply your order to this vehicle and honor the price quoted. Otherwise, each vehicle in this series has been priced at $39.99 apiece.
Corgi’s 1:50 scale German Late Production Sd. Kfz. 181 PzKpfw VI Tiger I Ausf. H Heavy Tank – “300”, schwere Panzerabteilung 505, Eastern Front, Summer 1944
It appears as if Corgi has just about caught up with its 2021 release schedule even if some of their competitors are still lagging behind. News from the “pooch” is that both of their 1:50 scale Tiger I heavy tanks have arrived and are now riding the rails to our facility here in New York City. With New Years looming, however, it will likely be the first week of January before they’re ready for battle and able to take up assault positions along side some of their brethren Military Legends vehicles.
Corgi’s 1:50 scale German Early Production Sd. Kfz. 181 PzKpfw VI Tiger I Ausf. H Heavy Tank – “131”, schwere Panzerabteilung 504, Deutsches Afrika Korps, Point 174, Gueriat el Atach, Tunisia, April 24th, 1943
Looking back, their initial production Tiger I tank, which was decked out in field grey and unleashed two years ago, was easily their best selling vehicle in the line even though it was a tad inaccurate. Perhaps hastily released before it could be properly scrutinized, it failed to properly replicate the actual tank in a number of important respects, most notably in the shape of the turret and type of road wheels chosen. After examining their newly uploaded images for their early production Tiger I tank, it would appear as if they made a concerted effort to get this one right since it now comes with the correct turret and rubber-rimmed road wheels. In any event, based upon pre-orders submitted for these two heavies, these should do exceptionally well too. Enjoy!
Tiger 131 was repaired with parts from other destroyed Tigers and inspected to judge its performance. It was displayed in Tunis and formally inspected there by King George VI and Winston Churchill. The tank was sent to England in October 1943 where it was displayed as a trophy at various locations to raise wartime morale before it was subjected to extensive testing and evaluation by the School of Tank Technology who produced detailed reports on its construction. The captured tank was transferred to The Tank Museum by the British Ministry of Supply on 25 September 1951 where it was given the accession number 2351 (later E1951.23).
In 1990, the tank was removed from display at the museum for restoration by the museum and the Army Base Repair Organisation. The restoration involved an almost complete disassembly of the tank. The Maybach HL230 engine from the museum’s Tiger II was installed as the Tiger’s original Maybach HL210 had been cut into cross sections for display. A modern fire-suppressant system was added to the engine compartment, the only other significant alteration. The wear and performance of the refitted Tiger engine was studied by metallurgists to explore the alloys and performance of WWII German manufacturing.
In December 2003, Tiger 131 returned to the museum with a working engine, making it the only working Tiger tank in the world and the most popular exhibit at the museum. Further work and repainting in period colours completed the restoration in 2012, for a total cost quoted at £80,000.
Several years after it was first announced, Waltersons, the current owner of the Forces of Valor brand, is now advertising that their 4-inch Flight Deck series is entering the production phase and will likely be released some time in the first quarter of 2022. Each of the thirteen interlocking puzzle pieces, which, when joined together, forms the top deck of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. End-to-end, the complete deck measures approximately 5-1/2 feet in length, meaning collectors will need quite a bit of shelf space to display this set in its entirety. Each individual section also comes with a 1:200 scale aircraft, making them ideal gifts for collectors looking to get into the hobby on a budget and at their own pace.
Thus far, only F-14s seem to have made the cut, among them an Iranian Tomcat, although the manufacturer claims that other aircraft types are in the works thereby representing a truer complement of embarked aircraft. Its not clear if other flattops will be replicated at some point or when the other aircraft types will be introduced to the series. We hope to have additional information in the weeks ahead.
So, we’ve finally received a bit of good news from our distributor regarding Hobby Master. Turns out the November and December shipments are expected to hit their warehouse early next week. Its also quite likely the September and October shipments will arrive shortly thereafter, perhaps the first week of January. Essentially, this means four months worth of product are scheduled to reach us on or around the same time — we’re guessing the first week of January since there are a couple of holidays in between and the carriers typically take off for a breather based upon their own workload.
Frankly, we’re not sure when everything is going to reach us and in what order, so we’ve lumped together all four months worth of product into our January 2022 release category. Its possible some items might reach us before the end of the year but with all the struggles everyone has had to endure this year, we’re placing our bets on the first week of January. Obviously its going to take us a bit of time to go through everything before we can start shipping out product, updating our web site and our attendant marketplace sites. As a result, we’re asking everyone to please bear with us as we attempt to ascertain when and which products reach us in the next few weeks.
Update: Our distributor informs us that all four months worth of product, which encompasses their September through December shipments, have been received at their Georgia facility. Currently, they are working diligently to sort through everything and will begin shipping out said items to their retail network on December 24th and into the following week. With the holidays upon us, we will likely start to see the fruits of their labors just before New Years. We doubt everything will arrive all at once, so its possible the balance of the shipments will arrive at our New York facility the first week of January. In the meantime, please do not call or send us any messages at this time asking about your pre-orders. They will be filled as product comes in and may be mailed out in multiple shipments. Thank you for your patience.
AFV British Valentine Mk. III Infantry Tank – 8th Royal Tank Regiment, 7th Armoured Brigade, Libya, November 1941
The Armored Fighting Vehicles of World War II line is back on track, now that the holiday season is fast coming to an end and production has resumed in Asia. We’ve done some shuffling around and the next six vehicles in the range are currently up on our site and available for pre-order. Currently, the next batch of vehicles are slated to arrive in the May/June time frame, although this could slip if issues related to the global supply chain have not been remedied. Moreover, there has been a slight bump up in the price to $39.99. Still, considering their weight, size, features and overall appearance, the line represents great value. When compared with Corgi’s smaller 1:72 scale vehicles now selling for $74.99 or Forces of Valor’s 1:32 scale series pegged at $89.99-$129.99, the AFV series speaks for itself and offers many vehicles that are simply not available elsewhere from any manufacturer.
One final note. If you pre-ordered any of these items at $34.99 we will still honor this price once your order is ready to be shipped. Any future orders will, however, be set at the revised price of $39.99. Our original goal was to release six vehicles every sixty days. Obviously both the pandemic and disruption in the world wide logistical network has altered things somewhat.
In a related announcement, we will soon be unveiling an all-new series dubbed Warships of World War II. Imagination notwithstanding, this new series offers up a wide assortment of diecast preassembled battleships and aircraft carriers that sailed the seven seas during the second world war. Each is scaled at 1:1250 and five warships have made the initial cut with more due to put into port in the coming year. Enjoy!
Oftentimes we have our heads down, nose to the grindstone, working on the mundane and as a result fail to take notice of news that could have a significant impact on our business. For instance, back in July, Hornby, the parent company of Corgi, completed an acquisition of the Oxford Diecast Group, a British-based maker of diecast cars, aircraft, train accessories and other segments of the hobby industry. The take over involved the purchase of the remainder of LCD Enterprises it did not already own, a holding firm that represented Oxford and its owners Lyndon Davies and his wife Catherine Davies. Lyndon Davies is currently the CEO of Hornby after having moved over from Oxford a few years ago.
Thus far, we aren’t certain how this will impact things going forward, since neither our present distributor of Oxford nor the new owners have said anything regarding the take over. We expect further news in January, since this is the time both Hornby and Corgi typically announce their new wares for the coming year.
For more information on the take over, visit this link.
To borrow a catchphrase from baseball, “we’re headed into the bottom of the ninth and things ain’t looking that good for the home team.” Today we learned that the December Forces of Valor shipment that was supposed to come in around the end of November will likely arrive at our distributor in early January. Despite re-routing the shipment from Savannah, Georgia, to New York, virtually all of our ports are too congested to be of much good taking in product for the holidays. Between the ports getting slammed to the shortage of truckers hauling the goods around the nation, 2021 is stacking up to be a dismal year. Likewise, the September/October shipment of Hobby Master products, which was also diverted to New York, will almost certainly suffer from the same fate and get delayed again. There’s a possibility it could arrive in late December, but I think you know as well as I that is most likely wishful thinking on everyone’s part. Follow-on shipments are, from a figurative sense, almost certainly “in the same boat”, meaning they will likely get pushed back as well, although there’s no telling by how many days, weeks or even months. Its conceivable that a lot of what we were expecting could arrive en masse within a 30-90 day time frame some time in 2022, although here again there’s really no way of knowing since everyone is remaining mum, shrugging their shoulders and twiddling their fingers, although not necessarily in that order.
We’ve also put in a call to Corgi to determine where they stand but here again we fear the worst. Its entirely possible that everything still to come in for 2021 may get pushed back into early 2022. If that’s the case, we’ll certainly have a bang up New Year, Presidents Day, or Easter, depending upon when all of this stuff finally gets here. Obviously we will continue to update everyone should things suddenly take a turn for the upside, but we’re trying to remain realistic instead of optimistic based upon everything that has transpired thus far. Black Friday may have one meaning for some retailers but quite another for others.
Note: After we put this post to bed, we learned that three Corgi Aviation Archive aircraft arrived at our distributor and are now on their way to us. Also, our Solido military vehicle order came in so we will be making shipments to everyone that pre-ordered these vehicles later this week. Additionally, our first pair of JC Wings military aircraft are now en route to us, although it appears as if the balance of our order will likely arrive some time after the New Year. As it stands now, the only remaining shipment still AWOL for 2021 is our September/October Hobby Master shipment. No firm date of arrival has been set and our distributor is working in earnest to ensure that this shipment still comes in for holiday disbursement.
On December 2nd, our distributor reported that their Forces of Valor shipment, originally slated to arrive in late November/early December, is now expected in late January. As a result, we have pushed back this shipment to February, since its more than likely it will still be affected by port issues, warehousing problems or trucker shortages. We’ve also pushed back other FOV products that were purportedly due in early 2022 to spring 2022, although here again these items could be delayed even further for any number of reasons.
As a bit of bright news, Corgi reported that several Aviation Archive models are expected to clear customs shortly and arrive at their facility in Portland, Oregon, within the coming days. Of course, they are also indicating that they have been inundated in orders, largely due to the late arrival of these and other items that have been repeatedly delayed by disruptions in the supply chain. So, while the models listed below may be reaching their warehouse soon, it likely means they will transit the US and reach our facility in NYC around the second week of December, barring any further calamity. Its possible these models will be available in time for Christmas although we aren’t making any promises since several of the major carriers (USPS, UPS, FedEx) could themselves be overwhelmed with late orders as more product, stranded at sea for weeks and in some instances months, finally make it off the cargo ships and on their way to their ultimate destinations.
Under ordinary circumstances, things are typically very fluid for the month of December, as product updates are passed along to us on a weekly basis. This year, said updates are being exchanged almost on a daily basis, as the manufacturers and distributors struggle to get their cargo containers offloaded, into their facilities and on their way to their retail network. While some items are being shunted into 2022 others look like they may still make it under the tree for 2021. Fingers crossed.
Every year, we don our Santa caps and put together a gift-giving guide based upon what we think you or your loved one would appreciate this holiday season. What follows are several links to each gift-giving category featured on our web site. Just click on the button embedded within each image and off you go to our workshop but keep in mind that many of these items will likely sell out quickly as the holiday season wears on.
We are regularly reviewing these sections on a daily basis, deleting those items that have moved to back order status and adding other items appropriate for each gift-giving level. We therefore recommend that you periodically check these sections for product updates and other changes we may have to make over the course of the next several weeks.
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.
Forces of Valor’s 1:48 scale USMC Bell AH-1W “Whiskey” Super Cobra Attack Helicopter – “Never Forget”, Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 267, Camp Pendleton, March 2012
While the timing of the announcement has come under scrutiny on Facebook, Waltersons decided to use the 9/11 backdrop as a means of showing off their latest endeavor: a 1:48 scale USMC AH-1W “Whiskey” Helicopter. Flown by Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 267, which was based at Camp Pendleton, California, during March 2012. The low-vis attack helicopter features artwork inspired by the events of 9/11 on the sides of the fuselage, which includes, among other things darkened images of the twin towers and its attendant New York skyline, along with what looks to be a viper coiled for striking, hence its sobriquet.
Forces of Valor 1:48 scale USMC Bell AH-1W “Whiskey” Super Cobra Attack Helicopter – “Final Flight of the Whiskey AH-1W”, Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 167 “Warriors”, Camp Bastion, Afghanistan, December 2012
According to the manufacturer, the USMC helicopter, along with a second chopper that was operated by Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 167 “Warriors”, are expected to be completed by the tail end of October, although with shipping delays still plaguing our ports, it could be another couple of months before they actually make it to market here in North America. Still, its nice to see the manufacturer is making a concerted effort to get product out the door and into the hands of collectors despite all of the issues facing the global supply chain.
