Shout Outs

2015: One Must Rise and One Must Fall

We’ve been in this business for fifteen years now, and have seen a number of curious developments take hold in the diecast military space. Over the last year or so, for instance, we’ve witnessed the rise of both Air Force 1 Model Company and Eaglemoss Collections – the former a newcomer to high-end diecast modelmaking while the latter has steadily built a multi-tiered portfolio of partworks product ranges. Both companies have done well over the past year or so, perhaps too well, which has caused seismic changes in the market place.

Earlier today, our principal distributor reported that both Falcon Models and Panzerstahl were ceasing production, at least for the forseeable future, neither company offering anything new at the recently-concluded Nuremberg Toy Fair. We had heard that Falcon Models factory in China had closed, and that the owner was seeking another factory to take over production. We can only surmise that they were unsuccessful. What does come as a surprise is the end-of-the-line for Panzerstahl, a German-based company that we thought had carved out a respectable niche in the military vehicle arena. In fact, their last few efforts were tied, in part, to the World of Tanks online massively multiplayer game, so we thought that might be enough to keep the wind in their sails. Apparently, it was not.

So, we will be selling off our existing stocks of both Falcon Models and Panzerstahl, and we hope other newcomers will step to the fore to take their place. In a related news story, we still haven’t heard any word from the Unimax Forces of Valor camp, despite rumors from their new distributor that they were still alive and kicking. That too isn’t a good sign and it may mean another player is being scratched from the lineup. Fortuitously, smaller companies such as Modelcollect, Amercom and and Altaya seem to be picking up the slack, and manufacturers such as Lucky Diecast are picking up the pieces from the Yat Ming closure.

If anything changes in the near-term, we will certainly keep everyone informed, and keep our fingers crossed that this bit of doom and gloom we are seeing in early 2015 will give rise to green chutes in the latter half of the year.

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Eaglemoss Hoists its Colors for February

According to our distributor, five new Eaglemoss warships are expected to set sail for our home port next week. The next squadron includes EMGC09 — IJN battleship Haruna, 1928, EMGC12 — IJN battleship Hyuga, 1941, EMGC20 — IJN aircraft cruiser Mogami, 1944, EMGC23 — IJN light aircraft carrier Ryuo, 1933, and EMGC28 — USN battleship New Jersey, 1944. Aside from the standard Japanese text adorning the plinth, box and accompanying magazine, this series has been remarkably well-received, and we look forward to taking delivery of the warships.

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Winter Storm Warning

There is a winter storm warning up for the northeast section of the country where we are located which will begin late Monday and extend through Wednesday. Possible snow accumulations could exceed 24 inches with blizzard conditions in effect through much of that time. Therefore, Monday may be the last day we can ship out parcels for several days, particularly if both UPS and the USPS are unable to stop by to deliver or pick up our shipments. We apologize for the inconvenience and hope you understand that these things are beyond our control.

Update: The storm wasn’t as bad as had been expected for the city of New York, with total accumulation for our area of around 12 inches of snow. The USPS and UPS are reportedly back on the job, so we anticipate the resumption of normal deliveries and pick ups at this time (posted Wednesday 11:00AM EST).

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The Future of E-Commerce?

Yesterday, Microsoft announced the impending release of Windows 10, which will represent an impressive departure from operating systems of the past. One of the most important features found in Windows 10 will be HoloLens, a device which will enable end-users to see everything on their computer screen within an augmented reality universe, complete with interactive holographic imagery.

For a retailer such as ourselves, we believe this could usher in an entirely new experience for our customers, who could, potentially, see an object from multiple viewing perspectives and compare it against other products in real-time.

At this point, Microsoft has not officially announced the release date for Windows 10, the cost of the HoloLens device, computer specs to run the software, and a myriad of other considerations that could affect the device’s roll out. For now, you can learn more about the software here:

http://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-hololens/en-us?ocid=MSCOM_HoloLensGlobe

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Altaya Sails into History

Even though they aren’t available just yet in the North American marketplace, that doesn’t mean we can’t go hog wild over Altaya’s latest venture – a range of 1:1250 scale WWII-era warships. Unlike the Eaglemoss Warships of the World series, which is heavily focused on Japanese warships, the Altaya collection serves up a much wider array of ships from around the world. Currently, it appears as if the series is only available in Spain, with each ship’s accompanying literature printed in Spanish. Hopefully, the series will be localized for the English-speaking market and become available in the not-too-distant future to naval buffs on this side of the pond.

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Wings of the Great War Dons its Floaties

Fully assembled, scale WWI-era aircraft have always been in short supply, and when they are finally offered, then tend to focus on the fighter aircraft of the time. It is therefore with great pride that we can finally put forth something a bit different – a WWI-era float plane. Expected this April, Wings of the Great War breaks with tradition and plans to roll out a 1:72 scale resin representation of a German Hansa-Brandenburg W.29 Float Plane (WW17001), which saw service at the tail end of WWI.

Also slated for an April fly over is a German Roland D.VIa Fighter (WW16001) as well as their second look at the German Pfalz D.IIIa Biplane Fighter (WW11002), both painted in a dazzling lozenge pattern. Its been 100 years since many of these aircraft took to the skies, but that doesn’t mean they still don’t conjure up the wild swirling dogfights which came to symbolize the war in the air in the War to End All Wars.

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Dragon Goes for a Dip at Dieppe

No stranger to the ranks of the Churchill tanks, Dragon announced plans to reinvigorate the line with a vehicle involved in the disastrous Dieppe Raid of 1942 (DRR60419). This particular vehicle sports an extended exhaust pipes for deep wading purposes and bears the markings of the 14th Canadian Army Tank Regiment (Calgary Regiment).

On a side note, we anticipate that the manufacturer will soon announce a number of “Hobart’s Funnies”, which were specialized Churchill tanks developed for the D-Day landings at Normandy. Stay tuned…

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Unimax Studies War No More?

According to a post on the Diecast Hangar Pub forum, a prominent UK distributor is indicating that Unimax, the makers of the Forces of Valor range of military vehicles, aircraft and warships, are throwing in the towel and calling it quits, at least as far as military diecast is concerned. They claim that the manufacturer has cancelled all of their upcoming projects slated for 2015, instead of postponing them indefinitely as had been rumored. Recently, Unimax had closed their North American distribution arm and sold off all of their inventory to a US distributor.

If true, this marks a particularly sad state of affairs for collectors, who were expecting a number of key items for several months running. Moreover, the departure of another long time stalwart in the diecast military space represents a nod to some of the manufacturers who have gained market share either by offering untapped subject matter, cheaper items, other scales, or a combination of all three mitigating factors.

Please note that we have yet to confirm these findings with our North American distributor so the information provided could still be sketchy. For further information, please review this thread:

http://tdhp.fr.yuku.com/topic/19329/Re-FOV-items-Cancelled-totally?page=-1#.VLUoOXsYNM4

Update: In early January, our distributor informed us that the list of product originally slated for release was nixed by the manufacturer in favor of a new group of items. It is now February, with the Nuremberg Toy Fair behind us, and we are of the opinion that Unimax has withdrawn from the marketplace, perhaps permanently. We hope it isn’t true but at this point fear the worst.

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Toy Fair Cometh

On January 28th, the Spielwarenmesse Toy Fair in Nuremberg, Germany, throws open its doors and welcomes buyers, exhibitors and visitors to its annual showing. While we will not be attending, we will be posting information gleaned from the manufacturer’s web site, newsletters, and promotional literature so that our audience can learn about the very latest piece of diecast memorabilia headed to market.

Years ago, we used to attend the Toy Fair here in New York City at 200 5th Avenue, which has since transitioned to the Jacob Javits Center. Yesterday, I paid a visit to the old 200 5th Avenue building which stands opposite the world famous Flat Iron building. 200 5th Avenue has since been changed into an Italian market, complete with restaurants, salumerias, groceries and other faire. It was strange and a bit sad to walk through the revitalized building, which held all sorts of memories for me and my family. The march of time has certainly swallowed up another tradition, be it for better or worse, and I can only hope the new tenants understand the history and allure their building once meant to the toy business.

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West Coast Port Delays Have an Impact on Business

The work slow down affecting many of the West Coast’s ports is now having a material impact on business across the country. In our particular case, several shipments that were expected to arrive in December have now been postponed until January, and many of the items we were expecting in January will likely come in one month later. We apologize for the delay but wanted to point out that these types of circumstances are beyond our control.

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