We’re happy to report that our latest shipment from Forces of Valor went off without a hitch. This shipment, as you likely know by now, included all of the newest products that had been originally earmarked for a late 2023 arrival but, for various reasons, was delayed until early February. Their newest M4 Sherman tank — Julia — has already sold out and we are currently awaiting a second delivery so that it can be re-stocked. Unfortunately, the advent of Chinese New Year will likely delay this follow-on shipment until the end of the month, perhaps longer if it takes Waltersons a few days to get back in the saddle after returning from “the Year of the Dragon.” We still have a few pieces left of the other items comprising this shipment but expect them to sell out too if the next shipment has to be delayed until early March.

Thus far we haven’t heard much about several of the newest projects that were hinted at by Waltersons a year or two ago and have now seemingly gone AWOL. I’m speaking about the 1:32 scale Elefant tank destroyer that was purportedly going to be the newest entrant in their Inside Out series. Likewise, the manufacturer briefly indicated that a King Tiger heavy was tank was in the works but little else was mentioned. A 1:32 scale Opel Blitz ambulance decked out in the Afrika Korps motif was supposed to come to fruition this year but seems to have been shunted to the back burner. Instead, the next cache of products — likely slated to arrive in April — looks to include the on-again off-again HMS Invincible aircraft carrier, a 1:72 scale AH-1Z Cobra attack helicopter, two F/A-18 Hornets, a pair of F-4 Phantom fighter-bombers and some assorted accessories. Its a good bet that the acquisition of Greenlight Collectibles last year has affected Watersons’ release schedule for its Forces of Valor lines and, quite possibly, resulted in a reapportionment of resources as they grapple with both the FOV line and Greenlight’s own proprietary product lines. We thought that some new products would be shown at the 2024 Nuremberg Toy Fair but our hopes were dashed when we viewed a video of their booth which didn’t show anything new or unexpected.

We know this isn’t what you want to hear in light of all of the recent delays and issues that have cropped up in the wake of the Greenlight Collectibles acquisition and hope that our next installment of the Forces of Valor update will have more exciting news to share with you. Peace out.

In the past, we’ve reserved our Forces of Valor updates for discussions on new merchandise either just hitting the air waves or expected imminently. However, given the issues we’ve faced with this manufacturer over the past few months, we thought you might like to know where we stand with them and how it ultimately affects everyone’s orders going forward. On January 25th, we received our re-stock shipment and, apart from one minor problem where they over-shipped us a model kit, all seemed well with little need for immediate follow up. Whew!

We also learned that they are currently moving their Forces of Valor inventory from one public warehouse to another, the latter better situated to receive and ship out orders to the vendor’s clientele. This new warehouse has a proven track record of getting out orders on time and with little incident. As strange as it may sound, however, the new public warehouse is located over 1,000 miles away from their current warehouse in Indiana, a stone’s throw away from Greenlight Collectibles, and originally designed to handle the overflow of inventory resulting from the Greenlight Collectibles purchase before the resulting turmoil. Its not clear if this is a permanent arrangement or one designed to last for just a few months until a more workable strategy has been put into place. At any rate, we’ve placed our order with them for all of the new merchandise they’ve supposedly received and are keeping our fingers crossed that it can be shipped out by the tail end of January so that it arrives at our facility the first week of February.

In regards to new merchandise being announced, the manufacturer has updated their Chinese web site, which now has several new scenic sets, accessories and other product listed and we presume ready for a Spring release. With the Nuremberg Toy Fair right around the corner, we’re hoping that more new items will be added to the site along with reliable release dates we feel confident they can adhere to further down the road.

In the mean time, if you’ve placed a pre-order for the merchandise slated for February, hang in there a little while longer until we can receive and turn around all of the orders we’ve received to date.

Waking up every day in the wee hours of the morning becomes a tad disheartening when we go through our emails to determine if our Forces of Valor shipment has, well, shipped. We placed an order with them over two weeks ago and have been sitting on our hands ever since, waiting patiently for a response that never seems to come. Today, we received a short message from Waltersons indicating that our restock order was going out either today, Thursday, or Friday, and that its tracking information would be passed along to us just as soon as the shipment was processed and sent on its way. Frankly, we’ve heard all this before and still no explanation has been provided as to why our shipment has been in hibernation for so long other than to say its sitting at a public warehouse. The manufacturer also went on to say that they are moving their product to a different public warehouse that has promised it can handle their shipments in a more expeditious manner. Bear in mind that the last shipment we received from them was way back in October and it was completely screwed up, with no explanation as to why it was sent out in such a sloppy manner. I’ve gone on record to say that in my 45 years of doing business after graduating college, and wearing multiple hats in the business world from salesman to store manager, buyer to merchandise manager, I have never seen a situation as poorly handled as this, with no communication from the owner as to why we have been placed in this unenviable position for such a long period of time.

As I’ve previously indicated, we will wait and see what this shipment looks like before placing an order with them for all the new merchandise they claim to have ready for dispatch. Paying thousands of dollars up front for an order only to have to chase it down for weeks on end isn’t my idea of ushering in the New Year. I know its not what a lot of you want to hear but we have to protect our investments — even with our suppliers — and be assured that what we order is what we will get despite what the manufacturer says in their communiques. If what they say is true, we should have this shipment by the tail end of January and, at that time, will place an order for their newest merchandise that is supposedly in stock. If they can address that to our satisfaction, then the new merchandise will likely arrive in early February.

Not much has been announced by the manufacturer as to what we can expect for the balance of the year. They’ve made previous product announcements over the years that simply haven’t come true, so having our hopes dashed time and time again isn’t new to us even when we pray things will change. In the seven or so years we’ve been doing business with them, lots of products have been hinted at that never came to fruition, shunted to the back burner for all sorts of reasons. Its become a tedious affair listening to pie-in-the-sky optimism with little to show for it. One the plus side, I’m over my sciatica. Yay! Happy new year!

Update: On Friday, our order has reportedly shipped and tracking information confirms that it is on the road. The delivery date is currently scheduled for Thursday the 25th. Once we inspect the shipment and note any errors we will then submit our order for their new merchandise. Again, we have no way of knowing if the new merchandise will be processed and shipped out on time but we will create a separate blog post to track its progress.