Ebay is currently running a promotion where buyers earn 6% on qualifying items made by August 5th at 11:59PST. Said discount can be applied with no minimum purchase and across all categories. This discount may be deducted from any future purchases once the buyer has been notified, which generally happens one month later.
Its refreshing to see so many new products coming to market over the past year, many of which I never thought we would see on the diecast battlefield. From Soviet warbirds to German vengeance weapons, “paper panzers” to WWI zeppelins, I don’t think there has been a time when we have seen so many new types of weaponry being modeled for the collecting community. Having said that, there’s still loads of armament to explore in scale and lots of different ways model makers can entice collectors into making space for these new ranges. Here’s a few suggestions for 2018:
Eleven more 1:43 scale military vehicles were added to the Atlas Editions juggernaut, all of whom are expected by mid August. While many vehicles have been seen before under different banners (EDG, Schuco, Eaglemoss, etc.), its nice to see they haven’t been permanently retired or left to languish in decaying green pastures. We’ve posted all of the newcomers to our Atlas Editions section and are now taking pre-orders ahead of their arrival next week.
Collectors of Dragon Armor know by now that when they see one piece of 1:72 scale armor, there’s eventually more falling in for review several steps behind. Late yesterday, Dragon announced two more pieces of their long out-of-stock PzKpfw IV Ausf. F1 medium tank, a vehicle first introduced into their lineup way back in 2009 and now making an encore appearance eight years later. The first new battle wagon represents a tank that fought with the Grossdeutschland Division on the eastern front (DRR60695), while the second portrays an armored fighting vehicle that was attached to the 1.SS Leibstandarte Regiment then placed in reserve in Germany (DRR60696).
Both vehicles are earmarked for a September release, 75 years after they were first unleashed on the battlefield back in 1942.
Hobby Master’s fleet of A-10s have consistently done exceptionally well at retail so its no small wonder that they are getting set to release the 22nd iteration of the Warthog. The latest, due out in October, is dubbed “Tigress”, a fitting bad-ass name that does the plane justice (HA1324). “Tigress” was flown by the 47th Tactical Fighter Squadron, 917th Fighter Group, then deployed to Barksdale AFB, during 2011.
Adorned in a two-tone greyish camouflage scheme that bears both a warthog nose and an image of the “Tigress” on the fuselage, and coming at a time when all of the previous A-10s have long since sold out, we anticipate brisk sales this holiday season and have set our sales goals accordingly.
The 2017 Star Trek Convention, which will be convened from August 2nd-6th in Las Vegas, Nevada, will no doubt play host to lots of new Eaglemoss announcements, as well as sample images for some of the products expected later this year. For more information on the event, we recommend you beam over to this link: https://www.creationent.com/cal/st_lasvegas.html
Earlier today, Corgi indicated that their long awaited 1:72 scale Avro Vulcan bomber (AA27203) had reached the US and was ready for shipment. Several months ago, collectors on the other side of the pond reported that the Vulcans they had received had decals instead of the usual tampo printed markings. Furthermore, some claimed that the decals were already peeling or cracking right out of the box. While we cannot comment on the issue and what steps were taken to rectify the matter, we did ask our US supplier to inspect the shipment they received to determine if they too suffered from the same type of issues. Upon inspection, our rep said that the Vulcans in their possession featured tampo printed markings and insignia not decals, and that they looked fine to even a trained eye. So, we agreed to accept our order, and now expect our allotment to arrive the first of week of August.
Photos were released earlier today for Hobby Master’s upcoming pair of RAF F-4J Phantom fighter-bombers. Hailing from No. 74 Squadron, which was deployed to RAF Wattisham, England, the first represents a bird flown in 1990 (HA1985) while the second portrays one flown five years earlier in 1985 (HA1986).
Both come with a nice weapons load out and all of the hallmark detail and craftsmanship you’ve come to expect from Hobby Master for well over a decade. Look for this deadly duo to appear over our skies some time in October.
“To this day, I am convinced that substantial deployment of Wasserfall from the spring of 1944 onward, together with an uncompromising use of the jet fighters as air defense interceptors, would have essentially stalled the Allied strategic bombing offensive against our industry. We would have well been able to do that – after all, we managed to manufacture 900 V-2 rockets per month at a later time when resources were already much more limited.”
– Albert Speer, Reichsminister fur Bewaffnung und Munition (Reich’s Minister for Armamants and Munitions), from his memoir “Inside the Third Reich”
With the advent of PMA’s V-2 long-range guided missile, and the imminent arrival of Modelcollect’s V-1 “Flying Bomb”, we naturally presume that there are additional scale reproductions of weapons of mass destruction waiting in the wings. Towards the end of the War in Europe, the Germans, in particular, were testing a number of advanced weaponry, among them the Wasserfall (“Waterfall”), which was a guided missile based upon the V-2, the Backebo Rocket, a V-2 rocket using Wasserfall radio guidance, piloted V-2s, and, of course, the rest of the Aggregat series of ballistic missiles, all of which were in varying stages of development.
So, the question we had, in light of this recent trend, is what place do these types of advanced weaponry have in a typical diecast collection? Should they garner the same respect and admiration from collectors as a tank or aircraft would cast from the crucible of battle, or, should they be held in a different regard since they are, at best, impersonal means of destruction, that were, in large part, aimed at civilian population centers, designed to bring about the moral collapse of the enemy when other means were no longer deemed possible? What say you?
Ebay is currently running a promotion where buyers earn 8% on qualifying items made by July 23rd at 11:59PST. Said discount can be applied with no minimum purchase and across all categories. This discount may be deducted from any future purchases once the buyer has been notified, which generally happens one month later.
