Eaglemoss Star Trek Federation Cardenas Class Starship – USS Buran NCC-1412
Now that our Eaglemoss shipments have resumed, we’re starting to receive updates concerning their many Star Trek lines almost on a daily basis. Currently, a number of long out-of-stock standard sized starships are warping their way to us, all expected to make port around the end of November.
Beyond that, there are a multitude of new ships slated for a December release, covering everything from their Discovery series to their over-sized XL line. We cannot say for certain if all of the ships will make it in time for the holidays but at least its refreshing to know that product is back in the pipeline with even more new items scheduled for a January and February roll out.
The tempo of operations has taken a marked increase over the past week now that we’re headed into the all-important holiday season. We’re getting a lot more visitors to our web site, added product/order inquiries both online and via phone, and a general surge in sales for various product that cuts across all categories. As a reminder, our phone support line is now being manned to cover additional hours and we’ve updated our Calendar of Events page to reflect the cut off dates for both domestic and international shipments if you are hoping to receive your packages before Christmas. Keep in mind that this is expected to be an exceptionally busy holiday season due to the pick up in business across America, so its entirely possible we could sell out of a number of items earlier rather than later. Add in weather-related delays, a Canadian postal worker strike, forest fires out west and the odd asteroid strike and you can see why we continually urge everyone to submit their orders as early as possible to avoid disappointment. Happy holidays!
Wings of the Great War’s 1:72 scale French Saint Chamond Heavy Tank – “Chantecoq,” As31, Laffaux, France, 1917
Apparently, last week’s 100-year commemoration marking the end of World War I has had a profound impact on both marketing strategies and sales for several manufacturers. Take, for instance, the 1:72 scale Saint Chamond tank (WW10207) from Wings of the Great War, which is currently en route to us just in time for the holiday season. According to our distributor, it is already sold out at both the factory and distributor level, meaning we will only have a handful of pieces available for general sale once we have filled all of our existing pre-orders. Frankly, once people read this blog post, we may not even have any pieces available for general sale either.
Corgi’s 1:48 scale German Fokker D VII Fighter – 4649/18 “Seven Swabians” Wilhelm Scheutzel, Jasta 65, September 1918
In the air, Corgi has launched a new sub brand dubbed World War I 1914-1918 Centenary Series, which includes several of their soon-to-be-released 1:48 scale WWI-era fliers. We’ve grouped the recently released cherry-red Dridecker flown by Manfred von Richtofen in with these aircraft for obvious reasons but the first true Centenary warbird is called “Seven Swabians”, another Dridecker piloted by Wilhelm Scheutzel, who was attached to Jasta 65 during September 1918 (AA38906). While his mount laid claim to only two enemy aircraft in its brief tenure over the Western Front, the “Seven Swabians” is perhaps better remembered for its intricate artwork adorning both sides of its fuselage. For the uninitiated, “Seven Swabians” draws its title from a famous Brothers Grimm German Fairy Tale. Brandishing an oversized spear, which required all seven of the Swabians to carry, the story tells the farcical tale of this hapless group and their futile attempts to achieve greatness through performing great deeds. Look for the “Seven Swabians” to rise high over the diecast trenches some time before the end of the holiday season.
Corgi’s 1:48 scale RNAS Sopwith Camel Fighter – Flight Lieutenant Lloyd S Breadner, No.3 Squadron, Bray Dunes Aerodrome, France, 1918
Likely expected in league with the Dridecker is a Royal Naval Air Service Sopwith Camel fighter, which was flown by Flight Lieutenant Lloyd S Breadner (AA38109)
Canadian ace Lloyd Samuel Breadner can
surely claim to have flown one of the most distinctive Sopwith Camels
on the Western Front. Featuring two large circles on the top wing, his
aircraft also included King of Diamonds playing cards on the top of the
lower wings, the badge of the Canadian Expeditionary Force carried
behind the cockpit and a striking red and white ‘rising sun’ on the tail
and elevators – there can be no doubting that Flight Lieutenant
Breadner wanted his German opponents to see him coming.
Corgi’s all-new WWI 1914-1918 Centenary Series banner
Joining No.3 Squadron RNAS in 1917, Breadner initially flew the Sopwith
Pup scout, in which he managed to score seven aerial victories, one of
which was a mighty German Gotha bomber on April 23rd, 1917, the first
time a British fighter had brought down one of these behemoth’s over the
Western Front.
When his unit converted to the new Sopwith Camel, he went on to score a
further three victories during September 1917, all of which were against
Luftstreitkrafte Albatros D.V fighters. Surviving the war, Breadner
became Air Officer Commanding-in Chief RCAF Overseas during WWII and on
his retirement, was promoted to Air Chief Marshal – the first Canadian
to hold this rank.
While much of the snow that fell on the Northeast yesterday has since melted or washed away, that doesn’t mean its starting to look and feel more and more like Christmas at The Motor Pool compound. Earlier this month, we expanded our customer support hotline to cover more hours, updated our web site and generally received much of the product we expected to take delivery on, all in an effort to get ready for the final holiday push. Some key product will still arrive after the Thanksgiving weekend, meaning we will do everything in our power to fill as many orders as possible before the holidays arrive. Again, we ask for your patience in this matter and hope you refrain from contacting us unless you feel you absolutely have to to check on your order. We update our web site hourly, so its still the best means of judging when an item will likely arrive during the hectic hustle and bustle of the holiday season.
Prototype image of the Hobby Master 1:72 scale Suhkoi Su-33 Air Superiority Fighter
It didn’t take a course in predictive analysis to guess that Hobby Master would eventually get around to replicating the mighty Russian Sukhoi Su-33 air superiority fighter. They’ve already covered just about every other aircraft in Sukhoi’s family of modern aircraft, so adding the Flanker-D was, as they famously say, “a no-brainer” from a model maker’s stand point.
For now, only prototype images are being shown on the Hobby Master Collector web site, although its a safe bet that the first model will be announced shortly, no doubt ahead of the upcoming Chinese New Year in February, a time when most companies go on hiatus for a couple of weeks. We’re willing to bet that once the Su-33 starts to see the light of day that Hobby Master will begin eyeing the MiG 29 as its next adversarial subject.
AF-X 1:72 scale US North American X-15A Hypersonic Rocket-Powered Aircraft – X-15 Flight 191, Michael J. Adams, Delamar Dry Lake, NV, November 15th, 1967
Earlier this month we discussed how newcomer AF-X intended to kick off its new line of high-flying aircraft with a 1:72 scale rendition of the X-15 hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft (AFXP001). Due out shortly, we decided to delve a little deeper into this project by shedding some light on the history of this particular aircraft.
X-15 Flight 3-65-97, also known as
X-15 Flight 191, was a test flight of the North American X-15
experimental aircraft. It took place on November 15th, 1967, and was
piloted by Michael J. Adams. It ended in tragedy when the aircraft broke
apart minutes after launch due to technical difficulties, killing the
pilot and destroying the plane.
Adams’ seventh X-15 flight took place on November 15, 1967, in the
number three aircraft. At 10:30 in the morning on November 15, the
X-15-3 dropped away from underneath the wing of NB-52B mothership at
45,000 ft (14,000 m) over Delamar Dry Lake.
While in powered flight, an electrical disturbance distracted Adams and
slightly degraded the control of the aircraft; having adequate backup
controls, Adams continued. At 10:33 he reached a peak altitude of
266,000 ft (81,000 m). In the NASA 1 control room, mission controller
Pete Knight monitored the mission with a team of engineers.
As the X-15 climbed, Adams began a planned wing-rocking (rolling)
maneuver so an on-board camera could scan the horizon. At the conclusion
of the wing-rocking portion of the climb, the X-15 had begun a slow
drift in heading; 40 seconds later, when the aircraft had reached its
maximum altitude, it was off heading by 15 degrees to the left. As Adams
came over the top, the drift briefly halted as the aircraft’s nose
yawed 15 degrees back to the correct attitude. Then the drift to the
left began again; within 30 seconds, Adams’ descending flight path was
at right angles to the attitude of the aircraft. At 230,000 ft (70,000
m), while descending into the rapidly increasing density of the
atmosphere, the X-15 entered a Mach 5 spin.
In the NASA 1 control room, there was no way to monitor the heading of
the aircraft, so the situation was unknown to the engineers monitoring
the flight. Normal conversation continued between Knight and Adams, with
Knight advising Adams that he was “a little bit high,” but in “real
good shape.” Adams radioed that the aircraft “[seemed] squirrelly,” and
moments later repeatedly told Knight that he had entered a spin. The
ground controllers sought to get the X-15 straightened out, but there
was no recommended spin recovery technique for the X-15, and engineers
knew nothing about the aircraft’s supersonic spin tendencies. The chase
pilots, realizing that the X-15 would never make Rogers Dry Lake, headed
for the emergency lakes, Ballarat and Cuddeback, in case Adams
attempted an emergency landing.
Adams held the X-15’s controls against the spin, using both the flight
controls and the reaction control jets in the nose and wings. He managed
to recover from the spin at 118,000 feet and went into an inverted Mach
4.7 dive at an angle between 40 and 45 degrees. In theory, Adams was in
a good position to roll upright, pull out of the dive and set up a
landing. However, due to high gain in the adaptive control system, the
X-15 went into a limit-cycle with rapid pitching motion of increasing
severity, still in a dive at 160,000 feet per minute. As the X-15 neared
65,000 ft (20,000 m), it was diving at Mach 3.93 and experiencing more
than 15 g vertically, and 8g laterally.
The aircraft broke up northeast of the town of Johannesburg 10 minutes
and 35 seconds after launch. An Air Force pilot, who was filling in for
another chase pilot, spotted the main wreckage northwest of Cuddeback
Lake. The aircraft was destroyed, and Adams was killed.
Every so often we get blown away by an interesting read. One such article surfaced earlier today that we thought we’d share with everyone since it could have a major impact on the hobby we enjoy.
According to FoxNews, the US Army is currently looking to develop a line of table top miniatures designed to emulate current and potentially near-future conflicts between Red and Blue forces from across the globe. Its not clear which systems they plan to portray, although its a good bet that the current Order of Battle (OOB) for the US, Russian and ChiCom forces will serve as the basis for teaching commanders how to deal with the vagaries of combat on today’s battlefields. It is also likely they will add-on systems destined for operational deployment within the next several years in an effort to stay current with developments both on and off the battlefield.
Its not clear at what scale they plan to model the table top battlefield and whether or not a commercial off-shoot will be created to potentially defray some of the development costs associated with portraying so many different land, air and sea combat systems currently in use around the world. Still, this could be exciting news for military collectors, many of whom have been asking for certain types of models not hitherto available as pre-assembled models.
For more information regarding this development, visit this FoXNews link.
Atlas Editions 1:43 scale German BMW R75 Motorcycle with Sidecar – Deutsches Afrika Korps
Atlas Editions is one of those manufacturers that has quietly established itself as a respectable maker of scale military replicas. While they aren’t always available in depth and breadth of line like several of the other lines we carry, there are occasions when their on-hand availability rises to a level where both new and older releases are in stock at the same time.
Atlas Editions 1:43 scale German LIV (SO) Special Ops Light Armored Utility Vehicle
November seems to be one of those months when many of their older, more popular releases have been sufficiently replenished to a level where we can order in quantity and some of their newer products are also available for general sale. Late yesterday, we learned that their best-selling US T-19 Howitzer Motor Carriage (ATL7123110) is back in stock, as are a number of other items that have been hobbled by inconsistent stocking for several months running. Simultaneously, two new 1:43 scale products were announced – a German BMW R75 motorcycles with sidecar (ATL7895001) and a modern era LIV (SO) Special Ops Light Armored Utility Vehicle (ATL7121001), the German equivalent of our Humvee tactical utility vehicle. Interestingly, both items are expected shortly, meaning they made the voyage over to the New World at the same time as some of the restocks, thus making them execellent gifts for the holidays.
November 11th marks the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. All of the remaining survivors have now left us, joining their brethren on the battlefield who paid the ultimate price some five generations ago. In its aftermath, there were upwards of 20 million souls that died during the so-called “War to end all Wars,” thus earning it the moniker of being one of the costliest conflagrations of all times.
As a purveyor of military memorabilia, it is sometimes difficult to separate the scale tributes we promote and sell from the actual carnage of war, particularly as it relates to the first World War, where men were mowed down by the thousands feebly attempting to cross “no-man’s land”, dogfighting overhead without so much as a parachute to save them, or braving the ocean’s depths when submarine warfare was still in its primordial infancy. The First World War was a cruel war to be sure – virtually annihilating an entire generation, ending several European monarchies, and redrawing the map of Europe in such a way that it almost guaranteed that a second war would eventually replace it in terms of death and destruction.
So, as you admire your collections or contemplate making your next purchase, we ask that you remember the true cost of war. Take a moment to reflect on the lives spent on both sides of the conflict, many of whom were snuffed out long before they could enjoy the dividends of peace and benefits of being born long after the conflict ended.
So, we’re back from our week long trip to Dallas to see our children as well as their children (I guess that makes them our grandchildren barring any DNA tests). For the second year running, we got to take two of our grand daughters trick-or-treating through Highland Park and enjoy some well-deserved rest after an up-and-down year that saw the passing of my father-in-law and partner. Now, its back to work and quickly get ready for the all-important fourth quarter rush before contemplating any other down time.
AF-X 1:72 scale US North American X-15A Hypersonic Rocket-Powered Aircraft
Needless to say, we were deluged with orders and messages during our trip, along with lots of new product information that needs to get posted as quickly as humanly possible. Perhaps the most significant update is the launch of a new line of military aircraft from a company called AF-X. Designed along similar lines to both Luft-X and Wings of the Great War, AF-X is looking to fill a gap in the aviation sector by offering loads of experimental aircraft that might not see the light of day by other manufacturers. Constructed of resin and designed to sit atop a multi-poseable base, their first effort looks at the North American X-15A hypersonic rocket-powered aircraft, an iconic experimental plane which took wing in the 1960s and set all sorts of speed and altitude records ahead of the blossoming of the US-led space program.
Interestingly, the X-15A is expected to arrive in November, which shaves quite a bit of time off of the typical pre-order window. On the plus side, the X-15A will run you only $32.99, making it an affordable yet important entry-level aircraft that can also double as a wonderful gift for the holidays.
Eaglemoss Star Trek Federation Kerala Class Starship – USS Kerala NCC-1255 [With Collector Magazine]
We’ve got quite a bit of other information to post, just as soon as we knock out all of the in-house orders and take receipt of a rather large Hobby Master shipment currently en route to us. Most importantly, we expect a large array of Eaglemoss made Star-Trek products prior to Thanksgiving, which is certainly welcome news given that we haven’t received anything new from them in several months. We’ll leave the details regarding the delay for another time, although I do want to point out that several items have witnessed a price increase, particularly in the Star Trek Discovery range. We’re still not sure how the resumption of Eaglemoss shipments will shake out and whether there could be a temporary hole in the receipt schedule meaning we could receive them in non-sequential order. We recommend everyone keep a careful eye on our release schedule to better gauge when they can expect to see each new item arrive and take steps accordingly.
That’s it for now. We will post further updates once all of the new products have been added to our site.
