Panzerkampf’s 1:72 scale Boxer A2 Multirole Armored Fighting Vehicle with Skyranger 30 Air Defense Turret – Digital Camouflage
As one Company fades into the sunset, it appears as if another rises like a morning sun to the east. Yesterday, Panzerkampf indicated that they were bolstering their armored vehicle collection with the addition of the Boxer armored fighting vehicle. Produced by Rheinmetall. The Boxer is family of armored fighting vehicles designed by an international consortium to accomplish a number of operations through the use of installable mission modules. The governments participating in the Boxer program have changed as the program has developed. The Boxer vehicle is produced by the ARTEC GmbH (armored vehicle technology) industrial group, and the program is being managed by OCCAR (Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation). ARTEC GmbH is based in Munich; its parent companies are KNDS Deutschland and Rheinmetall on the German side, (with Australian factory) and Rheinmetall Defence Nederland B.V. for the Netherlands. Overall, Rheinmetall has a 64% stake in the joint venture.
Panzerkampf’s 1:72 scale ISAF Boxer A2 Multirole Armored Fighting Vehicle
As we’ve come to expect from this manufacturer, Panzerkampf doesn’t like to test the waters by offering up one or two iterations to see how sales go and whether or not they should commit additional resources by making more versions. Instead, they plan to roll out 10 different versions of the Boxer that include a command vehicle, standard armored personnel carrier and a vehicle equipped with the Skyranger 30 air-defense system. The turret is equipped with a 30 × 173 mm KCE revolver gun firing programmable ABM, two Stinger surface-to-air missiles, and a sensor suite. The latter will comprise a Hensoldt Spexer X-band radar with three panels each providing 120° azimuth coverage integrated into the turret and an electro-optical tracking sensor with a thermal camera, day camera, and laser rangefinder for target identification and tracking. The turret will also be equipped with Rheinmetall’s Rapid Obscuring System (ROSY) smoke grenade launchers.
Panzerkampf’s 1:72 scale Dutch Boxer A2 Command Vehicle
While we applaud the decision to add the Boxer to their burgeoning 1:72 scale military vehicle line up, its not clear why the manufacturer continually needs to roll out so many iterations all at one time. Not only does it saturate the market, making it more difficult for collectors to choose which vehicles to purchase before they potentially run out-of-stock, but it makes it equally hard for the average dealer to order and stock what is, for argument’s sake, similar products when other items are coming to market. We don’t want to be seen as complainers, but the fact remains that a better business strategy needs to be adopted for everyone to be satisfied.
As an aside, this series is a bit problematic for us for several reasons. To begin with, Dragon snagged first mover advantage a few years ago by releasing several Boxer AFVs as part of their Neo Dragon Armor series. While the choices may not have been as prolific as Panzerkampf’s, they were able to sell them for far less and with no competition in the space. Panzerkampf’s releases come on the heels of the Dragon offerings and as such most collectors likely already have an example or two wedged into their collection. Moreover, our distributor sells the Panzerkampf range in case lots, meaning we have to make a considerable investment in money, energy and space to stock all of these iterations. If we do decide to stock the series, we may only bring in a few versions, perhaps the Skyranger variants and a couple of AFVs that aren’t so redundant in appearance and background. I’m sorry but our primary mission is to curate the line, any line, and bring in only those versions that will potentially sell the best.
Takeaway: As a retailer with over 25 years in the industry, our principal job is to curate each line and bring in only those items we feel we can sell within a reasonable period of time. While we applaud Panzerkampf’s efforts to release as many versions of an item as is possible, they really need to consider staggering their releases so that each segment of the industry, from distributor on down, can stock and sell their products at a meaningful rate without having to worry about saturating the marketplace.