Looking to shore up their armored arsenal, DeAgostini announced the imminent arrival of seven more 1:43 scale tanks to its armored collection. Like its predecessors, these huge beasts are heavy in the hand and pack lots of wallop for the price, each representing some of the most iconic vehicles to arise from the Second World War. Here’s what you can expect to show up later this month:

Looking to avoid the summer doldrums, DeAgostini announced the imminent arrival of four more 1:72 scale fighter aircraft to their rapidly growing portfolio of WWII-era aircraft. Packaged with a Japanese language magazine and packed inside a Janguage-language bookcase format box, the DeAgostini WWII-era fighter series is designed to present a wide range of combat aircraft to the worldwide community and, just as importantly, does so at a budget price. While many of the more common aircraft are portrayed, from Zeros to Corsairs, P-51s to Oscars, several of the more exotic aircraft are also depicted, such as this Imperial Japanese Navy Mitsubishi J8M Shusui Rocket-Powered Interceptor, which was clearly modeled after the German Messerschmitt Me0-163 Komet interceptor. Look for all four new introductions to arrive by the third week of August.

Leveraging the title of a popular 1960s era feature film, we thought you might like to know that we are, at last, due to receive our first shipment of DeAgostini’s critically acclaimed 1:43 scale military vehicles. As far as we know, the first group of vehicles are based upon some of the more noteworthy Soviet-era battle tanks that were either field tested or produced in the 1940s and 50s. As the series expands, other Cold War era tanks will be incorporated into the line. Later on, this series will encompass vehicles from other nations too, although its not clear if all of the original introductions made available in Europe will make the cut here in the North American marketplace.

Each vehicle comes with a decorative display base with its name etched in Cyrillic markings. They also feature rotating turrets and elevating guns, just like the real McCoys. Priced at just $36.99 apiece, we feel that this series will sell rather well particularly since they are a lot larger than some of their comparable 1:72 scale counterparts that typically sell for around the same price point. The first group of seven vehicles are expected to arrive later in July.

We’ve had our eye on several partworks lines that are currently available around the world but have yet to make their way to the North American shores. One of them happens to be the DeAgostini range of 1:72 scale WWII era aircraft, a staple of the Japanese home market for a couple of years running. To date, the manufacturer has now released a whopping 97 different replicas, each accompanied by a Japanese written magazine that explains the aircraft and its role in combat in exquisite detail.

While most of the models in this range are based upon some of the better known fighters, seaplanes and reconnaissance aircraft produced by the Empire of Japan, there is a smattering of releases from the aerial armadas of other nations, meaning you’ll need quite a bit of shelf space to collect them all from start to finish even if you have no interest at all in Japanese warplanes.

Ordinarily, partworks manufacturers wait until each subscription-based line has run its course before making them available as open stock releases that can then be sold outside the home market. Interestingly, we’ve learned that some of the earliest releases are now available at one of our distributors and that they should be in stock at our warehouse by the end of this month. So, if you’re looking for a new line to collect or are simply interested in cherry-picking the range, we strongly recommend you keep an eye out for these models over the course of the next few months.

Occasionally, we have precious little to report, as difficult as that might sound to the untrained ear. Its not that we’re at a loss for words – Lord knows that will likely never happen in our lifetime. Its just that news concerning our hobby is some times few and far between, usually occurring just after Chinese New Year when the factories are getting back up to speed and still counting heads to see which of their workers have returned from vacation.

So, we thought we’d look at a line that we’d like to stock but haven’t been able to nab largely because its another partworks line that has eluded us. We have nothing against partworks ranges, which typically wed a vehicle with a full-color magazine designed to explain the vehicle in question and its use on the battlefield. Rather, these lines are usually available in Europe first and must run their course before becoming available to other international suppliers.

In the case of DeAgostini, they are now up to their 20th 1:43 scale tank, and show no signs of abating, which, of course, is a good thing. Their first 13 tank replicas were based upon Russian-made designs that saw service with the Red Army during and after WWII. Interestingly they have diverged a bit since formulating that initial strategy, and are now starting to offer vehicles built by other nations, such as this US made M4 Sherman and British constructed Churchill. Other notable vehicles, such as a French made Char 2C super heavy tank and Valentine have also been released, making this one of the more sought after lines of mid-sized diecast military vehicles released in recent memory. The problem, as I alluded to earlier, is that we still can’t lay our grubby little hands on them until the series has concluded. Drats!

We’ll keep our fingers crossed that this series will eventually make it to our shores and keep you apprised of any changes as the line bulks up. In the meantime, keep one eye on the line and the other on our site for the latest news concerning the series.

Originally designed squarely for the Japanese market, DeAgostini is now expanding its reaches by offering its recently released modern era Japanese military series to other global markets. The series contains both 1:72 scale ground vehicles as well as 1:250 scale aircraft, which covers just about every aspect of warfighting on today’s battlefield, from self-propelled mortars and howitzers to AWACs aircraft.

All of these new introductions have been listed in their respective section on our web site and we expect to take delivery in early March.