Looking to beef up their holiday presence while simultaneously paying homage to some of the platforms taking part in the Russo-Ukrainian Conflict, Hobby Master, late last week, announced a wide array of new combat aircraft for the month of November. The list is quite impressive, adding a number of heavily requested items to what is already a daunting product portfolio. Here’s what you can expect to sit along side the turkey this coming Thanksgiving:
So, I’m officially exhausted. Between all of the new Forces of Valor arrivals, receipt of a huge Hobby Master shipment and, if I may, off-the-charts sales on both our website and marketplace channels, its likely going to take us a couple of days for me to fully recover. Frankly, its a good thing another snow storm is bearing down on our neck of the woods this weekend, which will give me time to take a shower, shave and take stock of everything that has gone on around us. At least that’s my plan.
Why do I bring this up? For starters, I just wanted to thank everyone for holding off sending us missives asking about the status of their Forces of Valor order. As I alluded to previously, its counterproductive for us to take time out and respond to everyone’s query. Because of this, we’ve gotten out all of the tank and aircraft shipments and are now down to a handful of metal track orders, all of which will go out on Saturday. Afterwards, once I’ve downed a few cups of coffee, taken my meds and fed the hound, I’ll begin posting another set of eBay listings for the rest of the products contained within the January/February Hobby Master shipment. Expect them to show up on the Bay by Monday morning.
Lastly, we just received the Hobby Master November release list, which, as we fully expected, contains a number of items directly connected to the current situation in Ukraine. The most notable is the so-called “Ghost of Kyiv” MiG-29 fighter, which is decked out in a handsome digitized winter camouflage scheme. This could well be the best selling aircraft model of 2022, so we’ll do our best to list it first, followed by a scintillating Ukrainian Su-25 “Frogfoot” ground attack aircraft, then address the rest of the new announcements in due course. These should all be up and available for pre-order by Saturday evening. I urge you to place your pre-orders as soon as possible, so we have a fairly good idea how many we need to order from our distributor.
If I have any further thoughts, I’ll update this post over the weekend, once I’ve had a good night’s sleep and gotten my bearings. In the meantime, many of you should be receiving their FOV orders and I certainly hope the product was worth the extended wait. While I may have some reservations about how they conduct business, they happen to make awesome replicas and that is what this hobby is all about.
Lately you can apply at least a half dozen idioms and metaphors to our March arrivals section. Its feast or famine, when it rains it pours, etc. Anyway, I think you get the drift. We’re still digging out from our huge Forces of Valor tank shipment, attempting to get out all of our pre-orders out the door before they turn their guns on us. That said, we learned yesterday that both the January and February Hobby Master shipments arrived at our distributor, which means we have to kick it into high gear so we can make room for all these new items before we get socked in. We’ve already updated our Product in Transit section and will likely receive these new items by week’s end. There’s a number of key aircraft in the mix, many of which will almost certainly get snapped up once we make them available for general sale. So, we strongly urge that you review the in transit section as soon as possible, then place an order for those items that tickle your fancy. Its an eclectic mix, to be sure, that cuts across a wide array of scales, eras and weapons platforms. Enjoy!
Looking to add more firepower across the entire spectrum of military conflicts, Hobby Master announced four more warbirds to its growing list of scale combat aircraft, all due out at varying intervals throughout 2022. By clicking on each line art image, you can then determine its price and estimated arrival date.
Hobby Master is one of those companies that seems to enjoy soldiering on despite facing many of the same vexing issues that have plagued other model makers over the past year or so. Case in point. October 2022. While other manufacturers haven’t begun to look that far out yet, Hobby Master already has its ducks in a row with a bevy of new introductions ready to grace the harvest table. Of particular note are a pair of Dauntless dive-bombers commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Midway, as well as a 1:72 scale reproduction of an Avenger torpedo plane. Here now what you can expect to lay out along side the pumpkin pie and apple cider later this year:
Even though they seem to have withdrawn from the military vehicle ranks, Hobby Master remains intent on solidifying its position as the preeminent aircraft model maker. Their September release schedule is chock full of new aircraft, further demonstrating they are in this for the long haul despite rising costs and logistical issues. Here’s whats in store for the aviation aficionado next September:
So, we’ve finally received a bit of good news from our distributor regarding Hobby Master. Turns out the November and December shipments are expected to hit their warehouse early next week. Its also quite likely the September and October shipments will arrive shortly thereafter, perhaps the first week of January. Essentially, this means four months worth of product are scheduled to reach us on or around the same time — we’re guessing the first week of January since there are a couple of holidays in between and the carriers typically take off for a breather based upon their own workload.
Frankly, we’re not sure when everything is going to reach us and in what order, so we’ve lumped together all four months worth of product into our January 2022 release category. Its possible some items might reach us before the end of the year but with all the struggles everyone has had to endure this year, we’re placing our bets on the first week of January. Obviously its going to take us a bit of time to go through everything before we can start shipping out product, updating our web site and our attendant marketplace sites. As a result, we’re asking everyone to please bear with us as we attempt to ascertain when and which products reach us in the next few weeks.
Update: Our distributor informs us that all four months worth of product, which encompasses their September through December shipments, have been received at their Georgia facility. Currently, they are working diligently to sort through everything and will begin shipping out said items to their retail network on December 24th and into the following week. With the holidays upon us, we will likely start to see the fruits of their labors just before New Years. We doubt everything will arrive all at once, so its possible the balance of the shipments will arrive at our New York facility the first week of January. In the meantime, please do not call or send us any messages at this time asking about your pre-orders. They will be filled as product comes in and may be mailed out in multiple shipments. Thank you for your patience.
With the holiday shopping season in full stride, Hobby Master seized the opportunity to announce their release schedule for August of 2022, which, as they like to do, covers just about every era and scale they offer up. Of particular note is their first ever Lockheed F-15EX, the latest in a long line of upgraded air dominance platforms in the longstanding and highly regarded series of Eagle twin-engine fighters. While stealth is still of paramount importance to the US Air Force as we head into the mid 2020s, its clear that we still need an effective aircraft capable of carrying a huge load of air-to-air missiles to the FEBA should the stealth aircraft run out of weaponry. The F-15EX, working in conjunction with more stealthy aircraft such as the F-22, F-35 and upcoming sixth generation fighter, fits that bill nicely demonstrating that older air frames still serve a useful purpose on the aerial battlefield. Here now the rest of the August line up:
Despite extensive shipping delays here in the North American market, Hobby Master announced yet another batch of new warbirds, this one purportedly set to arrive in July 2022. The “July” shipment contains a number of models that haven’t been made available for some time, including a Douglas A-1H Skyraider and a Lockheed-Martin F-22A Raptor. Its not apparent if these new models will actually arrive as advertised considering the huge logjam of ships still waiting to dock and be offloaded. At this point, July may be an optimistic forecast since a great many aircraft that were previously touted are taxiing onto the diecast tarmac awaiting their own clearance for takeoff. To be clear, the incessant delays aren’t the fault of either Hobby Master or our distributor, since the product is being made on time and can oftentimes be found in other parts of the world. The culprit, as has been pointed out by the media, is the current breakdown in the global supply chain, which has played havoc with the release schedule here in North America, If cargo ships are sitting idle for weeks on end and there aren’t enough truckers available to transport the containers from the ports to the distributors, two key bottlenecks that still haven’t been overcome, then the net result is incessant delays in being able to ship out product to retailers.
In any event, I’ll get off my soapbox and offer up the rundown of what the “July” roster entails:
If you’re wondering why we and other retailers in North America haven’t been receiving the latest Hobby Master products for several weeks running, you may want to read this insightful article that recently appeared in the New York Times. Several months back, when our distributor for Hobby Master, Historic Sales out of Minnesota, was sold to Collectors Armory in Georgia, the Company re-routed each Hobby Master shipment away from Los Angeles to the port of Savannah, Georgia. This made sense because at the time both the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the principal ports of entry for inbound freight from Asia, were deluged with shipments and unable to keep up with the logjam of ships and containers arriving on a daily basis. Recently, it was reported that there were at least 200,000 shipping containers either ready to be unloaded or parked in a holding area, waiting for their turn to be picked up by local truckers. While both ports are now operating on a 24-hour, around-the-clock basis, the problem is exacerbated due to the lack of truckers picking up their loads and ferrying them to their distribution centers.
It turns out that Savannah is faring no better than the west coasts ports, itself inundated in cargo bound for distributors and retailers around the US. According to this article, over 50,000 containers are either sitting idle or languishing off-shore in any number of cargo ships, thereby suffering much the same fate as other ports of entries around the country. So, while you may be seeing certain Hobby Master products appearing overseas, on Facebook or elsewhere, take heart and understand that these same items will eventually make it to Historic Sales of Georgia and in turn to us and every other retailer patiently waiting to take delivery of their orders.
Mind you this problem plagues every Forces of Valor shipment as well since Historic Sales has once again been appointed the official distributor of the line in North America. Likewise, Air Force 1 has been beset by the same problems, although we recently received a shipment from them, which will likely have to last well into the first quarter of 2022. No matter how you look at it, its going to be a very long holiday season that will certainly extend into the first half of the new year…
Update: Late on Tuesday, we were informed that the trucking company responsible for picking up Historic’s inbound containers has been notified that the September shipment of Hobby Master products has been offloaded, passed customs, and can be picked up in good order. Presently, they are attempting to take delivery of this shipment by week’s end and, if successful, we should be receiving our order sometime towards the end of the first week of November. With Thanksgiving looming, there is no way of knowing if the “October” Hobby Master shipment will arrive before the start of the holiday season. We will post further updates on both the “October” and “November” shipments, along with the Forces of Valor shipment still pegged for a late November arrival once information has been passed along to us.
