Much is being made of the current shortage of truck drivers here in North America, which has helped to create an added bottleneck in getting goods from our clogged ports to the retail network. It therefore comes as no surprise that this added hurdle is now affecting the diecast industry in general and the upcoming Panzerkampf tank transporter set in particular. And if you believe that, there’s a bridge here in New York I can sell you.
In all honesty, when they were first announced last summer, well before the kinks in the global supply chain became apparent, we envisioned these sets would likely retail for around $100, a fair assumption given the fact that most of their similarly scaled military vehicles were retailing for around $35-$40. Turns out we missed the mark by a wide margin. We learned today that they will be pegged at $150 per set and, more importantly, will be available in very limited numbers here and around the world. So, we will honor the price we originally listed for anyone that placed a pre-order with us for either of these sets. That said, we have also updated the price for each set to $150. Frankly, this is still a fair price to pay given the paucity of military vehicles reaching the marketplace and the appeal these sets offer to anyone collecting military diecast memorabilia. Some of you may remember that Sword Models released several different 1:50 scale Oshkosh tank transporter sets several years back, which sold for around $300 or more. Those sets blew out in no time, and now command much higher prices in aftermarket venues such as eBay. In fact, someone is listing a few as we speak and offering them up for $800 apiece.
Anyway, we’re sorry to have made this announcement but hope you understand that some things are well beyond our control, hustling tanks from Point A to Point B one of them, even if they are diminutive cousins of the real thing.