Recently I had a short but poignant discussion with the owner of Waltersons, who produces the wildly popular Forces of Valor range of military products. While we pointed out a number of glaring errors in two of their recent releases, they took the observations in stride, perhaps acknowledging that they are oftentimes their biggest critic when they get things wrong. Its refreshing to see that they are at least willing to hear about any errors they may have caused, given the price tag many of their newest efforts are commanding.
What we did learn, however, is that they are amending their strategy slightly for 2023, perhaps in an effort to get more product into the hands of collectors who have regularly been asking for new items since taking over the line in 2016. While the Company will continue to overhaul existing molds to bring them up to today’s standards, they have finally recognized that they have a tremendous amount of exisiting tooling sitting on the sidelines that doesn’t need to be changed all that much. Although no vehicles were mentioned specifically by Waltersons, the upcoming “20th Anniversary of Forces of Valor” range will likely encompass perennial favorites such as their Sturmgeschutz assault gun and Panther medium tank, two stalwarts that never seemed to get criticized all that much by military buffs despite being released ad infinitum year after year. Its not clear if this new strategy will see the employment of additional metal parts to give them more heft or the proposed price tag for these off-the-shelf armored reinforcements. What is known is that new figures and accessories are almost certain to be included along with new paint schemes so that they aren’t confused with previous releases.
In other news, sold out items such as their Jagdpanther and best-selling MH-47 helicopter will almost certainly make a comeback at some point, perhaps three years down the road, once space has been made in their tight production schedule. The manufacturer has never categorically stated that these are limited edition collectibles, so keeping the door open by reintroducing certain fan favorites has always been a part of their overall strategy even if they have never gone on record to say so.
From a marketing perspective, we will likely not distinguish these re-released products from other products already produced and simply place them in our Forces of Valor Legacy products section. Frankly, I think its getting far too confusing at present with all of the marketing hype used to date. Monikers such as “Metal Proud”, “Engine Plus” and “Inside Out” are already bewildering to veteran and newcomers to the hobby, all of whom are simply looking to acquire a vehicle first without all of the bells and whistles marketing gurus can needlessly bolt on. Adding yet another new category will only help to keep the customer guessing, wondering which item is which when contemplating a purchase. Sometimes you don’t have to reinvent the wheel even if others are telling you it needs to be updated.
And the error? On the left hand portion of the transmission housing, the symbols indicate this vehicle is from the 3rd Armored Division, 10th Tank Battalion, when the manufacturer advertised it as a vehicle from the 5th Armored Division. Que sera, sera.