Where the heck is bbi?

Tinman · Post by **Tinman** » Tue May 10, 2005 5:10 pm

Excuse me if this has already been covered, but when is bbi going to come out with more WWII pieces? They did a great job with the Sherman and the Mustang, and I'm ready for more!

Would like to see some items done by bbi that 21C has not yet covered in 1:18 (Pershing would be nice, for instance, or a King Tiger, or a Hellcat.
Plus more WWII figures!).

immeww2 · Post by **immeww2** » Tue May 10, 2005 5:57 pm

I guess BBI wants to follow 21's MO of releasing new items.

steelbonnet · Post by **steelbonnet** » Wed May 11, 2005 1:35 am

Well l`m looking at the quiet period as a good sign.In that BBI are retooling to produce a lot of NEW stuff. No repaints,actually started doing new figures from other nations (UK for starters done properly) with better articulation & new weapons which haven`t been done.

After all the driver with the Super Humvee has the new elbow Articulation,so maybe there planning on re-addressing this for all 1/18 figures?

All l can say is don`t be negative,just anticipate

Though If BBI did follow 21st MO for releasing,well that would be a great shame indeed.

SB

Tinman · Post by **Tinman** » Wed May 11, 2005 11:38 am

Yes, I'll have to stay patient with the thought that they are retooling and perhaps will have some new product to show at ComiCon!

Post by **aferguson** » Wed May 11, 2005 12:43 pm

I think we'll be hearing many good things from BBI eventually..

MightyMustang · Post by **MightyMustang** » Wed May 11, 2005 1:22 pm

I'm like you tinman where has BBI dissapeared to? They come out with an excellent realease like the P-51 and bamb! No one hears a peep from from them. You would have thought that with success of their Mustang they would have followed up with another great WW 2 Fighter like the Hellcat, Zero, ect but nothing. Hell I would have been happy if they would have come out with a re-paint of the Mustang with different markings! But nothing, nadda, zilch. All I can say is this:

Wake up from your sleep BBI before 21st buries you. Because with their Avenger and Mustangs releases they might just succeed in doing that. PLEASE prove me wrong.

donnieboy · Post by **donnieboy** » Wed May 11, 2005 8:40 pm

Dirk Unterberg, the proprietor of an XD shop in Germany (www.warbirdmodelle.de) posted a message here a while back saying BBI was planning to bring out a Russian Mi-24 Hind helo in 1:18. There have also been persistent rumours that BBI was working on an XD Hellcat and, possibly, a Zero.
However, I guess I'm just rehashing the same BBI rumours that have been floating around on Groundpounders for months.
Guess time will tell.

vmf214 · Post by **vmf214** » Wed May 11, 2005 9:09 pm

21st will never bury BBi, they're just too big. I do however hope they try to outdo them as I think they will as 21st is more consistent with releases. As far as where BBi is, obviously down under making planes in RAAF livery. BRING ON THE ZERO!!!!!!

Post by **aferguson** » Thu May 12, 2005 4:48 am

BBI is a huge company and making 1/18 scale items is just a drop in the bucket to them. I suspect they don't even make much money at it, as they have limited retail outlet availability for it. So they may not care at all if 21C gets the drop on them in the 1/18 market.

Having said that i'm sure we'll see more stuff from them.....it's just on a low priority basis. They may have made the Mustang and Sherman as test items without anything else on the go. Now that both have sold well (i assume) they could have started up other projects but development time is usually a year or more. That plus the fact they usually announce new items just before they release them could explain this lull.

It's also possible they've decided not to pursue 1/18 anymore but with all the various rumours floating around i doubt that.

WGP Klaus · Post by **WGP Klaus** » Thu May 12, 2005 5:08 am

With their release of that beautiful P51, and with releases such as the Kiowa, Little Bird, Apache and Blackhawks, I suspect we'll see them expanding their rotary winged horizons, possibly even with a Mi-24

For the doubting Thomas', don't count BBi out simply because they're not too forthcoming with product line info, we know they here to stay, just be patient. If theres one thing we all should have learned from being fans of this scale, it's patience <cough::Avenger::cough>

jhogan · Post by **jhogan** » Thu May 12, 2005 6:41 am

If BBi is working on the Hellcat and the Zero, they have "the right stuff" to fill my needs! However, I can think of about ten more aircraft for BBi to put on the drawing board including the P-61 Black Widow, Hawker Hurricane, de Havilland Mosquito, Junkers Ju88, Me-262 etc.

momaw nadon · Post by **momaw nadon** » Thu May 12, 2005 7:57 am

That would be too cool if we get an Mi-24 Hind. Then I can do a Red Dawn dio. I didn' think we would see some thing that big in the rotary wing field, but I say go for it. I'll get more that one if they do.
momaw nadon

bravo5 · Post by **bravo5** » Thu May 12, 2005 1:30 pm

I thought a while back, maybe 2 years ago at comic con, BBI previewed a 1/18 Hellcat and P-47. Somebody correct me if I am wrong.

MightyMustang · Post by **MightyMustang** » Thu May 12, 2005 4:03 pm

A 1/18th scale Hellcat made by BBI or 21st would be a dream come true for me bacause it happenes to be my favorite WW 2 Pacific Fighter. But rumors are just that, rumors and until either company announces its release I guess I can just stick with my 1/32nd scale model of the Hellcat I built myself.

vmf214 · Post by **vmf214** » Thu May 12, 2005 4:22 pm

Yeah a Zero would be sweet. I started collecting 1/24 scale plastic kits of Japanese fighters from Bandai, Trumpeter, etc. They're close enough for now and the detail of course is just awesome. The George I have has over a 20" wingspan so it's pretty big. My 1/18 balsa Zero I built is pretty cool but just not the same as a diecast or plastic piece.

Ta-152 · Post by **Ta-152** » Sat May 14, 2005 8:11 am

A hind in 1:18?

Whoa.

That thing wis gonna be HUGE, not to mention expensive!

Tinman · Post by **Tinman** » Sat May 14, 2005 2:24 pm

I hope I'm wrong - but I don't think we'll see a 1:18 Hind. Too limited in its appeal. Sure, many of us on this board would snap them up (I know I'd be good for two if they were done right!), but otherwise they would probably just puzzle the folks who shop at TRU.

digger · Post by **digger** » Sat May 14, 2005 2:34 pm

I said the same thing - limited appeal. I thought efforts would be better spent on an A-10 (rumor has it bbi will do this eventually too).
However I ate my words when we got wind they were working on it. However last info was the production problems have slowed it down (makes sense, the thing is no Huey....). Hopefully they scrap it and focus elsewhere....

WGP Klaus · Post by **WGP Klaus** » Sun May 15, 2005 6:58 am

Tinman wrote:I hope I'm wrong - but I don't think we'll see a 1:18 Hind. Too limited in its appeal. Sure, many of us on this board would snap them up (I know I'd be good for two if they were done right!), but otherwise they would probably just puzzle the folks who shop at TRU.

and who besides anyone vaguely familiar with rotary winged aircraft knew what an OH-58 Kiowa was? not a very "mainstream" helo, unlike the Apache and CrashHawk.

and all the Kiowas in my AO got snatched up quicker than the Little Birds! Only issue I'd have is the price point, surely to be equal to (due to size) the UH-60's, and thus I fear they'd collect dust for the most part, untill they were clearanced.

Tinman · Post by **Tinman** » Sun May 15, 2005 7:05 am

You do have a point about the Kiowa....

digger · Post by **digger** » Sun May 15, 2005 8:13 am

It's 20 bucks, small and in service right now with the US military. Apples to Oranges imo....

tmanthegreat · Post by **tmanthegreat** » Sun May 15, 2005 2:12 pm

Also, save for the Radar mast, enlarged engine, weapons mounts, etc, the Kiowa looks rather similar to its very commonplace civilian counterpart and that may increase familiarity... Why, I just saw a medievac version going in to land at the UCLA Hospital just a few minutes ago before coming in to write this post!

But also the large chopper for $20 retail was a good deal in itself!

Gunner · Post by **Gunner** » Sun May 15, 2005 4:35 pm

You know, I'm surprised BBI didn't try the repaint gig on the Littlebird.

21C did it with the "big" Littlebird with reasonable success.

Or, did the 1/18 SWAT line fail so spectacularly that BBI decided to keep the helo out?

Also, I know this is off topic, but I wish someone would do 1/6 scale TOW pods for the 21C "big" littlebird. It's on my "to-do" list, but so many other things keep getting in the way...

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