Some ideas, give me your opinions!

[spect_spidey]

I personally have very little room and therefore figures, playsets, a few armor pieces, and one or two planes is the most I can display in 1:18 scale. This situation got me thinking and I came up with a few ideas. I would like to have the opinions of other board members on these ideas.

1. Artillery. 21st Century should produce artillery. Make things like 105mm howitzers with crews, mortar teams, etc.

2. Sell squad packs of figures. Complete rifle squads, airborne, etc.. Hasbro does 6-packs, why couldn't 21st do 6, 8, or 10 packs?

3. Playsets. Not really sure how well these did when initially released, but the demand seems to be there in the secondary market. Possibilities include airstrip tower, pillbox, bunkers, more buildings, trenches, etc.

4. Basic troops. Release more basic troops from different divisions. The basic sculpts have already been done. It would require a minimal investment compared to all new figures. The cost would just be in a paint mask for division insignias and new head sculpts. Release one new German and American with every new series.

5. Weapon and supply packs. Produce small packs with a variety of weapons. For example an American pack with BAR, M-1, .30 cal machine gun, bazooka, grease gun, Thompson machine gun, etc.

[75th Ranger]

All your ideas sound really good!
A lot of us would like to have that too.
Now, some things you can work out with the available items right now.

For example:

Mortar crew = bbi motar and rounds plus 21st basic infantry figures from seires 1.


playsets use Power team aand eversparkle sets instead.

Artilery Power team big howitzer gun.

those are quick fixes to your current dilema....but I would surel ove to see all your ideas come thru.
take care,
HOOAH!

[steelbonnet]

As 75th Ranger said,you can address most of your wants at present by following his guidelines

Though you can also customize some stuff yourself too

Playsets can be scratch built too.Buildings out of cardboard,wood,foam etc.
ALso has been shown some of the other kiddie toy line buildings work well for 1/18th too.

hope these ideas also get you fired up

ja
Steel Bonnet

[digger]

Ranger is right on about some solutions....here are some things to consider. The playsets all collected dust when they first came out. I have a feeling if they re-released the Hayloft or Farmhouse at WM prices (maybe a few figs thrown in) it would sell, but those things did not move - I saw them all at TRU for a few bucks eventually.

They can't just repaint the S1 b/c people would hit the roof at the old articulation. They couldn't regress like that and get away with it. SO, it would mean new molds which is basically new figures which is what I think most of us always want

21st should make artillery and I think they will try at some point. I think we may also see an army builder type set but be careful not to compare XD to SW or Joes, or 21st to Hasbro. You just can't say "Hasbro did it..."

As for extra weapons I think it would be a waste of time. Buy 2 bbi paras and 2 Dragon paras and you have enough weapons for a dozen guys. Buy a set of 6 Dragon Grenadiers and you will have weapons for 20.

[lsc1002]

Yeah and they need to make a 1:18 kettenkrad too! lol
Lsc1002

[mburduck]

I love the idea of artillery and crews.

Mike

[tmanthegreat]

We could certainly use the artillery and crews. The new BBI figures give us a few new "basic" infantry figures. If you go around to a bunch of different TRUs and get enough of them, try out steelbonnet's customizing idea. You can easily switch heads and arms for some individualtiy; for example, I made a 2nd Ranger Bar Gunner (with arms from the 2nd Ranger infantry and the BAR gunner body) and a 29th Infantry soldier (from the arms of the BAR gunner and body of the Ranger) as well as officer from the 29th Inf. I've accumulated 18 BBI WWII figures (3 with chutes and 15 without) and have so many extra .50 cal MGs, mortars, bazookas, submachine guns, rifles, handguns, grenades, and ammo rounds that I certainly don't need WWII US weapons accessory packs!

[kenhil2]

all those are great suggestions, but as much as many of us would like to see them, i think we will be making do with other brands mixing and matching like ranger suggested