Where the heck is bbi?

[tko211]

What a great thread! I love to hear the ideas that are kicked around. I have had a unique perspective to see some of the inside operation of 21st. As such I am under contract not to comment on the details as they are guarded as "industry / trade secrets". But let me shed some light on the topics I can discuss.

First- I want to thank each of you for your passion for collecting. We represent the life blood in a niche market like this. I love the discussion about the Toyish nature of the upcoming A-10 in target. It prooves the point that while these are "toy companies" It is is Detail, Accuracy, and moving parts that are king! These are collectables for discriminating fans.

Second- All has been quiet on the western front for now with 21st. The real reason for this is because they are working super super hard to push out the promised product line up! The entire staff is pulling 10 - 14 hour days. Make no mistake about it 21st is woking very hard for us. Now I know there is disappointment in the less than accurate release dates and delays. I too share in the dissapointment from a fan perspective. But I promise you though progress is being made. There are some NEAT projects in the works. Some you are already aware of, most are yet to be revealed. There are plenty of neat little twists for many projects that will really make you smile... Its the extra mile stuff I am taking about here. For maketing and timing reasons I cannot go into detail (and that kills me, but 21st has to protect their investments untill the time is right). But everyone hang in there. It is going to be a ton of fun!

Third- Ahhh, the ever request for Fan Club Exclusives! I want to do them sooooo badly. The suggestions made are wonderful. I am hoping that we will see that day soon. For now there are bigger fish that needs to be fried, but again patience I think will weigh out in the end. It's more a question of when not if...

Fourth- This board rocks! It is so great to have a community of fans and friends here to talk war toys. This kind of "water-cooler" conversation it what make this fun.
And a personally want to say thanks for letting me play here as well. I truly am a fan, long before I was the AREA-21 president it was GPXD that always had the good info and pointed me to the right places for new products.

[hworth18]

I would gladly pay a couple hundred dollars for an A-10 as I'm sure many here would pay just as much for other aircraft that they treasure. I think offering FAN CLUB MEMBERS things that hold to their interests should be looked at seriously. I'm sure that they get enough inquiries and monitor this board enough to know what items are constantly being asked for and desired. They know the number of each item that has to be sold on the mass market to make producing it profitable. If they make exclusives, I'm sure they can plan a certain number to produce with pricing that will make them profitable.

I think they could break their items into three selling categories:

1. Member Exclusives- this could consists of aircraft like the P-39 and P-61, they have limited sales appeal to the mass market but great sales appeal to collectors

2. Online Retail- could consist of aircraft like the A-10 and F-4, they have a great sales potential because of recognizability but certain brick and mortar outlets don't want to give up the shelf space for their packaging. However they could still be available to brick and mortar outlets if they want to order them for sale. Online retailers like Bad Cat could offer these with their many paint schemes. They could even offer the "Roll Your Own" options.

3. Mass Market Retail- would consist of aircraft they are currently persuing to produce. They fit in their "ONE" box strategy and evidently market well enough in this field to keep churning them out like they do.

The next key is to ADVERTISE. Put a catalog of all the products they offer in the package with the item. Advertise the website in the catalog and on "the box" to draw in more inquiring customers and entice them to join the fan club with the exclusives they can get only as members or even a non-member price. While these customers (now hopefully members) are browsing the website they will see the online retailers and know where to purchase category 2 products (Hopefully increasing the sell of these items or causing the customers to ask their local brick and mortar establishments if they can get them). (Some of the category 2 products might sell enough to cause 21st to make another production run and see where they might have been wrong about not producing them in the first place.) This will give the online retailers more business and advertisement. The interests in products unavailable at brick and mortar outlets may cause those outlets to have a change of heart with shelf space and order them themselves.

As for production....well as I stated earlier they know how much they need to produce or how much to price the item for the number they produce to make it profitable.



I'm no marketing and advertising major by far and I'm sure that this has all been thought out by 21st......... but it sounds good on paper and in my head.

Just my thoughts and ideas.

Birddog,
Good ideas, but I would think there is little chance that we will ever see a P-61, P-39 or F-4 in 1/18.. Nice Wishful thinking though..

[Birddog]

Thanks for the comments DocTodd.

I know it may be wishful thinking Hworth, but I think things like that could be done. Sooner or later I hope something like that is done.

[Birddog]

Ok guys. I just took delivery of BBI's response to my last e-mail questioning the fate of the Elite Force line. Here it is:

Customer Relations - CL" <[email protected]> Add to Address Book
To: "K M" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: bbi
Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 12:30:05 +0800


Dear Ryan,

Thank you for your email as suggestion for the development of our Elite Force line. We welcome all comments from our customers and consumers. We are constantly receiving such suggestion and whilst we naturally cannot proceed with all proposed products, we do place these into our review process and discuss them when determining our forward development schedule. Your comments will be discussed during the next meeting and once again we thank you for your input.

Best Regards,
bbi Customer Relations - CL

(Please enclose previous dialogues for enhancing future reference)

They didn't say they were discontinuing it, but they are going to use my input as well as others input and suggestions in consideration of what projects they are going to develop. So I guess we can assume that the 1/18 scale is not dead, just in review.

Guys lets rally and start flooding them with our comments and suggestions. This could be the way to influence BBI with what they produce. They appear to be responding on a more personal level now instead of just sending out an impersonal e-mail that has been set up for automatic deliver. Maybe 21st is rattling their cage with the new website and updates. Anyhow, let's keep our fingers crossed that their reviews go in the direction we want them to.

[aferguson]

To be honest that sounded like a copy and paste response to me. Didn't really address your question at all and was vague to the point of being a non-answer.

21c is to BBI what Jaguar is to GM. One is a giant company and one a tiny one. 21c will not be rattling BBI in the slightest. The 1/18 scale line is probably less than 1/2 of one percent of BBI's business.

That they didn't flat out say 1/18 Elite Force was discontinued is somewhat encouraging, i suppose. But not very. Companies rarely come out and say anything concrete or substantial; being more like politicians and clouding what they say with vaguery and double talk.

Lots of people emailing them about 1/18 is not a bad idea. Certainly can't do any harm...

[MightyMustang]

When I saw on Bad Cats website that the Avenger was being postponed again I figured "Hell with it" and thats because there is always delays when it comes to the Avenger. But after thinking about it for awhile I said to myself "The wait will be worth it" because I think the Avenger is going to be a real gem. As for the Mustang I can wait because in that dept BBI is making me a happy guy with their re-paints of these famous Stallions of the sky. As I said in one post I dont think BBI is in any hurry to do follow up to their Mustang and why that is is mystery to me. But as I also said I think it has alot to do with 21st.

[Aviatornut.com]

when we placed our stock order w/ bbi they told me about the three new WWII aircrafts they are coming out with. They have a new paint scheme for the Mustang (every one knows about) but they are coming out with a F4U Corsair and something else that I am not able to mention yet (but I know you all will very happy with ) www.aviatornut.com

[digger]

I hope you are joking about a Corsair unless they plan to have full interior, engine access, an entire crew and carrier deck.
Talk about been there, done that....

[Tinman]

I second your thoughts on that, digger. But I wonder what the 3rd aircraft could be be? A Hellcat? Maybe even a Zero??? I'd be thrilled with anything that hasn't already been produced.

[digger]

That'd be the Zero Tinman

[aferguson]

Well, kind of a good news, bad news deal. The good news is they're still alive and making new stuff. The bad news is we already have the stuff...

Maybe the Corsair will be a late model with four blade prop?....even a Korean version. Fat chance but i can hope.

I suspect the 'unnamed' one is a Zero. That's cool. Did they say when the newbies are coming out?

This means there's still hope for my Hind too.

[tmanthegreat]

Disregarding the "logic" of 21c, if BBI plans on making a Corsair, then a Zero may very well be made for the simple fact that the two can be paired very well. Wouldn't you just love finding a BBI Corsair on the shelf at TRU with a Zero next to it? I won't readily jump for a BBI Corsair (even though it will be an excellent replica) for the simple fact as I already have two 21c versions and they have pretty much drowned out the 1:18 Corsair market. However, a BBI Zero...

[OnWu]

I've heard repeated rumors of a P-47, which makes no sense at all.

[Quixote511]

Well, I won't lie, I'll will more than likely buy at least one of any plane bbi puts out. However, I don't see the genius in marketing aircraft already produced by 21st. I love that they redid the Mustang and it sure looks hard to beat. But, you would think bbi would make more money by producing different models in the same scale then going head to head. I remember the TF coverage from a couple years back when bbi showed the Hellcat and P-47. I would snatch up a Hellcat a lot sooner, and more of them, than I would a bbi P-47. And, as far as a Zero goes, I am all about that. Kind of like Aferg, I was hoping that bbi would be more gutsy and make some of the odd men out like the Typhoon and P-39. Only time will tell.
Aaron

[aferguson]

BBI's P-51 i could see just because the 21c version wasn't so hot, but 21c's Corsair is very good and not easy to improve upon in any significant way. Unless it represents a late version, Korean war Corsair i won't be getting one, as i already have three i'm quite happy with.

It may be that this is an old mold that they are just getting around to releasing but i still don't understand why they would bother......especially with 21c being more globaly available now that they are in europe.

I'm wondering if it is in fact a Hellcat and the information given to Aviatornut is inaccurate....there were never rumours of a Corsair from BBI.

Time will tell....and probably not too much time, as BBI releases usually shortly follow BBI announcements...

[digger]

First of all, did anyone save the TF pics of bbi's prototypes? Everyone always mentions them but I don't know if I've seen those pics.


"....there were never rumours of a Corsair from BBI."
-Sadly, there have been, but I discounted them as impossible with 21st Corsair released 6 times....

"Time will tell....and probably not too much time, as BBI releases usually shortly follow BBI announcements..."
-BBI hasn't announced anything really except the P-51 repaint, so I think it will be some time, but ComicCon should be interesting as to a peak at the future....

As an aside, if they released a Zero next week I'd give people ten days to get one and demand a Hellcat to go with it....we're never satisfied

[aferguson]

Pics weren't allowed of the Hellcat and Thunderbolt but there were many eye witness reports, so i'm pretty certain they were there in prototype form.

There has been a rumour of a BBI Corsair?....i must have tuned out on them from lack of interest.

I think a Zero will make many people very happy....demand for a Hellcat has never been as ferverous as demand for a Zero.

Of course maybe the other unnamed aircraft is something incredible...like a B-25 or a C-47.

[digger]

B-25 is possible and I think it will get tackled eventually....
But a C47? It would have a five foot wingspan doubt that's happening....

[MightyMustang]

A BBI Corsair? No say it aint so and hopefully its just a rumor and nothing more. 21st covered that area already. Another P-47? Another area covered by 21st. Hellcat and Zero? Now that would be an excellent choice and I would hope they would make those. But sadly I'm not holding my breath. It will be awhile before we see those 2 fighters, in my humble opinion anyway.


I'll have BBI's Mustang re-paints soon and then I will look forward to 21st's Avenger. Thats whenever they decide to quit delaying it!

[digger]

when we placed our stock order w/ bbi they told me about the three new WWII aircrafts they are coming out with. They have a new paint scheme for the Mustang (every one knows about) but they are coming out with a F4U Corsair

Hey, in this thread you said they WERE NOT making a Corsair
viewtopic.php?t=1665

Is this news you've gotten recently? Thanks!

[immeww2]

As a side note to the planes, I'm hoping that BBI will one day offer WW2 1/18 soldiers.

[demetrop]

Is it possible that BBI may produce a 1/18 P-40, since Toys-R-Us still has it listed on their website for some time now? If this were an error, it should have been corrected by now. Perhaps it could be a P-40E model?

[75th Ranger]

I can't wait to get those BBI WWII figures!
they look really good and hopefully the articulation will be better than the previous figure sets.
I wonder if they are going to do Germans, or Brits, or Japaneesse, or Russians?
It would be really good to have at least a repaint of the Sherman in a British scheme.
what do you guys think?
take care.

[mediump]

wow! awsome figures with mortars and heavy machine gun! its just what i always wanted i agree with 75th ranger too, a british sherman firefly would be cool. we would all be happy with any new armor.