Avenger Review *Some Pix*

[tko211]

It is true that all 5 planes will be available. My understanding is that the 5 panes will all be part of a regular size run. Which means there are going to be fewer numbers of each aircraft produced. I think we are going see some serious trading going on to get all 5 IMO. As for Alien overtones... Flight 19 I beleive is being seen as a more fun "main stream" approach in it's marketing. I think we can all agree that the crew was not captured by aliens. But the fun of the Si-Fi Myth still holds some market appeal to a broader audience. I have seen the mock-up box art for this series and fans should be prepared to expect to see major Alien overtones! I personally think it is fun. It's not like 21st made flight 19 a "Legends" series and are trying to pass it off as "historically accurate". It won't stop me from buying one... or five!

[Teamski]

Now that is news! All five to be produced in one production run?? Wow, now that is one hell of a smart marketing ploy!! 21st will definately win with everybody scrambling to get all 5 planes..........

-Ski

[aferguson]

Personally, i don't think it's a big deal that they are including an alien figure and going with the whole 'bermuda triangle/alien abduction' thing with the Flight 19 Avengers (btw there was not really any direct link between the Bermuda Triangle mysteries and alien abductions until the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind came out).

Anyway, i know lives were lost but it was 60 years ago (and yes, time does heal all wounds), no one is making fun of the crewman or trivializing the event and to be honest lives were lost in every plane we colllect, every tank etc.. The alien figure is not trivializing the event, just adding a new dimension to it.

Personally, i don't plan on getting any Flight 19 Avengers but i know there will be lots of people who will want to and many who will want to get them all. Should be fun.

[Morian Miner]

Since I'm not a stinkler for historical accuracy, I'll buy whatever Avenger I can find. If as a bonus it comes with a alien figure I can toss over into my SW stuff, cool. That plane just needs to get here.

Maybe they should have packed an alien figure with the M113. Give a reason for those figures to have the "deer in the headlight look".

[aferguson]

Well, the Flight 19 aircraft wore late war paint schemes, so you could use them as regular wartime Avengers. It's not like they were specially painted for the flight on which they disappeared. Now that i think of it, maybe i will get one afterall.

[tmanthegreat]

If the plane looks good, I'll go for it, alien or not. Now, what I'm hoping is that 21c will keep the quality up on this plane with the accurate levels of all the others, simply meaning that I don't want a plane coming with an alien that has less of a quality of a paint job!

[kimtheredxd]

Hey if putting little green woman in the box makes it appeal to a wider audience go for it!It will do nothing but help us in the long run .If this big baby sells like hotcakes we could see other large planes too. Hey maybe we can have our own camp out like every one did this week for Xboxes when they are scheduled to arrive.

[kevrut]

Just a thought about the flight 19 set. Why not just include decals for all five planes in the box? That way you can just buy five right off of the shelf and not have to search all over. They wouldn't have 5 different lines for painting in the factory either. I'm assuming the only differences would be the numbers on the side of the plane. I don't know anything about Flight 19's history, that was just my first thought.

[Sgt. Fury]

Lets see, an Avenger with an alien in the cockpit, a predator in the gunner's position and Captain America in the bomb bay riding the torpedo like a horse, waving his shield around and screaming "YaHooooo...weeee doggie". And for good measure, William Shatner clinging to the fuselage, peering thru the bottom gun window. Works for me.

[JimBob55]

I'm glad to hear about 21C offering all 5 aircraft, so that we can have a choice.

The interesting thing is that four of the flight were flying TBM-1C's (the 21C version), but FT-28 was a TBM-3 (only real noticable differences are in the cowl).

I agree with offering the basic blue aircraft with only commom markings (national star insignia and the 'FT' letters) in the box with decals for all in the box or at least an option to choose from when ordering. (BBI and BCA did that with the F-18 Blue Angel, both with stickers or additional purchase decals-remember it came in the box with only the common markings) As near as the sources I could find say, the flight 19 aircraft were all marked the same except the A/C numbers and the BuNo.

I think this will offer a memorialization of the 14 airmen who were lost on this flight:

Ft. 28
Lt. C.C. Taylor, USNR
G.F. Devlin, AOM3c, USNR
W.R. Parpart, ARM3c, USNR


FT. 36
Capt. E.J. Powers, USMC
H.Q. Thompson, Sgt., USMCR
G.R. Paonessa, Sgt., USMC


Ft. 117
Capt. G.W. Stivers, USMC
R.P. Gruebel, Pvt., USMCR
R.F. Gullivan, Sgt., USMC


Ft. 81
2nd Lt. F.J. Gerber, USMCR
W.E. Lightfoot, Pfc., USMCR


Ft. 3
Ens. J.T. Bossi, USNR
A.H. Thelander, S1c, USNR
B.E. Baluk, JR., S1c, USNR

(thanks to: http://www.bobjenny-artist.com/nas/flight19.htm)

Navy/Marine fliers had to deal with long flights over trackless oceans and many have been lost before and since flight 19.


I'm willing to wait for the Pacific and Atlantic color schemes: each of these will represent the well-known contibution of the Avenger in the Pacific and its less well known, but important, battle against the U-Boats in defense of the allied Atlantic convoys.

JimBob

[GooglyDoogly]

I saw a special on Discovery Science channel a couple of months ago about the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle and Flight 19 and they actually flew over the path of Flight 19. They even broadcast actual radio chatter of the men of Flight 19.

Pretty chilling, hearing those men's voices. You can almost feel their quiet desparation as they flew on, running out of gas, realizing they should have reached their destination, but all they could see on the horizon was the empty ocean.

Heart wrenching, especially the part where they were planning on ditching together, hoping that they would be found and rescued.

A simple memorial piece, a card with a bit of history, anything would be preferrable to a little green man. I guess anything for a dollar...

End of rant.

[tmanthegreat]

Well said! The memory of the Flight 19 aircrews should be honored - not the highly unlikely fact that they were abducted by aliens...

[digger]

...A simple memorial piece, a card with a bit of history, anything would be preferrable to a little green man. I guess anything for a dollar...
End of rant.

I hear you that it can be taken as tacky, but as Aferg said men died in all the tanks, planes etc...we, er, 'play' with. If you want to honor them - make a memorial on your own time. Create a card with a little history and display it with the plane, and flush the alien. I don't see Hasbro or anybody else making a 1:18 Avenger or anything Flight 19 for that matter, so maybe we should get down from our perch and realize that they still need to market their product beyond our perspective. Do I like airshow birds? No. Do I like little green men? No. But we have to cut some slack so they keep making the stuff frankly.

[CW4USARMY]

Well said Digger.

[JimBob55]

I agree about all the other aircraft, armor, etc. But has anyone added an alien to any of them????

We can individually memorialize or not, but I would rather not see a manufacturer add something inappropriate to the memories of the fliers, armor crew, soldiers, etc.

Respectfully submitted,
JimBob

[pilotman]

To be honest, I hadn,t thought at all about tacky marketing, inappropriate aliens or reverent memorialization of the heroes of any war.
As has been said, 21c is a business for profit, if adding an alien increases their sales then they'll be around longer to make all those othetr models we're waiting for. I understand that each peice comes with one pilot and one alien, could be wrong though, but if one alien figure offends you then unpack it and toss it! simple.
As far as honoring our heroes I'm not sure how much hanging plastic model from the ceiling does that.
See a soldier, shake his hand, buy him lunch or a beer and say thanks!
Tell your boss to shut down for veterens day and say a prayer at dinner for all those who,ve served and those who are keeping us safe today.
Wow, that was along speech, sorry fellas.

[laughinggravy2]

For a group that is notorious for it's often irrational insistence on accuracy, I can't help but notice some glaring, bald-faced hypocrisy here.

Let a paint scheme miss by a bit, and it's up-in-arms. But, add a completely fictional alien figure and it's A-ok.

What if your Father, Uncle or Grandfather etc. were in that flight? There are still plenty of relatives and friends who remember those lost souls living today. How do you think they'd feel seeing an alien figure in an otherwise fairly accurate model toy depicting the craft their loved one was lost in? If you think this is a brilliant marketing ploy, wait until veterans groups get a hold of this.
Compassion is something that can't be taught, so if the inappropriateness can't be seen by some, it never will.

It shouldn't be incumbent upon the consumer to have to decide whether to chuck-or-tuck that alien figure. If YOU want that figure, YOU get off your butt and BUY it loose. A serious buyer shouldn't have to put up with tacky and inappropriate jokes. Especially in a subject as sensitive as this particular flight.

Again, if you don't see the impropriety, then you never will.

[pilotman]

I can certainly appreciate your point, but today is thanks giving and I'm not going pick hairs over toys. Enjoy your turkey.

[aferguson]

Again, if you don't see the impropriety, then you never will.

Well, then i guess i never will. But i guess i can understand a bit better why people who were in the Holocaust or had relatives who died in it get upset when they see 'toy' german soldiers sitting on a store's shelf.

I think we can safely say that we should all agree to disagree on this 'alien figure pack in' point.

[digger]

If you think this is a brilliant marketing ploy, wait until veterans groups get a hold of this.

Were they up in arms about the movie made decades ago? But now they will be? I'm not saying it's brilliant marketing but....

I think we can safely say that we should all agree to disagree on this 'alien figure pack in' point.

[tmanthegreat]

I just watched "Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind" on AMC today - the beginning of that film makes me want a Flight 19 Avenger even more, although the aircraft in the film sported the Pacific tri-color scheme!

Something about making some sort of creepy dio with a US pilot standing in front of his plane peacefully greeting an alien is now starting to sound cool...

[Teamski]

Well, they could package the Close Encounters DVD in with the plane.....

-Ski

[CW4USARMY]

Hey TKO211, Can you give us the scoop as to whether or not this alien pack-in with the Avenger is actually happening? It seems 21st would let you know, right:?:

Thanks!,

Andy

[KAGNEW]

i would rather have rear gunner then an alien.
alien wouldn't look good on rear 50 cal. shooting at my BBi Zero coming up on his tail

[tko211]

Well AREA-21 should say it all... We can't confirm nor deny the existance of an alien pack in for flight 19.

I have to back to my weather balloon.