Small Scale Military Headquarters

Is AT really out of business or is everyone speculating?

Jason has stated that he will keep us updated and that he will be quiet on the production and developments on their products. Especially with the competition of others. JSI is more or less an offshoot of 21C. I would be quiet too unless I had a great working relationship with them.

well, no phone number and not returning emails is certainly a sign that they are out of business. If not, it's a completely unprofessional way to do business, so i think they're gone.

Jason's post on May 28 about the 1/18 Mosquito said Admiral was working on the Mosquito and had been aware that it was Roy's favorite plane. Apparently, 21st Century was planning on a 1/18 Mosquito, but after it's demise, Admiral chose to release a Mosquito.
Jason added that he couldn't say anymore about the Mosquito until the future, but Admiral was in negotiations with several other companies.

Strictly speculation on my part, but this may imply that Admiral is/was in negotiations with 21st to buy its Mosquito project (mold, blueprints, prototype, etc.).

i don't think 21c had a mosquito project. It was something they were considering but that's as far as it got. It was less of a reality than their b-25.

I think it's time to face facts gang. AT is gone. Don't you think Jason would have posted here, or at least on the other forum by now, with all this speculation of their demise going on, to reassure their valuable customer base?

No phone, no email.....they're gone.

Anyone in Houston wanna take a drive over to AT's office?

I thought for sure we'd see the Dauntless with all of the pics we were shown plus the tweaks Jason spoke of Was also hopeful of the Skyraider since we were shown pics of the prototype and especially because I thought Jason had said his father had flown one in Vietnam (or something like that.)

I hope Tkjaer21 is correct. Hopefully, Admiral is still alive and quietly working on their own 1/18 projects---especially since JSI has revived 1/18.

Unfortunately, that picture is as close as we'll ever come to getting a Mosquito from AT.

BTW, how do we know it's 1/18?

it's not.......i think it's the tamiya 1/48 model.

Didn't you think it's kind of strange that in all the years the dauntlass and skyraider have supposedly been under development we didn't see any fully painted mock ups of it, yet out of the blue we have a stunning, fully finished mosquito prototype?..which would be huge....it was clearly a small scale model being shown.

Well, of course it was strange. They didn't even have a mockup of their El Diablo F-86 repaint (which should have been fairly easy to do). The thing is I built the Tamiya 1/48 scale kit way back when and all along I was thinking that the landing gear bears a striking resemblance to the Tamiya kit, but then again mine was the bomber version with the plexiglas nose (no side hatch opening in the fuselage).

I'm more then a bit disappointed with Admiral. I had talked to Jason about helping to sell their products here in the NorthWest to hobby shops and the many military bases. I talked to a lot of people about their products and the new stuff to come, and had harvested some interest from them.

Now all there is to show for it is silence. I had to explain to these same folks why they haven't heard anything more from Admiral so I've lost some of my credibility and of course I get a lot of ribbing for it from my friends but I can live with that.

I wonder why Jason just doesn't stop in and give us a definitive yes or no. Who knows, maybe there's some legal issues at hand that are preventing him from commenting. I still have a 2 Dauntless order paid for at MTS that will likely go towards some JSI offerings soon. I mean it's closing in on something like 3 years isn't it?

Well, Jason did post on this board and he did at one time respond to our PMs. Therefore, assuming he still uses that same email address, we could each PM him several times and fill his inbox up with those PM notifications. Perhaps he might take notice...

Then again, he probably switched his email or sends all our PMs to the spam box.

While all this news sounds bad I don't think AT is out of business just yet lets just keep hoping. I am sure sooner or latter we will hear from them.

tmanthegreat wrote:Admiral's demise is of no surprise to me. It was a small company making very specialized products for a niche market that was oversaturated, all during an economic downturn. If 21c could not escape the current economic situation, then Admiral most certainly could not.

You called it exactly right. However, I would guess that Admiral might (read: might) not be in any kind of disastrous financial situation. Perhaps they have just decided to close up shop temporarily and take a hiatus to wait for the marketplace to sort out the product glut as well as the consumer attitude that product is plentiful / wait around buy it on clearance / etc. Sometimes it is just more appropriate to hold off for awhile and wait for economic and consumer sentiments to change.

Airacobra wrote:I wonder why Jason just doesn't stop in and give us a definitive yes or no. Who knows, maybe there's some legal issues at hand that are preventing him from commenting. I still have a 2 Dauntless order paid for at MTS that will likely go towards some JSI offerings soon. I mean it's closing in on something like 3 years isn't it?

It could be anything ... personal life, other interests, ...

I preordered the Hartmann today from HistoricAviation. I hope that Admiral toys comes back.

I do not think anybody should harass Jason though. If new stuff comes out, great. If not, he brought us some great toys.

I know that admiral toys are still around because they have stuff listed on eBay. My hopes are that they would surface and let us know their future.

Aviatornut.com wrote:I know that admiral toys are still around because they have stuff listed on eBay. My hopes are that they would surface and let us know their future.

Hopefully they are still around to a point where they can still release aircraft. I would rather keep my Dauntless order instead of picking up the JSI releases. It would just be nice to know is all.

I know it's been a while since I have posted here on SSHQ (spending all my free time on the motorcycle, and with very little of interest to me showing up in the 1/18th world...), but I don't think it's time to rule Admiral out completely. I do know that they were working on several non-toy projects that were intended to provide funding and more reliable income that could also help support R&D for their aircraft/armor projects.
With the general economy sucking it as much as it does, and Admiral's somewhat limited distribution network, releasing a plane would be a huge gamble. Add in that getting a business loan is harder than ever, they may be just laying low with all projects on hold until things turn around.

I do hope that they make a comeback to the marketplace, because they represented the best chance for some real variety in the 1/18th marketplace.

Raising hype and promotional releases about new planes etc... then running off to do other things not related to what they just promoted doesn't make too much marketing sense, unless the sole reason was a deperate move to secure more funding for the projects all ready in the works.

DH

I was under the assumption that the pre-orders for the Dauntless were going well. I know I had two on order then canceled them only when we heard nothing further from Jason. I hope they really are in hibernation rather then out of business. Still, I don't think it would be that inconvenient for someone from Admiral just to pop up here and say, "We're still here!" Speaking of MIA, I wonder what ever happened to Mike from BBI? He must have gotten fired as well.

I hope we can get someone from JSI to give us updates on here.

I think we could still see this plane when the economy gets better. Too big a risk with the economy as it is. But patience will be a virtue because with almost 10% unemployment I can't imagine the market being very receptive at this time.

I guess we will see how the JSI F-14 sells.
T

I spoke to someone affiliated with Admiral this weekend at the Wings Over Houston Show and Admiral Toys is still around but they are waiting to produce planes until the economy improves. They are waiting for financing for some of their models so the timeframe is indefinite-so hang on and perhaps we will see something next year.
Todd

Well, at least there is still hope then. The question remains, how long do I hold on to that Dauntless order..........