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Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 10:09 am
by King O' Fools
heiss66 wrote: Not only is JSI ripping off 21st Century Toys they're ripping off every USA aircraft company of the royalities they are required to pay.
As long as they're not selling fake 1:1 airplane parts, I don't think aircraft companies (wether based in the USA or not) should be profiting from the looks of their aircraft design some seventy
years after the fact. They didn't make those planes that way "because they looked good" (which seems to me to be the main reason collectors buy them—i.e. out of aesthetic preference). Why should they be entitled to milk the exploits of, let's say, Alexander Vraciu for their own corporate benefit? Or do we also have to pay Vraciu? The DoD too, maybe? Where does it stop? With the tire manufacturer?
What next—the RAF leeching off its markings? Oh wait!
This is corporate greed, pure and simple.
Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 10:32 am
by tmanthegreat
Jesse James wrote:Perhaps there will be a West Side Story-esque brawl between company CEO's at Toy Fair?
Yes, I can see the old 21c staff now at All Go raiding the JSI booth and taking back their old toolings in a sort of "We're taking our property back" fashion
But they would leave the spotty F-14
Posted: Fri Feb 12, 2010 3:50 pm
by CW4USARMY
Any intel yet? Was someone here in our forums going?
Posted: Fri Feb 12, 2010 6:13 pm
by Dauntless
I hope someone interested in military toys posts some pics or it's going to be quite a search on the internet wading through the super heroes and Star Wars stuff etc. just to find them.
I'd go if I could (if I was a dealer) Maybe some high falutin' military toys online retail store will send someone, and treat us to some pictures if any.
Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2010 6:49 am
by CENT-ONE
did I mention that I hate hate hate exclusive figures, especially when they're something I really really really want.
http://i.marvelousnews.com/g/index.php? ... 0&start=20
Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2010 9:07 am
by CW4USARMY
Man, that WWII Cap is awesome! Will have to resort to ebay for that one
Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2010 12:17 pm
by MCalamari
King O' Fools wrote:Where does it stop? With the tire manufacturer?
What next—the RAF leeching off its markings? Oh wait!
This is corporate greed, pure and simple.
I agree, 100%.
If it was a full-scale working plane ... well that would be another matter.
-M
Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2010 8:45 pm
by hworth18
heiss66 wrote:Interesting cover story put out by JSI regarding factories who have not been paid by their clients are authorized to use their clients property. Property belonging to another company is not open chattle. So it is not true. No factory can simply take over another companies property, owed money or not. It's a simple matter of security interest. In this case there was no security interest by the socalled JSI.
The story I hear is they were paid and with the demise of 21st Century Toys they took advantage of an opening/opportunity in the market. This same factory we'll call them "JSI light" are well known in the toy world as back door retailers. Every company that has OEM contracts with then within two years has left due to irregular production, quality, back door sales, truck loads of the newest items showing up in Hong Kong stores. Shanghi ebay sales.
Ask Mattel, Mcfarland, Toybiz and many smaller firms.
As for the F14 do you honestly believe this company could bring a beast like the F14 to market in 7 months. Impossible!
The only way this is possible is if BBI were well into the tooling and either turned it over to JSI to finish or partnered up with them.
The funny thing about all this nonsense with JSI is their logo is strikeingly simular to the BBI logo proposed several years ago.
To build an F14 from scratch takes a great deal of resources. Not only money, talent, sculptors, designers, packaging people. Not the sort of project a company can pull together within 7 months.
My hunch is the resources behind JSI is BBI... Who else?
Don't you find it interesting that Merit International is the JSI exclusive distributor, were they not the BBI exclusive distributor?
Way too much smoke, for there not to be fire.
My take, If BBI is behind JSI. You can bet after the spotted cat disaster the old man will cut number two from number two out of the military side of the business.
You be the judge!
It is a fact that 21st is out of business and JSI took possession of certain 21st century molds. However this came about is anyone's speculation, but the fact that 21st is out of business only confirms that JSI is legitimate in their production. And who cares about the BBI/JSI/Merit link? I don't.
I am looking forward to seeing new product not only from JSI/Merit, but from All-go and from Diamond Select/ Art Asylum.
Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2010 8:50 pm
by Jericoeagle1
Toy Fair started today so any news huh huh huh???? Inquiring minds like mine want to know.
Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2010 9:37 pm
by MCalamari
Though this is the 1:18 forum, in addition to seeing a few new 1:18 releases, I'm hoping that the FoV naval line continues and that whoever had the US WWII ships (Intrepid, Missouri, Arizona, Indianapolis, Hornet, and one other ship) would make some more as well.
Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2010 10:51 pm
by Black_Dragon_One
Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2010 6:21 am
by ostketten
I am looking forward to seeing new product not only from JSI/Merit
I know you were not too impressed with the Merit 1/24 Me-109's Harry, but the P-51's were pretty nice IMO and I would love to see Merit do some P-47's in this scale, they would be awesome, especially if based on the Trumpeter kits which the Merit P-51's apparently are.
Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2010 6:46 am
by Dauntless
Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2010 9:08 am
by hworth18
Thanks Dauntless! I knew someone would get a pic! Better save it to your harddrive though because I don't know how long it will stay up (notice the little card that says "NO PHOTOS" under the BoP? ).
Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2010 9:09 am
by hworth18
ostketten wrote:I am looking forward to seeing new product not only from JSI/Merit
I know you were not too impressed with the Merit 1/24 Me-109's Harry, but the P-51's were pretty nice IMO and I would love to see Merit do some P-47's in this scale, they would be awesome, especially if based on the Trumpeter kits which the Merit P-51's apparently are.
I am betting that since these were clearanced off with ridiculous prices, we probably won't see any more of them in the future.
Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 5:37 pm
by Jesse James
OK, sooooo....
I'm back from Toy Fair, and there wasn't much to say. Unimax and Merrit were both there. Unimax had lots of things out they already have had on the market. They had their 1:24 RC tanks on hand to demonstrate, but nothing new 1:18 or 1:16 really.
I talked with them, and WW2 sounded dead in the water as far as figures are concerned, and modern would continue with future waves, but no information otherwise was given.
Merrit (aka BBI, and now also aka JSI) had the spotted tomcat on display... That was it, and who I spoke with didn't seem too sure on more coming out soon, but said they're hoping to put out the flight crews, pilots, and AC Deck vehicles soon. They said balancing cost/price with those has been difficult, especially the flight deck stuff.
Basically JSI/BBI are one and the same at this point it seemed, all under the larger corporate banner.
Schleich was there but nothing new was on display... Mostly the same ole same ole we've already seen, known about, or which all bought years ago.
Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 8:16 pm
by Stug45
Jesse James wrote:Unimax had lots of things out they already have had on the market. They had their 1:24 RC tanks on hand to demonstrate, but nothing new 1:18 or 1:16 really.I talked with them, and WW2 sounded dead in the water as far as figures are concerned,
I can't believe Unimax gave up on the ww2 line
Lets hope ALL-GO comes through with new ww2 figures & vehicles
Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 8:46 pm
by aferguson
agreed......the ww2 stuff seemed to sell out everywhere it was stocked...better than the modern stuff.
No surprise about JSI and BBI...i figured they were associated somehow.
Posted: Tue Feb 16, 2010 9:02 pm
by Jericoeagle1
Sad to say it looks like its going to be another drought year.
Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 2:04 am
by Jesse James
I wouldn't say Unimax "gave up" on it, just that they said there weren't immediate plans for new figures for WW2. The conversation was very forced. They seemed to want to push very specific things and talk less about others, which in and of itself doesn't bode well, but they didn't say 1:18 WW2 was dead, it just wasn't going to change soon.
Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 6:28 pm
by Jesse James
Oh!
I forgot to mention I did talk with the company doing the A-Team stuff, and the prototypes were really nice. I was able to look stuff over really close. They had all 4 main characters and the van...
No pictures allowed as they're not finalized, but they're working with Gentle Giant to do real-scanning of the actor's heads and things, to aid the sculpting process.
I thought htey looked good and I'm excited for final product images eventually. I saw 2-packs and singles.
Wish I could've snapped some pics, but it was just a no-no. Very nice company reps to talk to though, and very knowledgeable.
Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 5:54 am
by CW4USARMY
Jesse James wrote:Oh!
I forgot to mention I did talk with the company doing the A-Team stuff, and the prototypes were really nice. I was able to look stuff over really close. They had all 4 main characters and the van...
No pictures allowed as they're not finalized, but they're working with Gentle Giant to do real-scanning of the actor's heads and things, to aid the sculpting process.
I thought htey looked good and I'm excited for final product images eventually. I saw 2-packs and singles.
Wish I could've snapped some pics, but it was just a no-no. Very nice company reps to talk to though, and very knowledgeable.
Did the van look good in 1:18 scale? or was it pretty much toyish? The van would be cool if they do it right.
Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 2:31 pm
by Jesse James
It looked good to me, but I'm no A-Team Van Expert either...
But to me it looked great.
Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 2:39 pm
by CW4USARMY
Jesse James wrote:It looked good to me, but I'm no A-Team Van Expert either...
But to me it looked great.
