Small Scale Military Headquarters

Please Tell Wal-mart to make the F-4, mig-21, b-25, me-110 and the de Havilland Mosquito in 1/18th by Made by 21st Century toys

Also tell them you would like to see the me-262A and the me-262 night fighter to be sold there as well as the other line up of 1/18th items tanks and flak guns as well
and then they will forward them up to the merchandise team.



Phone: 479-273-4000 and ask for the "priority assistance"
They will then forward the request up to the merchandise team.

Lets get a calling. send this number to all of the 1/18th guys you know that don't post.

if you have a better number lets try that....

This is operation 1/18th Bigbird!!!!!!!!!!

Alright Jerry Lewis!

Lets show Wal-Mart we want our 1/18 XD toys sold there.

VMF115 wrote:Please Tell Wal-mart to make the F-4, mig-21, b-25, me-110 and the de Havilland Mosquito in 1/18th by Made by 21st Century toys

Also tell them you would like to see the me-262A and the me-262 night fighter to be sold there as well as the other line up of 1/18th items tanks and flak guns as well
and then they will forward them up to the merchandise team.



Phone: 479-273-4000 and ask for the "priority assistance"
They will then forward the request up to the merchandise team.

Lets get a calling. send this number to all of the 1/18th guys you know that don't post.

if you have a better number lets try that....

This is operation 1/18th Bigbird!!!!!!!!!!

Here is the direct number to the toy buyer for action figures.

1-479-273-6297

Ray

I tried the number, but it's busy.

Be sure to tell Walmart we'd actually buy them at the retail price, instead of letting these toys collect dust and waste shelf space, while some of us wait for them to go on clearance.

Well, I managed to get through. The guy asked me if it was planned in either a WWF or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle scheme, since that is where the money is at. When I said no, he asked about a Dub City or OCC version with lots of chrome. So it's not looking good...

The idea here is to flood them with calls about 21st 1/18 aircraft and armor, to give them an idea that these items are important.

WE 21st XD collectors will not go quietly in to the night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What we really WANT is TO GO SHOPING AT WM in the middle of the night to get our XD.

What’s wrong with this picture????


There is no XD in the shopping cart .

Greetings:

I have to say I personally feel this is not the best idea in the world in terms of getting 1/18 aircraft in the stores. I highly doubt Walmart wants a bunch of us calling that number and telling them the same thing, instead of helping us, in the long run they are just more likely to be annoyed and not help us at all.

A better solution might be to talk to the managers in the stores and toy departments directly, because as far as I understand it, they have a major say as to what comes into the store. Drop the hint in a sublte way such as "I really miss those big aircraft you used to stock, when are they coming back" This would at least show the toy managers in the store we are interested and will buy the product.

An even better solution is to support these aircraft being in Toys R Us. It is so much nicer there and it's actually nice to go into a store and see the aircraft not destroyed by the destructive nature of Walmart distrbution. I think in the long run for the betterment of this hobby, TRU is a more liable option. They seem to be getting back to their roots in carrying speciality items that cater more to true toy nuts.

After being in many Walmarts and seeing their various customer service tactics, long register lines and general disregard for what people really want, I've come to the conclusion they really don't care what their customers say. They simply rely on their ablitly to sell things cheaper to draw their customers in.

Corey

Corey sometimes a squeaky hinge get more attention, I say contact the manger at your local WM and the corporate headquaters.

Now I'm certifiably confused!! It wasn't that long ago we lamented that Wally World was carrying this stuff.

Does anyone know for sure that Walmart no longer carries 1/18th scale stuff? I mean I no longer see it in the stores here. I was wondering, if they are going to stop with 21st Century all together, or just the 18th scale models?

If I have been following the development of this story correctly; here is my understanding. By calling the big chain stores and letting them know that there is demand for the product, the word will work it's way to the manufacturers. When the manufactors hear from the large retailers that there is demand for the product (1/18 items) then the manufactorer will hopefully satisfy that demand and produce more/new items (1/18 stuff). It was said in one of the threads that the slow down of 1/18 items was due to the big stores not wanting to carry it. Calling the chain stores to show consumer demand will hopefully fuel the development and production of what we want.

Likewise when you go to places other than WM (such as TRU now that they are gearing up to carry 1/18 item), make sure the department/store managers know that the reitroduction of products in their stores is well received by the consumer.

Basically, the stores are best information the pipeline to the manufacturers for letting our desires be known. It's very much appreciated here to have representatives from all of the manufacturers on the board with us (we are greatfull for their information and for their listening to us), but in the end the stores that pay the manufactorers for their products are utlimately the ones the manufactors will listen to.

Hopefully this is a correct summary.

As best I can tell, and based on what several others have observed, it looks like WM is no longer carrying 1/18 aircraft or armor--just figures. However, some of this may also be due to a lack of product to ship to stores. 21st always had a knack for either supplying nothing at all to WM, or flooding them. With TRU in the mix, WM may have opted not to carry the stuff, at least armor, if they can't provide at least certain quantity on a consistent basis. For A/C, there hasn't been anything new since early last year (I don't count the 262 variants, because they apparently are on-line only), so maybe WM is avoiding AC until something new is released--I still sometimes see F-86s, P-40, and P-51s sitting around that won't sell at $25 because the WM market is saturated.

Sabrefan wrote:Does anyone know for sure that Walmart no longer carries 1/18th scale stuff? I mean I no longer see it in the stores here. I was wondering, if they are going to stop with 21st Century all together, or just the 18th scale models?

First off, I went to WM this week and again this morning and asked the WM assistant manager IF he could order more 1/18th aircraft, he checked the system and found nothing, also that it was probably deleted from the system. Told me the sales of 1/18th XD where mediocre at this store.

Earlier this week he suggested that I should contact WM "priority assistance" and ask for a request, if enough request where put forward, then an item might be brought back into WM systems, it appears other people have done this in the past with other items.

The problem with asking the store’s managers is if you ask them you are hoping that they will forward the request up to the corporate office, while this does happen it also does not happen, as well some times WM mart store managers don’t care at all. You are taking a crap shoot when asking one of the store managers. doing both will not hurt.

Sabrefan wrote:Does anyone know for sure that Walmart no longer carries 1/18th scale stuff? I mean I no longer see it in the stores here. I was wondering, if they are going to stop with 21st Century all together, or just the 18th scale models?

I believe they are still carrying 1/18th figures "I got my platoon figures there", but since there is a large enough consensus in the other threads that their WM did not carry any new 1/18th aircraft I thought I would find out this week for myself, and ask them for myself.

From what the WM manager said: they did not carry anything new in 1/18 vehicles and aircraft, and for the time being will not. They could change their mind down the road.

Now I am not expecting that the toy buyer will suddenly drop what they are doing and call 21st century toy to place a huge order. That would be cool. But being realistically I hope they will keep in mind that there are people out their that do like these products being made available at their locale WM . And maybe they will reconsider to order more, down the road. Maybe some new stuff, finger crossed.

I thought I could try to do something for all of us and help out.

Huh...so we should call Wal Mart and tell them to carry things that's not even made yet?

Won't that just make them go, WTF are you smoking?

I know 21st points the finger at Wally World and puts all the blame on them and most of us blindly agrees with them....

But come on now.

The reason why 21st won't make/prioritize these planes is simple. They are concentrating on the smaller scale now.

It happened with the 1/6 scale too. 21st virtually gave up on the 1/6 scale and concentrated their resources in 1/18th. That doesn't mean they gave up on 1/6 though...they just producing fewer and fewer things.

And why do we even want these highly detailed (and breakable) planes at WalMart? As someone said previously, we bitch and moan how the 1/18 stuff in walmart are abused, hard to find, etc...

If you think the reason 21C won't make the F-4 has to do more with the smaller scales than with not having a company willing to commit to 10 thousand pieces then you are kidding yourself, sorry.

As for 1/6, 21C just makes weapons now, not "fewer and fewer things." I think 21C started the realistic 1/6 trend and then Dragon, BBI, Hot Toyz, DiD and others pursued it and basically forced 21C out. Now we may be seeing the same with 1/18. Only Dragon couldn't hang in 1:18, but AT, bbi and FoV have all shown us great stuff.

Also 1/32, with FOV first and now bbi. Fortunately for the 32x guys 1/32 seems to be more alive than ever for 21C. We can't deny 21C knows which battles to pick, when to emulate (1/144) and when to pioneer (1/6, 1/18, 1/32).

Only God knows how this stuff goes down, but for a while CNN was doing a two hour news series called "Day in the life of..." where they would spend time with major US companies from front line employees to CEOs. I only saw two, one on American Airlines and the other on WM.

They spent some time on the WM supply chain, focusing on one couple who was trying to sell some cheesy plastic back of the door Christmas card holder. Quarterly WM corporate purchasing will take over a large hotel, set up shop and let the suppliers grovel. This couple made their pitch which WM agreed to in theory but wanted them to hit a certain price point.

This couple had sunk their life savings into bringing this idea into production in China and after months of negotiating, WM said they would buy some huge amount of them. The show left off with the couple hoping they could make the numbers work out. If they could, WM would buy. If not...NEXT!

If this is how all WM purchasing works, 21C may come in with their product to have WM say yes at $X.XX price or a flat out NO. Only Roy could tell us for sure. Of course, 21C can always make their pitch quarterly.

Hope this insight helps.

Greetings:

I was thinking about this today a little bit and I must say I honestly think that maybe 21st can put the blame partially on themselves for what has happened. I know that won't be a popular opinion here but it's a thought worth considering.

Walmart couldn't move the planes it needed to so they aren't carrying them, but look how many repaints 21st came out with of certain planes, they were endless. Every time you buy a repaint, you possibly have less room and less dollar to buy a new aircraft. Now I know there are some that buy them all and have lots of room, which is terrific. However the majority of the public even if they are very interested in these planes are not fanatics, they are happy with one or possibly two schemes of each plane.

That is kind of the way I look at it. I have a Donald Duck P-51 and an NKK Spitfire and am happy with both of those airplanes. They look good and I honestly do not need another one to set around, I'd rather have variety.

Perhaps 21st overdid it with the repaints a little bit, people bought so many P-51's that they didn't have room for more. Or they shipped three versions of the Sabre to Walmart with no MIG-15. It's a thought to consider. It is also obivious that certain schemes either had larger runs or no one wanted them. I have see over 50 MIG-15 camo versions here but no Russian one (the one I want). I never saw a Spitfire, 109, Stuka or 190 here. The F-104 has only been spotted in the lavin scheme. This says a lot.

Between the Walmart disrbution system and 21st's repaints galore ideas, both companies may have killed an idea that may have done a lot better had both just used their heads.

Corey

digger wrote:If you think the reason 21C won't make the F-4 has to do more with the smaller scales than with not having a company willing to commit to 10 thousand pieces then you are kidding yourself, sorry.

As for 1/6, 21C just makes weapons now, not "fewer and fewer things." I think 21C started the realistic 1/6 trend and then Dragon, BBI, Hot Toyz, DiD and others pursued it and basically forced 21C out. Now we may be seeing the same with 1/18. Only Dragon couldn't hang in 1:18, but AT, bbi and FoV have all shown us great stuff.

Also 1/32, with FOV first and now bbi. Fortunately for the 32x guys 1/32 seems to be more alive than ever for 21C. We can't deny 21C knows which battles to pick, when to emulate (1/144) and when to pioneer (1/6, 1/18, 1/32).

No, I just think that 21st is bad when it comes to competition. It's like they don't know how to deal with it. The F4 fiasco showed us just how bad.

I mean...I know some people think that the reason why 21st now has a "no-talk" policy is because we kept bitching about the delays and stuff....but of course its not because of the nice thing they tried to do to AT...no...of course not. Because yeah..Roy was really hurt that when we said mean things about the delays...and not because the 1/18th arena just got ruthless between certain companies....which was instigated by 21st. No...of course not.:rolleyes:

I'm just going by history here. You're right. 21st did pioneer a lot of stuff back in the 1/6th world back then. But once they saw some little competition, 21st caved in and virtually ran away and retreated to the 1/18th scale.

I mean...come on. They left the 1/6 scale when it was at the peak of its popularity. And yes....isn't the fact that they only makes weapon sets now in 1/6th scale shows you that they make fewer and fewer things in that scale? I mean...they used to make full figure sets, vehicles, accessory/weapon sets, etc...

So yep. History. Let's see....

21st made lotsa cool stuff in 1/6th, making it popular. / 21st made lotsa cool stuff in 1/18th, making it popular.

check.

21st gets some competition in the 1/6th market due to its growing popularity. / 21st gets some competition in the 1/18th market due to its growing popularity.

check.

21st begins to make things in 1/18th and smaller scale, and begins to produce less and less stuff in 1/6th scale. / 21st begins to make things in 1/32nd and smaller scale, and begins to produce less and less stuff in 1/18th scale.

check.

See the pattern?

I'm behind you guys all the way! Now can you please move, you're blocking the shelf with all the 32x armor and aircraft on it!
*Run away!!!

Rowsdower wrote:I'm behind you guys all the way! Now can you please move, you're blocking the shelf with all the 32x armor and aircraft on it!
*Run away!!!

Yes...you laugh now....but wait till 21st abandons the 1/32 for the 1/48th scale!!!!

I know deep down inside...you fear that.

GooglyDoogly wrote:Yes...you laugh now....but wait till 21st abandons the 1/32 for the 1/48th scale!!!!

I know deep down inside...you fear that.

Ugh.. Those tiny tanks give me the creeps! Now I'm gonna have nightmares!