Small Scale Military Headquarters

From Badcat's blog:


Forces of Valor Announces 1:18 Line

Ah . . . nature hates a vacuum . . .

With the death of 21st Century, you just knew others would step-in to fill the void. Following on the footsteps of JSI, Forces of Valor is entering the fray this October. Their Bravo Team line once sold exclusively by Target on a hit or miss basis will now be available to online retailers. Target will still stock modern 1:18 subjects but all WWII tanks and figures will be out of the big box stores and into cyber-retail.

Our first shipment of these competively priced pieces will be the Sherman Tank up for Preorder now at just $34.99! Paired with the Sherm is a Tiger I, due in at the same time priced at $39.99. Twelve new action figures (Six USA and Six German) will also be coming with this container.

Oh yeah I am liking these prices better and its good that JSI will have someone to compete against.

75% price increase on the sherman over the Target price. Tiger only went up 33%. Hopefully at least they will be new schemes, but i doubt it. At least the line is still rolling, that's what counts.

Sounds like the Bravo Team Tiger will get a little easier to find. That should be good for some collectors. I may have to pick one up again as I sold my previous tank. Not much need for the figures anymore as I've got plenty.

I just got a FOV Sherman at Target on Clearance for $10.

$35 plus shipping? No thanks!

inflation and low production numbers are the reason for the price increase.
It the FOV WWII armor had more features might be worth it.
This will be a tough sell for the die hard collector.

For Unamax to thrive in the 1/18th world they need to bring the level of detail and features up to acceptable levels that collectors expect/demand or they/we will lose interest in the scale.

granted, it will be a tough balancing act to do.

well, we're going through a period of deflation, so that's not an excuse for a price hike (and i'm really getting tired of it being used as one). Many price hikes are just because people got used to prices spiking when oil was so high, and many retailers/manufacturers are still trying to ride that wave...and it's going to bite them all in the a$$. Same goes for high shipping costs.....no justification for it by UPS, USPS etc.

The price hike of these bravo team items is because etailers are paying more to unimax per piece than Target did and are charging higher mark ups than Target did. Badcat has never been known for low prices, so i expect to see them elsewhere for less.

Unimax are going to need to make these a bit less toy like, if they want people to buy them at these prices. These are approaching the older XD prices of a couple years ago but the quality and detail is not on par.

aferguson wrote:
Unimax are going to need to make these a bit less toy like, if they want people to buy them at these prices. These are approaching the older XD prices of a couple years ago but the quality and detail is not on par.

I agree....

Well I for one never saw the FOV Tiger at retail and I welcome any Tiger for under $60. Can a board member that has one of these post some up close pics??

Most definetly probably repaint these Tigers just depends though...for some reason I am stuck on gray German armor.

the nice thing about the FOV tiger is that i has zimmerit. Only german 1/18 tank that does. Painting it grey would be wrong however, as the 3 colour system was in place before zimmerit came into use.

the price is much nicer if the quality is ok.
that was my point with JSI using existing molds but doubling the wholesale price from 21C. it just didnt sit well with me and still doesnt. i think they may start to rethink thier prices once we see the FOV 1/18.
atleast i hope so

aferguson wrote:the nice thing about the FOV tiger is that i has zimmerit. Only german 1/18 tank that does. Painting it grey would be wrong however, as the 3 colour system was in place before zimmerit came into use.

Cool I thought the pic in the database looked like it had zimmermit on it. I guess maybe a paint job to match the Series 1 Panther may be passable??

new figures? Can we get confirm on that?

Cranedriver, here are some 1/18 Bravo Tiger 1 shots...with some detailing

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/3494/picture189gz8.jpg

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/9586/picture194hp4.jpg

http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/2679/picture195xm6.jpg

Digger I saw that too.........12 new figures-6 U.S. and 6 German. Hope they are "New".

i suspect they are the same wwii fov germans and us figures.

6 figure type 2 each
case of twelve
item 73200 U.S.
item73300 German

type 2? Does that mean a new assortment of wwii or were the modern type 1?

I've got a Gerhardt Spiegel unopened what do the #'s above the bar code mean?.....Asst. 73000 No.73207

i just talked to Panache, they arent sure yet if the figures will be new or not. they dont even have all the info yet.

I'd pick some of these up if they were repaints. I have more than enough of the original releases to hold me over.

Yoxford,
Your Tiger is a beauty, It's ashame FOV never released it in the Tri-color.

If I recall, wasn't there a problem with the number of road wheels on the FOV? I have one but never gave it a close going over. I do know the solid engine cover grilles didn't look very good. Half the price of the 21st but IMO half the quality even if I have given it only a brief once over. You are getting what you pay for in this case. And I have never been into the zimmerit thing like a lot of members are. But, if you are not flush, which a lot of us aren't in this economic climate, its a good way to get a Tiger.

Badcat photo of FOV 1/18 Tiger ($39.99):

Speaking of FOV 1:18 tanks, I got the Abrams. Nice tank, however, the tracks don't "roll" very easily. Anyone else notice this? You can make them roll if you push down on the body real hard. Am I missing something?

It would be nice to get the Tiger
last one I bid on went for over 200
and the sherman would be nice too
I would like to do a USMC IWO Sherman and the 21c one is incorrect for IWO