Small Scale Military Headquarters

OK, so there at the end 21st Century sporadically released some figures. This is my recollection of how it went:

A) There were four 2-packs released. Three were WW2-era, and one was Vietnam. These showed up briefly at some Wal-marts.

B) Three more figures showed up in some quantity at Toys R Us and Wal-mart, and these were later offered in solid packs to speciality retailers. They were Pvt. Bruno Bauer (10588), Lt. Karl-Peter Erdmann (10587), and Pvt. Gustav Modelnhauer (10586).

C) Now, this is where it gets tricky. Very briefly and extremely sporadically, some sort of final wave showed up in some Wal-marts. I have the following figures:

Cpl. Chuck "Bullseye" Betz (10589)
Pvt. Kurt Schroeder (10636)
Pvt. Dwight "Farmboy" Wilson (10637)

Judging from these part #'s there may have been several more figures released. Does anyone have a complete list and know that they were released/have them?

I also originally thought that meant there were other figures in the line not offered, but it's not, I made a list myself and it turned up like this:

Part No. 10581 Vietnam 173rd AB - Lt. Benjamin "Six Pack" Reyes
Part No. 10582 Vietnam 173rd AB - Sgt. Zachary "Mustang" Sharples
Part No. 10583 Vietnam 173rd AB - Pvt. Mike "Bonehead" Good
Part No. 10584 Vietnam 173rd AB - Pvt. Clarence "Mojo" Jackson
Part No. 10585 Vietnam 173rd AB - Pvt. Joe "Dusty" D-Amato
Part No. 10586 DAK - Machine Gunner Pvt. Gustav Moldenhauer
Part No. 10587 DAK - Artillery Crewman - Lt. Karl-Peter Erdmann
Part No. 10588 Wehrmacht - Rifleman - Pvt. Bruno Bauer
Part No. 10589 D-Day - US Infantry Sniper - Cpl. Chuck "Bullseye" Betz

Two Packs:
Part No. 10590 Wehrmacht - WWII Infantry D-Day - Pvt. Johannes Sachsenberg & Cpl. Heinrich Wagner
Part No. 10591 D-Day - WWII German Rifleman - Cpl. Karl-Dietrich Hoffman & WWII Machine Gunner - Sgt. Michael "Frisco" Braun
Part No. 10592 DAK - Afrika Korps Infantry - Sgt. Hans-Gustav Neumann & Cpl. Jurgen Schmidt
Part No. 10593 Vietnam - 173rd AB Brigade - Pvt. Chris "Gonzo" Gansz & Lt. John "Bulldog" Goodson


So it turns out that the various figure lines merge with one another, the Vietnam 173rd AB series, DAK series, Wehrmacht series, D-Day series, and the two packs form a continous numbering system.
Interestingly, the full number for the two packs differ from the single ones, the two packs' numbers are "#3874810491", "Item No. 10491", whereas the single ones are "#3874810490", "Item No. 10490".
Only Pvt. Kurt Schroder and Pvt. Dwight "Farmboy" Wilson numbering seem to be off in the periphery along with the Platoon series, I can't find them connecting with the other figures' numbers.

Never saw most of these but the ones I did see had horrendous skin coloration. I think they ran out of flesh tone paint towards the end but they had a bunch of red on the shelf so they went with that.

Nah, it's just a battle-scarred look.

The worst part is the DAK guys (even the last batch) look paler than the European theater figures with the radioactive tan.

Anyway, with such a good distribution "strategy" (if it can be called that), is it any wonder they went belly up? (Actually, what it's rather surprising is that it took them so long to run the company to the ground. Just at a time when they were supposedly catering to collectors through specialty —i.e. online— retailers, these figures were only avialable at brick and mortar outlets. It figures. Not.)

On thing I don't quite understand is why they didn't release the D-Day and BoB figures in sets of solidly German or solidly American infantry (like they did with the Marines, both Americans and Japanese), instead of mixing them.

King O' Fools wrote:The worst part is the DAK guys (even the last batch) look paler than the European theater figures with the radioactive tan.

Heh, well I will have you know that 21st Century definitely got the message on those skin tones. Sales was discussing the response with me during a phone conversation one time.

King O' Fools wrote: Just at a time when they were supposedly catering to collectors through specialty —i.e. online— retailers, these figures were only avialable at brick and mortar outlets. It figures. Not.)

Generally 21st would ship figure assortments to big box retailers first, then their U.S. specialty distro warehouse would get them later. I actually had to bug them a lot to bring in that D-Day/DAK/Wermacht assortment. Those figures were in Wal-marts (sporadically) around four months before they ever bothered to follow-up with specialty. Obviously wasn't a priority. Then, China shipped them all over here without any of the assortments identified on the cases. What a cluster**** that must have been at the 21st warehouse!

Anyway, it's no surprise that those final figures never made it to specialty there at the end. Given their sporadic Wal-mart distro, then 21st's demise, there just wasn't time to follow through.

King O' Fools wrote: On thing I don't quite understand is why they didn't release the D-Day and BoB figures in sets of solidly German or solidly American infantry (like they did with the Marines, both Americans and Japanese), instead of mixing them.

Same reason they release assortments instead of solid-pack cases. To spread sales across all of the developed product, and avoid having the consumer (and subsequently the retailer) ordering more of one thing and less of another.

I bought the Vietnam figures there at the end. The last ones I ever saw.

They were all more red faced than the WWII figures.
If you put them next to the other ones they are really pink skinned.

Glad I got a few just in case JSI releases a Huey.

The dual packs never made it to this part of the country. The only one I got was in a trade, German Inf. Sachsenberg und Wagner. Pt # 10590.
As far as DAK guys go, the Erdmann fig (artillery crewman) was most common in my AO.
There were plenty of Vietnam figs around for the longest time. Oh well it's history now.......unless someones got the molds and re releases them and hopefully not at $10.00 a figure.