Small Scale Military Headquarters

Need to order stock for my web site. aside from the upcomming Avenger, What are the most recent sought after 21st C 1/18th Airplanes. My storage is Limted so I am only going to stock a few.

F-104s - many smaller retailers seem to be out of them! P-38s, Stukas and Corsairs also seem to sell OK. Spitfires may also work. P-47s, ME-109s (both types) and FW-190s tend to sit around, for whatever reason. Its hard to say what the new retooled P-51s will do (given the existing BBI versions) but the Avenger will be hot.

I base my observations on what I've observed at online stores as well as what my local Hobbytown store has in stock. At Hobbytown, for example, when they got the F-104s (and earlier Stukas & P-38s), those moved quickly, while they still have a very sizeable stock of Graff ME-109Gs, various ME-109Es and a bunch of "Black Cheveron" FW-190s. The 109Gs and FW-190s are coincidentlly some of the planes that sit on the shelves the longest at Wal Marts in my area.

I stocked 190s when they first came out. I thought they would be a hot item, It took me for ever to get rid of them. Im glad I only ordered a case of those. And my local WMs seem to have them collecting dust also.

I agree that the 190 doesn't seem to sell well. Here in the KC metro area, if a Walmart has any 1/18th planes, they are 190's. I have seen as many as nine in one store.

They all seem to have ages of dust, mangled boxes, and missing parts.

the 190s

another box that gets destroyed quick is the 104.

In all of my recent WM recons I have noticed that the F-104s, both German and US version, don't sit on the shelf for very long at all. They are usually gone after about 2 weeks. The 109s don't seem to move quite as quickly, but they seem to be going. There are still 190s that have been around for forever.

Funny to me that everyone above notes how the 190s sit around but we also have a thread, with at least one of the same participants, talking about how the 190A is a good idea.
I know they are different and the A model gets people excited but really, with the comments about the 190 in this thread we can't honestly expect companies to jump at another 1:18 190. Do we think the distinctions between the DORA and the Anton are what is keeping the 190s warming shelves across the country? Sorry to go OT but makes you wonder what is really a good idea, and what sounds like a good idea.

I think the big problems with the 190s at the walmarts in my area are as follows:
the usual shopper will buy one of these badboys.

My area is flooded with Walmarts as other metro areas are.
so basically if 30 190s are sold 30 will still be sitting.

I'd guess for every 4 1:18 planes I see at walmart - at least half of the boxes are damaged. I mean I always complain about them sitting the planes on the top shelf but it is because kids and teens like to put their fingers in the box and damage the canopy, steal the figure etc.

F-104'S move. .....Let the 190's sit. I only wanted Blue/Black 12 anyway,..which I got for $30.00 and "Candy-Cane" Red-3 for $25.00 at W-M, incidentally.

I say that the hottest 1/18th planes right now are the BBI Corsair, 21st Bunker Hill Corsair, BBI Zero's and BBI's P-51 Mustang series. These are hot until 21st releases the Avenger and their New Tool Mustangs which by the way the Mustangs are starting to trickle out to some Walmarts across the country. I have yet to see if 21st's Mustangs will match the BBI Mustangs but after seeing the photos they just very well might, the jury is still out on that.

He was asking about 21st Planes.
Killer has been out a while so I don't know how "hot" it is in the retail sense, which is what I think he is asking. The Corsair is at Amazon so I would say wait for S2 of that before wasting room if space is a concern. The Green Zero seems HTF though.