Complete set of Dragon Armor and Cyber hobby listed on eBay

[samason]

Look at this :-

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... RK:MESE:IT

So how much does this go for ????

[easy8]

All I can say is...WOW

easy8

[Tshintl]

Wow! I'm very interested to see what this ends up going for.

Odd the sellers name is "Dragonmodelsinc" as in Dragon Models Inc. which is located in California but the seller is in Maryland.

[Mr. Football]

Wow! Simply, wow!

When they said "everything"...they meant EVERYTHING!

Even the new Afrika Korps 1/35 Tiger (which is badass)

Never heard of the Wittmann Ace & Glory for the Japanese Market, which looks identical to the Cyber-Hobby version.

The Carius Tiger, in my estimation is the rarest and most sought after piece in the collection.

Very nice. I wonder how much it'll fetch?

$3,000? More?

[immeww2]

This will definitely be an interesting auction to follow.

[samason]

Japanese version had different box , was a CH release in Japan only and had a 6th figure - Pieper giving Wittman a medal - very rare on eBay ...

[smh_1021]

I live not very far from the individual. Ballwin, Maryland is a few miles down the road.

[Mr. Football]

Do you guys live close to the Aberdeen Tank Museum? I heard they were raising money to properly store and display their awesome armor collection. Any progress?

[smh_1021]

Yes - about 30 minutes away. My wife worked for a defense contractor located near and on the Aberdoeen Proving Ground. She still has friends that work there and I will find out the answer for you.

[smh_1021]

The museum is impressive - I have been going there since I was little - have lived in the area my entire life. The condition of the armor was degrading for a while but I think the tanks' care has been improving noticably recently.

[Tshintl]

I was to the Aberdeen Ordnance museum not even two weeks ago.

They have a small architectural model in the museum showing their planned indoor exhibit for the tanks. There will be 10 buildings and will cost about $3,000,000 to construct (picture below).

The museum collection is simply outanding and rivals many of the well known museums in Europe for WWII armor. However, since they've been sitting outside for so long the weather has started damaging some of the older tanks. It's a sad shame they've been neglected for so long and someone finally realized that something needs to be done or the tanks will just rust away. Some of the tanks are now being restored which is certainly a start. Some are very rare and the only known example left, so getting them under cover is very important.

[lightning2000]

Hi,
While I admire the guy's bravery for putting up everything for auction, I dont think he'll get as much for everything as he would if he sold it off piecemeal. For starters, how many people are really going to pony up several thousand dollars to acquire everything off the bat? Secondly, if you're a serious collector, then you probably already own most of these pieces and are just looking for a few to fill in the collection. Again, how many people are willing to purchase 200+ vehicles just to obtain a few unless they plan to turn around and sell off all the duplicates which is exceedingly time consuming and costly. Anyway, just my two cents.

Lightning2000
www.themotorpool.bistep.com

[lightning2000]

Hi,
In regard to the indoor museum, I think they've been kicking around this idea for several years now. I went there at least six years ago and they were talking about this project back then.

What I dont understand is why they cant erect a temporary bubble top covering similar to the type used on outdoor tennis courts. A semi permanent form of protection couldnt set them back that much until a more permanent solution was found. At the rate they're going, the only thing they're going to end up protecting are the concrete slabs upon which each vehicle sits!

Lightning2000
www.themotorpool.bigstep.com

[Hoverbug]

Being in the museum business, I can easily guess that to even put up a temporary structure would absorb most of their fund-raising efforts. The Army museum system is an absolute shambles and receives barely enough from DoD to sustain even minimal attempts at restoration. The National Museum of the US Army is being planned at Ft. Belvoir, which on the surface is a good thing. The downside is that it sucks all the money from other museums - Ft. Knox, Rucker, Aberdeen etc., so that many of the best collections of large artifacts will continue to degrade.

The net effect of this is that any hope of improved facilities has to come from private donors. To acquire several hundred thousand dollars for a temporary structure would cause them to expend all of their fund raising efforts to that end and they would be unable to make any progress towards a permanent solution, so I think they are doing the right thing.

The sad fact is that most wealthy people that have an interest in the subject, use their resources to create their own collections and/or feel that its the government's job to support the Army museum system. Unfortunately, there is rarely a good time for supporting government museums as in wartime there is no money available and in peacetime, defecit reduction takes precedence. The only hope for a viable solution is for somebody (with a fair bit of pull in appropriations) in Congress to become sufficiently outraged to make it a pet project. Unfortunately, armored vehicles tend to fall on the bottom of the list of things that powerful people want to see preserved.

[aferguson]

Look at the seller's id. Could be an auction by someone from DragonUSA's corporate office? That would explain the extreme completeness of the collection and the seller's willingness to part with it. Strange to sell it in one big lot, rather than as individual pieces, which would inevitabley yield more money...

[lightning2000]

Hoverbug,
Would it stand to reason that if the Army plans on erecting a museum at Fort Belvoir, they might be planning to comandeer the vehicles already being restored for their own exhibit? Otherwise, where are they getting the vehicles from?

Lightning2000
www.themotorpool.bigstep.com

[Hoverbug]

Hoverbug,
Would it stand to reason that if the Army plans on erecting a museum at Fort Belvoir, they might be planning to comandeer the vehicles already being restored for their own exhibit? Otherwise, where are they getting the vehicles from?

Lightning2000
www.themotorpool.bigstep.com

I'm sure some will come from there, but given the size of the collection and the other types of exhibits that will be at the new museum, I suspect we are talking about only 5% or less of the collection, so it won't go very far to improving matters for Aberdeen, but will soak up an enormous amount of potential funding. Basically, I think we will have to wait a long time for any major improvement at Aberdeen.

BTW, if you think Aberdeen is bad, the Army Aviation Museum at Ft. Rucker is worse. Unfortunately, they seem to be having management issues as well as funding problems.

[lightning2000]

I would imagine its tougher to keep the aircraft intact over the vehicles. Larger surface area and more important facets exposed to the elements. They ought to ship everything to the desert, where they keep the old mothballed aircraft. How much damage can the scorpions and rattlesnakes cause?

Lightning2000
www.themotorpool.bigstep.com

[aferguson]

it's been pointed out to me that the seller has changed his id.....used to be 'dragonmodelsinc'. Maybe he was trying to look like somebody he wasn't..

[Hoverbug]

I would imagine its tougher to keep the aircraft intact over the vehicles. Larger surface area and more important facets exposed to the elements. They ought to ship everything to the desert, where they keep the old mothballed aircraft. How much damage can the scorpions and rattlesnakes cause?

Lightning2000
www.themotorpool.bigstep.com

Yeah, Alabama is not a good place to preserve aircraft outside...

[The Tigers Den]

I do not think that this seller is anyway associated with Dragon USA. As a matter of fact this seller contacted me just the other day looking to purchase additional Dragon 61001's, the 1/35th tigers . If he was associated this would not have happened.
Anyway's, I give him credit, good marketing technique with the business name, makes people think its Dragon USA.
Pertaining to the auction, I agree with Lightning, serious collectors will not give this auction much attention but it should be interesting nonetheless.

[lightning2000]

I would imagine its tougher to keep the aircraft intact over the vehicles. Larger surface area and more important facets exposed to the elements. They ought to ship everything to the desert, where they keep the old mothballed aircraft. How much damage can the scorpions and rattlesnakes cause?

Lightning2000
www.themotorpool.bigstep.com

Yeah, Alabama is not a good place to preserve aircraft outside...

Er, uh, Aberdeen is up in Maryland., unless they moved it on us. I was referring to the Boneyards out in Kingman, Arizona. Nice warm climate, low humidity, blah, blah, blah.

As far as Aberdeen goes, they need to bring in some outside businessmen to evaluate the situation rather than relying on public donations to see them through. Nickels and dimes will only get you so far.

From a business standpoint, they need to create additional revenue streams, even if the thing is on an Army Base. If need be, deed that portion of the land to a local developer so they can recoup some real estate taxes.

Next, throw up a bubble and charge admission, even if its just $3 a head, until a more permanent form of protection can be erected. Throw in a nicer gift shop, some multimedia displays, guided tours, and you're in business in no time. Take a page from the Air & Space Museum in Washington D.C. but require a minimal investment to walk through the door. Heck, I'd move our operation down there and sell to the public if it was offered to us!

I'd also hold annual outdoor events to trot out a couple of WWII vehicles that are still in working order, offer tours of the base (obviously those areas that are not off limits), hold reenactments, expos, and I think the thing would be back on track instead of languishing for public donation. Add some billboards along I-95 and voila, you got a new theme park, well, not quite. The thing is just south of Baltimore and north of Washington DC, and not that far from Philadelphia, NYC and other points due east. Its a natural mecca for military enthusiasts.

Lightning2000
www.themotorpool.bigstep.com

[Hoverbug]

Yeah, Alabama is not a good place to preserve aircraft outside...

Er, uh, Aberdeen is up in Maryland., unless they moved it on us. I was referring to the Boneyards out in Kingman, Arizona. Nice warm climate, low humidity, blah, blah, blah.

As far as Aberdeen goes, they need to bring in some outside businessmen to evaluate the situation rather than relying on public donations to see them through. Nickels and dimes will only get you so far.

From a business standpoint, they need to create additional revenue streams, even if the thing is on an Army Base. If need be, deed that portion of the land to a local developer so they can recoup some real estate taxes.

Next, throw up a bubble and charge admission, even if its just $3 a head, until a more permanent form of protection can be erected. Throw in a nicer gift shop, some multimedia displays, guided tours, and you're in business in no time. Take a page from the Air & Space Museum in Washington D.C. but require a minimal investment to walk through the door. Heck, I'd move our operation down there and sell to the public if it was offered to us!

I'd also hold annual outdoor events to trot out a couple of WWII vehicles that are still in working order, offer tours of the base (obviously those areas that are not off limits), hold reenactments, expos, and I think the thing would be back on track instead of languishing for public donation. Add some billboards along I-95 and voila, you got a new theme park, well, not quite. The thing is just south of Baltimore and north of Washington DC, and not that far from Philadelphia, NYC and other points due east. Its a natural mecca for military enthusiasts.

Lightning2000
www.themotorpool.bigstep.com

I was referring to Ft. Rucker's Army Aviation museum, but yes, the desert is definitely preferable for outside storage.

There is simply not enough traffic through Aberdeen to make charging fees worthwhile. By the time you put the cash handling equipment in and hire somebody to take the money full time and somebody to supervise it, you may not have even covered the basic costs of collecting admission. Plus, this tends to run against the public service mission of the museum and tends to alienate people who have had to go through a rigorous exercise just to get on the base property. With those barriers, the only people that will go there are the dedicated trackheads, and nobody wants to donate money to a museum with such a limited audience. The Marine Corps has just gotten their act together with the new Air-Ground Museum at Quantico. Their approach was to move outside the base and consolidate their historical collections into one location. There are many Army museums scattered across the country. Consolidating is probably the best way to save resoureces and preserve their history. The National Museum of the U.S. Army is something of a step in that direction, but it is by no means a consolidation of the collections that are at risk.

[Tshintl]

I was quite surprised that it was free to visit the museum when I went there 2 weeks ago. Pretty nice to go somewhere with such a large collection for free.

However, I would have been more than willing to spend $5-$10+ to enter with no hesitation. I think it's a real shame some of these tanks are getting ruined sitting out in the elements. Even if they built just 1 of the 10 planned buildings now to cover the armor with open tops (which are in the worse shape out of all of them).

If I had a spare $3 million I'd donate it to help the problem but sadly I don't.

[Mr. Football]

Be nice if that guy from California (with the tank ranch) could donate something towards the effort. Hell, they might even be able to finance the construction of the whole thing by selling off one of their rarer pieces.