Small Scale Military Headquarters

Wish they had more selection...
http://www.allgotoys.com/news-blog/chri ... -discount/

You have to purchase 4? With such a small selection and not the greatest prices? I'll keep going to flea markets, toy shows, etc. and find more and cheaper opportunities. I wish them the best but they have to step up production and variety.

looks like Chinese counterfeiters are selling more product than Allgo.
live or die, I can't care for Allgo, my days of 1:32 toys are done.

i wish at times I started collecting 1/72.....

This might be because they are not moving with the distributors here. Understandable when most people in the hobby have these and they are repeats.

On the other hand this might be a start to a way of direct marketing. I'll bet if they offered a new paint scheme, and or the nudie P-51D's they would be sold out in no time at all.

This is what Sideshow Toys does and sometimes they are sold out of exclusive editions (usually 1000 or more) within minutes. Of course those are Star Wars 12" figures.

Have to agree with Dauntless.

Looks like they are trying to liquidate inventory, as distributors are not picking up enough of them. Not a good sign.

But to do exactly the same scheme that had been done before in runs of 5,000 was a risk. And it seems that there is not the demand that they expected. Popular, yes. But think that the market already had almost enough of these already.

An unfortunate development.

Why can't or why did Allgo not pursue legal action to prohibit retailers from carrying these 'chinese counterfeits'?

I think taking legal action is not quite a straight forward option,

you most likely need good lawyers, funds to follow thru the case, cross ocean battle, good hardy evidence and uncertainty of how things will develop in China itself once the case is started (case might drag into years, appeal, counter-sue, etc).

but I'm not a lawyer nor familiar with legal stuff but this is my guess of the issues Allgo might face

Did All-go try to let their customers know of this offer or did they hope that someone might stumble onto their website promo and spread the word? Another example of their strange way of doing business if thats the case

Kind of hard to do much in the way of copyright infringement when China has so much leverage in the world. If big companies like Intel can't stop it, Allgo doesn't stand much of a chance.

I noticed they are showing pics of pirated aircraft now that include the BF-109G, ME-109E, Corsair, F-104, F-86.
All 1:18 though. Nothing listed as far as 1:32. They should be concentrating on that for a while, if they even can.

I do think that the direct marketing approach would work well with certain aircraft, like the nudie P-51's.
If they could get their servers to operate much like Sideshow does with a priority pre-order window of one hour, or till sold out. They would have to make a full run of enough aircraft, probably 5000, but the first 1000, would be special in some sort of way. Maybe with a girl figure added, or a squadron patch etc. inside the box, "exclusive" sticker on the box. Customers pre-registered, would have a limit of one or two (Sideshow limits to one) This would be everyone, including businesses. This creates a buzz and a collecting craze if it works right.
However, they can order as many "regular' editions as they want, just like now.

This could also be done with 1:18 aircraft and armor also. The concept of exclusives is nothing new, but much like Hasbro or other companies, there would have to be a way to make a limited number of aircraft or armor different from the rest, by possibly making an added exclusive figure, like a different colored tank commander or ground crew or like Admiral once was going to do, a sexy WWII girl figure, and offer them direct only. We got aliens with the "Flight 19" TBF Avengers and they are more sought after than the Taylor squadron commander with none, even though they weren't exclusive figures...or offer something as simple as an WWII type embroidered patch from the unit the plane or tank is from?

disappointing....

Dauntless, doing exclusives will def create a buzz and do a small/medium company a lot of good but for me I absolutely detest exclusives. Those that have general release and exclusive release together which have a little something different thats still ok, not those that is pure exclusive. It limits the opportunity to buy them to a small group of diligent or geographically lucky customers, dealing with scalpers and jacked up ebay prices, eventually you have a sizeable bunch of frustrated customers who can't or won't get them in the secondary market.

I like the Halo figures a lot and used to buy them but all the Target/TRU/Gamestop exclusives, which are really nice, are almost impossible for non-USA customers to get at reasonable prices and only on ebay. It drove me crazy to the point that I gave up collecting them. Whats the point if you're not feeling the joy anymore? SW, Joe, 1/6th all do exclusives to some extent too but Halo was the worst for me.

Light.Inf.Scout wrote:disappointing....

Yes, but highly expected.
Looks like those "in-the-pipeline" new releases may have now become
"down-the-pipe" projects to add to the 21st list.

gouchy wrote:Dauntless, doing exclusives will def create a buzz and do a small/medium company a lot of good but for me I absolutely detest exclusives. Those that have general release and exclusive release together which have a little something different thats still ok, not those that is pure exclusive. It limits the opportunity to buy them to a small group of diligent or geographically lucky customers, dealing with scalpers and jacked up ebay prices, eventually you have a sizeable bunch of frustrated customers who can't or won't get them in the secondary market.

I like the Halo figures a lot and used to buy them but all the Target/TRU/Gamestop exclusives, which are really nice, are almost impossible for non-USA customers to get at reasonable prices and only on ebay. It drove me crazy to the point that I gave up collecting them. Whats the point if you're not feeling the joy anymore? SW, Joe, 1/6th all do exclusives to some extent too but Halo was the worst for me.

Perhaps you're right. I'm just trying to think of ways.
The exclusive planes worked for Badcat, but that was 1:18 BBI and they had to order enough to justify it.
Still they could do it with one plane, sold no where else but at the site to try it out, the whole 5000, cut out the middle man who buys wholesale, make some capital perhaps. Try the direct approach. Takes money to make money though and the hassle of a receiving and shipping department.

If they could just offer a new paint scheme on an existing plane, right out of the gate like a nudie P-51D or a Hartmann BF-109, we wouldn't be having these conversations I'm sure of it. Hopefully they'll get there one of these days.

I do believe the way US tax system is set up on businesses, you get taxed on any left over inventory you haven't sold, so that could be the case here. Inventory reduction.

Dauntless, sorry if I sounded harsh on the exclusive idea but was just my frustration at Halo boiling over.

I'm not totally against exclusives as they part of collecting but just not too ultra exclusive like in very small numbers or available to certain vendors that is difficult for international customers to get hold of. Bad Cat's exclusives was good as it was made in enough numbers for a lot of people to get a bite. It eventually sold out and now its worth a lot which would also keep some collectors happy if they're into investing.

Yeah, funny how hard it is to sell in countries that are closer to where the items are manufactured.
Probably something to do with most countries and their trade practices. Not every place can have all these Chinese goods in quantity like the US, and thus being the major distribution point, then having to purchase from here and pay the customs, if you can even get a US distributor to ship internationally.

Though on the other hand, it's tough for us to obtain the Australian exclusive BBI P-51 and F-18, and a few past Euro Exclusives.

As seen in the other thread, with a direct sale they risk alienating distributors too.
Still the direct approach could work in some instances, if done right, because other companies have done it or are doing it now. Creative ways to sell on the the web are becoming more prevalent these days.

I hope the new planes are still "in the pipe" and I wish them well.

The sale is over btw.

HK/China isn't too far away from me but its very difficult to source certain products direct from there. We just don't have the same economic scale as the US. Our TRUs here stocks awful crap for anyone over 12yrs old and even the popular Joe and SW stuff are not well distributed in numbers or selection. We just dont have a lot of choice other than to get stuff from local scalpers or buy online and having to pay a lot for shipping.

Surprised the AG 1/32 sale is over so soon? Good sales response or just too much protest from their stockist etailers? American Grenadier had no idea and is disappointed at the undercutting, not a wise thing to do from Algo but hope its not a sign of them in deep trouble