21st Century & Motorworks - the differences?

bird · Post by **bird** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 10:44 pm

Being from downunder we don't see alot of these products except for on the net. On eBay I have seen Motorworks vehicles listed as 21c XD.
How is that so?
Are they the same company?

flpickupman · Post by **flpickupman** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 5:09 am

There were some XD aircraft and vehicles that were sold under the Walmart exclusive Motorworks brand name. There is the diecast hull Tiger I, an Fw-190, a Stuka, the Checkertail P-47 and RAF P-40 to name a few. The items themselves are marked with 21st's logo and copyright.

The Motorworks boxed items generally have less accessories or detail. The Motorworks P-47, for instance, lacks the nose art the 21st boxed variant possesses. Consequently they're considered a step down from the 21st boxed toys. One exception is the Tiger I. The Motorworks boxed variant has a diecast upper hull, while the 21st boxed Tigers are all plastic. That's a step down in my opinion.

Hope this helped.

bird · Post by **bird** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 6:41 am

cheers

ParatrooperCarbine · Post by **ParatrooperCarbine** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 9:35 am

I agree mostly but I have (or had) MW P-47s with the nose art. And the MW Sherman was pretty sharp, as was the Bradley.

I believe the WM distribution corresponded with a temporary quality dip, but that dip carried over into non-MW items also. This is mainly reflected in paint quality and the crispness of the edges and lines on small parts such as sidearms.

To see the difference, compare the 2005 XD carded figures to the series 1 figures and the paras. Or compare the 1:6 Axis III sets to the Axis I set, Modern Foreign Weapons, etc.

Happily, this trend has been reversed. The latest XD carded figures are awesome, down to almost every detail. Same can be said of the latest 1:6 weapon sets. Mostly.

BRAVO!

blurx7 · Post by **blurx7** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 3:08 pm

Motorworks also had some of the early Forces of Valor 1/32 scale stuff in the Action series grade. A Sherman, a Halftrack and a Sturmgeschutz III, as I recall. Also some diecast planes and helicopters in various scales, though I don't know the manufacturer of those.

ostketten · Post by **ostketten** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 5:52 pm

The Motorworks boxed items generally have less accessories or detail. The Motorworks P-47, for instance

I can't say about the MW P-47 because I never owned one, but the MW Cobra snake copter is identical in detail and accessories to the 21C version as far as I can tell, and the same goes for the MW 32X Mobelwagen and Flakpanzer IV, no difference there that I can tell from the recent 21C releases, aside from the new paintschemes.

STUKA · Post by **STUKA** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 6:11 pm

Yeah the only difference I saw was the packaging well and paint schemes

tmanthegreat · Post by **tmanthegreat** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 7:50 pm

The first "Checkertail" P-47s that did not have the nose art were the very first run of that sculpt and had a few bugs that were worked out in subsequent releases. I think this was the breakdown of the 21c products offered in the Motorworks line:

1:18 Aircraft:
F-4U Corsair "Korean" (limited edition)
AH-1W Supercobra
P-47D "Razorback"
Bf-109E "Winter"
Spitfire
P-40
FW-190D
UH-1 Huey
JU-87 Stuka

1:18 Armor:
M4 Sherman "winter"
Tiger I "winter"
M2 Bradley "desert"
M113 APC "desert" & "vietnam"
(all vehicles were diecast)

1:32 Armor (Cold Steel) :
Panzer III E
Panther G
Sherman
M-24 Chaffee
Panzer IVH
Flakpanzer Mobelwagen
Flakpanzer Wirblewind

1:32 Armor Kits:
Panzer III E
Sherman
M-24
Panther
M3 Halftrack
SDK 7 Halftrack

Please let me know if there's anything I'm missing. The motorworks stuff seemed to have much more spotty distribution than XD stuff has today, so I might have missed something...

BTW, the 1:32 FOV Motorworks tanks also included the Matilda MkII

FieroDude · Post by **FieroDude** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 8:12 pm

The winter and green-splinter camo Stukas were also offered under the Motorworks name.

tmanthegreat · Post by **tmanthegreat** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 10:23 pm

Forgot about those - as usual, they never showed in my area! Have been added to my list in the above post