BBI - Blue Box Toys Information Q&A (Mike)

Post by **aferguson** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 8:45 pm

Mike wrote:

"for momaw nadon.

Back to my original comments when I joined this board..."wait and see"

for Shin Densetsu

I wish you well with your "guessing game" and remember I said I was very good with smoke screen.

On the Commanche..seems you are a bit confused...I said we were working on it for 1:18 but abandoned it after the military dropped it...it will not be a 1:18 that will rise again.

Influencing the Target line...the only thing that will do that is sales...the program is well advanced and into 2006.
But we love to hear your comments."

Birddog · Post by **Birddog** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 9:06 pm

So what made the A-10 a "natural" for the Target line of toys besides the timing and the fact that you were working with the lincensor? Why wasn't another aircraft you have licensing for considered and why did the licensor in this case choose to follow this avenue on this aircraft instead of the replica?

Black_Dragon_One · Post by **Black_Dragon_One** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 10:09 pm

hi mike thank you for your time

may be one day you can take us all on a ride in your plaine all 1000+ of us, just kidding

any way did your company ever think of expaning the f18 and f16 armer kit. extra bomb rack with smart bomb, hell fire, gun pod ...ect ect

would be a new item. for those who already own both or more then one of each. an additional armorment would be great.

and in regard to f-4 or thud those would be sweet, a super saber would be great also

thanks

again

HardenSteel · Post by **HardenSteel** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 10:38 pm

Mike,

Is BBI going to be the first to produce British armour in 1/18 scale? Will you produce figures too?

Also, what about a AV8-B Harrier - who wouldn't jump at the chance of getting a jump jet. ( arh arh humour!)

Lastly, have you considered producing a track link kit for the Abrams or Sherman that could be purchased separately. I'd be the first to by several of those.

HD

Jericoeagle1 · Post by **Jericoeagle1** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 10:46 pm

Hi again,

Personally I think the idea of BBI copying 21st's Corsair is silly, all you have to do is look at the two up close to see the differences.

But to the point has any thought been given to producing ground crewmen and equipment? Like Fuel trucks, Crew Jeeps Etc. And how about a variety of ground crew Briefing officers, WACs, Air Nurses, Wounded on liters. Personel that can be used for any WWII setting.

Thanks again Mike.

Shin Densetsu · Post by **Shin Densetsu** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 11:12 pm

Mike this guesing game is FUN! I know you guys got long lists of trademarks from each company...its just a matter of narrowing down, hoping, and deductive reasoning for me. Of course I could be wrong...but God I hope for all of us I am actually right on this lol.

Detective work rules!

I think the A-10 was a natural choice since it is big enough to contain more than one gimmick....I doubt you could to the same to a joe scale F-15....its too small to have the shotgun pump and missle launcher installed, BBI needed a big plane in order to contain all the multiple gimmicks, and contain gimmicks that make sense. The A-10 drops bombs in real life, has a thick fueselage, and has a powerful gun(which I think the combat command A-10's "missle" launcher is actually meant as a big gun shell launcher)...all of these reflected in the gimmicks that the combat command A-10 has. If BBI tried stuffing all those mechanisms and gimmicks from the A-10 into a smaller plane like the F-16, and scaled it to those figures in the 20$ pricepoint, it might look like a mess. Not to mention it only took BBI months to tool and design this where as a realistic replica would certainly take more time...and they did need a plane for combat command. This is all my opinion though. Not to mention nearly all of the vehicles so far aside the copters, are all land vehicles. A fighter plane would be neat, but in this case, I think BBI was looking for a big plane that kids could make interact with the ground vehicles...in this case the tank bustin' A-10. 6 months is not enough time IMHO to design a realistic A-10...and the fact that BBI pulled off the combat command A-10 in 6 months is very mind boggling, and most of all IMPRESSIVE!

Mike, BBI usually has booths at toyfair. Will BBI be showcasing the 2006 assortments of Combat Command@toyfair 2006?

And just out of curiosity, what do you guys at BBI think of similar scaled stuff, like gijoe and Power Team Elite?

Jericoeagle1 · Post by **Jericoeagle1** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 11:21 pm

I agree its fun to speculate and if I were trying to think of the next modern I would guess A-10 as well. Remember guessing is not a statement. Its a wish. I have a big wish list. But my bigest wish is to step on to my drive way and see every era and every plane made in 1/18 lined up. I figured that by the time I'm 65 I just might see it.

Shin Densetsu · Post by **Shin Densetsu** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 12:49 am

Jericoeagle1 wrote:I agree its fun to speculate and if I were trying to think of the next modern I would guess A-10 as well. Remember guessing is not a statement. Its a wish. I have a big wish list. But my bigest wish is to step on to my drive way and see every era and every plane made in 1/18 lined up. I figured that by the time I'm 65 I just might see it.

VERY FUN! This is not the first time I have actively tried to guess stuff...hehe just ask the gijoe community about me and the skystriker....

Mike said something about already working with northrop......but working on what? HMMM. The list of licenses is long nad encompasses fairchild planes, northrop, grumman, and northrop grumman from II to modern. My guess?

-Wildcat
-Hellcat
-TOMCAT
-A-10

The last 3 being the ones I keep hearing about. The hellcat, everyone says would sell a bunch and most of you want. This is on other boards as well. If there would be an other WWII bird that would make money, that'd be it! I mentioned the wildcat since it's important as well. 21st century's already got the avenger covered...doubt BBI would do something similar to whats out there so soon.

The tomcat and A-10 are the most popular northrop grumman jets wished for in 1/18 scale. You don't see a ton of you voting the A-16 over the F-14. The YF-17 would probably be deemed to similar to the BBI hornet. The F11F tiger ain't popular enough. The A-10 may have also been logical IF BBI was working a replica...all it would need is simplificiation, size down, and implementation of gimmicks,,,which is a lot easier once you scrunch up and thicken the fuesealage since you have a lot of room to store stuff. Not to mention some parts of the A-10 are HUGE...so perhaps some of it really is sized down!

The Hellcat is a cashpot, same with the tomcat and A-10. The A-10 might be the easiest to tool since it does not have any folding or swinging wings, and northrop already provided stuff for the combat command A-10(I think?). So with that in mind I tend to think either its an A-10 or hellcat coming out soon...they would probably work more on the tomcat since it's huge and to make sure the variable wings are steady, durable, and tight enough to sag and become loose. Not to mention the hellcat could probably fit in the existing box for the corsair. AND be the cheapest to produce and tool due to the size. OH and its ALSO a toy that ANYONE has YET to do(21st century has done a lot if not most of the mainstay WWII birds).

Like i said

FUN!

75th Ranger · Post by **75th Ranger** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 1:30 am

To MIKE:

I was wondering if the bbi military 1/18 produts are distributed and sold in many other countries overthe world?

If so, do the concept of mainly buying US military forces in 1/18 an appealing concept tot other nations? or do they ask for bbi to make 1/18 soldiers of their own country for them to be sold in their own markets?

I was wondering if the Germans, French, Japanese, and other countries don't ask for 1/18 figures of their own soldiers?...if they do and if by any chance they are available can we get some to be sold in the US?

I personally wouldl ike to see multinational forces. For example: Spanish, French, German, Japanese, and many other brave nation armies.

So what can you tell me about that?

Another thing is that regarding the US modern soldeirs, I would like to see more ethenic soldeirs in the line. This because there are many ethenic groups that compose the US Army today. For example: Puertorricans, African-American, Asian-American, Mexican-American, Arab-American, White-american, Jewish-American, and more. So the idea of having a few soldeir figures that resemble our own ethenic backgrounds would be really nice.
let me know what you think.

buzzard · Post by **buzzard** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 2:08 am

Thanx Aferg & Mike for providing us with these insights. I've got a question regarding the next production run of the F-16 is it a modified/re-tooled version kinda like 21C's revamp of their Mustang or will it be exactly the same as the earlier batch? How about the paint scheme/unit markings? Any changes to it? Thanks!

Post by **p51** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 2:20 am

The selection of the Red Devils was at BadCat's request...we have the tool for a Hornet and anyone you wants to meet the minimum production or price to have a specific livery is our customer.
It's that simple.

I'm not sure you can give out that information... but I would be curious to know what that minimum is? I mean... have a GPXD forum exclusive BBi Hornet or other Fighter would probably never be able happen with only about 450 members right?

I also was curious as to if Bbi has a certain size where they may say 'Nope, that's way too big.' A B-29 is pushing it, but something like a B-52 or B-36 Peacemaker I'd think would just be beyond what a mold can handle. Is there a limitation when it comes to the tooling and molds?

Post by **aferguson** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 5:01 am

Mike wrote:

"for birddog

The A-10 was a natural because of it's current profile ...we see it every day on tv and the design lends itself easily to the actions ( missiles, etc) that we have incorporated into it...not so easy on other types.
And the licensor does not choose the item..we do..they just take the money.

for Black-Dragon- one

No problems for the ride...the Trojan burns around 130 gallons per hour so I'd be happy to have some paying passengers!!!!

Our experience from accessory kits is not good ...we did this for our 1/6 figure line but the volume is really not sufficient to warrant production.

for HardenSteel.

same answer as everyone else.."wait and see"

sorry I can't say anymore than that.

for Jericoeagle1

Thanks for your support..and for your enquiry on new development...please see above reply."

KAGNEW · Post by **KAGNEW** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 6:36 am

DO YOU EVER DO AIRSHOWS IN VIRGINA AREA?
I WOULD BE GLAD TO PAY FOR A RIDE
I COULD ACTUALLY MEET YOU SOME OTHER PLACE.
MY WIFE AND I TRAVEL ALL OVER COUNTRY GOING TO AVIATION MUSEUMS SO WE CAN RESEARCH AIRPLANES FOR MODELING PERPOSES

Birddog · Post by **Birddog** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 7:12 am

Mike,

I appreciate you taking the time to answer all the questions and comments that I have had. Has Northrop Grumman expressed any interests in seeing a 1/18 scale replica of their aircraft like the A-10, F-14, and Hellcat? Would they like to see one?

corpbob · Post by **corpbob** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 2:40 pm

Mike and Aferg,

Many thanks for all this Q & A info. It's refreshing to see that somebody, anybody with BBI actually cares that this line stays successful. Sometimes I wonder if this is true with 21st.

Kudos to BBI for the Mustang. If you keep up work like that (Accurate, Affordable, Accessable) "if you build it, they will come".

Can't miss list? A-10, Hellcat, Zero, Phantom. BBI will shake 21st to its' foundation if they produce any of these in a quality version.....

Post by **aferguson** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 4:49 pm

Mike wrote:

"You guys seem destined to keep me typing answers all day long...lucky for you the weather is still average.

for Shin Densetsu

the Target line is just for them and as such we will not display it at Toy Fairs. By the way, we don't actually have a booth at toy fairs anymore.
We have our NYC office and showroom and for the Javitts center we use an agent or distributor to show our products as we have not had our own booth for two years. this applies to San Diego, Chicago, etc.

On the matter of Gi Joe and Power Team..both are great products and the owner of Power Team is a personal friend so I have to say his stuff is great.

And keep up the detective work and guessing and we can change your handle to "Sherlock Holmes"

for 75th Ranger.

The answer is yes we sell all over the world.
Most countries like to see their own forces represented but when it comes to a lot of European countries the market size is a mystery and there are so many "no military" voices that it is hard to meet production minimums. it needs a few people to really get behind it...same story as everywhere else..some time the buyers only think they know what the market wants.

Your comment on ethnic is noted and we have previously addressed that in our 1/6 line.

Thanks for the input.

for buzzard.

Dare I say "wait and see"?

for p51.

Good question and it works like this..we need a significant minimum to tool an item ( you can read "significant" as a whole lot) but if the tool exists then we can use it to do small quantities of liveries as long as we produce the item at the same time as we have a regular production run...for example the Oz mustangs came off the line at the same time we ran several thousand P-51"s ..so it is just a matter of a different paint job. They cost a bit more as we need to make the tampo masks and absorb that cost over a smaller run...but that is how it works.

So yes a number of 400 to 500 ( of an existing model ) can be done for the GPXD, providing we used a Badcat or similar to manage the sales process.

On size...well like I said before it is not a matter of size it is a matter of sales.."the bigger the item, the higher the prices, the less the sales units".....this is the law of physics in retail.

for KAGNEW

You would need to go a whole lot further south than Virginia to get a ride in one of my birds.

for corpbob

Thanks for the support.

For ALL

looks like we might be getting some of those Aussie Mustangs to you...Badcat has agreed to manage it for us....so I just need to check the production now to see if we can add some to the run...let you know as soon as I know."

Post by **aferguson** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 4:59 pm

i don't even need to check my email to answer this one:

(I bet) Mike wrote:

"wait and see.."

Birddog · Post by **Birddog** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 5:05 pm

Funny, Mike didn't answer my question. Let me guess.....

Post by **aferguson** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 5:15 pm

Mike wrote:

"for raiderad6

AFERG HAS IT RIGHT..."WAIT AND SEE" "

It's like i'm psychic...

KAGNEW · Post by **KAGNEW** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 5:30 pm

where is your airforce located?
we are going to NAS Pennsicola aviation museum to research a F-4J Blue Angels project for a retired USN ground crewman next year.
( i build models for people amd hobby shops)

Post by **aferguson** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 5:39 pm

Mike wrote:

"for KAGNEW

Oh you need to go much further south than Pensacola.
And by the way I am also a Colonel in the CAF...the thing I like about that group is that they only have one rank...we are all Colonels."

tankduel · Post by **tankduel** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 5:55 pm

Mike, you mentioned the owner of Power Team is a personal friend of yours. I bet this board would LOVE to have someone from Power Team come and have a chat with us; especially given the respectful manner in which this particular dialogue with your good self is being conducted. I'm sure we would appreciate it if you would mention this opportunity to your friend sometime.
I really appreciate that you have taken the time to talk to us here.
Nev

KAGNEW · Post by **KAGNEW** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 5:56 pm

I USED TO FOLLOW THE CAF IN EVERYTING THEY DID
I HAVE MET AND TALKED TO PAUL TIBBETS A COUPLE OF TIMES.
MY DAD WAS FRIENDS WITH BOB HOOVER AND FRANK TALLMANN.
I BEEN AROUND PLANES ALL MAY LIFE. I WAS IN 82nd AIRBORNE 75th RANGERS IN VIETNAM.
2 YEARS AGO WE WENT SOUTH OF TAMPA TO RESEARCH A L-1649A STARLINER AT FANTASY OF FLIGHT FOR A RETIRED TWA EMPLOYEE
NEXT WEEK GOING TO A TRAIN MUSEUM TO DO A 400 TON STEAM ENGINE FOR N&SRW RETIREE.

Small Scale Military Headquarters

BBI - Blue Box Toys Information Q&A (Mike)

attional kit added to the current f18 and f16

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to MIKE