Toy Fair Observations

lightning2000 · Post by **lightning2000** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 1:21 pm

Hello All,
Well, we just got back from Toy Fair and was very impressed with some of the lines we saw. Dragon seemed to be MIA - the booth number listed on the Toy Fair map didnt jive with their location, so there's no way of knowing at present, if they showed anything new.

Anyway, here's our initial rundown for some of the lines we saw.

21st Century Toys - Several very cool-looking new 1:32 scale military vehicles were shown. I took some photos and will try to upload them tonight once we decompress a bit. To make a long story short, 21st will be offering a 105mm howitzer on wheels, a Long Tom 155mm arty, a Sherman Firefly, a King Tiger with a Porsche turret and a US M3 halftrack thats currently included with some of their playsets. The artillery looked very sweet, and should prove to be winners when they come out.

In the air, they showed off their Bunker Hill Avenger, an unpainted Me 262, and an upcoming P-38 Lightning. Great stuff, and great additions to any military collection.

Admiral Toys - Finally got to meet Jayson, Jim and the rest of the Admiral clan after speaking with them ad infintum by phone and by email. If you're into 1:18 scale aircraft, then you'd better run not walk to The Military Toy Shop and BCA to place your pre-orders for their Dauntless and F4C Phantom. Both looked incredible and even though they're exclusives to competitors of ours, you really owe it to yourself to add these models to your collection.

Their Skyraider looked equally dazzling, which was decked out with all sorts of ordnance, from rockets to fuel pods. Truly some amazing stuff they're coming out with at affordable prices.

Their 1:72 scale armor range was equally breathtaking, although they are migrating to ABS production techniques as opposed to tooling up metal vehicles. We have some photos to share tonight, just as soon as we do some cropping and scale adjustment.

Unimax - Got to see their upcoming 1:32 scale Lee, Stuart, Sd. Kfz. 7 along with some of their new 1:72 scale vehicles. All looked great and should complement their FOV line when they come out this spring. More new introductions will be announced later on in October.

Minichamps - Finally got to see their soon-to-be-released Centurion tank. We didnt take any photos since the image in their catalog is of better quality. I'll scan it tonight and post it to our web site.

Obviously, there are some other projects in the works that we cant discuss at present, but will surely share with you when we get the go ahead.

Cordially,

Lightning2000
www.themotorpool.net

blurx7 · Post by **blurx7** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 1:25 pm

Thanks for the report! Can't wait to see pictures!
By the way... was that a 1/32 Lightning coming from 21st Century, or another 1/18?

lightning2000 · Post by **lightning2000** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 1:38 pm

1:18 Lightning...

blurx7 · Post by **blurx7** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 1:51 pm

Darn!

lightning2000 · Post by **lightning2000** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 1:58 pm

Hi,
Okay, here's some of the images we took. Obviously, the lightning conditions arent all that conducive to taking close-ups. Also, in the case of Admiral, these are engineering samples that arent properly painted or regaled with their proper insignia, so dont pass final judgement from these preliminary photos. I'm sure Admiral has better images they can share with everyone:

<img src="http://imagehost.vendio.com/preview/li/ ... /p>21st Century Toys 105mm Howitzer

<img src="http://imagehost.vendio.com/preview/li/ ... /p>21st Century Toys "Long Tom"

<img src="http://imagehost.vendio.com/preview/li/ ... /p>21st Century Toys Dozer Tank

<img src="http://imagehost.vendio.com/preview/li/ ... /p>21st Century Toys King Tiger Tank w/ Porsche Turret

<img src="http://imagehost.vendio.com/preview/li/ ... /p>21st Century Toys Sherman Firefly

<img src="http://imagehost.vendio.com/preview/li/ ... /p>21st Century Toys M3 Halftrack

<img src="http://imagehost.vendio.com/preview/li/ ... Admiral Toys 88mm FLaK Gun

<img src="http://imagehost.vendio.com/preview/li/ ... Admiral Toys PaK40 Anti-Tank Gun

<img src="http://imagehost.vendio.com/preview/li/ ... Admiral Toys M10 Wolverine

<img src="http://imagehost.vendio.com/preview/li/ ... Admiral Toys Crusader Tank

<img src="http://imagehost.vendio.com/preview/li/ ... Admiral Toys Crusader Anti-Aircraft Vehicle

<img src="http://imagehost.vendio.com/preview/li/ ... Admiral Toys Panzer IIIM medium Tank

<img src="http://imagehost.vendio.com/preview/li/ ... >My doggie, "Cookie the Pom"

Sorry, couldnt resist the last one...

Cordially,

Lightning2000
www.themotorpool.net

grunt1 · Post by **grunt1** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 2:07 pm

Lightning, thanks for the recon! Very cool looking photos and intel..

EnemyAce · Post by **EnemyAce** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 3:15 pm

Awesome photos, that firefly is sweet, as are all the arty. Looking forward to Admiral's 1:72 offerings...looks like the Brits are finally getting their due!

VMF115 · Post by **VMF115** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 3:17 pm

Wow Great Pics

Mr. Football · Post by **Mr. Football** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 4:59 pm

Great pics, Lightning!

Can't wait to see that Minichamps Centurion.

lightning2000 · Post by **lightning2000** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 5:10 pm

Your wish is my command. I give you the Minichamps Centurion tank. (ooing and ahhing is optional<g>)

<img src="http://www.themotorpool.net/photos/MIN3 ... Minichamps British Centurion Mk. V/I Main Battle Tank

Lightning2000
www.themotorpool.net

grunt1 · Post by **grunt1** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 5:33 pm

Lightning, are you going to give us 1:18 freaks a peek at the bigger stuff in our forum or are you under orders?

Jagdplastic · Post by **Jagdplastic** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 5:50 pm

I may be wrong, but I believe the gun identified as a 105mm is actually an 8-inch howitzer. We're gonna need a prime mover to pull this one as well as the Long Tom.

binder001 · Post by **binder001** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 6:13 pm

Jagdplastic is right, the gun shown is the 8" howitzer. This weapon shared a carriage and recoil mechanism with the 155 gun, only the barrels were different. Like the 155gun, the 8" howitzer was used in seperate battalions assigned at corps or field army level.

I agree - now we need an M4 High Speed Tractor to tow the 155 and the 8" (plus they look cool at heck with the end of the gun supported by the travelling limber, and hooked to the tracked tractor).

Gary

c44 · Post by **c44** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 6:51 pm

Merci beaucoup for the pix & report, the new 21CT releases look real inviting...new XD armor is conspicuous in its absence, though, I sort of wonder (& hope) they're keeping something under wraps...and by the way, what scale is Cookie...?

lightning2000 · Post by **lightning2000** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 7:11 pm

Hi,
I was going to take some photos of the Admiral aircraft but Jayson said someone else was going to take care of that. My guess is that you'll see them posted real soon. I can tell you the F4 was huge and other schemes are planned for both the Phantom and Dauntless. You 1:18 scale desk jockeys are going to love 'em when you see them up close. Your only task is how to figure out getting the F4's box through the front door.

On a side note, its not definite that Admiral is getting into the 1:32 scale aircraft market, much to our chagrin. Jayson can explain the reasons better than I can.

Lightning2000
www.themotorpool.net

Birddog · Post by **Birddog** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 8:06 pm

Hey guys, here is a picture of Admiral's 1/32 Corsair. Thought I'd throw this your way. It's not much, but I hope they start this line. They will do a tremendous job as they have done with their 1/72 and 1/18 offerings. Don't forget to let your interests be known.

Big Duke 6 · Post by **Big Duke 6** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 8:32 pm

lightning2000 wrote:Your wish is my command. I give you the Minichamps Centurion tank. (ooing and ahhing is optional<g>)

<img src="http://www.themotorpool.net/photos/MIN3 ... Minichamps British Centurion Mk. V/I Main Battle Tank

Lightning2000
www.themotorpool.net

Wow that is fantastic, definetly pick up one of these bad boys !!

dfoos · Post by **dfoos** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 9:43 pm

Hi, Just a quick question, What scale are these pictures? I'm assuming Admiral is 1/72. What about the various 21st Century stuff shown here? 1/32? if that's the case, cool, but they've already done the US Half Track. I'm trying to figure out what the difference is?

Post by **aferguson** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 9:53 pm

so they're doing both a Long Tom and an 8 inch howitzer, very interesting use of the same carriage. A little surprising they would come out with both at the same time i guess..

tmanthegreat · Post by **tmanthegreat** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 11:33 pm

I like the looks of those 32x Italian troops. Finally some figures to go along with my Macchis!

Plane Nuts · Post by **Plane Nuts** » Sun Feb 11, 2007 11:33 pm

Uh oh... Couple of 1:32 artillery pieces might have just put me into the ground pounder market....

Dammit! I tried doing the 1:18, but the airplanes were just taking up too much space... But temptation just struck a chord! I've seen the 21st 88 in 1:32 several times and thought it was kinda cool. I don't need it to be the start of something!

Juneau@1 · Post by **Juneau@1** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 4:41 am

Any more pictures of the Admiral display? I am wondering if they had their Japanese tank and Russian tank destroyer there.
Thanks,
Eric

lightning2000 · Post by **lightning2000** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 5:51 am

Hi,
The following previously announced products were not being shown to the public:

US Pack Howitzer
Japanese Shi-Ki command tank
Russian Su-85 tank destroyer
US M41A3 Walker bulldog tank

In regard to the 21st Century Toys artillery, it appears as if the 105mm piece was incorrectly described to us by the manufacturer. As someone else pointed out here on this forum, this is a 8 inch (203mm) howitzer, which uses the same wheeled carriage as the Long Tom, hence their decision to bring out both pieces simultaneously.

Cordially,

Lightning2000
www.themotorpool.net

EnemyAce · Post by **EnemyAce** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 7:36 am

I hope Jason chimes in here on the 72 stuff, I was really looking forward to the Russian and Jap armor and the 75 howitzer...also no signs of 72 scale figs, I wonder if this means they are not doing them after all?

Small Scale Military Headquarters

Toy Fair Observations

Toy Fair Observations

Blurz

Toy Fair Images

Centurion Tank

yes, 8" howitzer...

Pom-Pom Gun...?

Aircraft

Re: Centurion Tank

Admiral 1/72 Tanks

Admiral Tanks