I met the guy.......

dfoos · Post by **dfoos** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 2:36 am

I was in one of my local hobby stores talking to the guy that orders all the little 1/144 stuff and the subject of WM came up. I told him I get alot of my stuff there, but lamented that someone keeps grabbing ALL the 1/144 sherman's and leaving the rest of the crappy armor no one wants. One of the other guys who worked there overheard us and came over and said "Oh, that would be me". I couldn't believe my ears. He then told me he goes around to all the WM's in the area on a regular basis and grabs just the sherms out of the cases and leaves the rest, as if he was proud of his accomplishments. Talk about mixed emotions, I wanted to punch him right there. I sardonicaly said, well you must have a pretty nice army for gaming or a nice collection, and he says... get this... "oh, I just throw then into a big box I have in my basement, I just like collecting them, but I really don't use them for anything..." WTF??? Was this guy just pulling my leg?? I don't know, but the other guy that worked there just kinda nodded, like he knew what the other dude was talking about. Wow. I have had to get guys from this forum who live in New York to send me these things because they are always out in my area. I actively use these things for wargaming and would actually put them to good use. I also find that sometimes when something cool comes in, I don't grab everything off the shelf in a fit of selfish glee, I usually feel that I have an obligation to leave some stuff there for others or maybe some kid will get to buy some of these cool things (all 21st centuryt stuff, not just 1/144). Maybe it's just me, but I feel a little responsible to help share the wealth so to speak. Maybe I shouldn't be so nice in the future and grab everything I find, and what I don't need, sell on ebay for some freaking rediculous price.. geeze.
Sorry, my rant, but some ppl really piss me off. Next I'll probably run into the guy who returns all the 21st boxes once he takes out the tank and puts Corgi or New Ray in them. He'll probably be all proud of his little scheme too.

Whatta buncha *&#$%)#'s

pickelhaube · Post by **pickelhaube** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 5:40 am

Post the address of the hobby shop.

Lets all get together this Sat . and go over there and Tar and feather this guy. Better yet I will hook up the FEMA trailer and go pick you guys up.

luftpanzer · Post by **luftpanzer** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 6:51 am

There are shermans? Ive never seen any, all I got for my Us tank force is the M8 hellcats. Wonder if this guy travels to NJ and grabs all the shermans here as well.

hworth18 · Post by **hworth18** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 7:08 am

Dfoos,
Man, if you need Shermans, the armor around here is just collecting dust..
Let me know and I'll pick some up for you...

warhawker · Post by **warhawker** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 8:21 am

Same here, there is a ton of US Shermans here in DFW area as well collecting dust. Let me know.
Every WM I go to I do the same, leave 1 or 2 items that I know other guys may be looking for.

demonclaw · Post by **demonclaw** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 9:58 am

I don't understand why people buy the New Millennium models ? , they look completely horrible compared to Dragon' s Can Do and Takara's WTM tanks . Just as the the 32x models compared to Unimax (FOV) , 21st Toys better put some more efforts into their models if they want to compete with the asians when it comes to quality

hworth18 · Post by **hworth18** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 10:39 am

demonclaw wrote:I don't understand why people buy the New Millennium models ? , they look completely horrible compared to Dragon' s Can Do and Takara's WTM tanks . Just as the the 32x models compared to Unimax (FOV) , 21st Toys better put some more efforts into their models if they want to compete with the asians when it comes to quality

I can tell you exactly why people buy these...
They are at Walmart and easily accessible.. CanDo and Takaras are only available online or thru "some" hobbyshops.. I don't think they (21st) are trying to compete with the asian market..

tmanthegreat · Post by **tmanthegreat** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 10:47 am

Such cases are annoying... I know! There was some ebay seller a few months ago that was finding some of the new XD armor in my area - and then putting it on ebay

The hoarding of just the 1:144 shermans is odd, but I think we may all be guilty of buying a case of new figures or something else and leaving nothing for the next guy at one point or another.

FieroDude · Post by **FieroDude** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 12:19 pm

Shermanophile, eh? very strange. Probably has a computer full of tank porn, too...

I don't know if I have ever seen a 1/144 Sherman, either--just the M18 and all the German pieces. I do have several of the Dragon CanDo pieces, and yes, they are nicer, but at 4 or 5 times the price (including shipping), the 21st 1/144 pieces are great army builders for wargaming or dioramas.

ostketten · Post by **ostketten** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 1:00 pm

I don't know if I have ever seen a 1/144 Sherman, either--just the M18 and all the German pieces.

Ditto, here. Mostly Panzer IV's, but I'll have to keep an eye out for the Sherman now that I know it exists in 1/144, I generally don't pay much attention to the stuff because it's not a scale I collect, but I'll be looking more closely in the future.

demonclaw · Post by **demonclaw** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 1:13 pm

FieroDude wrote:
I do have several of the Dragon CanDo pieces, and yes, they are nicer, but at 4 or 5 times the price (including shipping), the 21st 1/144 pieces are great army builders for wargaming or dioramas.

Not if you buy a full set of 12 pieces for around 40$ + shipping , then its not more than 5-6$ a piece and you get at least one of every type (I also got the special in all my sets)

EnemyAce · Post by **EnemyAce** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 1:22 pm

the Walmart Shermans may not be as nice as the newest WTM Sherman, but they are better than the earlier ones found in the VS. series, and waaaaay easier and cheaper to find. I can go to Wallys and pick up a platoon for $10, or order and pay shipping for the WTM version (now available on line at www.world-tank-museum.com) in a platoon pack of five vehicles for close to $30.

But the WTM M4A3s are definitely nicer, and now readily available online for about $6 each. Now, when IS Dragon going to get around to a nice set of Can.Do Shermans....

luftpanzer · Post by **luftpanzer** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 1:48 pm

There is a term for these people. Mostly middle age men you see lined up waiting for Toys R Us to open on Sunday mornings. they are called

TOY PIRATES

hotrodrock · Post by **hotrodrock** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 1:57 pm

Regardless of what you collect that can be found at retail stores, there are always some guys like the one you mentioned. I have gone to 3 and 4 stores on a morning hunt and seen the same person at each one looking for the same thing I was. Thing was, he was buying things and taking them to his store and adding 50% to the price. And this was his routine every morning, not just a couple of days a week.

Hanomag · Post by **Hanomag** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 2:37 pm

I never knew people could have a Shermonolpoly. Never thought of it I guess. If you need some, you can send me a PM and I can hook you up. Assuming I can find any myself...but I'll look.

Look at it this way....you can't have great people without bad ones. That's how I try to think of it.

-H

bird · Post by **bird** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 4:59 pm

try appealing to his better nature with........cash

dfoos · Post by **dfoos** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 8:54 pm

Haha, Tank porn, or should I say Tank PRON.

Anyway, thanks for all the offers guys, I have gotten about 25 of these suckers over the last year or so, (Most with the help of Digger and Razor), so I'm in pretty good shape, It just took a while for me to get them. With the old big green cases, it used to come with an assortment of the other tanks but always 4 of the shermans, (At least that's what the guy said, I wouldn't know as I have never found a full set with sherman's still in them) but I have been scrambling to find the new S2 paint Sherms, I have found 5 so far since October 2006. That's how hard they are to come by in my area. But at least 5 is a platoon.

I really now am just not looking forward to the new rush to get some M7's. If that is the only allied piece coming out in this next set, I can see how this is going to go. probably like 2 in each case like the new Shermans (they have shrunk the case size (or at least the display box size, it holds half the amount of tanks and thereforre only has two shermans instead of four). Likely this dude or some one like him will be hoarding all the m7's and trying to hawk them on ebay for twice the price. If anyone comes across M7's though, please let me know, I would be more than happy to pay for them and shipping (and alternately, I would do the same for anyone here too, so If I find something someone else needs in my AO, I will gladly send it out) I find a free paypal account works well for this.

Anyway, I also wanted to answer the earlier post as to why buy these at all when they are not near the quality of Dragon or WTM. If you have seen and compared the Sherman's to Dragon you will notice something, the New Millenium looks much better than an invisible tank. Yes, Dragon does not make a Sherman.

WTM tanks makes a couple of Shermans, but they are really hard to get. The made three types, the M4 WITH 75mm, which was what there was the most of in WWII, and the Firefly, which US forces did not use. Both of them are really hard to get and even so, they dont look as good as the New Mellinium one. Especially the OD Green S1 version looks really good next to the Takara version. They even come with stowage on the back that adds to the detail. I always dislikes the Takara sherman and this gives me a nice looking alternative. I have both, so I mix them together and they go together nicely. Next, Takara made a M4A3?? I think is the proper number with the counterweighted, taller turret and the 76mm gun. These were ONLY available in the VS set. I have about 8 9 or nine of them I have managed to collect over the years, which means I have 8 or nine of the Panther It comes with which I didn't really need. I have a ton of Panthers from other sets and from Dragon. Plus you pay retail, $10.00 for a vs set just to get one tank. Granted, that version of the Sherman is my favorite that has been offered before, but seconded by the New Milleneum one.

I admit the rest are pretty ugly, but As there is such a lack of allied armor to begin with, I welcomed anything they came out with. I even bought about 20 m18's even though those versions are ugly as hell and the turret is wrong, it is better than nothing at this point. I bought a bunch of the New Milleneum german armor to use for my sets of Memior '44 to give a little color to the game instead of using the supplied shiny grey or shiny green panzer IV's and sherms. Lets face it, for less than $2.00 a piece you can afford to grab a bunch for purposes like this.

I also plan on using some of the more unattractive ones (especially the S2 Neon Camoflage german tanks as casualty markers and objective markers (ie. destroyed tanks) Ii is easier for me to melt, smash and otherwise pull apart a tank that is ugly and cheap to begin with than I would with a nice WTM or nicely detailed Dragon tank. Plus I get the added benefit of knowing that Even as a burnt out hulk, it will look better than it did when I bought it. Then the final reason is simply price. My local WM had a bunch on clearance for 25 cents apiece the other day. I bought a bunch just because. I am building a german N scale train to go with my gaming terrain and I can load a bunch on flat cars or have a tank depot as a objective or as part of the terrain, or have a tank repair facility or a tank manufacturing factory. With pricepoint so low, there are a million things I would do with these things that I would not be willing to do with my more expensive, harder to find tanks.
I hope this answers some questions, as well as maybe gives some ppl some ideas.

Oh, one more thing, with these prices, I may wind up doing a 1:1 Kursk scenario.... lol

dfoos · Post by **dfoos** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 9:49 pm

Blah, blah, blah, blah,

Man, I'm long winded....

grunt1 · Post by **grunt1** » Wed Feb 14, 2007 10:11 pm

Lol, it's not the long winded part it's the complete lack of spacing between lines and paragraphs that makes it seem like a mouthful.

I'll keep my eyes peeled for the M7's..

digger · Post by **digger** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 7:26 am

dfoos wrote:...but lamented that someone keeps grabbing ALL the 1/144 sherman's and leaving the rest of the crappy armor no one wants. One of the other guys who worked there overheard us and came over and said "Oh, that would be me"....He then told me he goes around...and grabs just the sherms out of the cases and leaves the rest, as if he was proud of his accomplishments....I wanted to punch him right there. I sardonicaly said, well you must have a pretty nice army for gaming or a nice collection, and he says... get this... "oh, I just throw then into a big box I have in my basement, I just like collecting them, but I really don't use them for anything..." WTF??? Was this guy just pulling my leg?? I don't know, but the other guy that worked there just kinda nodded, like he knew what the other dude was talking about..

Hanomag · Post by **Hanomag** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 4:03 pm

Owww...my eyes hurt...

The Enter Key is your friend. Please....

-H

dfoos · Post by **dfoos** » Thu Feb 15, 2007 4:45 pm

I put some breathers in there, any better??

Small Scale Military Headquarters

I met the guy.......

I met the guy.......

Re: I met the guy.......