My Day at the toy Fair.

[luftpanzer]

Well what can I say, Awesome !! Stoped at 21st Century toys Booth and saw a lot of cool stuff!. Not only are doing a 1/4 scale HUMMER for the kids to ride but also a WW2 Willys jeep with the soft top in the same scale.
A must have for my daughter. The king tiger and jagdtiger look good in person, They are doing another kublewagen with new figure. Oh I forgot, they are modifying the pak40 to fire little fome balls(coooool!) And they have 5 new play sets coming out in the 32x line alone with marines German Infantry #5 and British Infantry#2, Lots of stuff to cvr so Ill finish later.

[luftpanzer]

Ok Im back, Saw the 1/18th Panzer IV with side skirts on it. They must of heard the complaints. More later, the wife needs my attention, thats the price i had tp pay to go to the toy show. hehe

[hworth18]

Yes, life must be rough..I wish I were within driving distance of a MAJOR Toy show..

[KAMIKAZE]

I heard that Harry!
The day they have a toy show in Dallas will surely be the end of the world.

Mark

[digger]

Don't worry guys, you didn't miss much. Aside from 21st the showing was poor.

I don't know where those bbi photos came from but THEY DID NOT come from the Javits Center. The bbi booth was about 6 feet wide and had nothing new. The guy at the booth lost all credibility when he said "look for the Kiowa Warrior in the next couple of months." I told him if he wanted to see one he could come by my place.
Bbi is in no rush to come out with anything because they set a high standard for themselves and they don't want to fall short. I think they now realize how tough it is to come out with detailed stuff on regular basis. He said they're thinking about more WWII, and will do it, but just no idea when we would see it.

I was hoping for more from Dragon - but that too was sad. The Action 18 was ONE SHELF and all they had were some carded figures that came out last year. No sign of new figures and the guy at the booth had to stop and think when I said "Action 18?" They did have AMAZING small scale stuff but just didn't seem concerned with 1:18 at all.

The saddest might have been Dusty Trails - they had two pathetic souls sitting in front of the carded paras and S2 6" series - both which are about a year old They did have a couple of the larger SoF figures which were awesome but typically static. They had 3 1:18 figures on display (Swat, Modern in Nato Camo, and WWII w/ Thompson) but they were small - too small to mix in with other lines, and the only articulation was at the shoulder. They were a big let-down. Detail was great but you couldn't get more than one of each.....And there was NO SIGN OF THE WESTERN LINE. What a joke - they hyped it up and didn't even break out a stage coach or Cowboy. Nothing!

Granted this was Sunday which is for guests and some of the booths might not have been showing everything, but I would have lost all faith in the hobby if not for 21st.

[aferguson]

i'm starting to realize that toy fair is not what it once was. Many manufacturers seem to be making token appearances and some (like McFarlane) don't go at all.

Doesn't really concern me; just an observation. I have little doubt we're in for many nice surprises this year. It's better the surprises are spread out anyway...less waiting time to see the stuff when announced and it's fun having new info flow in all year long rather than getting bombarded once a year and then no news for many months.

I think i heard the Dusty is going to re-do their 6 inch figures in 4 inch format as well. Did i not? That would be really cool if they did.

[digger]

That makes sense - the redo. The 3 little guys I saw looked like the Swat, WWII and modern guys that have already come out in 6 inch. The swat guy had the doorway and everything, that's why I said you could only really get one of each.

I did see a couple of the new McFarlane guys, but it was not a full booth, just a table with them and signs. Two were production pieces (it seemed) and they were amazing but also static. To me comparing static pieces to figures is apples and oranges....but they were obviously really cool and detailed as hell.....

[Threetoughtrucks]

Opening day this year was a big disapointment for my two reps who attend every year. Since they had "Press" ID's most factory reps ignored them when they tried to ask questions. The Dragon guys just waived them over to a display of freebees of 1:144 tanks. Wouldn't even talk to my friends.

Some looked at the passes and when they saw the passes were not "buyers", they turned away in mid-sentence in order to look for "buyers".

The single exception was 21c. Their day was made after that visit. They spoke with Mike Cordero and were impressed with his knowledge and attitude. The fact that they were "bottom feeder press" didn't bother Mr. Cordero. A gentleman. The information they got has been mentioned on this board. If Ski was there I'm sure he already has their '05 catalog.

My guys are going back the final day of the fair, we'll see what develops.

TTT

[Teamski]

I got a couple copies of the catalog. Unfotunately, they didn't have it on CD, so I might go ahead and scan it for everybody to see tommorow.

Without knowing faces, it was just about impossible to know that a person was from the board. I was lucky to catch Dirk and tko211 much less digger himself!

-Ski

[luftpanzer]

Oh man Dragon was giving a way freebies? I was there and didnt know.

[Threetoughtrucks]

The Dragon freebees were from a line called "Can Do Pocket Army". I got a Jagpanther and a M2/M3 Bradley.

Neat little guys but 1:144. Both are dated 2003 and both come with a clear plastic display case and a diorama base with tracks crisscrossing the base. Can't beat the price.

My wife and daughter loved these little guys but I could see the wheels turning in their little brains..."Yea, great, the big dope can collect a hundred and they will all fit in a drawer.....yea, that's the ticket.....maybe I can get that 1:6 helicopter off the dining room table, or those tanks and truck off the coffee table.....maybe",

21c in 1:18 and 1:6 rules in this corner of the Isle of Staten.

TTT

[red69charger]

Does anybody have a link to a picture of this?

[digger]

Charger - go to Area 21's coverage of the Toy Fair and you will see pictures of S2 & S3 w/ skirts. There might be some on figures.com also.

[Threetoughtrucks]

My guys went back to the Fair the last day. They spoke with a gentleman at the 21c booth who said he was involved in the design (or he was the designer) of the Avenger. He was very knowledgable and said the Avenger would be ready in "a couple of months".

That sure would be nice.

As a side note a couple of guys at the 21c booth took two RC 1:6 Stuarts into the aisles and proceeded to race them around, in the process hitting some other makers displays. My kind of guys. Things get loose on the last few hours of the Fair. They got a ton of freebees in their interest fantasy toys but no more little tanks. I told them to check out FOV to see if they had any freebee 1:16 King Tigers but all they got from FOV was a lousy catalog. Oh well.

TTT

[Teamski]

I'm sure they were talking with Roy.....

-Ski

[tmanthegreat]

Lets hope the "couple of months" timeframe for the Avenger sticks! That would mean they could show up around May. 21st has recently surprised us with a couple of earlier-than-expected releases, however.

[JOC]

May could be the time frame. Ryan, at Toy Federation answered my email and said that he was at the show and came back with the same time frame from 21st., for the Avenger.