Official 1:18 Military Toys Thread (21st, BBI, FOV, etc)

[Ryan]

Google.

[Jesse James]

Another update, a biggie, is that I got 3 new items on clearance!  Never saw them before around my area then tonight at a less traveled WM they were there on sale.

My mother picked up for me:

-Pioeneer Hanomag...  This is the German halftrack with the bridge tracks and anti-tank gun.  Sweet ride for sure!  I love it.  And for $13 how do you complain?  I mean, this thing is better put together than the best Hasbro vehicle and cost less than 2 Star Wars figures...  Hell it cost less at full retail than 4 Star Wars figures...  That's pathetic (trust me folks, it ain't a rise in the cost of plastic that we're paying for these days).  $13 is what I paid, $22-ish is normal retail on these sized vehicles in XD.

-Rocket Pod Hanomag...  This is the German halftrack with wooden racks mounted on the outsides with heavy rockets in them.  This was a cheap hanomag the Germans could put together to pummel a position with rocket attacks, a very sweet ride and a neat variation on the hanomag sculpt.  This is my favorite of the 3 sculpts I have I think.  Again, a mere $13!  You can't beat that with a stick folks.

-PAK-40 Artillery piece...  The PAK-40 is sort of small for $20-ish full retail but it is made of many different parts, it unfolds for firing or it folds up for towing very accurately, it comes with a super poseable figure that has normal and cold weather gear and full weapons, it comes with 3 loose shells, and 3 ammunition crates filled with 3 shells (removable) in each crate...  It may not look like $22 worth of stuff, but you open it and it's got that and then some really, even a removable shovel to dig it out!  Again, $13.

She also picked me up a US Halftrack that was someone's repackaging job.  ****** job at that...  They replaced an Ardennes M3 halftrack with a regular green one.  ****.    I am returning this.  They also had a hardtop Humvee and Navy SEAL Tactical Vehicle circa vietnam era.  All $13.  A # of planes but she didn't know what was what on those.

And on a wholely different note, at my nearer WM by my gf's there were TONS upon TONS of Avengers, Stukas, PAK's, Hanomags of both types, the US Halftrack with the quad gun (AA gun), and other vehicles (Mutt's, Humvee's, etc.) on a pallet in Lawn & Garden tonight.  ALl wrapped up in plastic.  TONS of stuff, and hopefully some PAK's will be left over as well as a quad gun halftrack for me.  I need those!

[jedipurge]

Saw all these at my local wal-mart as well Jesse-on sale.  But it seems you got the better deal-$17 at mine down from $20 I believe.  I only really want the quad half track-sooooo much custom potential there.  I'll also take the german canon and maybe mount that on an AT-AT.  The canon kind of reminds me of the one on the AT-TE.

[Jesse James]

If I could find HT's on clearance I'd definitely be customizing some...  I tend to not double-up on my armor pieces in my collection, save for the Sherman, so if I find extras I'm all about using them for customizing.  Even if it's just to chop the thing up to use individual parts on larger scratch-built projects, it's cool stuff for sure for that purpose.

[Nirvana]

The only vehicles that I've seen are the Navy Seal Vietnam jeep (once) and some planes...I wish I could find some halftracks and PAK-40s...I would definitely customize some.

[Jesse James]

Oh man what a score tonight!

First, the figures were restocked with D-Day...  Picked over but lots left to grab if I'd had more money.

But the big score...  the massive pallet I saw was out, and all marked down in the lawn&garden area.  A pallet of XD at least 15 feet.  Tons of Avengers for $35 (regular $70).  Tons of PAK's, Hanomags, US Halftracks, US halftracks w/quad AA gun, 32X stuff galore...  Just tons of stuff.  Anything regularly $22-ish was $13 too.  I'm gonna nab some things as soon as I have some extra dough because, well, I just have too much **** going on this month with birthdays and valentine's next month...  I must have more though.  Great stuff...

They have Navy SEAL Mutt's, and other goodies mixed in there too.    And tons of it...  Check lawn & garden at WM because they're a toy graveyard right now.  TONS of overstock that never got out for X-Mas even.  Makes one wonder if stuff got held up at ports and couldn't make its way out in time for the holidays because it JUST seemed to arrive in bulk after X-Mas and into January.  And it's ALLLLL getting clearanced bigtime.

[Nirvana]

Great! I'm heading out to WalMart today for some regular shopping and I will definitely check out the lawn and garden. Do you know if any of the Hanomags come in a North Africa camo scheme?

[Jesse James]

I'm not sure of the 2 camo schemes...  I know one's not N. African, the Pioneer Wagon MIGHT be, but I'm not positive on that.  It could be Eastern Front too.

[Paul]

Those are not N. African Camo schemes.  N Afrika paint was a very Mustardy yellow and if they had any camo on them, it was brown splotches.  If you look at full size original pieces, Afrika Yellow and Ocre are very different colors, in smaller scale it is a bit harder.

The Pioneer wagon that I saw was in a 3 Color (Ordinance Tan[ocre], Green and Rust Brown) squiggle pattern.  Some variations of this are seen in both the East and Western Fronts.  That pattern was not proprietary to either Heer or Waffen SS.

The other I saw was in "Ambush" it was the Rocket Track.  Ambush was a very "Waffen SS" pattern and I have not seen any Heer Armor with that scheme. 

[Jesse James]

So the Rocket Hano is a Waffen SS Armor Unit (Ambush Camo Pattern) and the Pioneer is in a basic Wermacht camo...

Either particular to any given environment, Paul?  Like cold weather, autumn, spring, etc.?  I am curious mostly if you'd have seen any of these camos at any time of year...  Like did they slip by without a white wash in winter?  Were they all Spring?  Would either paintjob be suitable for D-Day set-ups?

[Paul]

Both are perfect for D-Day.

In 1943 the order was given that all moving pieces of armor were to be painted Ocre it was the individual units that in Late 43/Early 44 started doing camo.

In the winter White Wash was pretty much standard.  But it was water based, so a good Rain would take it off.  Ambush and "Squiggle" were Spring/Summer and Fall... unlike the reversible smock, they would have the paint job exposed as long as there was not snow on the ground.

[Jesse James]

OK cool Paul, thanks for those details...  Interesting stuff.  I have the one Panzer model (non-RC) and I think it matches up with the one Hano pretty well...  I don't have anything in Ambush.  I have just grey Tigers (or winter) and Ocre Panther...  Nothing special to them, though I prefer my winter Tiger (and would like to sell my plastic non-winter Tiger).

Got the RC Panzer in grey...  Love it.  One of my favorite pieces I think except you can't fit any figure into it.

[Jesse James]

The staff here let me know that 21st's showing at Toy Fair was sparse.  There's mostly effort there for them to sell their product I think and less showboating to sites since there is no XD dedicated site covering them like JD...  Should be.

Anyway, 21st is saying F it and showing off all the new **** on their own site...  Paul you'll love some of this stuff!  Holy crappoly!


German w/range finding gear...  Love it.  Says it's for the Pak-40 (which I just got a couple of tonight for cheap) but they had a surprise...  What he's REALLY for.


Images from our team should arrive too but 21st WAS showing off 2-packs of a German/GI at the Toy Fair show trying to sell them in sets.  I'd buy more if they were marketed cheaper in a single package like this, but so far I'm not sure this has a buyer.  It should though dammit.



And yes folks...  That's a KING TIGER TANK!  And yes, your eyes don't deceive you, that's an 88...  A big, beautiful, badass, 88. 

Now where's my Howitzer and allied field artillery?  We need it...  NOW.

[Paul]

I am going to be walking by the 21st C booth again today anyway and I will see if Chapman has any scoop on the King Tiger and 88.  Escpecially 88 Crew....

[Paul]

ok, I walked by and got some more info today....

King Tiger Hopefully by Fall.

88 is just about ready to go but the crew is the issue.  The guy with the range finder was definately designed for the 88.  The decision to include him with the gun is going to really be a price thing.  The retailer (s) want a certain price point and so that will determine whether the crew member comes with the gun or not.