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

[vupa0101]

stopped in at target and they had these new 1:18 Navy Seal Sand Buggys for 15.99 i think, i looked for a brand but it looks like a brand i have never heard of. looked real nice in tan desert colors. Its wierd how these all of a sudden show up like those 21st century stuff that came out a week before christmas. the other cool item i saw was the NEW FORCES OF VALOR BRAVO TEAM modern paratroopers w/ working parachutes. they looked NEAT! upon close inspection they look like the reg figs but with the paratroop bags. I really hope you can take off the bags though, the packaging screams LOOK AT ME! the new year is looking good!

[vupa0101]

so i went back for another look at the buggy and its actually 14.99. The brand is called, FREEDOM OPS NETWORK and you can supposedly enter a code online to use thier interactive website. The put out the freedom ops network figs as well but they looked larger than 3 3/4" more like 4 1/2" They looked cool, but not as cool as the FOV stuff IMO. I think those are the guys that are supposed to go in the Buggy. heres the link to their website:

http://www.freedomopsnet.com/

The site has aLOT OF LOADING as if it were a game or something WTF!

[Jesse James]

I've seen a set of shots of that new line Vupa, and they're pretty bad.  And like you said they're 4.5" scale, for some unexplainable reason, so they're definitely not in line with the other military lines out there.  That's pretty lame given the company could've glommed onto the 1:18 scale and probably done better sales-wise.

The buggy looks nice for a buggy (which 2 already exist in 1:18), but the figures aren't great.    The price makes them pretty horrific actually, at $8 a pop too, even if they were small scale.  The $8 pricepoint is what figures with working chutes and jumpgear are in 1:18, so that bites.

FOV's got new modern paras with removable jumpgear so that rocks.  I hope they branch out and slip in special forces somewhere, or maybe take a stab at German WW2 Paras next.  BBI's got the WW2 American Para front covered, so seeing some Falschirmjagers from FOV at Target would rock, especially if you can take their jump gear off like that.  German Paras are LONG overdue.

[ak]

All of the 21st Century Toys threads have been merged into this thread, so if you got anything, news, thoughts, etc, here's the place to do it! 21st Century RULES!

As usual, Toys R Us had no new Star Wars figures, but as I turned around to admire the 21st Century Line, I realised that their entire initial XD line of about 9 figures (not counting Battle of Buldge figures) was on CLEARANCE for .90 cents a piece!

I snagged 12 figures in all, unfortunately someone had already snagged all the German Machine Gunners, and Mp44 Soldiers.... BUT, I got all the others (and a few doubles of infantry and BAR troops)!

Awesome score, and of course, I've got pics to proove it.  

21st Century owns Hasbro. I'm so happy, I plan on getting some of the Battle of Buldge figures too.

yes  ;)but where can i buy power team figures in canada(toronto)

[Jesse James]

Power Team Elite figures?  Was that your question ak?

They were sold through J.C. Penney this Christmas, but otherwise the only place that generally gets them in is Big Lots here in the U.S.  Though the selection for Power Team Elite at Big Lots wasn't a fraction as good in 2008 as it was the past 2 years.    Very disappointing, but ultimately it probably saved me a couple hundred bucks.

[efranks]

I guess it wasn't just me that saw a lackluster turnout for Power Team at Big Lots.  In 2007 they had so much product that I had trouble deciding on only one or two pieces.  For 2008 my store had absolutely NO PTE figures.

I'm kind of ticked off because this year I was going to pick up a couple of the 12" sets that I've passed on the previous two years.  I thought it was just my local store as military toys don't do very well locally.

   E...

[Jesse James]

It was across the country (or at least as far a BL's get across it anyway) E...

A buddy of mine in Cleveland who loves PTE figures (and I usually supply him with literally dozens and dozens of them) was really bummed.  He did see some more than I did, bridges and command centers, but every store had very little.

I saw mostly towers, howitzers, and deluxe single figure packs...  I saw very few Humvees, boats, and absolutely NO figure 3-packs which really sucks.  I like the 3-pack that includes the steel hedgehog in it, and couldn't buy any of that set this year.  Totally sucked.

I did get 3 Abrams tanks, which I use for SW customizing, and those come with 2 hedgehogs.  That was nice.  I got a couple towers which are a great toy for SW too, but ultimately this year with a massive bust on PTE. 

Now last year...  My god.  I got like 3 bridges, 2 command centers...  And that was just the big stuff.  It was a sick, sick year in 2007 for PTE.

[efranks]

The two sets that I kept looking at and putting off were the Trail Walker set with the mule and the Military Life set with the bunk beds and locker.

This year I was going to pick up a couple 3" sets I'd put off as well.  Now with KB gone, everything has dried up. 

I looked on the M&C Toys site and they list Dollar General as a US retailer but the list is old.  Maybe I'll poke around some other outlets and see what I can come up with.

   E...

[Jesse James]

Try Big Lots E, that's been their "main" area for the last 3 years really...  This year though, again, slim pickin's at best...  I don't recall anything 12" in particular actually...  3" there's a TON of things they make, but nothing much was available this year.

What's really irksome is there's pictures of some Chinese/Russian vehicles that are NEW, and available overseas at least, and we're wishing we could get some.  One, a tank, is actually appearing to be to-scale and matches alongside an Abrams pretty well (a to-scale one like BBI's), and it sucks that the Chinese tank can't be picked up so it would look good on a shelf with the Abrams ya know?

I also wanted to get a COmmand Center, as I wanted to make a 2-level one out of a new one and the extra one I have...  The building has a lot of potential for Star Wars displaying I think, as most PTE stuff does, or GI JOe displays...  Their bunk set for 3.75" figures are the kidn of thing I would've gone nuts over as a kid, for in the Joe base.  Working footlockers too...  Very cool.  If I had a room I could just devote to collection display, like a full size 13x13 room or something, I'd have a massive set-up of just bunkers, and "daily soldier life" for Star Wars, using stuff like that.  A Stormtrooper Barracks?  That'd kick much ass IMO.

[efranks]

Big Lots is literally 100 feet from my apartment.  That's where I've picked up sets before.  For Christmas 2007 they had a 12 or 15 foot long shelf section dedicated to 3.75" and 12" PTE sets.  They had pretty much everything that PTE released I think. 

Then 2008, not a single piece.  Like I said in that earlier post, I just assumed that my local store didn't get any this year because military toys don't seem to sell well here.  Ithaca is very liberal and anti anything like war, military, etc.  I just figured that they didn't sell well so BL didn't bother to stock anything this year.

That's why I was surprised to hear that BL in other areas didn't have as much as in previous years. 

TRU has some nice sets like that A-10, F22 and F18.  If I had the room and money I'd be buying this stuff and building displays like crazy.

Next time I cruise through the Binghamton area I might hit up the BL stores and a couple other places.  See what might be sitting around on a shelf somewhere.

   E...

[Jesse James]

I don't think BL's do much demographic research from what I recall of their management business model (though that was at least 8 years ago that I learned anything about it)...  WM does a lot, but I think Big Lots stores are pretty vanilla and ship about the same general stuff to all stores.

Their PTE displays of a couple years ago, my god they were glorious.  That whole aisle dedicated to it was fantastic.  It just made my wallet weep at the time because even though it's all inexpensive, it mounted up fast.  I'm grabbing 3 $20 tanks, 5 $10 towers, etc.    NOw I've got it all hanging around and no idea what I'mg onna do with most of it, but I'm glad I bought when I did because it's feast or famine with that ****, and that's what annoys me.  If you could count on it every year, I'd pace myself.  It's just great stuff.

If you want anything PTE, check out Marauder Gun Runners...  They have some of the accessories.  Not sure if they have a deal with the company that owns the molds in china or what, but they seem to get PTE gear in regularly at least.  Too bad they can't be a regular outlet for things like watch towers, the bridge, and hedgehogs.  I'd probably pick up some of each every now and then.  Same with the horses, camels, bunks/lockers, and the full size tent (which I don't have, and really wanted a few of it too).

[efranks]

I know what you mean about adding up fast.  Over the last week or so I've been scouring various websites looking for both 1:18 and 1:6 items for a couple projects I've been thinking about and the total runs up fast.

But the up side of that is that there are that many small etailers out there selling stuff I'm interested in.  Mauraders is one, Small Joes, Project ARE, Costswold, Good Stuff To Go, Monkey Depot, Tom Calhoun's site.  I'd love to be able to send them all few bucks to support them but have to pick and choose right now.  Same with the PTE stuff, so I'll just keep an eye out and if I run across it I'll pick it up.

   E...

[Jesse James]

If you want a set of the modern military figures E, let me know.  I got a couple cases of them recently and a set is $20 for all 4 (21st Century's modern, which were only sold online).  There's 2 "Eastern Warriors" and 2 spec. forces guys.

[efranks]

Thanks for the offer Jesse but I'll pass.  In the 1:18 scale I was thinking of getting a set or two of the camel set and maybe a horse or two to go with some Indy figures.

   E...

[Jesse James]

Some cool deals came up for 1:18 stuff recently...  I wound up snagging some of the SS sets that used to be exclusive to SmallJoes for a paultry $9.95 each.  I also got 8 D-Day tankers for cheap too, and there were even better deals.  Series 2 Panthers were like $25 and the Series 1 PAK-40 Anti-Tank gun was like $10. 

The SS sets were something I wasn't totally interested in, but for the price I couldn't pass them up.  Owning SS guys in parade dress is meh to me....  I prefer the actual combat uniforms of WW2 soldiers and find that more interesting, but the sets are pretty big and you get a lot of figures.  For the cost of 2 full price figures I got like 12 or so figures in just one set!

The sets are sorta shoddy quality though.  Loose elbow joints abound, and the paintjobs are so-so...  Plus they used a couple grimacing/angry paratrooper headsculpts that simply look like hell.  They should've made them all using neutral headsculpts just with different hair colors if they had to use a duplicate headsculpt, but I digress.

So that's been it for 1:18...  I'm actually considering selling all my 1:18 armor, as much as I love it, and jumping into 1:16 scale armor.  There's a much, much, much, much larger array of items, and the scale difference isn't bad...  You can't display 1:18 and 1:16 armor together, but support vehicles and halftracks and whatnot look fine beside 1:16 tanks...  They make Sturmtigers, Jagdpanthers, Panzers of all kinds, Tiger I's, Panthers, and other tanks...  The variety is staggering, and to top it all off you get individually linked tracks, working suspension, lights/sounds, and the f'n things are RC baby!!!!  Some of them even smoke when they get "hit", and they kick back when their gun is fired.

How can you not love **** like that!?  If 1:18 tanks are going to $80-ish in price, why not shell out $20 more and get the same thing but higher quality in RC?