Hi Guys,
First of all a big thank you to all those who have said or written nice things about the special 25th Anniversary issue of ‘COLLECTOR’.
Believe me it was hard work… a lot harder than you might think but I hope you enjoyed it. I would also publicly like to thank all of our contributors. In case you’re wondering why we picked certain people and not others to write pieces… Well, we actually compiled a list of over 100 potential writers… this was made up of collectors… dealers… competitors… and people ‘ in house’ at K&C. We put all the names into a hat and chose 20… I pre-selected Laura… Helen... and yours truly beforehand. Sorry about that but what’s the point of having power if you can’t abuse it!!
Anyway all’s well that ends well. For those that missed out we’ll do it all over again in another 25 years… so don’t get disheartened or disappointed. Now here are a few other answers to some points brought up in other posts…
1. Bedford OYD Truck
a. Paint scheme... we thought about ‘Mickey Mouse’ but decided on the early-war plain olive drab to match our fall of France, Dunkirk period.
b. Desert Bedford… We will release a ‘desertised’ version later… and yes the Afrika Korps captured quite a few and it will be easy to convert.
c. Fixed Canopy... Because of the ‘rope-style tie downs’ it was not possible to do this vehicle with the removable canopy. Well spotted my friend NMROCKS from New Mexico.
2. Napoleon & his Generals
I read the snide little comment from First Legion about us supposedly imitating them… Really sir, you flatter yourself… Much as I admire and like what you guys are doing, K&C (and myself) are fully capable of coming up with our own ideas.
I see from your own ‘workshop bench’ that you will be releasing charging and galloping French Cuirassiers at some time in the future. Surely you’re not imitating our own Cuirassiers which have been out on the market since last year?
In this business and hobby occasionally all of us who are ‘ploughing the same field’ come up with concepts that are not a million miles apart. Even you must see that… or perhaps not.
3. Desert Sand
On a lighter note… a couple of years ago one of our collectors visited Egypt and made a ‘pilgrimage’ to the El Alamein battlefield. His father and uncle had both fought in the battle as soldiers in the famous 51st Highland Division (part of Monty’s 8th Army). Whilst there he picked up some old, rusty cartridge cases and filled a little jar with sand (just like in Saving Pvt. Ryan). When he returned to Hong Kong he gave me some of the sand which I used on a small desert display in our head office. Gordon used the last of it on Louis Badolato’s ‘Lost Desert Airfield’.
Sorry Louis, we never told you that but I thought the guys might be interested… Hope you don’t mind…
And that… is that!
Best wishes and happy collecting,
Andy C.
P.S. Almost forgot… Rising Prices
A big thank you to my friend Steven Chong for explaining very well why things cost what they cost. Alas the day of the inexpensive quality product have gone just like low gas prices. At the same time collectors continue to justifiably want more variety and more detail. I think all of us on the production side wish to meet that demand but… it does come at a higher price.
