King & Country
1st Lieutenant
- Joined
- May 23, 2005
- Messages
- 4,984
Hi Guys,
Every few weeks brother Gordon takes a trip around some of Hong Kong’s lesser-known street markets looking for interesting model items that he can use in his dioramas and displays.
Imagine his surprise when he came upon a stall selling lots of toy soldiers and military vehicles. Gordon quickly checked out the vendor’s display to see if there was any K&C.
Fortunately for us there was not… however he did spot among a host of old Del Prados, what looked like a pretty large collection of… Collector’s Showcase and First Legion.
He recognized CS’s relatively new Marders and Tigers selling for just US$15 each! Plus some of their newer American Civil War figures going for only US$5 a piece.
Next to all the CS product was some First Legion… Napoleonic Old Guard mostly and... what looked suspiciously like their upcoming Russian houses… priced at about US$35 a building. What also caught his eye were some really nice Eastern Front WWII figures… Gordon picked a couple up and inspected the bases but alas, there was no name, just a plain, black coloured base.
So, to be honest, we can’t say they were or were not First Legion. The salesman himself said they were just samples and would be available in a couple of weeks time.
Gordon thought the painting style and sculpting definitely looked first class and like FL. So, who knows?
Producing in China, as many of us do, has many advantages… it can also have its fair share of drawbacks. This sort of thing… unofficial selling of product is more common than you might think.
Over the years K&C has stumbled upon some of our own products being unofficially sold in street markets… model shops and, in one major case, a well-known department store in Bangkok!!!
Sadly, it’s not unknown for factories to do a little extra “run-on” for their own profit… or for rejected goods to suddenly reappear. Sometimes, as I’ve experienced, if there is a dispute over quality or payment then the factory just “dumps” the product to make a quick buck.
Finally, there is the unscrupulous foreman or factory manager who just sells a box or two of someone’s product to a mate of his and pockets the money.
In the past K&C has fired factories over this and, in one case brought a prosecution against (and won) a factory manager for illegally selling our product without our knowledge or approval.
All manufacturers hate to see this and I would urge collectors never to buy “cut-price bargains” no matter how cheap they are. Ultimately it harms the hobby and the business.
Unfortunately while Gordon was inspecting all this stuff along came a certain collector (a member of this Forum) who then purchased a pretty big chunk of the CS and FL. When Gordon told him about the illegal status of what he was buying the response was, “So what, when I see a bargain, I’m going to take advantage of it!”
Sad but true.
Oh well such is life.
Best wishes and happy collecting!
Andy C.
Every few weeks brother Gordon takes a trip around some of Hong Kong’s lesser-known street markets looking for interesting model items that he can use in his dioramas and displays.
Imagine his surprise when he came upon a stall selling lots of toy soldiers and military vehicles. Gordon quickly checked out the vendor’s display to see if there was any K&C.
Fortunately for us there was not… however he did spot among a host of old Del Prados, what looked like a pretty large collection of… Collector’s Showcase and First Legion.
He recognized CS’s relatively new Marders and Tigers selling for just US$15 each! Plus some of their newer American Civil War figures going for only US$5 a piece.
Next to all the CS product was some First Legion… Napoleonic Old Guard mostly and... what looked suspiciously like their upcoming Russian houses… priced at about US$35 a building. What also caught his eye were some really nice Eastern Front WWII figures… Gordon picked a couple up and inspected the bases but alas, there was no name, just a plain, black coloured base.
So, to be honest, we can’t say they were or were not First Legion. The salesman himself said they were just samples and would be available in a couple of weeks time.
Gordon thought the painting style and sculpting definitely looked first class and like FL. So, who knows?
Producing in China, as many of us do, has many advantages… it can also have its fair share of drawbacks. This sort of thing… unofficial selling of product is more common than you might think.
Over the years K&C has stumbled upon some of our own products being unofficially sold in street markets… model shops and, in one major case, a well-known department store in Bangkok!!!
Sadly, it’s not unknown for factories to do a little extra “run-on” for their own profit… or for rejected goods to suddenly reappear. Sometimes, as I’ve experienced, if there is a dispute over quality or payment then the factory just “dumps” the product to make a quick buck.
Finally, there is the unscrupulous foreman or factory manager who just sells a box or two of someone’s product to a mate of his and pockets the money.
In the past K&C has fired factories over this and, in one case brought a prosecution against (and won) a factory manager for illegally selling our product without our knowledge or approval.
All manufacturers hate to see this and I would urge collectors never to buy “cut-price bargains” no matter how cheap they are. Ultimately it harms the hobby and the business.
Unfortunately while Gordon was inspecting all this stuff along came a certain collector (a member of this Forum) who then purchased a pretty big chunk of the CS and FL. When Gordon told him about the illegal status of what he was buying the response was, “So what, when I see a bargain, I’m going to take advantage of it!”
Sad but true.
Oh well such is life.
Best wishes and happy collecting!
Andy C.
