Louis Badolato
Lieutenant General
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2005
- Messages
- 17,202
Hello all. I just arrived back from Chicago, and I thought I would update everybody on the information I obtained and observations I made while walking the maze of rooms, meeting, greeting and, of course, purchasing.
First of all, let me report on the two most impressive things I observed (in no particular order):
(1) King & Country's Dioramas and new releases. Unbeknowst to Steven, when he posted the photos of Andy's room, most of what there was to see had been held up in customs (as had much of Figarti's products, more about that later). Fortunately, by Friday morning at 10:00 a.m., K&C's missing boxes had arrived, so let me take you through it. There were custom made dioramas by Gordon Neilson of K&C, which K&C would be willing to produce for collectors (talk to Gordon at the Kings X shop in San Antonio next week for details), each more impressive than the next. These include:
(a) the Saracen castle depicted above, which is made of wood, cardboard and foamboard - the photos are of the unfinished version, there are tons of cool banners on it, and the interior, which is mostly real wood scaffolding, it unbelievably detailed;
(b) an Alamo chapel diorama, which is about the coolest small diorama I have ever seen;
(c) a Battle of the Bulge Diorama consisting of a scratch built ruined church, graveyard, and ruined house across the street;
(d) a Sands of Iwo Jima diorama, which incorporates the new K&C defenses;
(e) a small Napoeonic Vignette (also depicted by Steven); and
(e) a tiny LAH display.
Andy has indicated that he and Gordon will be designing, producing and displaying new fantastic dioramas for each of the shows they attend. To provide further detail concerning the masproduced version of the Saracen Castle, Andy indicated that the gateway section (gate with two flanking small towers), the wall section to the right of it and the corner wall to the left of it have already been modeled for mass production as individually sold polystone parts which can be combined to make a castle facade (two towers flanking two wall sections and a gate), or, by adding additional wall sections and towers, a full three dimensional fortress at the collectors choosing.
(2) Figarti's new "Masterpiece Collection" Tiger Tank (5 versions!). I cannot state this too strongly: There has never been a better armored vehicle produced in any medium I am aware of than this tank. The tank opens (the top of the turret lifts off to reveal the turret's interior, the turret and top deck lifts off to reveal the interior of the chassis. The tank is 80% metal, 20% polyresin, and is constructed of in excess of 950 individual parts, including brass shells, and individual metal track links connected by pins. I swear the tank appears to be ready to start up and attack. At $300 it is expensive, but for those into realism (the "get real" crowd) it is a must have. I pre-ordered two of the five versions.
There was also a very nice Pegasus bridge prototype that Rick intends to produce if he can figure out a material both sturdy and light enough to ship while simultaneously sufficiently nice to match metal toy soldiers (i.e. not plastic).
Figarti had a very polished audio/visual presentation (Rick's dad is very charismatic, and makes an excellent ambassador for the company, as Andy is and does for K&C). Sadly, 10 new Korean sets were still stuck in customs, but kudos to Figarti for addressing the long overlooked "forgotten war".
An honorable mention (no pun intended) to Honour Bound for its excellent Bergepanther and German Field Kitchen sets. They were incredibly well sculpted and had some nice metal details, but (sorry get real guys) the I'm sure very realistic weathered paint schemes just didn't pop for me.
All in all I give the following grades to our manufacturers:
K&C: A+ for figures, A+ for dioramas and display, and a strong B for vehicles (they improved tracks looked very good).
Figarti: AA+++ for vehicles (they are so far out in front with the tiger, and also a remarkably well made LVT 4 Amtrak, that no one else is even close), an A- for dioramas (which improves to an A or an A+ if they can actually mass produce the Pegasus Bridge), but sadly, still a C- for the figures (I saw some improvement, but they are still way behind K&C, Honour Bound, Frontline, and Britains.
Honour Bound: A for vehicles (they are second only to Figarti) and A- for figures (they are second only to K&C). They had no dioramas or display, so I cannot grade this area. More later, time to spend some family time.
First of all, let me report on the two most impressive things I observed (in no particular order):
(1) King & Country's Dioramas and new releases. Unbeknowst to Steven, when he posted the photos of Andy's room, most of what there was to see had been held up in customs (as had much of Figarti's products, more about that later). Fortunately, by Friday morning at 10:00 a.m., K&C's missing boxes had arrived, so let me take you through it. There were custom made dioramas by Gordon Neilson of K&C, which K&C would be willing to produce for collectors (talk to Gordon at the Kings X shop in San Antonio next week for details), each more impressive than the next. These include:
(a) the Saracen castle depicted above, which is made of wood, cardboard and foamboard - the photos are of the unfinished version, there are tons of cool banners on it, and the interior, which is mostly real wood scaffolding, it unbelievably detailed;
(b) an Alamo chapel diorama, which is about the coolest small diorama I have ever seen;
(c) a Battle of the Bulge Diorama consisting of a scratch built ruined church, graveyard, and ruined house across the street;
(d) a Sands of Iwo Jima diorama, which incorporates the new K&C defenses;
(e) a small Napoeonic Vignette (also depicted by Steven); and
(e) a tiny LAH display.
Andy has indicated that he and Gordon will be designing, producing and displaying new fantastic dioramas for each of the shows they attend. To provide further detail concerning the masproduced version of the Saracen Castle, Andy indicated that the gateway section (gate with two flanking small towers), the wall section to the right of it and the corner wall to the left of it have already been modeled for mass production as individually sold polystone parts which can be combined to make a castle facade (two towers flanking two wall sections and a gate), or, by adding additional wall sections and towers, a full three dimensional fortress at the collectors choosing.
(2) Figarti's new "Masterpiece Collection" Tiger Tank (5 versions!). I cannot state this too strongly: There has never been a better armored vehicle produced in any medium I am aware of than this tank. The tank opens (the top of the turret lifts off to reveal the turret's interior, the turret and top deck lifts off to reveal the interior of the chassis. The tank is 80% metal, 20% polyresin, and is constructed of in excess of 950 individual parts, including brass shells, and individual metal track links connected by pins. I swear the tank appears to be ready to start up and attack. At $300 it is expensive, but for those into realism (the "get real" crowd) it is a must have. I pre-ordered two of the five versions.
There was also a very nice Pegasus bridge prototype that Rick intends to produce if he can figure out a material both sturdy and light enough to ship while simultaneously sufficiently nice to match metal toy soldiers (i.e. not plastic).
Figarti had a very polished audio/visual presentation (Rick's dad is very charismatic, and makes an excellent ambassador for the company, as Andy is and does for K&C). Sadly, 10 new Korean sets were still stuck in customs, but kudos to Figarti for addressing the long overlooked "forgotten war".
An honorable mention (no pun intended) to Honour Bound for its excellent Bergepanther and German Field Kitchen sets. They were incredibly well sculpted and had some nice metal details, but (sorry get real guys) the I'm sure very realistic weathered paint schemes just didn't pop for me.
All in all I give the following grades to our manufacturers:
K&C: A+ for figures, A+ for dioramas and display, and a strong B for vehicles (they improved tracks looked very good).
Figarti: AA+++ for vehicles (they are so far out in front with the tiger, and also a remarkably well made LVT 4 Amtrak, that no one else is even close), an A- for dioramas (which improves to an A or an A+ if they can actually mass produce the Pegasus Bridge), but sadly, still a C- for the figures (I saw some improvement, but they are still way behind K&C, Honour Bound, Frontline, and Britains.
Honour Bound: A for vehicles (they are second only to Figarti) and A- for figures (they are second only to K&C). They had no dioramas or display, so I cannot grade this area. More later, time to spend some family time.
