So, to sum it up, would you think they don't sell very well
Over my 35 years of collecting I have noticed that Russian figures, vehicles and aircraft have never been popular in the military model industry. Germans have long been the most popular country to collect in this hobby, closely followed by American based items.
There are a number of reasons why Russia is down the list, including:
1) Western centric thinking: we focus on
where British, Commonwealth and American soldiers fought, and
who they fought against. Add to this all the western centric movies etc we have seen during our lives.
2) Political: Russia's alliance with Germany until June 1941 including their partial occupation of Poland etc. Later, when Russia became our allies they did not prove to be very reliable, and of course there was the subsequent Cold War.
3) Military Conduct: Military collectors tend to favor collecting subjects that represent honor, glory and professionalism in war. The Eastern Front displayed little of these and was a hate filled inferno with little quarter given or expected. The Germans started the conflict of course and we are well aware of what the Nazi regime was responsible for. However the behavior of the Russian troops when invading Germany was even worse. Russian soldiers were allowed to do pretty much what they wanted to do to the Civilian population.
4) Track record: Most dealers I have spoken to say Eastern Front models, especially Russians are not very popular. And you should also consider that Andy C. from K & C has said they are poor sellers. There is also the apparent longer term availability of Russian based items after retirement.
I would say the above is most applicable to the more conservative Baby Boomer generation of collectors, with perhaps less buyer resistance in younger collectors.
Setting aside my thoughts on this, the new range of figures looks terrific and if they don't sell the Eastern Front concept then nothing will.