Great Products (2 Viewers)

[Larry Allen]

Beer and chicken wings; for what I pay you for coming to Chicago with me, it should be champagne and caviar................:wink2:

Well actually, if it's really based on what I pay you, it's a cup of water and some saltines.......

Ya ...and the Saltines are at least 6 months old ...{sm2}

--- Larry

 

[wwiibuff]

Heuy Andy just wanted to say thanks for producing lots of great products they really do keep improving!

Looking forward to adding some more to my collection!

Scott

Scott,

I'm with you in this. Andy puts out some great stuff and nobody gives you more choice than K&C. Being predominately a WWII collector, K&C gives me so many fantastic options I can't possibly buy everything I want. It is fun to see what they come up month to month. The quality and variety of the poses on the figures is terrific. I have spoken with Andy on several occasions and he truly has a passion for the hobby. A credit I say.

 

[Panzer ace]

Ya ...and the Saltines are at least 6 months old ...{sm2}

--- Larry

Are the Saltines the correct scale? What color are they? And are they historically accurate?

There has got to be a Saltine expert on this forum.

 

[Guy]

I have to greatly agree, That is why I am coming back to buying K&C products. It has been getting better and better, I stopped because of the influence of reviews of fellow Forum Members. But, that will not stop me anymore.

Well said, my thoughts exactly ( I never stopped buying K& C)
guy

 

[Warrior]

Are the Saltines the correct scale? What color are they? And are they historically accurate?

There has got to be a Saltine expert on this forum.

If they have yellow stripes on the sides, the wrong turret number on the package, the pants aren't baggy enough or if the log is on the wrong side, I'm in big trouble.

Plus these are east coast saltines, so to be eating them in Chicago is historically inaccurate.

 

[sammy719]

If they have yellow stripes on the sides, the wrong turret number on the package, the pants aren't baggy enough or if the log is on the wrong side, I'm in big trouble.

Plus these are east coast saltines, so to be eating them in Chicago is historically inaccurate.

Hear ya there George, if I listened to every critique exspert on these forums of helmets not right, color of wood on a rifle, tracks wrong, etc, etc, etc, I would never own toy soldiers, as I enjoy the forum the only person who has to enjoy my collection is me...Sammy

 

[Warrior]

Sammy,
I officially gave up worrying about what other people think when I posted pictures on a wargaming forum of one of my dioramas; The Battle of Borodino, had about 3,000 figures on the table, took me about a day and a half to set it up, the first comment was "One of the flags your Russians are holding wasn't at that battle, that regiment was not there"..................ok, so you look at a diorama with 3,000 figures and you focus on one flag?

Wow, ok then.................

 

[spartan71]

Sammy,
I officially gave up worrying about what other people think when I posted pictures on a wargaming forum of one of my dioramas; The Battle of Borodino, had about 3,000 figures on the table, took me about a day and a half to set it up, the first comment was "One of the flags your Russians are holding wasn't at that battle, that regiment was not there"..................ok, so you look at a diorama with 3,000 figures and you focus on one flag?

Wow, ok then.................

That must be a sight to see, I would have been awed by every foot of that dio for days, weeks, even months. And for a person to focus on that one thing, is beyond frustrating....... that person has lost/ or never had the enjoyment of collecting.

 

[Phantom Warrior]

If they have yellow stripes on the sides, the wrong turret number on the package, the pants aren't baggy enough or if the log is on the wrong side, I'm in big trouble.

Plus these are east coast saltines, so to be eating them in Chicago is historically inaccurate.

George - we talked about this. Because of the torque from the front mounted transmission, the logs have to be on the correct side or the turning performance of the tank is severely degraded. That could mean the difference between life or death in a tank battle. Obviously that doesn't apply to tanks with twin transmissions.

Terry

 

[Phantom Warrior]

Sammy,
I officially gave up worrying about what other people think when I posted pictures on a wargaming forum of one of my dioramas; The Battle of Borodino, had about 3,000 figures on the table, took me about a day and a half to set it up, the first comment was "One of the flags your Russians are holding wasn't at that battle, that regiment was not there"..................ok, so you look at a diorama with 3,000 figures and you focus on one flag?

Wow, ok then.................

I think it's great that an observer was so interested in looking so closely at your display. Wouldn't it have been easier to thank him for his knowledge and attention to detail, then remove the one flag and get it right?

Terry

 

[sammy719]

That must be a sight to see, I would have been awed by every foot of that dio for days, weeks, even months. And for a person to focus on that one thing, is beyond frustrating....... that person has lost/ or never had the enjoyment of collecting.

Agree with you Spartan, when as a collector of toy soldiers has come to a point of generalizing every nook and cranny of a soldier, tank, etc. for the "critique" (which I can't stand that word) of a new set, me thinks it's time to pull up shop and carry on to another line of collecting...Sammy

 

[Phantom Warrior]

Agree with you Spartan, when as a collector of toy soldiers has come to a point of generalizing every nook and cranny of a soldier, tank, etc. for the "critique" (which I can't stand that word) of a new set, me thinks it's time to pull up shop and carry on to another line of collecting...Sammy

Or to achieve perfection like in the photos of Frank where all details are correct.

Terry

 

[spartan71]

I think it's great that an observer was so interested in looking so closely at your display. Wouldn't it have been easier to thank him for his knowledge and attention to detail, then remove the one flag and get it right?

Terry

Wow, seriously. There are 3000 figures and that guy focuses on one.... So the guy by passed the awe of 3000 pieces, and went straight to what is wrong?? And this guy enjoys collecting??, sounds like if he buys a piece, he goes to the micron telescope, and tries to find something wrong with it, instead of thinking its cool that it got made. I think he missed the part of enjoying being a collector, He enjoys being critical. To try to be always right, to be well, an egotist.

 

[Warrior]

George - we talked about this. Because of the torque from the front mounted transmission, the logs have to be on the correct side or the turning performance of the tank is severely degraded. That could mean the difference between life or death in a tank battle. Obviously that doesn't apply to tanks with twin transmissions.

Terry

Maybe the tank commander had dyslexia.

Or they were looking at the tank in a mirror.

I wasn't there in 1944, so I can't say for sure.

 

[Warrior]

I think it's great that an observer was so interested in looking so closely at your display. Wouldn't it have been easier to thank him for his knowledge and attention to detail, then remove the one flag and get it right?

Terry

My boss from the first sales job I ever had used a sales technique to motivate us when sales were down and salesmen where complaining at a meeting.

He got up at the front of the room, took out a white board, put a small black dot in the middle of the board and then ask us to write down what we saw and bring the paper to the front of the room and hand it to him; the guys who wrote they saw a white board were the top sellers, the guys who said they saw a big black dot were the guys struggling to get to goal.

It was his job to get the guys who saw a dot to see a white board.

Don't focus on the dot Terry.

 

[Phantom Warrior]

A contrarian view. If it is possible to overlook any historical inaccuracy in a model for fear of ruining someones enjoyment, then the opposite position must be perfection or the enjoyment is ruined for the historical perfectionist. Two very extreme views. Fortunately most collectors are more in the middle and willing to allow some inaccuracies without having their enjoyment ruined. Each collector can decide for himself. If the wrong flag in a display ruins the display for the absolute perfectionist, then so be it. If a collector likes a model but it was never in the scenario where it is used, then that's fine for him to be happy with it. But the information is out there and it will come to light.

Now who would like a rare Wittmann Afrika Korps King Tiger or a Haystack tank. But be warned - only one of them is real. :wink2:^&grin

Terry

 

[hotel3alpha]

HI ALL,

So, I read everyones posts and its funny because I was studying some new 1980's Seaforths I picked up and emailed Brad about them. We talked a bit about them and moved on. But, what is interesting as I was checking out my Seaforth next to it was a HMRN sailor from the 1990's and next to him was General Patton who I just picked loose the other day. As I was studying the 3 figures in front of me I admired some of the K&C evolution and said to myself "Wow, K&C has come a long way". It was a neat observation and here is the pic:



Anyway, my point is that yes K&C gets better everyday with new materials used, artists and research. In a conversation with Helen Mok this past TTSS, she told me that it is sometimes difficult to find production houses to make these soldiers for K&C because K&C is very strict in its requirements of a production house, i.e. they must not use dangerous chemicals, use child labor or abuse environmental standards. I found this extremely encouraging because sometimes you wonder what little kid slaved to make this or that from China. So, there is a whole "line" if you will behind each and every figure that comes to production and like Andy said, "Some are hot and some are not".

Now on to the critics, well there will always be the soothsayers, haters, neggies, hip shooters and arm chair quarterbacks. I have learned to tune them out and if you make a 3000 man diorama and ONE dude point out a historical inaccuracy well...**** em and lets see his 3000 man diorama with the right flags! That to me is a "mas puto" comment and uncool, but what ever man. If another dude is going to hem and haw about what type of feather should be in a soldiers hat then good gawd you got way too much time on your hands. However COMMA, if K&C produced a NEW figure...say...a new Roman with a Kung Fu uniform on, then we would ALL say...what the hell???

So, let it be man and as Sgt. Oddball would say from Kellys Heroes "Would you knock it off when them negative waves? Why don't you dig how beautiful it is out here? Why don't you say something righteous and hopeful for a change". And that is the attitude we should all have when there is a disturbance in the "Forum Force". Anyone can say anything about everything and so long as you are not spewing racial epitaphs or degrading your fellow man then we are cool. But just remember that opinions are like dorks.....................everybodys got one.

Long live King and Country,

John from Texas

 

[hotel3alpha]

My boss from the first sales job I ever had used a sales technique to motivate us when sales were down and salesmen where complaining at a meeting.

He got up at the front of the room, took out a white board, put a small black dot in the middle of the board and then ask us to write down what we saw and bring the paper to the front of the room and hand it to him; the guys who wrote they saw a white board were the top sellers, the guys who said they saw a big black dot were the guys struggling to get to goal.

It was his job to get the guys who saw a dot to see a white board.

Don't focus on the dot Terry.

My boss from my first sales job had a different tactic. Sell or go home. I had just got out of the service and was a broke 23 year old nothing. I did not want to go home as It was my dream to live in Japan. So, I sold until I left 5 years later and made my first million there. I was single at the time and came back to the US half way broke (I learned my lesson the first time to save) and family in tow. My second sales boss said "how much do you want to make?". I did not have an answer, but soon went on to make my second, third, fourth and so on millions. The economy tanked, but this time I was well prepared for anything (thank God) and my new sales boss (my wife) said "lets do this" to a new company and here we are!!!

Funny thing is I am still broke...and even more so now with being a collector.

John from Texas

 

[jazzeum]

Nice posts by my friend John. The variety of offering from K & C over the years has been monumental, from the glossy era to Arnhem (just picked up my second Jeep) to the present time (just picked up the Monty Grant). Some great stuff over the years and interesting stuff still coming. Had I the room

Particularly glad to hear about K & C's production and social standards ^&cool

Brad

 

[Sentaapua]

Heuy Andy just wanted to say thanks for producing lots of great products they really do keep improving!

Looking forward to adding some more to my collection!

Scott

Fully agree Scott! K&C may certainly not be my only source of TS, but truth is, it’s by far my main source and favorite manufacturer!