How do you improve the best? (1 Viewer)

[VIRIATO]

Hi,
A certain Mr. Andy definitely has the correct answer to this question but anyway here it goes. What do you think can be improved about K&C?
In my opinion, K&C figures can hardly be improved, they are just perfect and light years away from any other manufacturer.
I believe K&C vehicles, though ranked among the very best ( I can only think of Minichamps also on the podium, though differently styled and scaled ), have some room for improvement. I would like to get moving tracks and opening hatches. The rest is just fantastic.
WWII speaking, I would like to get other battle fronts ( Burma or a newer Arnhem, Eastern front seems to be around the corner ), though lack of variety does not seem to be a problem right now...
Antoher point: with all due respect ( after all I am just a mere amateur consumer ) I do remain unconvinced about K&C's price policy. Why can't a consumer get a bargain when getting a new K&C set ( let's forget about the retired ones ), and benefit from free competition between sellers?
Well,that's all of what I can remember right now...

L'agent provocateur ( pour le moment ),
Paulo

 

[vandilay]

I,m sure they will keep improving,their is always room for improvement as
they say.I personaly think K and C,s pricing is a very good idea .With prretty much standard pricing [mostly anyway] It protects both retailers and the
value of our own collections.
Know one wins in a price war ,although the consumer gets them cheaper,
If they ever sell themselves ,they have to discount below the retailers who discount .And prices just end up in a downwards spirral.
King and country must be about the only company whos sets can be resold at or about retail [not incl retired pieces of course].

 

[Louis Badolato]

I believe improvement of the vehicles with better bogie wheels and tracks as well as hatches that open and close like those on the old wood vehicles is pretty much all that's left to improve. I agree that the figures are nearly perfect, but I'm sure Andy will find a way to improve them as well.

 

[OzDigger]

Paulo, You would get few arguments about the detail of their figures that's for sure, but there is always some room for improvement I guess

Figure Sets
* I would like to see fewer figures in prone (lying down) positions. I tend to avoid the sets containing a prone position as those figures don't seem to fit in with the others in a display. Even when setting up dioramas I'm always left with these lazy guys, wondering where I'm going to put them. I even prefer figs with heavy machine guns to be carrying them or firing them from the hip etc rather than lying-firing.

Polystone Vehicles
* Trucks: I hate the blue painted windows in their trucks, but I can't think how they can be improved - any ideas guys.

* Tracked Vehicles: I would also like to see significant improvement in the detail of the wheels, suspension and tracks. I rarely push my 'fully functional' tracked FOV tanks around, as they may just break, so I would be happy if the K & C tracks just 'looked' like they'd turn.

* Full lengthed figures would be much better than the 'cut-offs' often encounted. Some positions such as drivers I guess have to be 'cut-off' but most other crew postions could be accomodated full length with minimum changes to moulds imo.

 

[Eazy]

Hi,

I believe K&C vehicles, though ranked among the very best ( I can only think of Minichamps also on the podium, though differently styled and scaled ), have some room for improvement. I would like to get moving tracks and opening hatches. The rest is just fantastic.
...


Paulo

The new Dragon Armor die cast 1/35 Tiger I apparently gives the Minichamps one a run for it's money. If Dragon had made it in 1/30 scale K&C would have had a major competitor.

I do love the K&C vehicles though. As pure display pieces they are second to none. Only the tracks and suspension need improvement and i think with the introduction of Honour Bound to the market that is something K&C is going to have to address.

 

[VIRIATO]

I,m sure they will keep improving,their is always room for improvement as
they say.I personaly think K and C,s pricing is a very good idea .With prretty much standard pricing [mostly anyway] It protects both retailers and the
value of our own collections.
Know one wins in a price war ,although the consumer gets them cheaper,
If they ever sell themselves ,they have to discount below the retailers who discount .And prices just end up in a downwards spirral.
King and country must be about the only company whos sets can be resold at or about retail [not incl retired pieces of course].

Hi Vandilay,
Strictly from a consumer point of view: I believe our collections would be sufficiently protected because the value of the product always goes up once retired, the quality is just too good and sets keep getting retired relatively frequently. Other manufacturers allow «more pricing freedom» and suffer nothing in terms of product quality or value once retired. An example: MInichamps tanks-I can find good prices for them on E-Bay or out of E-Bay, but once they are retired ( just look at the retired Panthers or Jagdpanthers ) their value skyrockets.

As someone said before, just my 2 cents,
Paulo

 

[vandilay]

Hi Paulo

I suppose i have based my opinion on the other companys i collect ,I.e britains and imperial.Britains especialy i feel have done themselves no favours in this regard .sets that orginaly retailed for hundreds of dollars can be bought for a fraction on the secoundary market [maybe this is just supply and demand ]
Its always great to get a bargain,but i,m more than happy to pay a fair price for something if i know i,m on a level playing field with other consumers.

retired pieces are a little different as production numbers and the number of
collectors, is maybe mainly what drives the prices of these.

cheers Rob

 

[fishead19690]

I,ve got one complaint about the napoleonics and its not a real big deal but the size of the guard grenadiers to the voltigeurs is off. The guard were the tallest men in the army and the voltigeurs were the smallest. I think in the future you should reflect this a little better. And also when it comes to the cavalry also becuase heavy cavalry were big men on big horses and light cavalry were small men on small horses.This is something that all the other companies always miss also.

 

[Fullyautomatic]

I agree that the track issue is something that needs improvement for K&C and that might already be in the works with HB's latest pic's and Figarti already doing it. Maybe Andy has this already done for his latest upcoming Panther and was saving it for then. I would also like to see K&C get away from the relaxed poses of all their vehicle crews and introduce some more battle like poses/sculpts. It seems everyone in the tank crews both Allied and Germans has binoculars around their neck but no one using them to see through. No more coffee drinking Brit's or cigarette smoking GI's.Its really hard to place these vehicles in battlefield diorama's with everyone on a relaxed break. The Limited Tiger was very well done but hopefully future vehicles will show forward ,halt or fire facial and arm poses. The Last Sherman release did have a crewman manning the 50 cal and I was hoping that was a sign of more to come.
Just my input...

 

[OzDigger]

I agree that the track issue is something that needs improvement for K&C and that might already be in the works with HB's latest pic's and Figarti already doing it. Maybe Andy has this already done for his latest upcoming Panther and was saving it for then. I would also like to see K&C get away from the relaxed poses of all their vehicle crews and introduce some more battle like poses/sculpts. It seems everyone in the tank crews both Allied and Germans has binoculars around their neck but no one using them to see through. No more coffee drinking Brit's or cigarette smoking GI's.Its really hard to place these vehicles in battlefield diorama's with everyone on a relaxed break. The Limited Tiger was very well done but hopefully future vehicles will show forward ,halt or fire facial and arm poses. The Last Sherman release did have a crewman manning the 50 cal and I was hoping that was a sign of more to come.
Just my input...

I think those Brit's would be having a cup of tea, not coffee old chap

 

[sceic2]

I have seen a very few pictures of the early K&C glossy issues. Some have said that they seem crude compared to the newer releases. I cannot offer a judgment, as I have not actually seen any of the older sets in person, other than the first issues of the WWII series. I have or still own all of these sets, although I have sold all DD1 up to DD28. I also have or had the WS series, except for WS1 to WS4. Again, this Napoleonic addiction absolutely forced me to sell all of them up to WS23. It appeared that as these set' numbers got larger, the quality got better.

To me, K&C has made a strategic decision to continue with improvements. I appreciate the thoughtful comments that everyone has made concerning their vision for improvement, but I would hope that Andy understands that I, and I am assuming others associated with the forum, very much appreciate the work his company has done to date.

Now, with saying that, it is a heavy burden that K&C has placed upon itself. For to always be improving, a company must make efforts to out perform itself in order to satisfy the customer’s expectations. There is no doubt in my military mind that Andy will do what is best for K&C and that improvement is a "hallmark" of his companies business plan.

So endth the lecture, class dismissed. Michael

 

[Louis Badolato]

There is no question that Andy has constantly and successfully strove to improve the level of quality of his production to the point where only extremely expensive Russian figures exceed K&C's. I feel confident that K&C will continue to improve, so watch out St. Petersberg!

 

[Fullyautomatic]

Thanks for the correction OzDigger.Tea it would probably be. The Daimler set I have is a great one and was one of my very first K&C purchases and I believe there were two made,mine being the "tea time" one.
We all appreciate the work Andy has done sceic2 but he seems to be always open to comments and ideas for improvements which makes having a forum like this so valuable to us collectors but also a great marketing resource for not only K&C but all the other companies and representatives that visit the TreeFrog board. That is what we provide, ideas and comments and of course there are some demands(you know who you are ). I believe since this board has started that we have seen some changes for the better that would never have come or come as fast if something like this would not have been started. Thanks again Shannon and Pete.

 

[OzDigger]

Well said guys. I like to identify problems in the hope they'll be fixed - sometimes I even have the solution However it's rare that a company these days will actually listen to customers and address problems identified and K & C is one of the few.

I haven't seen many early K & C issues, vehicles or figures, so I can't comment on those. However I have certainly noticed the improvements over recent years. I have said before that I prefer the detail that diecast can provide in model vehicles compared to polystone. However I also understand that diecast production requires significant investment in machinery requiring high volumes to recover costs.

Clearly polystone provides a good compromise in lower production runs pending expansion of the customer base. And with some ongoing tweeking with such things as tracks etc the vehicles will surely improve further. Meanwhile most would agree that the superior K & C paint work makes up for the lack of detail in certain areas.