I don't want to be accused of being a K&C dogmatist, because, while I happen to love K&C above all other makers, I have been one of the voices with what I hope is "constructive criticism" over the years. I am also willing to admit that on many occasions that I questioned Andy's decisions (remember my whole nobody will ever want to by polystone vehicles argument back in 1999, Andy?) I was dead wrong and Andy was dead on right.
I make no bones about the fact that I am a close friend of Andy and Gordon, and, like the rest of the members of this forum, I am a subjective collector (there is no such thing is pure "objectivity" among human beings, we all view things from our own perspective).
That being said (sort of a long winded disclaimer, sorry), I have to respectfully disagree with Canadian Samurai. Andy, Gordon and the rest of the K&C family have done more to improve the level of quality in our hobby than any other single company, hands down. Nobody, and I mean nobody was making realistic matt WWII toy soldiers when I started collecting in the early 1990's. Andy also produced realistic vehicles, aircraft and diorama materials when none of the other major toy soldier companies did so. He introduced the polystone vehicle (over my strenuous objections), and created the market for matt figures with matching vehicles and diorama materials that directly resulted in the launch of the other fine producers of these items today, like Honour Bound and Figarti. On every occasion that a group of collectors made a suggestion or a complaint to K&C about a possible improvement or perceived error (remember the track and clear window issues), and on every occasion that his competition made improvements or innovations, K&C rose to the challenge.
Andy is open to criticism, and has always been willing to make changes and improvements. I know that he makes an effort to be as accurate as possible, as I have been with him on his many trips to book sellers to obtain the necessary documentation. Every time he comes to Chicago or New York he leaves with a bunch of books on the vehicles, aircraft, uniforms and battles of the eras he addresses. At the symposium in March, he sat down with several members of this forum (myself included) and went through a book depicting photographs and drawings of various actual FW190's, allowing us to assist him in choosing the two he would produce (my choices didn't make the cut). He makes mistakes sometimes (he's only human), but they are definitely not for want of trying.
