Well, now that I have returned from a wonderful week in Chicago, I thought I would give you my thoughts on K&C's presentation.
First, the figures: Simply the best I've ever seen from any toy soldier company. Lets start with the new Arnhem releases. I wanted to address some of the posts I have reviewed upon my return. First, as to John's desire for a PIAT team and a 6 Pound Anti Tank gun and crew, the prototype for the 6 Pounder was present, and the PIAT team is coming as well, both in the December second Arnhem release. Second, as to the desire for personality figures, there was a General Roy Urqhart figure (looking suspiciously like Sean Connery) as well as a British Major squatting with an Umbrella (also strikingly reminiscent of a character from a certain movie concerning a bridge). I don't know if any other personality figures are planned, but I would be suprised if there weren't any. There are many action poses, as well as poses at rest, permitting both street fighting and headquarters type scenes. Most of the poses are basically the original poses spectacularly redone in todays level of artistry, although some are completely new. The Arnhem jeeps are METAL!!! They are frankly, awesome.
The LRDG and SAS stuff is even more stunning. First, the trucks (and of course, how they work with Figarti's new 1:30 scale offerings on the subject). The trucks are incredible. I give them an A+++. The Figarti trucks (which I similarly rated as incredible on the Figarti forum) are completely compatible. The styles of the trucks are, however, different. The K&C trucks are bright and less weathered, the Figarti trucks completely weathered and beat up. When I display them together (as I will), The Figarti trucks will be returning from a long mission, probably a month long road watch, and will meet up with the K&C trucks and SAS jeeps, which, having come off a refit at Cairo or Jalo, will be on their way out to ferry the SAS to a "beat up" like the Barce raid. Now to the figures themselves: having seen them up close and personal, on the incredible "Indiana Jones" desert diorama of the secret German airfield (more on the dioramas later in this post), the only figures I noticed size issues on were Major Sterling (who was six foot six inches tall in real life, explaining the larger size of this figure) and one of the kneeling guys (for some reason every kneeling guy in my collection from every company always seems a bit off scale, maybe sculpting kneeling guys is harder or something). My overall impression of these figures is AAA+++. They look alive. Just amazing!
Now to the winter stuff: My first love was the Raupen Schlepper (a fully tracked transport truck). It had perfect tracks, and full interior cab detail with clear windows/windshield and a driver figure. The canvas cover lifted off to reveal the fully panted wood interior of the bed of the truck. I was frankly so focused on this vehicle, that I didn't even notice if there was a winter Stug (as some other people have mentioned). The skiing figures were also extremely well executed. Another A+ on the winter stuff.
Finally, the dioramas. Let me begin with the desert diorama. At the symposium, when Andy told me in confidence that he was doing the LRDG and SAS stuff (instructing me to hint there was something big coming on the desert horizen, but not to say what it is on pain of death) I commissioned he and Gordon to make me a Barce raid Italian Desert airfield on which I was going to display the new LRDG/SAS releases. I bought three Macci fighters from 21st Century from our good friend George (Warrior) and had them shipped to Gordon for use on this airfield. Gordon discussed doing an airstrip, some Italian buildings, with a hill in the background on which the LRDG could be watching and launching their raid. Imagine my suprise when I got the airfield and archeological site of Tanis from Raiders of the Lost Ark (complete with a hole in the back of the top of the diorama, from which I invision Indy lowering himself and muttering "snakes! why did it have to be snakes!"). However historically inaccurate this Hollywood set turned out to be, I had to have it, because it was just too cool for words. It had a rope bridge, several entrances and exits with interior detail, and was a paradigm of K&C's approach: historical accuracy sometimes takes a backseat when something just plain looks cool (i.e. the two tone version of the Heydrich staff car rather than a plain black mercedes).
Lets move to the two most incredible dioramas K&C brought to the show: The Hartenstein Hotel and the Crete dioramas. The Hartenstein Hotel belongs in a museum (although it was just a touch to pricy to end up in mine). The hotel came complete with a tennis court and green house. The entire scene was suitably and strikingly realistically battle damaged, but the most incredible aspect of the scene was the construction of the hotel building itself. Every interior room, stairway, hallway was reproduced with period wall paper, furniture, etc., and then distressed and battle damaged. Pure genius. The only inaccuracy was the building itself was reduced in size, with one less window on wither side of the facade, as it would not have fit on the diorama (which was so big it was packed in a box the size of a coffin). My good friend Hans Hedrich took it home (we need to talk him into making a museum, his collection is way bigger than mine - he buys about 5 of every set).
Next the Crete diorama with the crashed Junkers JU52 and the windmill. Obviously, we begin with the crashed Junkers. Gordon scratch built the Junkers (no model kit, just raw materials, the plans of the Junker from a book, and his incredible talent) with complete interior cockpit and cabin details. The man is so talented it is frightening. It is beyond a work of art. Lets move to the windmill. When you looked inside through battle damage to the shingles and structure of the roof, you saw that the gears and interior workings of the mill had been faithfully reproduced. The stone terraced walls so typical of the Creten landscape are built one "stone" at a time with of all things, dried peas. It was just amazing.
Finally, the Winter Diorama. It was simple, but strikingly realistic. It was a rocky hill with two roads, one over and one under a small bridge overpass (identical to the bridge in the original Afrika Corps Diorama), and a small forest of snow covered pine trees. The muddy track paths cut through the snow are expertly executed. My overall grade for the four dioramas, AAA+++.
When considered with Figarti's offerings, and the Honour Bound jagpanther, I can confidently state the opinion that we are lucky enough to be enjoying the golden age of matt toy soldier collecting.
