Louis Badolato
Lieutenant General
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2005
- Messages
- 17,202
Hello all, I returned last night with fellow forum member Gideon from visiting with Andy Neilson along with Matt Murphy and George Guerrero in Boston at the International Toy Expo. The show itself was kind of a bust, appealing mor to modelers than to Toy Soldier Collectors, but I had dinner, desert, breakfast lunch and a long B.S. session with Andy Friday evening through Saturday afternoon, saw some of the upcoming products, and got some insight into what to expect in future. First, the big news: Coming soon is a Hetzer in the ambush camo with snow in the tracks and winter crewmen and a Grille (open turreted self propelled gun) in winter camo with full-bodied winter crewmen, along with four more sets of battle of the bulge winter smocked germans, one of which included three G.I. p.o.w.'s. There was no photo of the Sepp Dietrich figure as of yet. Also, in addition to the photographs of the foregoing items, Andy had gorgeous painted examples of the soon to be released unpainted figures and vehicle for K&C's new paint it yourself series. These sets and vehicles, entitled "A Postcard from Dunkirk" include a French Char B1B tank (the resin prototype was beautifully painted in brown, tan and green camo) along with a set of french infantry with an officer and a set of British Expeditionary Force Tommies (again beautifully painted by Andy's master painters). The series will be released first in europe only this fall. Andy gave a talk Friday night at Matt Murphy's shop, during which he mentioned that in addition to the many factories he does business with in China, he had opened his own small factory for the production of limited editions!! In our late night discussion (we chatted until about 1:30 a.m., then met for breakfast at 8:30 a.m. and chatted again for aother couple of hours) Andy mentioned the launch, hopefully this Christmas, of K&C's "Kingsize" series, the first of which will be an allied Tank transporter a full 2+ feet long!. Andy also mentioned that his next Sherman will be Sherman with either a hedge cutter or bulldozer for use in normandy. Andy also indicated he has design models in place for two different allied tank recovery vehicles, one based on the body of a Sherman, one of which he expects to put into production. There will also be some new WWII personalities to be expected. We also got a look at some of the gorgeous packaging for the soon to be released limited edition Napoleonics and photos of the upcoming French Imperial"Old Guard" grenadiers. Did I mention the Napoleonic French Horse Artillery sets to be released? A canon with 3 man crew and two add on sets. Also a french cottage facade, 3-dimensional courtyard add on, with shell damage and bullet holes, for use with Napoleonics, WWII and even American Revolution or Civil war sets. And for the Afrika Corps enthusiast, Andy mentioned a German Afrika Corps 10.5 cm gun with crew. A great time was ad by all, and it was fantastic to chat with Andy. Andy mentioned how he had been out of the loop while traveling and away from his computer, and asked about the topics discussed on the forum. Gideon and I filled him in on many of the more recent threads, and Andy gave his own unique perspective on the subjects. Also, in the discussion, I mentioned a suggestion by my good friend James, a Vietnam Vet and artist, about a new twist on the Axis leaders series, and Andy really got a kick out of it. I won't spoil the surprise, but there may be some rather unusual sets in future. I can't give James credit for all of them though. Andy mentioned a Battle of the Bulge set in the planning/production stage along the same basic idea ... but again, I won't spoil the surprise. When the sets are actually in the production stage I will fill you all in on James idea, and Andy's similar idea. For now, I have a ton of packing to do, so we'll chat again later.
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