Old Northwest Trading Company (1 Viewer)

Hello all,
Well, things are definitely starting to heat up around here. This is one of the good things at this forum: communication between manufacturers and consumers. Many thanks for the insight brought to this forum by MTSC and Ken Osen, precious aditions to the forum. I guess I now have much better information on what's going on, how these products are made, the problems faced designing and making them and what to expect for the future.

Best wishes,
Paulo
 
mtsc1021 said:
Rick from Old Northwest here....We agree that the faces on a couple figures from our Panzer set are not what we had designed. A combination of painting and molding by the factory made them look to harsh. This was our second set and a learning experience. I feel our faces and figures have improved with each release. Ken Osen who sculpts everything for ONTC has said he personally has been working on improvement the faces and I think it shows in our new sets. I appreciate the criticism as they help us improve our products and offer a better understanding of what collectors look for in historical figures. Please note our first scenic base is now available it is the first of three European village scenics that can be used with just about any company on the market
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Hello,
I agree both with Rick and Dan B: the newer sets look better, at least on photo. That certainly is a good sign. Now the final test, to have one in my hands... Spread...spread...spreading all over toy soldiers...

Happy collecting/dealing,
Paulo
 
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Ken Osen/H&A Studio said:
Hi, Ken Osen here...I recently finished a new US 101st AB set with a scenic base and 5 figures for Conte and I am currently working on add on sets to this. These include some hedgerow along with scenic details and these should be a great addition to ONWTC, Conte and Britians sets in your collections.
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Hi Ken,
When are we gonna get these? I'm already drooling!


Bye,
Paulo
 
VIRIATO said:
Hi Ken,
When are we gonna get these? I'm already drooling!


Bye,
Paulo
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There is a lot in the works, so I am guessing the first of the year, some a bit sooner perhaps. The same goes for ONWTC... scenics and new figure sets... WWII will have a good number of choices!
 
jazzeum said:
Does anybody have these? These were sort of a reaction to Michigan Toy Soldier being tossed out as a K & C dealer due to their discounting policies so they decided to do their own figures to compete with K & C. My initial reaction was not favorable. They are 54, not 60mm and when I asked them about the size, they criticized the larger figures (strike 1 in my book). I also found the facial expressions odd; Andy's look like real people. Also the poses didn't seem realistic to me. I finally got to see several at the Valley Forge show and my initial suspicions were confirmed. In fact, they even seemed smaller than I thought, and they were, if anything, underwhelming. If they are to be a competitor to K & C, I don't think Andy has anything to worry about.
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I would like to clear up the misconception that we were "tossed' as a K&C dealer. We were suspended for 90 days as a dealer for offering a 10% discount to our regular customers (a practice many dealers still do) and chose not to give into the demands of price fixing by K&C. The decision to no longer carry this line was ours.
 
Hi Ken,
The ONTC Scenic is outstanding. We are totally impressed with the entire ONTC line and so are our customers. We look forward to your future designs.
Best regards,
Michael
Duke Marketing
 
Brad
When it comes to fireing your weapon in close in combat forget what they taught in basic. Keep your head & back side down if you don't have cover, hold the weapon up and spray and pray hard.

Chuck
 
Well I met the folks from Mich Toys in Atlanta today and I tend to agree that there ONTC line is getting better and better with each new release.The scenic piece is a great first release in this set and I think you could get away with putting some K&C fig's on it or vehicles.Rick and Matt(correct me if I'm wrong,terrible with names) stated that the later releases in diorama pieces will probably not match up as well with K&C.Remember that they are not trying to compete with Andy head to head as most of there fig's match up with FOV and Frontline vehicles.We as board members,myself included are harsh to critisize other companies because we compare them to K&C.For me and many others K&C is the best(our opinions) and thats what we collect.Others have there own opinion as always but I think that ONTC has put there foot in the door of the Toy Soldier world and if they keep improving will certainly do well.I wish them the best of luck(good job Ken) and hopefully this will keep the K&C staff on there toes with the quality we are all use to.
 
mtsc1021 said:
Hello,
Rick from Old Northwest here. While I appreciate the opinions and comments on our figures I would like to state for the record that our figures were never meant to compete with King & Country figures. If that were the case we would have made them in a scale the same as K&C. K & C is an excellent company, they put out excellent figures and they have a large and dedicated following. Our goal at ONWTC is to also put out an excellent product but in a scale that offers a wider variety of options and compatibility for collectors.
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I reviewed this thread tonight after I saw the last couple of posts and frankly the argument that ONTC is making that they never intended to compete with K & C just doesn't hold any water. If you look at the article that appeared in the December 2004 issue of Toy Soldier, the whole tenor is that they're going to take K & C on and show them a thing or two.

In the article, they acknowledged that K & C was the leader, but that they "saw room for some improvement." They indicate that there a lot of great figures out there right now and that K & C produces the dominant WW II line "but it is full of errors that in our opinion should not be made" and the article goes on to indicate those errors. Rick Berry is then quoted at saying that "I know there is a lot of stuff out there in the matt finish but we are really striving take the quality and accuracy to the next level. Andy has already upped the level the ante with his recent figures. I hope we will set the bar a little higher yet with ours."

The article goes on to quote Mr. Berry talking about Ken Osen: "Ken's sculpting is unmatched" among some other quotes.

If that doesn't show that ONTC didn't plan to compete with King and Country I'm not sure what else could. It's good that they're now saying that they don't plan to compete with Andy Neilson because he's raised the bar so high that there's no chance that will likely happen in the near future.

Yes, they're a new company and allowance must be given to growing pains but before you say you're going to take something to the next level, I recommend that you take that quality to the next level before you boast about it.

As it now stands, my original opinion remains unchanged.
 
Didn't one of the fellas say that they misquoted him?

I've had some bad experiences too with interviews where I have either been 'slightly misquoted' as I believe he said, or in some cases completely distorted.

I'm personally a K&C collector too, but just seems silly to quibble over stuff like this.
 
If you compare ONTC's first set with K&C's first set then there off to a good start.
 
Thanks for the observation Alex!
I know how hard Andy and all of the owners of the other fine figure companies have worked to bring the great products they offer to the market. I have been in this business for a while myself, and I am happy to be able to have a little more input in the topics and interpretation than I have had in the past. Hopefully we will be able to fill in gaps and cover some areas that others might have missed. As always we really appreciate suggestions for improvement and new topics.
 
Since series 3 came out, I haven't seen any 30 cals or any mg42/34 teams, or any heavy weapons whatsoever:(:(. Also when will ONTC be coming out with new WWII sets?????
 
If I don't see any WWII stuff come out soon I'm gonna sell all my ONTC sets so I can buy from companies that are putting WWII stuff out on a regular basis. I hate to say it, I love the figures but by the end of summer if I don't see anything they are gone. :(
 
As mentioned elsewhere, I sculpted all of these WWII figures and they work perfectly with the WWII figures I also sculpted fro 1st Gear/W.Britain. Additional WWII sets will be introduced in the Fall W. Britain catalog. Hope this helps!
Ken
 
Ken & Ericka Osen/H&A Studio said:
As mentioned elsewhere, I sculpted all of these WWII figures and they work perfectly with the WWII figures I also sculpted fro 1st Gear/W.Britain. Additional WWII sets will be introduced in the Fall W. Britain catalog. Hope this helps!
Ken
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It should be noted that Ken Osen is no longer affiliated with ONTC and has not been for quite some time now. His posts may be better suited under the Britains thread.
Rick @ ONTC
 
Sahara said:
If I don't see any WWII stuff come out soon I'm gonna sell all my ONTC sets so I can buy from companies that are putting WWII stuff out on a regular basis. I hate to say it, I love the figures but by the end of summer if I don't see anything they are gone. :(
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Unfortunately we won't have anything out by the end of summer. we are hoping by the end of the year.
Rick/ONTC
 
Well I think I will hold on to my sets a little longer and see what WWII products will be put out at the end of the year. I enjoy all the WWII sets ONTC has produced and look forward to a bright furture filled with WWII pieces :D
 
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