Pipeline Miniatures: The First K&C Competitor (2 Viewers)

My four Pipeline vehicles safely arrived today.:cool: David had done an excellent job packing them. They are really very nice, especially for the time period. They are somewhere between the quality of early K&C polystone and earlier K&C wood, metal and resin vehicles. I will take some photoraphs on one of my dioramas, and send them to Brad tomorrow with a polite request that he post them for me. :D
 
My four Pipeline vehicles safely arrived today.:cool: David had done an excellent job packing them. They are really very nice, especially for the time period. They are somewhere between the quality of early K&C polystone and earlier K&C wood, metal and resin vehicles. I will take some photoraphs on one of my dioramas, and send them to Brad tomorrow with a polite request that he post them for me. :D

Louis, and just think, you met him all over a Heco I sent you!! I will call him tomorrow about my royalty checks. Just kidding, he really has some unique stuff and does a great job.

TD
 
Louis, and just think, you met him all over a Heco I sent you!! I will call him tomorrow about my royalty checks. Just kidding, he really has some unique stuff and does a great job.

TD

Tom,

David still has a Heco vehicle that he hasn't decided to sell yet, and I am hoping that all this good will can inure to my benefit when he does decide to sell it.;):p:D
 
I sent Brad 10 photographs with a polite request that he post them for me. In each photo, the early K&C polystone vehicle is on the left, the Pipeline vehicle is in the middle, and the K&C wood, metal and resin vehicle is on the right, for comparison purposes.
 
I couldn't resist the Firefly - it just looked really neat. I managed to get one at a great price too. Here it is with a K&C British Sherman figure.

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Nice pickup James.

Here are the first five photos Louis sent me. I have to go out so I will post the other five later.
 

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Here are the remainder of the photos (sorry for the lengthy delay).
 

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Thanks Brad, for posting the photos for me. It was fun putting the Pipeline vehicles together with the early K&C polystone vehicles from the same period, and the earlier K&C wood, metal and resin vehicles.

I used IWJ11(w), the first winter sherman, as the first polystone British Sherman was not released until mid-October, 2005, and I didn't think that was a fair comparison to Pipeline Vehicles produced between 1997 and 2000.

The K&C early Polystone vehicles used retailed for $50.00 (Kubelwagon), $69 (Sherman) and $79 (Hanomag and StuG III).

The Pipeline Vehicles retailed for 60 British Pounds (Kubelwagon), 90 British Pounds (Hanomag) and 135 British Pounds (Sherman and StuG III).

The K&C Wood Metal and Resin vehicles retailed for $153 (Kubelwagon), $256 (Hanomag), $346 (Sherman) and $384 (StuG III).

I think Pipeline intended to fill the niche in the market vacated when K&C stopped producing the more expensive wood, metal and resin vehicles, and priced them accordingly (I'm no expert on exchange rates, but I think the pound was between 1.5 and 2 dollars back then). When K&C marketed the less expensive polystone vehicles, I think it drove Pipeline right out of the market.
 
I remember sending queries to pipeline way back when we first started carrying K&C. Never heard back.

I'm not sure that K&C's poly vehicles is what did pipeline in. I remember very few releases and low production as part of the problem.

I think they could have been sold side by side with K&C much as Figarti is now.

I'm just not sure the vision was there. It would be great if someone who the guys at Pipeline is on the board and could get in contact with them for us.
 
Gideon,

I have bought these 4 Pipeline vehicles from a gentleman named David who was one of the partners in an English hobby shop called Hemley's which carried Pipeline's entire line. I will ask him if he knows what happened.
 
Definitely low production numbers - David said the Firefly was one of the last Pipeline vehicles. He was the only retailer that carried their items, he ordered 3 Fireflys and thinks no more than 6 were made.

I think there's a good story to be told regarding this company - i guess David Hazell would be the man who knows most except for the Pipeline people themselves.
 
Gideon,

I have bought these 4 Pipeline vehicles from a gentleman named David who was one of the partners in an English hobby shop called Hemley's which carried Pipeline's entire line. I will ask him if he knows what happened.

Cool. It's always great to hear some inside stories within the hobby.

These guys were producing some good stuff during a time when money flowed like water. I think WWII was their entire offering. So, that would eliminate a lot of collectors straight away.

The vehicles look wonderful, by the way. I never liked the figures much nor the motorcycle stuff but what you picked up is excellent stuff. Displays wonderfully - even with the newer vehicles.
 
Here is David (one of the former proprietor's of Henley Model Miniatures) prompt response to my inquiry about Pipeline:

"Pipeline Miniatures was a 1-man band started by an arts graduate in mid 1999. I believe he ceased trading in 2002. He was never able to build a strong customer base because his prices were so high. At Henley Model Miniatures I was his only trade customer and he also sold direct at toy fairs etc. The quantities of each product/set made must have been very small – I took 10 of each figure set and less of the vehicles. My stock is diminishing very steadily but I will have sold nearly all of it at a substantial loss. You are correct that the competition from K&C was too strong for Pipeline."
 
Really interesting stuff, I secured a Winter T34 and a Hanomag, along with the Russian GAZ Jeep (I got it b/c I don't remember any other company making one). Only item I wished I would have gotten was the Firefly and the Stug. Really been a run on the stuff lately!!!

Tom
 
I remember Pipeline making a LVCP Higgins Boat that looked really cool right around the same time K&C made one. That is a piece I would have bought if I had the chance.
 
So it was K&C after all. Ok, I was wrong, sort of.

I don't remember what any of the products went for when new. Never got to see a price list.
 
So it was K&C after all. Ok, I was wrong, sort of.

I don't remember what any of the products went for when new. Never got to see a price list.

Dave from Henley Models provided me with the original list prices for the Pipeline products. I remember them being substantially more than K&C polystone vehicles, but substantially less than K&C wood, metal and resin vehicles.
 
Dave from Henley Models provided me with the original list prices for the Pipeline products. I remember them being substantially more than K&C polystone vehicles, but substantially less than K&C wood, metal and resin vehicles.

Makes sense that they would have been right in the middle.

Congrats on your aquisitions. You're telling a pretty cool story with those.
 
Makes sense that they would have been right in the middle.

Congrats on your aquisitions. You're telling a pretty cool story with those.

I might never have come across Pipeline if you hadn't shown me their add in Toy Soldier Magazine back in the Sullivan Street shop . . . don't you miss the days when we used to be nostalgic . . .:p
 
I might never have come across Pipeline if you hadn't shown me their add in Toy Soldier Magazine back in the Sullivan Street shop . . . don't you miss the days when we used to be nostalgic . . .:p

There's a lot I miss about the shop, yeah - but, at the end of it, I was so bitterly pissed. I felt really let down by NYS government and the transit union. Also, by some other factors including the owner of the building, the Toy Soldier magazine for which I will never forgive them including Stuart Hessney (whatever that guys name is) and the insurance companies who kept raising their rates.

The customers were great and the products were so much fun.
 

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