Pipeline Miniatures: The First K&C Competitor (1 Viewer)

Louis Badolato

Louis Badolato

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Back in 1997, when K&C had stopped making wood, metal and resin vehicles, but hadn't yet released their polystone successors, a small British company called Pipeline Miniatures attempted to step in and fill the niche in the market. It made a number of 54mm 1:32 scale WWII vehicles in resin, in both glossy and matt finishes, as well as many sets of figures. Because the vehicles retailled in the United States for between $150 and $200, and because K&C soon released polystone vehicles that sold for around $75, they went out of business by 1999 or 2000.

I had seen Pipelines vehicles in Toy Soldier magazines and at the first Valley Forge show I attended, but passed on them due to the expense. I recently had the opportunity to pick up a few of their vehicles at less than half the original retail price, including a British Sherman, a StuG III, a Hanomag and a Kubelwagon.

I just sent a couple of photographs of the Sherman and the StuG to Brad, with a polite request that he post them for me on this thread. I will do the same with the Hanomag and the Kubelwagon when they arrive.

As in recent times companies like Figarti, Honour Bound, New Model Army, and Collector's Showcase have entered (and in some cases exited) the market, I thought you might like to have a look at the first competitor to follow K&C into the realm of realistic WWII figures and vehicles.
 
Louis Badolato said:
Back in 1997, when K&C had stopped making wood, metal and resin vehicles, but hadn't yet released their polystone successors, a small British company called Pipeline Miniatures attempted to step in and fill the niche in the market. It made a number of 54mm 1:32 scale WWII vehicles in resin, in both glossy and matt finishes, as well as many sets of figures. Because the vehicles retailled in the United States for between $150 and $200, and because K&C soon released polystone vehicles that sold for around $75, they went out of business by 1999 or 2000.

I had seen Pipelines vehicles in Toy Soldier magazines and at the first Valley Forge show I attended, but passed on them due to the expense. I recently had the opportunity to pick up a few of their vehicles at less than half the original retail price, including a British Sherman, a StuG III, a Hanomag and a Kubelwagon.

I just sent a couple of photographs of the Sherman and the StuG to Brad, with a polite request that he post them for me on this thread. I will do the same with the Hanomag and the Kubelwagon when they arrive.

As in recent times companies like Figarti, Honour Bound, New Model Army, and Collector's Showcase have entered (and in some cases exited) the market, I thought you might like to have a look at the first competitor to follow K&C into the realm of realistic WWII figures and vehicles.
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Love to see them! Hope pictures get here soon. Hurry up Brad!
 
Louis Badolato said:
Back in 1997, when K&C had stopped making wood, metal and resin vehicles, but hadn't yet released their polystone successors, a small British company called Pipeline Miniatures attempted to step in and fill the niche in the market. It made a number of 54mm 1:32 scale WWII vehicles in resin, in both glossy and matt finishes, as well as many sets of figures. Because the vehicles retailled in the United States for between $150 and $200, and because K&C soon released polystone vehicles that sold for around $75, they went out of business by 1999 or 2000.

I had seen Pipelines vehicles in Toy Soldier magazines and at the first Valley Forge show I attended, but passed on them due to the expense. I recently had the opportunity to pick up a few of their vehicles at less than half the original retail price, including a British Sherman, a StuG III, a Hanomag and a Kubelwagon.

I just sent a couple of photographs of the Sherman and the StuG to Brad, with a polite request that he post them for me on this thread. I will do the same with the Hanomag and the Kubelwagon when they arrive.

As in recent times companies like Figarti, Honour Bound, New Model Army, and Collector's Showcase have entered (and in some cases exited) the market, I thought you might like to have a look at the first competitor to follow K&C into the realm of realistic WWII figures and vehicles.
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Cool Louis,

I look forward in seeing the pictures.

Carlos
 
Photos:
 

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Those are not bad, especially for that time period.
Semper Fi!
Rick
 
I thought the Pipeline stuff was interesting to the development of the hobby. In my museum, in addition to every vehicle K&C made from 1984 through 2007, and many of the vehicles K&C made thereafter, I have a representative sample of Heco Tin Vehicles (a Tiger Tank, WWI Mark IV Tank, and a WWII AEC Matador Lorry), Figarti vehicles (including a Chi Ha from 4 OTSN's ago, the first tank they produced), Honour Bound (at least one version of every vehicle they produced except the Gold Edition Sturmtiger), and now these 4 pipeline vehicles. You can see how K&C influenced its competitors, and how, they, in turn, influenced K&C.

Maybe at this years' Symposium, we can get Andy to give a talk about the development of vehicles in the hobby since he launched the first wood and metal tanks in 1991 (when no other Toy Soldier company was making WWII vehicles, to my knowledge).:cool::cool:
 
It seems that Pipeline was able to solve the no crud in wheels issue, some time ago... How hard is it to find these vehicles and how expensive? Michael
 
maddadicus said:
It seems that Pipeline was able to solve the no crud in wheels issue, some time ago... How hard is it to find these vehicles and how expensive? Michael
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There is a seller on ebay who used to own a Hobby Shop in England who has quite a few. The tanks sell for about 49-69 British Pounds, smaller vehicles and figure sets for about 19-29 British Pounds. Right now there is an early Pipeline T-34 and a couple of Russian figure sets. Here's a link to his ebay shop: http://stores.ebay.com/ToySoldierStore-Toy-Soldiers.
 
Oh, and as far as the crud in the tracks, these are resin, not polystone, so it was not an issue. K&C made some incredible resin vehicles prior to the polystone era, between 1995 and 1998. Among K&C's resin releases were an 8 Wheeled Armored Car, a Hanomag (they also made a wood Hanomag), a Kubelwagon, an 8 Ton Halftrack Prime Mover pulling a wheeled 88mm Gun, a Jagdpanther, and for Vietnam, an M113 APC and an M48 Duster.

I have them all, and they are superior to the Pipeline vehicles is sculpting and finish, but they retailed for between $240 and $380 back in the mid-1990's, so they only interested serious K&C collectors and were not made in quantity (except for the Kubelwagon and the Jagdpanther, there were between 5 and 15 made of each K&C resin vehicle).
 
Louis, how do these compare in actual size to past and current K/C scale.?.Michael
 
Until the last couple of years there was no discernable difference in the scale of the K&C wood, metal and resin vehicles and the K&C polystone vehicles. Recently, however, K&C polystone vehicles have been enlarged to a true 1:30 scale, so the old vehicles are a bit smaller than the newest releases.
 
Louis,
I got the Russian Gaz jeep some time ago from Dave, I might take a relook at some of the other vehicles, kind of neat aren't they!

Tom
 
They are a little more toyish then the best vehicles made by K&C and Figarti today, but for the time period, when they were replacing K&C's wood metal and resin vehicles, and competing withe the primative polystone stuff and Fusilier's undersized (closer to 1:35 than 1:32, although listed as 54mm scale) vehicles, they were pretty cool. I wanted them because they are cool, and I think its neat to be able to track the development of our hobby.
 
I am now the proud winner of a Pipeline T34 and a mortar team..I am not an official owner till I recieve them. I will take pics of items, next to K/C when I get them..I do so love the oddball stuff...Michael
 
maddadicus said:
I am now the proud winner of a Pipeline T34 and a mortar team..I am not an official owner till I recieve them. I will take pics of items, next to K/C when I get them..I do so love the oddball stuff...Michael
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David is an absolute pleasure to deal with, enjoy the tanks, you bought from a first rate dealer in the UK.

Tom
 
For those who may be interested, he has a Sherman listed for sale.
 
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