Plastics ? (1 Viewer)

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desert fox

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I remember everyone asking Andy about plastics at Louis`s house during lunch. Does anyone think we will see them & if so painted or unpainted. BTW what would everyone think of painted plastic in 60MM to complement your K & C collection ?
 
I don't think we'll see them (hopefully) and I don't care for them myself.
 
I like the plastics of my childhood Airfix etc,but would never mix plastic with my K&C.

Rob
 
Doesnt Conte do that with their stuff?

I mean thats fine if you want to make something like that for the younger market - but, King and Country is the high end ART LEVEL of our hobby - I hope they would stay there.

IMO - Ron
 
I have seen some superbly painted plastics in my time but IMHO it would never work with something of the quality of K&C.I think plastics are a whole genre of their own,and i don't think the two mix well.

Rob
 
Andy, in response to a question, did talk about the possibility of plastics as a way of getting younger kids interested in K & C. However, I think the conversation was all theoretical, just shooting around ideas, nothing concrete or anything that I think he's really thought about.
 
It,s funny how interest vary.
There is no bigger fan of K&C than myself, however I would love if K&C would do unpainted plastic to go along with Conte & TSSD figures.
My point is Brad and myself love K&C, but Brad does not care for plastic and likes glossy metal figures, while I love good unpainted plastic but cannot stand glossy painted metal.
K&C did a few years back sell their rights for BMC to reproduce the early Marines & Japs for a plastic IwoJima playset, and as usual these were the best figures BMC had in their 5 or 6 sets they produced.
So it could work.
Gary
 
He could produce them and maybe put them under a different name.
 
gk5717 said:
It,s funny how interest vary.
There is no bigger fan of K&C than myself, however I would love if K&C would do unpainted plastic to go along with Conte & TSSD figures.
My point is Brad and myself love K&C, but Brad does not care for plastic and likes glossy metal figures, while I love good unpainted plastic but cannot stand glossy painted metal.
K&C did a few years back sell their rights for BMC to reproduce the early Marines & Japs for a plastic IwoJima playset, and as usual these were the best figures BMC had in their 5 or 6 sets they produced.
So it could work.
Gary
Click to expand...

Thanks Gary,

Wasn't aware of the K&C / BMC connection. Always wondered why that set was so much better than the other BMC releases, and that would explain it.

I would love to see more quality plastics. Conte's are fantastic, and they keep breaking new ground, but the new releases are always so far apart.

Simon
 
The painted Conte plastics are great. In a diorama you cannot tell them apart and they allow you to build up large groups cheaply. This is important in ACW , Napoleonic and Colonial Type conflicts. Perhaps in modern ones you don;'t need the mass effect. I doubt if there are many collectors around with enough K and C metal Napoleonics to make a proper dinkum square.
 
At his West Coaster talk, Andy was asked about plastics and his initial comment sums it up, "Don't hold your breath." He then talked about BMC using K&C's Iwo Jima sculpts. These figures have been BMC's best sellers year after year. However, Andy mentioned K&C sold the rights for too little money and without any control over packaging -- if you look at BMC's bag of plastic Iwo Jima figures, you can barely see the name "K&C" in tiny print on the back. If K&C was to do it now, it would ask for a lot more money and some control over packaging and marketing. K&C also did not want to get into this aspect of the hobby by making its own plastic figures -- plastic injection molds can cost close to $100,000 and it would take a long time to recoup these costs. Andy concluded that K&C's energy and capital were better utilized producing metal figures.:)
 
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Hey, Fishead - what a great part of forum history there ;)

I wonder if anyone has changed their position??? :confused:
 
Capitolron said:
Hey, Fishead - what a great part of forum history there ;)

I wonder if anyone has changed their position??? :confused:
Click to expand...

I thought that andys post on this subject was on this thread but I just checked and its not, I believe he put it on one of his bits and bobs posts around that time and answered a few questions all on one post, maybe if I search the archives I can find that one also, but the bottom line was he had said no on the subject.
 
It's interesting noticing some of the posts on the archive thread, coupled with a more recent one (can't remember the title) asking what got members in to the hobby in the first place.

If memory serves correctly, nearly all played with plastics as a kid, tried to grow up in their teens, then reverted back to the big kid again later on in life, only this time, with the income to afford the likes of painted metal K&C, HB, NMA, Figarti, Britains etc.

My opinion is that the longer term 'survival' of this hobby means hook 'em whilst they're young with affordable / disposable, but reasonable plastic, let them do their teenage 'thang' and you've got a ready made market when they're in their 30's, with kids of their own and remaniscing about child hood days gone by.

Whether the likes of 21st C and FOV today will be sufficient to bring in the collectors later on in life remains to be seen.

But,

having the stuff readily avaiable for kids to see and harrass parents is a must.
Having links on www is great, but most kids (hopefully) haven't got a credit card to on-line shop. And with the average kid's attention span being a little less than a goldfish, I'm not sure how effective this would be on it's own.

Cheap and good quality plastic figures, attractively packaged need to be on the toy ailes at Wal Mart / Asda etc and on the shelves at Toys-R-Us. It seems to work fine for 21st C. Stick some larger packs of unpainted plastic next to them and bingo!

Of course I never did business studies or marketing at school / college and I could be talking tripe, but those are my thoughts on how the hobby can survive.

Simon
 
Here's what Andy said about plastics back on November 15, 2005:

"1) K&C Plastics

Strange as it may sound I did give this quite a bit of thought before deciding that it was not for us. Obviously I’ve seen Conte’s plastics which I quite like…and Ron Barzso’s efforts which are quite spectacular…Nick of Toy Soldiers of San Diego and my old friend Tony Ciccarello of Toy Armies in Plastic both produce excellent work. Plus, of course, Bill McMaster of BMC who licensed the rights to our original “Iwo Jima” sets to reproduce in plastic.

All of these guys, as I said, are doing a darn good job so why try and steal their rice bowl?

Another aspect of this is that with plastic you have to make certain compromises in production which you don’t have in metal.

Probably most important is that although I like good plastic figures I LOVE metal – the weight…the feel…the quality.

Finally, I’m so busy designing metal miniatures I’ve got no time to do anything else! So, metal fans fear not K&C is staying just where we are."
 
I like the idea of painted plastic figures, I would not want to mix them in with metal soldiers, but I think they would do well, marketing is the key aspect here. I know Andy said he didn't want to steel someone else's rice bowl, but since the time he posted that remark, there has been several attempts to steel his rice bowl....and the chop stix too, not that he ever really had to worry. However, if doing plastics would take away from doing the great metal soldiers, then forget it, but I wouldn't rule out buying some nice king and country painted plastic figures. My 3 boys, would love them. I know they like the smaller plastic non-action figures more than they like action figures. for instance they love star wars, but they look over the action figures straight to the small plastic ones, the 2 inch painted star wars unleashed figures is what they love, they set them up on the floor and have loads of fun. Hey Andy, if you are listening, how about a K&C unleashed toy soldier line...hee hee.---Mark McCallister
 
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