Saw Ron Barzso new Tripoli set at the show. You can buy a playset, consisting of two beautifully painted bldgs, two (again) beautifully painted stone shore batteries, tons of accessories, and well, well done Barbary pirates with pointy shoes and Marines. You could also purchase separate fort wall sections (2 per box) that are approximately 2' long and 9" high. Jim Clouse of Playset Magazine did all the sculpting on the bldgs and the fort. Not only is Jim now a famous sculpter, he's also a famous painter! Part of his time at OTSN was spent madly painting wall sections for the Tripoli fort cas existing stock quickly sold out. These babies are hand painted (as are the bldgs and gun batteries) - not airbrushed. As some of you may know, Jim is a graphic designer and it shows in his work. One look at the wall sections in person and you could understand why they moved out the door so fast. I gotta say the sculpting on Tripoli buildings, gun batteries, and, especially, fort wall sections, is the best I've ever seen. WOW x's 5. The playset - including figs and accessories - is, in my opinion, also a personal best for Ron.
Kudos to TSSD on a fantastic playset with wonderfully scupted new figs. TSSD has begun to experiment with plug in arms (that began with the ACW Fredricksburg laddies); the result is two wonderful Japanese poses you can create with the same figure, a flag bearer and a rifleman. No more flagmen every 8 figs - now you can create as many or as few as you like. Jap and marine poses are terrific. If you combine TSSD marines with TSSD G. I.'s and with BMC marines, you've got a whopping 28 poses. TSSD G. I.'s can easily be converted into marines by cutting off army bayonets on two of the G. I. figures. And, as already noted, TSSD Japs fit perfectly with Marxies.
Tarawa is fantastic value, as others have already commented. AND, if you like, Nick and Deanna had 6 ADDITIONAL terrain pieces sculpted that can be added to the set. Combined with the main terrain piece in the Tarawa set and the many new CTS terrain pieces (around 10?), you've got one heck of a pacific theater playset.
Setting apart my personal feelings about Conte the man, I would comment that his new WWII G.I.'s are spectacular; all or most of the molding probs apparent on the test shots last year have been addressed. These figs blend nicely with TSSD G.I.'s. I'm less impressed with the playsets, which to my mind are a hybrid of two different playsets, one metal and the other plastic. If you want to expand the metal playset pieces ( the landing craft and beach obstacles), it's gonna cost you. The boats alone are $165 and I think the beach obstacles vary between $10-32 apiece. Not very workable for plastic playset collectors. I should add that I've only seen pics of the playsets and got a brief look at it at the show. Beautiful sets, but, again, the price for add ons is daunting.
I foirgot to mention the amazing new buildings and fortifications Hobby Bunker produced. You can see pics of their LARGE warehse bldgs on their web site in painted (beautifully done) and unpainted versions. They also did a LARGE city town home (three stories), large ruined factory, AND a large new defensive position that they say hooks up with one of Form Tech's trench systems. And speaking of Form Tech, they produced a new two piece trench system with a large bunker in one of the pieces. Yes, it's large, too. I guess large seems to be the byword of the show for the new foam pieces just described.
One final word. TSSD and Mich Toy used a new foam producer who's used a VERY high density foam that's rock hard on the surface and that reproduces detail better than any of the foam I've seen thus far (and we have some beautiful foam pieces now). Pics of some of this stuff are up on TSSD's web site.
Dick
