There is a new dedicated line on the way from Italeri that celebrates the popularity of a certain online tank game.

Read the Full News Story

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Hopefully, these will best the Dragon releases.

" The kits are designated to be easy enough for beginners and contain enough detail for experts. " I didn't know that was possible.

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but all these vehicles were released by Italeri in the 70's. If so, this would simply be a rebox of old kits with new markings, I assume - a sorry trend amongst the former "big boys" of the industry.

Thank goodness we have Meng, Trumpeter, AFV Club, Bronco and a few more who actually release truly new kits on a regular basis.

The marketing guys within Italeri and Revell seem to be more powerfull than the design departement.
It looks like a reboxing, in best case with new decals!
But one must admit that, while doing so, they make the hobby accesable for the modellers with a smaller bank account. And why should we worry? There are hundreds of alternatieve, aren't there?

Not all kits are marketed towards the kind of modellers that frequent sites like this. In most markets, sales of kits to casual buyers or people who are happy just glueing the parts together far outstrip those sold to enthusiasts. Reboxing of existing kits is a good way for companies to increase turnover for very little outlay and it is the sales of these kits that generates the revenue that allows the likes of Revell and Italeri to release more esoteric subjects such as the 1/35 torpedo boats and landing craft.

But, now you get a shiny, new box.

In a way we should be grateful that this might bring some WOT players into our hobby, that can't be a bad thing can it?

I agree with Paulinsibculo, jargonking, and hofpig. This seems like a smart move. It seems intended to get 2D players back into the 3D world and making actual things once in a while. All of the most popular computer games have healthy collectible/action figure markets, so the interest is there. I'm surprised that the other big companies didn't use this angle to expand their market. I would also add that it's not just about money, or "down to the rivet" accuracy; some modelers, and more important, perhaps many potential modelers just want a simple, fairly accurate, OOB build to display, that looks like what they play with in the online games. Companies like HaT and Plastic Soldier are already primed for this. This could signal a huge shift in the future of scale modeling.

I agree. WOT players are a hybrid, mix and match bunch who may not care all that much about accuracy in history but are highly creative and inventive in the 2D world. If this excites them to venture into the 3D word without a lot of outlay, all the better. Heck, some might start some kitbashing to mirror their own personal WOT vehicle. There is nothing that says 'our way' of modeling is the only way and I look forward to seeing what the next generation of modelers bring, especially considering the advent of 3D printing.

Sven & Paul: On the Revell site, sprue pictures are available and they clearly are the old kits -- reboxed under this new marketing scheme. I hope they make a mint and pull in many WOT players.

WOT is what brought me back into the hobby, albeit not as one who just glues the model together, but it is a huge potential market that can hopefully fund some new kits for us enthusiasts!

I think this is a good call by Italeri. This can be a good opportunity for modelers and WOT aficionados to cross paths.

This is a good idea by Italeri. But also for WarGaming. Think about it... Modelers have the accuracy of the vehicles while WOT has the huge array of vehicles. If this can happen more often, a collaboration between WarGaming and model companies, we can have a huge selection of new vehicles never before seen in plastic. If Dragon (their A-team, not their stupid black plague crew), AFV Club, Bronco, and Tamiya can pick up on this (not just with old molds but with new tools) then we could possibly see hundreds of new kits out and possibly the greatest collaboration in the history of the hobby. It could be a so-called "golden age" for the hobby. Think of the possibilities.

I can fully agree that this is a smart move, marketing and otherwise. I can also buy into how this can be a bridge between the WOT and modeling realms.

However, I am not sure I fully agree with the argument that manufacturers must re-release old kits in new boxes to generate revenue for development of new kits (which actually seem to be rare in the case of these "rebox" guys - at least armour). I mean, Trumpeter has been around for a while now, we don't see them reboxing old stuff to enable them to release the new. Neither does AFV Club. They simply continue to develop new, mostly excellent kits on a fairly regular basis.

Meng and Bronco haven't been around long enough to have any really old skeletons in their closets, but nevertherless look at all the new, innovative kits they are releasing, and very often. (Innovative in both subject matter as well as the cutting edge molding technology they are utilizing.)

Perhaps these guys just have a higher development budget than Italeri, Revell and Tamiya. Of course it can be argued that labour costs are lower in China, Taiwan etc compared to Italy, Germany and Japan, even though qualified labour in China etc is actually starting to cost more now.

But back to topic, I can't disagree that this is an ok move by Italeri, if there's a new market for these oldies, why not grab the opportunity? :-)

are these just old reboxed italeri molds?

Given Italeri's history of re-re-re-releasing very old kits ( they were nice in the '70's), most likely, yes. No zimmerit when there should be, simplified this and that etc., etc., or just plain wrong. The only advantage of Italeri Ferdinand over the much better Dragon is a much lower parts count. Just have to wait and see what the new price is - new packaging is always expensive.

WoT is what got me back into model building, so I also think this is a pretty good move. (And I know I've picked up one or two Trumpeter kits with WoT codes that I wouldn't have otherwise...) I'm actually slightly disappointed that I already have Italeri's Chaffee kit in the stash since otherwise I'd pick up this release. Although I have seen pictures of the decal sheet and it's kind of silly...

Guess this is Italeri's answer to Dragon's 'Girls und Panzers'.

In the hope of creating a common recognition signal to fellow Armorama members on W.O.T., I added Armorama after my username. It will appear to you as:

Vettejack_ARMORAMA

Actually, Italeri's 1/72 easy-build DUKW wasn't terrible. Had simplified suspension for war-gamers, and a more complicated one for 'real modelers'. ...if you need a 1/72 DUKW.