I've said this many times on this very forum. It's not conjecture - it came straight from Mr. Tamiya when we met in 1996.

Hey! I'm not going to fight with you, but you've got quite a rant of your own going there! T think that I've been pretty productive over the last 55 years that I've been modelling... If there's a Tsunami of ALLIED stuff coming our way, what do you call all that GERMAN stuff out there, a puddle? Go ahead and COUNT all the 1/35 German kits out there and compare that figure to how many Allied kits have hit the market. Lack of vehicles or reference material? Please- there are A LOT more REAL Allied vehicles at WWII reenactments than there are German ones. If you don't like my rant- don't read it... Have a nice day

Eric are not those two things one and the same? Make the geeks happy and make money. I vote for more Allied subjects; be it a new Deuce and a Half or a USATC S-160 Lend/Lease locomotive!

Hey! I'm not going to fight with you, but you've got quite a rant of your own going there! I think that I've been pretty productive over the last 55 years that I've been modelling... I'm going to ask you to please not assume things about me that you don't know. If there's a Tsunami of ALLIED stuff coming our way, what do you call all that GERMAN stuff out there, a puddle? Go ahead and COUNT all the 1/35 German kits out there and compare that figure to how many Allied kits have hit the market. I think that you just might find quite a numerical disparity there... Lack of vehicles or reference material? Please- there are A LOT more REAL Allied vehicles at WWII reenactments than there are German ones. If you don't like my rant- don't read it... Have a nice day [/quote] PS- I've built 2 TAMIYA Dragon Wagons, 32 DIFFERENT M4 Mediums, including 105mm and Jumbo versions from DRAGON, TASCA, ITALERI, TAMIYA and now-discontinued FORMATIONS CONVERSIONS, (not counting British & Commonwealth Shermans) 2 M16 AA Halftracks, 2 M3A1 Halftracks, 1 M2A1 Halftrack, HOBBY BOSS, TAMIYA and DRAGON M26 Pershings, ENDLESS JEEPS, a TASCA M32B1 ARV, 2 M31 ARV conversions, Early and Mid Production DRAGON M7s HMC, an AFV CLUB M5A1 with TMD M8 HMC Full Conversion, 2 M24 Chaffees, one of which was a discontinued VERY LIMITED EDITION of a FORMATIONS CONVERSION for the old ITALERI M24 and of course, the other Chaffee is the BRONCO US WWII M24. I've done all kinds of AFV CLUB Dodge WC-series trucks, including 2 Kit-bashed AFV CLUB and ITALERI WC-54 Ambulances. Have also built 2 of the marginal ACADEMY US M3A1 & 1 British Stuart with TMD "Correction" kits, and 4 AFV CLUB M5A1 Early and Late Types with TMD Corrections, PLUS an AFV CLUB M5A1 with TMD's M5 "Backdate" Conversion I've built multiples of just about every DRAGON & TAMIYA Pz.Kpfw.III and Pz.Kpfw.IV kit, all of the Panthers, Tiger Is and IIs on the market at least once, all of those weirdo German vehicles based on the 38(t) Chassis, probably a dozen or more different German Halftracks and Prime Movers, all kinds 1/35 WII Soviet stuff and I can go on for about 18 more pages enumerating my WWII 1/35 stuff, blah, blah, blah, ad nauseam... Guess what? I ALSO model WWI and Pre-WWII stuff, (Have YOU ever sweated over an EASTERN EXPRESS BT-5 and COMMANDER MODELS T3 Christie Conversion?) real cool Modern-day Armor and Softskins, plus some Vietnam-era stuff here and there. I won't bore you, so I'll let the 1/35 collection rest for now. I love 1/48 Aircraft; I was in on the "Great 1/48 Aircraft Renaissance", and I must have bought just about every new release during that time... (In multiples, of course...) PLEASE DON'T ASK ME HOW MANY P-51s, P-47s, Fw.190s, Bf.109s, Zeros, Avengers, Mosquitoes, blah, blah, blah, that I've built. It's embarrassing... I'm into HO Steam Era Brass Locomotives and the better Plastic/Brass Hybrids such as the ones that BROADWAY LIMITED make. No, no layout- I need the room for all of my plastic endeavors. I'm into kits and die-cast (Franklin and Danbury Mints) 1/24-1/25 Classic Cars as well. "Pure" Classic Cars are anything older than 1949, according to the Lord High Whoopdie-Doopdies at the Pebble Beach Concourse. Who cares what they say? May I mention that I'm also a Figure painter? Yes, 1/35, 54mm-120mm. I build 1/350 Ships, when I GET BORED... I consider myself very fortunate to have been able to afford all this junk, and I also have my own workshop with 3 work benches, 4 airbrushes and compressors, and probably about $1000.00 worth of tools. Paints? I don't even want to go there. I've donated kits to all kinds of charities and have sent kits to our heroes back when we were still in Iraq. No USO nearby, otherwise I'd probably be haunting the place. I became disabled about 3 years ago, so now I have even more time to devote to my various hobbies, quirks and foibles. Before I became disabled, I used to go to various World War II reenactments- Yes, I collect WWII Uniforms as well... All except two of them are representative of General Officers' Dress Uniforms. (US NAVY Rear Admiral's Blues (Aviator) and US 5th Cavalry Colonel, circa 1920s-1930s) All of that, and I STILL manage to have time to read my books and post rants on this hobby site!!! By the way- I spent 25 years in the automobile business (sales, service and parts), worked in the plastic molding, AND CNC Machine-Tooling sectors; I've run a warehouse, and my last job was in the Pharmaceutical Industry (R&D, Engineering & Production Interface) so, I think I may know just a little bit about production costs. About $40-million dollars goes into R&D before any US-made Prescription-only pharmaceutical product hits your pharmacy... That's average... Did you read in one of my other posts what I said regarding the cost of a 2-piece plastic injection mold? So yeah, I've got an idea of the costs involved before a lot of different things hit the open market...

Eric are not those two things one and the same? Make the geeks happy and make money. I vote for more Allied subjects; be it a new Deuce and a Half or a USATC S-160 Lend/Lease locomotive! [/quote] Hi, Mike! Thanks for your support! YOU ARE EXACTLY RIGHT!!! If it weren't for us "GEEKS", even WITH the Japanese "Home Market", Mr.Tamiya would be in the "Hurt-Locker"!!!

Even though it is German, I hope ICM comes through with 4-5 versions of the little Blitz like they did with the Mercades 2x4 and 4x4's.. There was a panel truck version that was used for deliveries. Also another panel truck with 2 to 4 big speakers on the roof as a propaganda vehicle. Then an ambulance plus a firetruck!

As has already been said, it looks like Mirror Models has we Allies taken care of with all the CMP trucks and HobbyBoss is doings he same with the White US 6 ton in either straight truck or with the Holmes wrecker body. Then someone is supposedly doing the Diamond T with Rogers trailer so I think the Allies are ready. Oh, and let's not forget the Austin Tilly that Papa Tamiya came out with.

Hi, All! Yeah, I posted nearly the very same things on another forum that Mike just did on this one! It's great that we're on the same track, here!!! MIRROR MODELS will also be doing a WWII US Caterpillar D7, a US MP Indian 741B Motorcycle and several Morris Commercials. That HOBBY BOSS M19 Tank Transporter with the Rogers Trailer will make a GREAT companion piece to TAMIYA's Dragon Wagon and M26 Armored Recovery Vehicle!!! Tamiya's little 1/35 Citroen CV is a really nice little kit, too!!! I haven't got any of BRONCO's Topolino kits yet, but you can rest assured that they're on my list. They'll go very nice with all the cars that ICM's doing. Re: the box-body 3t Opel Blitz- there were also Ambulance, Fuel Bowser and Radio/Command versions on that chassis, both in 2x4 and 4x4. I built a couple of the old ITALERI Opels about 15 years ago- A 4x4 AFRIKA KORPS Ambulance box-body and a standard 2x4 in Panzergrau. The ITALERI Opels are STILL very viable kits. I also built one of the TAMIYA Opels- Never did get around to buying a DRAGON kit of same. How does the DRAGON kit stand up against the TAMIYA version? Anybody know? Or is there a comparison review out there on that subject? I'm sure that ICM will be doing 4x4 versions as well... I've said this before on other forums, maybe even on this one- I'd like to see ICM do General Eisenhower's 1941 Packard and General Patton's 1939 Cadillac limo... I believe ICM (Or is it MINIART?) already does a couple of 1/35 Packards, but they are mid-1930s 7-passenger sedan models. The ZVEZDA 1/35 Mercedes L4500s and "Maultier" are great, too! I've also got the new BRONCO British Airborne M22 Locust and the US (T9E7) M22- BEAUTIFUL LITTLE KITS, even with their "link and length" tracks. I know there are going to be a lot of guys cry-babying that the tracks should have been separate links, a la DRAGON's "Magic Tracks"... You know what? I'm VERY HAPPY with plastic "link and length" tracks that we've been seeing lately. TAMIYA's IS-2 and ISU-152 come to mind. Something else just occurred to me- I'm going to have to do a little bit of research to find out if the M22/T9E7 had "live" tracks or not. One would think that the M22/T9E7 would have had "live" tracks, following suit with EVERY other US-built AFV, no? But then, the tracks on this vehicle were so tiny, maybe "live" tracks weren't necessary? I don't think it's very likely that BRONCO would have made such an obvious error, do you? Guess I'll go into my archives just to make sure... I've got one of those little AFV Profile books around here somewhere...

I've said this many times on this very forum. It's not conjecture - it came straight from Mr. Tamiya when we met in 1996.[/quote] Hi! There's not a doubt in my mind that you're correct on this, but let me just say that these Oriental kit manufacturers would sorely miss our American & Canadian Dollars, British Pounds and European Union Euros that line their gigantic coffers, if we were actually dumb enough to boycott them. Of course, that's totally whacky, immature and unrealistic. I was only saying "maybe" in a "Pipe-Dream" sort of way. I'll bet that even if, say, 1000 of us petitioned these guys, we'd be ignored anyway... Personally, and I'm more than likely the odd man out on this, I probably spend about $500.00-$600.00 A MONTH on my various hobby addictions, although there will be some dry spells in between, now and then. That happens when there isn't very much out there to catch my eye... I'm single and retired/disabled, so there isn't very much else for me to spend my "millions" on...