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As any regular user of the News Section will realize, Masterbox Ltd. is a company which gets a reasonable amount of coverage. However, after my recent conversations with the company and the opportunity to see their NEXT releases, there are some extraordinary sets coming from them in the coming months...

The first thing that should be said about the owner of MasterBox (and perhaps part of their increasingly high-profile), is that he cares passionately about what he does and equally importantly, is very aware of both the financial realities and what modellers want to see from the manufacturers.

The (future) releases do not fit into any one category, however, and having seen them with my own eyes, what is impressive, is the spectacular increase in quality of the figures. It's also worth mentioning that the subjects being covered are a good balance between the commercial and the innovative. There are some items which have (at least in styrene) never been attempted before.

Poses: A repeated criticism of many manufacturers' ranges has been the static nature of their figures' animation. Recently, in a News story, I covered three NEW sets from Masterbox - MAS 3522, MAS 3523 and MAS 3524. Now I didn't realize at the time but the three sets were specifically designed to be used together and, with addition of additional sets even more variations could be produced. Amongst the photos at the side, there is one of a diorama using the three sets along with some shots of the individual 'components'.

Moulding/Sculpting: Although I have plans to review the three sets I mentioned (along with one or two more) my intention with this report is a little different, to give my personal opinion as to how the quality of this manufacturer's products have taken a real leap forward in quality. The most annoying part of many plastic figures is the need to replace the heads with AM items. Having looked at some of the new figures through a magnifying glass, I can honestly say that the facial detail is amongst the best I have EVER seen on any plastic figure.

Enough of the 'mini-review'... There are eight new sets scheduled for release, three of them have already been mentioned in the last News Report, so I'll concentrate, with appropriate comments on the remaining five:

Masterbox 1/35th Scale Releases

3521 - U.S. Infantry 1944 - some of the elements of this set can be found on the photos I took at Nuremberg. Particularly notable, are the two figures with one dragging the other away.

3525 - "Skatspieler" This is a four-figure set with German Mechanics playing cards. This set is very impressive indeed - all four figures have a variety of expressions on their faces. Included in the set are some jerry-cans which are being used as an improvised card table. Looking closely at the 'table' the cards are sculpted onto it.

3526 - German Machine-Gunners, Eastern front 1944 Although the title indicates a set which has been done before, this is anything but the case. The 'centerpiece' of the set is an MG08 mounted on a tripod - to my knowledge, a weapon which has never been done in styrene before....

3527 - Checkpoint This accesory set consists of a barrier, sentry box and two anti-tank obstacles. Photos of this set can be seen at the side...

3528 - German Infantry, Eastern front 1944 unfortunately I DON'T have any more details of this set as yet...

As for VEHICLE releases, three are listed for future release on the company website:

3529 - Motorcycle BMW R-75

3530 - Mercedes-Benz VK-170 (3 in 1)

3531 - Mercedes-Benz VK-170, command version (3 in 1)

I can't comment on the BMW, but the other two are in development with details expected very soon.

My thanks to the staff of Masterbox for their assistance in making this report possible.