Welcome to the Strelets Forum. Please feel free to discuss any aspect of 1/72 scale plastic figures, not simply Strelets. If you have any questions about our products then we will answer them here.
these sets aren't in our plans for the near future. They were supposed to be in our old format which, regretfully, isn't economical at the moment. US cavalry is postponed due to a low demand for this subject.
Also these days we refrain from announcing future sets too long before the release date as we would risk the complaints from the visitors that it takes so long to make a set, or why one set is made before the other and so on.
Too bad, I was really looking forward to them. I have even purchased metal figures to fill up my medical units.
People need to understand it takes three to five years to do a set of plastic figures. Often the company has little control over the lenght of time it takes to do research, sculpting, and mold making. A seemingly easy set can take years just to research.
Dear fellow forum members, please bear with me because I know that we had a whole debate a few months back about the US Cavalry set II. I strongly believe that further sets would be popular, especially a dismounted cavalry set as well as a good oposing set - Sioux or Apaches perhaps? I think set one may not have done well because of the lack of opposition. I am happy to hear that Strelets have not completely abandoned this project.
On another topic, hopefully Strelets will enter WWII eventually. Hospital sets have not been done yet. I would also like to see Strelets make figures for the Russo Finnish Winter War. In addition, I think a set of worn out and ragged German troops in the Stalingrad kessel, would make a nice mini set and could be complemented with a set of specialist Soviet troops - snipers, engineers, etc... What do other forum members think? Do you support Strelets in WWII, perhaps making more unusual and, as yet, never been made sets?
Fact is, there is no need to re-invent the wheel. There are plenty of WWII infantry sets for all the major armies in the war. What is needed is something to fill the gaps. Obviously, we need a US or Japanese artillery gun, or US Seabees and a bulldozer, but that isn't your forte. We'll leave that to someone else.
We understand how mini sets work. Yes there will be four of every figure in the set. And there will be roughly 12 poses.
The gaps in WWII? Medical figures. Personalities (generals and leaders, you can't count Roco minitanks set, they are tiny). Specialty figures. And generic accessories. Camp scenes. And just about any army that isn't German.
So how about starting with a mini set each for US, Japanese, and Russian.
US: An Eisenhower figure (yes, we'll get four, but it's just one figure, a good tradeoff to get the set) like this Marx one:
http://www.rickkoch.net/rkoch3929.JPG
We should get Patton with the Italeri set if the catalog picture can be believed.
That could be 12 poses right there. A sniper is useful too. And incorporated amognst the figures or on the end of the sprues add a Jerry gas can, a C-ration box, an oil drum, and an ammo crate.
And any Marines doing things from the above Army set, including accessories incorporated amognst the figures or on the end of the sprues add a Jerry gas can, a C-ration box, an oil drum, and an ammo crate.
Finnish Army, Hungarian Army, Dutch Army, Romanian Army, Bulgarian Army, Slovakian Army, KNIL Colonial Troops, have no 1/72nd scale representatives.
Engineers; Signal radio and telephone; medical, doctors and nurses; high ranking commanders, personalities, military police, motorcycle troops are all sorely lacking for most nations for WWII. Even the Germans lack some of these.
I think Strelets could make about any set, any period and with the new sculpting and having mini-sets, it would turn out a bestseller. I wouldn't even mind getting a German WW2 hospital spread out over 4 different sets:
3 minisets - nurses, wounded and combat medics.
I would probably buy just one box of combat medics, but several boxes of nurses and wounded. The nurses could be useful for about any war since the early middle ages, as their attire hasn't really changed much. They could do double duty as nuns - imagine a Viking raid, duty in colonial Peking or Africa, WW1, AWI, Napoleonic wars etc.
That all could be followed by a Big Box set that includes some skillful surgeons, an operating room, amputees, POW, civilians, a horse sled. The box cover could feature a cut-out picture of the 'Stalingrad Madonna', which was painted by a physician in Stalingrad:
http://www.feldgrau.com/articles.php?ID=74
Well, there are even gaps in the 'ordinary ww2 sets'. What about soviet scouts in camo overalls? what about german, soviet and us mountain units? (the us 10th mountain division had quite some unique pieces of equipment) anyone ever saw a 1/72 set of luftwaffe feldivision or Balkan partisans?