Strelets Forum

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.

Strelets Forum
Start a New Topic 
Author
Comment
View Entire Thread
Re: Friday Post

Flambeau
It's been said before, but I suppose some sets are just a wee bit too fast produced, without proper research before sculpting the masters (something that should not happen in the time of the internet ...). A pity, as Strelets have done some good Highlanders before and other sets (like most of the WoSS) are well researched. Perhaps that's due to the sculptors being commissioned rather than directly employed by the company, so if nobody's there to directly supervise their work ... Maybe if the drafts could be submitted to the forum before the actual sculpting starts, mistakes might be easier avoided. We can't expect a sculptor or producer to be an expert in every period, but there are surely enough knowlegeable people around to give some advice.
I entirely agree. Strelets are great at showing us master figures and tasters of things to come, but it does seem that the production decision/commitment has already been made in every case when these figures appear here. It is therefore too late to change or modify them.

Could a figure still at the sculpting stage be shown from time to time, not so much to allow 'design by committee', but just to allow Forum members time to flag up any obvious errors? It would help a lot and should be a win/win.

Re: Friday Post

I wonder what is the topic of the Deutsche Afrika Korps Set? Heavy weapons? Observers?

Re: Friday Post

Misteredd
I wonder what is the topic of the Deutsche Afrika Korps Set? Heavy weapons? Observers?
I have been pondering that myself?? there have been no big clues, Command ? I suspect one or two pleasant surprises await us with this set.

Re: Friday Post

Guys, with the utmost due respect.... Cast your mind's back to what we used to get: historical inaccuracies, zero interest from manufacturers to enthusiast ideas/contributions (you either liked em or lumped em) and sets that could have always been better.

Strelets has taken this hobby to another level and will never suit everyone, nor get every button counted, and yet still, I believe, strive to deliver there or thereabouts.... The FFL sets combine Hollywood with interest, for example, and there are still hundreds subjects to cover.

Strelets is all the others combined into a company that listens and tries to cover interesting, unusual and popular themes. I understand the most discerning of collectors, but boys, remember the bad old days of not long past. This company is still listening, still improving and about the only one is still is - calm thy jets and be happy with what you get, and, of course, look to the future eh?

respectfully

Re: Friday Post

Well, I also mentioned in another post that we may be somewhat spoiled by the high quality delivered by Strelets and other companies in the past ... :wink:
Nevertheless I guess nobody is keen to go back to the good ol' days of "make do" with whatever was available and many still remember how frustrating it was to see a company like Italeri or HaT which had delivered excellent sets slip from quality products to (in some cases) utter crap. While I think that such fears with regard to Strelets are unfounded, there's an obvious line between an acceptable product and an excellent one. And this will also affect sales. When I started collecting 20mm figures were more or less toys and we didn't care much about historical acaccuracy. Now they are collectors items. And many here already own large stocks of their choice periods figures. If new ones are made that aim at replacing extant ones they have to be better to sell well, as Zvezda cuirassiers replaced Esci which had replaced Airfix. If a company takes a step back this will show in sales. So while arguing for quality and pointing out mistakes may seem a bit picky at times it is in everybodies best interest as long as it's done i a polite manner, at least imho.

Re: Friday Post

Al
Guys, with the utmost due respect.... Cast your mind's back to what we used to get: historical inaccuracies, zero interest from manufacturers to enthusiast ideas/contributions (you either liked em or lumped em) and sets that could have always been better.

Strelets has taken this hobby to another level and will never suit everyone, nor get every button counted, and yet still, I believe, strive to deliver there or thereabouts.... The FFL sets combine Hollywood with interest, for example, and there are still hundreds subjects to cover.

Strelets is all the others combined into a company that listens and tries to cover interesting, unusual and popular themes. I understand the most discerning of collectors, but boys, remember the bad old days of not long past. This company is still listening, still improving and about the only one is still is - calm thy jets and be happy with what you get, and, of course, look to the future eh?

respectfully
Well said, Al. My first highlanders were the Airfix set that my father described as “featureless blobs of plastic”. I for one can live with ahistorical anomalies. If the good folks at Strelets can avoid such errors in future sets, more the better.

Re: Friday Post

Al

Flambeau pretty much summed up my feelings on the matter but I will just add this.

The past is the past, it doesn't matter what sets were like back then, the idea is what we have today should be better. Regardless if its plastic figures to electrical goods to cars etc. We are now in a different century compared to when the Airfix Waterloo figures were made. You might be happy to go back to those days, but a good many customers wouldnt!!!
Yes Strelets listen about set ideas, the Napoleonic firing lines were an example. I was really looking forward to a really well thought out British firing line, but then it appeared and.....well, for me, Strelets may as well not have bothered. Sorry but thats how I felt upon seeing the masters. Just my opinion of course, but I am just a potential customer. If that is replicated among other potential customers, sales wont be great. That is why poor decisions and mistakes is a big issue for many, it can affect sales and thus, affect the company. Yes a button missing here or there is not the end of the world, but when the mistakes are actually for obvious things with uniform or equipment, it isnt good. I mean even if you are not sure of something, it doesnt take long to have a good search on the internet at least. Just do the research. We have to for painting purposes.
So in a way, yes a few of us are looking to the future....a future where we want Strelets to still be at the top of the game, not sliding into oblivion due to a tarnished reputation, like HaT or Italeri, as Flambeau mentioned. Not everybody who buys Strelets products comes on this forum or even perhaps looks at the PSR site. So if buying "blind", they could in turn get a few nasty surprises, something which could put them off a company.

As for being happy with what we get, jeez we are not little children!! We are adults paying for a product. I mean, are you saying when buying other things in life, that if you recieve an incorrect or inferior product, you just accept it and not go back for a replacement or refund?? Doubt most would. If I go to a hardware store because I want some white gloss paint, buy some, only to get home and find its matt grey in the tin, I dont just go "oh well I will repaint my woodwork in the house grey instead!! I take it back and ask for a replacement tin or refund!! If I buy some fishing hooks, get home and find they are all blunt, I dont then just use them even though they are next to useless!!!!
If somebody made say, a Mk1a Battle of Britain Spitfire but made it incorrectly as a biplane, a great many would want to know what the hell was going on. We would expect the Spitfire to look how it should do.
So why should plastic figures be any different? Sure little mistakes happen, but when it comes to blatently obvious ones, no excuses im afraid, especially if a company has already made sets of that subject correctly before.

Simple fact is, no Al, we dont just have to be happy with what we get, we can in fact just choose not to buy. Customers can just see that when not enough effort has been put in or lazy mistakes occuring, they can vote with their wallet. If they keep seeing it, then that companys reputation starts to become tarnished.

We are not talking about an isolated error here with a missing button or buckle, that wouldnt be a problem. We are seeing blatently obvious mistakes that were easily avoidable, with increasing regularity.
If those of us who care about historical accuracy just said, "oh well" and used them anyway, we may as well just change La Haye Sainte at Waterloo for the Alamo!!

Re: Friday Post

For a command set there are to many 98k carbibes.

Re: Friday Post

Misteredd
For a command set there are to many 98k carbibes.
Agree, but we don`t have much to go on yet, not a Mortar crew, we have them, artillery,but no gun, they look to to static,so probably not infantry, curiouser and curiouser as some one in wonderland would say...

Re: Friday Post

That's gonna be the weirdest set ever with all those guys together.
Must be the new time traveler set.
Maybe just toss in K-9 and Dr. Who and you are done.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

Re: Friday Post

It is a desert patrol! I wonder how many desert patrols were there on foot. Did`nt they use motorcycles and armoured recon cars?

Re: Friday Post

Some very nice sculpting on show here, the cavalry being my favorite.

The DAK carbines seem very short to me. Maybe it's just the photo.

Re: Friday Post

I thought they looked a little odd too. Thought i'd wait to see if anyone else noticed 1st before saying anything. Otherwise it feels like i'm always the one pointing this stuff out!!

This sculptor seems to be the same that is doing the Napoleonic sets. He/she seems to do the Human form really well.....exceptionally well in fact, but uniforms/weapon accuracy seems to be an issue.