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.
Hello,
as far as I can remember, the company behind the HAT brand is Pacific Coast Company Ltd., which actually makes household items from injection-moulded plastic.
When new injection molding machines were bought there in 1998, they were looking for products that could be manufactured with one of the old machines, which were still in good condition. An older employee then began to produce plastic figures, which quickly aroused great interest.
This business performed very well in the years 2000-2015 and delivered good revenues. Therefore, several people from PCC were employed in the plastic figures division. I think that this older employee then fell seriously ill and died in 2015. And with him the knowlegde of the old machines was gone. Since then things haven't been running smoothly in the HAT figure division...
HAT-Production was then relocated to China, but there were also various problems (material and quality defects, massive overruns of delivery times, etc.). Since then, HAT has never really gotten back on its feet.
And maybe the final end is threatening there now....because nothing new has happened there for nearly two years...the last Release of new sets was the A1022-Batch (in October 2020)
This is the Hat voice: Greetings!
No need to wonder and feel free to write us anytime! We are indeed still active. There just has been a lot of supply chain problems for everyone. There has been lock down in the factories and some other issues.
Sincerely,
Al
Any chance to have an update on the planned Netherlands Carabineers and Prussian artillery train? And as you are on strelets website, which is a very informative platform, do you think your response could exceed the usual hat 3 word reply?
It is sad about HaT, I believe that illness was the main factor in the change from a prolific producer down to what it is now. I'm still waiting for the promised (and sculpted) baggage camels.
We had a good repartee going, and just like Alan, my face appears on some of their boxes.
O, such heady days.
Same here; my family got a kick out of Dad/Grandpa being "famous."
I'll let the others speak for themselves, but I'm on the 7YW Austrian Action box as a grenadier and the ACW Confederate Infantry box. Over the years I developed a personal correspondence with H and one day the question came up if I'd send in a picture to be the face on a box so I sent in a couple old shots of me in my prime... I imagine it was the same way with the other guys more or less. As I said, I got a kick out of it.
The ACW command set is me, Wayne is the ACW marching ,Sander who is not very active here is the 7yw command . The story is we were active for a long time on the old forum and a trust was built over time, looking back I think it was a thank you for loyalty shown over a lot of years.
It's good to hear that HAT will continue.
But especially if you have production and delivery problems, then you have to give this information to your customers. In today's world, a lack of activity and poor customer care is a great danger for a company. Communicate openly and actively with your customers about the current problems and your plans for the future.
You will find a lot of understanding.....but silence and passivity will drive your customers away...