I'd like to toss out a request for a Lu Bu and Xiahou Dun as well.

And on the topic of Bravo Team, is there any possibility of getting other nationalities in the WWII line? It would be amazing if we could finally get some Italians, British, or especially Russians in 1/18.

Russians that dont have long coats so that I can make the long and short coats for them!!
I mean fo reals they would look hella cool, I and one thing the proportion on the arm length needs some work, the arms are 1//8 inch too long. shortening the for arm 1/16th and the upper arm 1/16th would take care of this.

Killa

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Hi Guys,

Thank You. Your suggestions have been noted and forwarded to our development team for their consideration---

While I cannot promise what will eventually end up in the queue for development/tooling and on the shelves, your input is at the very least persuasive 'food for thought' depending on the level of demand.

Best Regards,

L. Gatdula
Panache Place, Inc./Unimax Toys, Ltd.

Hi Guys,

I'm happy to announce that AGES OF ACTION will be available this Nov. through a number of specialty retailers throughout the U.S.

Among these are smalljoes.com, foxholetoys.com, badcataviation.com, and michtoys.com. Please contact us at (949) 858-8409 x104 or write us at support@panacheplace.com so that we may direct you to a listing of the fine
specialty toy retailers supporting this unique program.

Thanks to those of you who have long anticipated the release of these figures.
We appreciate your interest and enthusiam for AGES OF ACTION---and hope you get to enjoy them very soon!

Best Regards,

L. Gatdula
Panache Place, Inc./Unimax Toys

I was just literally thinking about this 2 days ago

thanks for the update

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I was wondering about this to and couldn't find this thread, awesome news and i will be getting some, Thanks for the exciting news.

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Target's not gonna be picking the line up? Any idea on a price point?

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Hi Adrien & All---

Price point wise, the figures will cost more at specialty than at mass, and will vary from retailer to retailer. In the same breath, we are nonetheless happy to have the support of our specialty retailers, many of whom carry our FOV products, who will now be instrumental to introducing the line to collectors like yourselves here in North America.

We're still pitching the line to the mass market retailers in the hope we'll be able to get them into one of the chains. It's difficult, as I've said, with all the competition out there, but we're still at it and will let you know should we get placement for them soon.

Meanwhile, food for thought---what do Joe customizers want to see in affordable figures they can really use in their projects? I know that Lanard (The Corps) has done a brisk business at Wal Mart for years offering very inexpensive figs and vehicles customizers have been drawn to....

L. Gatdula

Stripped down single figures with minimal accessories and individual accessory packs so that we can outfit the figures as we want. Both packed in the same style cardback and both can be the same price point. If it were able to be done, SRP no hirer than $6.99.

If this can be done and they are great figures and accessories, customizers would buy the heck out of each. Accessory packs most of all.

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Here's my recipe for *my* perfect toyline:

The figures are durable, highly articulated with ball joints everywhere a human has ball motion, and disassembleable for customization (easy disassembly like the old Joe backscrews are great, but modern Joe/SW boil-n-pop disassembly is fine). The PTE figure engineering was perfectly fine (altho I'll always want a ball waist), they suffered due to their crummy sculpting and proportioning, but they moved great!

I think the current mindset the 25A Joes are going with, i.e., a few basic bodies that're specialized with webgear, is the route to go for cost savings combined with figure individuality. A basic pants & shirt body can go a really long way with repainting, headswaps, and the individualized webgear.

I think the modern/WWII military genre has been largely played out, altho I certainly hope the 25A line keeps going strong for a good while to come. But there's just not a whole lot left that hasn't been done in some manner by somebody and is reasonably obtainable by we adult collector-customizers.

But there are large amounts of potential outside that genre, as you UniMax guys already know as you're doing this Ages of Action line and can see its warm reception here.

So, for vehicles and playsets, go with that. Give us a Trojan Horse, a Viking longboat, pick up the Mythology line's slack and give us good articulated mythical monsters for the AoA guys to fight (Minotaurs, Cyclopes, Roks, Djinni, etc).

On top of all that, there are tons of other genres that can still be served in 18th scale. Hell, y'all could catch the coming wave and come up with your own generic superhero line, and sell Mad Scientist machines like I've been wanting for eons on end (and have finally been serviced with the ongoing 25A MASS Device B.A.M. - but it's not enough!).

You could give us Classical Monsters like Dracula, the Wolfman, & Frankenstein's Monster (man, what I wouldn't give for an 18th playset from The Cabinet of Dr Caligari with Cesare fig).

I'm dying to get some of those Chap Mei Viking sets, just because my Showdown Thor needs buddies to slay dragons and drink mead with.

And a Meso-America line with Aztec, Inca, and Maya warriors would so very much kick ass, same goes for some African warriors. The Hispanic and Afro-American toy collector markets have *never* been tapped, much less serviced and profited from.

Ultimately, I think the 18th collector-customizer market is up for pretty much any genre of toy so long as it's done within certain parameters of articulation, detail, and overall playability. I don't gather that we're sticklers for accuracy for the most part, so the AoA line's historical precision isn't going to be why the line gets picked up by most of us. You're more than encouraged to continue making them that way, but making it a selling point is largely a waste of effort - emphasis the fun of having a squad of Roman Legionnaires to form up into a phalanx to stomp all over them pesky Gauls.

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For figures purchased purely as custom fodder (parts), I try to keep my price point below $4. $3 is even better. Since these figures will be chopped up, modified, and stripped of pieces, it is not practical to pay more than this unless a figure offers particularly unique or versatile parts, or is necessary for a specific project. Generally this means I buy bulk lots of older or less desirable toys on Ebay, or wait for items to hit clearance in stores like Target. For me, custom fodder is like raw art materials and has to cost out for my overall plans for a project.

For figures purchased to be collected and used as manufactured, cheaper is better, but the absolute limit for me is $7 per figure. At that price however, the figure needs to come with very good and interesting accessories and I will only buy one or two of each. I will also pay close attention to figures that are truly excellent in their workmanship, paint, and articulation. There will be no army building at that price. To sell me multiples of a single figure, the price per figure would have to be under $5.

For a smaller, niche line like this, I would strongly encourage an under $5 price point. I feel very srongly that one of the reasons lines like the current Indiana Jones toys are somewhat stagnant is that they are priced to high for non-collectors. These figures are small and the perceived value is not equal to the $7 price point.

One of the reasons Lanard Corps work, is that their price is unbeatable. G.I. Joe fans may find a lot of problems with the figures aesthetically, but as TOYS you get a lot of value for what you pay. 3 well-articulated, well constructed, detailed figures with excellent accessories for $4.44 is a very good deal. If you could match this price point and deliver more realistic aesthetics, you'd strike gold with customizers and army builders.

The only major flaw with the Corps figures is the lack of ball jointed hips. The inability to give the figures wide stances greatly limits their value in action poses. But at the price they're sold, it's not a bad trade off. All the Corps figures are still better articulated than many $7 a piece Star wars figures.

Just some things to think about.

I'm not so sure of that, but if you can point me in the direction of a 1/18 GSG-9 figure or JGSDF soldier, I'd be prepared to eat those words.


I think I'm pretty easy to please here as far as what I personally am looking for in a figure line to collect/use as fodder. First and foremost is sculpt and you guys pretty much already have that down. Secodly is the articulation. What I've seen from AOA and the Bravo Team series is pretty good all around except for the hips. If some simple way of adding ball jointed hips were implemented, I think your products would be damn near perfect. Something like the way the PTE figures hips are done would work pretty well. Personally, if those Bravo Team guys were retooled with ball jointed hips, I'd go and re-buy all of them. Lastly, in terms of things I'm after for customizing, easily removable gear is one other thing that's high on my list. Things like armor, or pouches, or other gear like that.

More foriegn figs. Like current Russian military Figs, or Chinese, etc. The only Bravo fig I got the arms fell off the second I pulled it out of the plastic. Don't know if this was a one time thing or what cause that really put me down on getting anymore.

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Hi Guys,

All great suggestions and insight. I appreciate the time you've
taken to be informative and helpful, and look forward to corresponding with
any of you with more insight you'd like to share about the customizing
and army building hobby.

Thanks very much again!

L. Gatdula

Do you think it would be possible to see some images of these figures ?
PRETTY PLEASE !

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