N scale militarized police force

[gavino200]

9 hours ago, chadbag said:

 Though you need someone to take delivery in Japan and forward to you.

 

%##%^&$%%!!!!!!

 

[gavino200]

One of these Bandai working vehicle collection vol. 7, TV broadcast trucks would work well as a riot police communication truck

 

Bandai truck

http://429k.net/workingvehicle-vol7.html

 

I bought this one as I think it looks the most police-like/easiest to convert. 

https://global.rakuten.com/en/store/auc-treasurehunter/item/10008822-4/

 

Communication vehicle

http://www.atlas-web.com/keisatu/policetype/tsusin-b.htm

 

If a moderator sees this, would you mind moving this thread to the "scenery" forum. 

Edited August 16, 2018 by gavino200

[cteno4]

I misplaced a half dozen of these I had from my first box of them and only had one I had on the matsuri scene. A few years back I was able to pick up a few on ebay cheap again. Now they are pricy! They were $4 each when released... wish I had bought more of many of those early vehicle series, but at the time so many were coming out so often just thought it would always be and they would just re-release them later again. Well that’s only happened a few times so far.

 

they were the best and most unique of all the Bandai working vehicle series, detail and moulding betthernthan many of the other trucks. Addition of crew figures was great with these. Camera man, sound guy and reporter.

 

jeff

[gavino200]

3 hours ago, cteno4 said:

... wish I had bought more of many of those early vehicle series, but at the time so many were coming out so often just thought it would always be and they would just re-release them later again. Well that’s only happened a few times so far.

 

 

What's going on? Is the hobby slowly dying in Japan, or something? Why would production of these little wonders be going down?

 

BTW I was asking about moving this thread to the 'other' scenery forum. The one in the N gauge "main platform". This one is mainly for techniques. I was confused about that when I posted it first. Now when I want to check this thread as a reference it takes me ages to find it. I always expect to find it in the other place.

[cteno4]

No I think it just flooded the market. At the same time plastic (oil) and Chinese production costs went up there. I do wonder if there is a good market there now though as there have been few vehicle collections in the last 5 years. Hopefully the moulds are still viable.

 

jeff

[JR 500系]

Yes nowadays there's only Tomytec to turn to, and they are getting smart releasing 2 new and 2 older generation models in a 4-car set, making it more expensive to collect either one or the other... Likewise, they only produce full box sets that makes you get the whole box in order to be certain you will have a certain model, like the Trailer collection 9 car carriers for example... Then there is another catch, if you happen to be lucky and got the secret variant, you will then have a missing variant which you need to hunt down to fully complete the set... 

 

Good marketing strategy by Tomytec, but not good to us as consumers... 

[gavino200]

8 hours ago, JR 500系 said:

 Likewise, they only produce full box sets that makes you get the whole box in order to be certain you will have a certain model, like the Trailer collection 9 car carriers for example...

 

This has been a problem for me. I've now passed over quite a few collections, because I just didn't need or want many of the models in it. But there's really no alternative. I like having multiple copies of some vehicles, especially commercial or military vehicles. But ten trucks or trailers at a time can really crowd a layout. 

 

I think my strategy will be to buy every collection, select the models I like, and then sell the rest on ebay after about 2 or 3 years when the market has dried up. 

[cteno4]

Yep that’s a good strategy. Pretty much what I’ve done. We use to do swap meets at club lunches to sell or trade off extras of things when there were a lot of collections coming out. Now usually when I get a set that I only want a few of I ask if anyone wants to to split a collection, great on the trailers especially. I also sell off some extras now and then when folks need something and I have some extras. But also found having extras is nice as usually cheaper than trying to buys specific one later for an idea and the list prices just keep going up! At least I know I can get my money out of them most always, could make a profit I’m sure but happy to just get the money out of it usually and someone I know is happy.

 

for getting multiples of new ones coming out check popondetta https://www.popondetta.jp/ as they use to always take a dozen or two cases and sell them off as individual vehicles of known type. Prices are usually reasonable although they would jack up the price more unique ones in a set. These did not stick around a long time, so you needed to start looking as soon as a collection came out. I don’t know if they opened more cases if a series sold quickly as individuals. I can’t remeber how I searched for it as the site is all japanese and it use to not behave well in translators. I remeber having to have two windows open and translate a page in one window (which then would not function) and figure out what to click on a clean nontranslated version in the other window.

 

jeff

[gavino200]

This looks like a good source. They're called "Dropzone Commander". They seem very close to n scale. The guy in this link is displaying them using Tomytec houses.

 

http://robjedi.blogspot.com/2014/08/dropzone-commander-ucm-and-tomytec-n.html

 

For scale, they're described as "10 mm".  This is quoted from a site called "Fragged". Linked below. Again recommending N scale accessories to work with the Dropzone figures.

 

"Dropzone Commander is “10mm scale”, which translates to somewhere between 1:148 and 1:200 – also known as N scale / N gauge. You can find quite a bit of model railroad stuff in this scale, but be wary of the prices as they can be pretty steep!"

 

http://fragged.info/2014/09/dropzone-commander-terrain/

 

 

These would be 100% perfect but unfortunately they're 15mm

 

http://pawncocktail.blogspot.com/2014/11/riot-police.html

Edited August 26, 2018 by gavino200

[JR 500系]

Great for the upcoming army trucks series!

[gavino200]

At last! Something perfect for the force.

 

https://www.tomytec.co.jp/diocolle/items/pdf/newitem_20191010_03.pdf