BMC Toys: Turkey Day Production Roundup

Before we get to the good stuff (and stuffing), I just want to take a moment to say  tanks' to all the friends, family, customers, and colleagues that make everything I do here possible. An extra special thank you goes out to 'Uncle' Thor Sheil and his Army Men Homepage. Thor passed away this week, and he was a great friend and ambassador for BMC Toys. Our deepest condolences to his friends and family.

Here's a summary of what's going on with current BMC Toys production.

The container with the new Iwo Jima 72pc Boxed Playsets, Rough Riders bagged figure set, and restocks of Utah Beach and the rest of the American Heroes product line was scheduled to arrive by early November, but was stuck in California due to severe port congestion. I'm extremely thankful to report that the container arrived in Cleveland by train yesterday, and is scheduled to arrive at our warehouse by truck in Akron early next week. Everything in that shipment should be available to order on BMCtoys.com by Thursday, November 29th. I apologize for the delay, and realize I need to book production much earlier next year.

A new batch of the BMC Classic Lido WW2 Soldiers 40pc in Olive Green has just wrapped production at the Tim Mee factory, and will be in stock at BMCtoys.com by December 3rd. Some advance troops are already available in the VictoryBuy Amazon Shop. The only change to this production run is the packaging has switched from header card to an insert card with new art. The change was primarily made because the vast majority of our USA made products ship directly to customers, and I think the insert style packaging will work a little better for shipping and storage. There's also some time savings for the factory since there is no folding or stapling, and I'm finding the format much easier to design. There were some requests for a tan issue of the Lido Soldiers, but I couldn't get it done this time around.

Some of the biggest production news is the continued expansion of the BMC Toys Classic Army Men Collector Series. We're acquiring more vintage US toy company molds, and are starting production with a factory located just a few minutes from my office in Scranton, PA. This a relatively small, family owned and operated factory that can offer lower production quantities than the factory that produces the Tim Mee Reissues and some of our BMC Classic line. It's also allowing me more flexibility in what we can produce, and is a great opportunity to learn about, and be more closely involved with production. Here's a photo of the Payton Anti-Aircraft Tank mold mounted in the plastic injection molding machine:

Production of the Marx WW2 Russian Soldiers 36pc in Burgundy-Brown is complete and we're waiting for the Payton Anti-Aircraft Tanks Olive & Tan 4pc production to finish up within the next few days. Both items are already available in the VictoryBuy Amazon Shop. Also in production is the Marx WW2 Japanese Soldiers 32pc in Tan, and the Marx WWII Axis Ambush 14pc Accessory Set. The Axis Ambush set will include 3 Marx Pillbox Bunkers, 3 Destroyed Buildings in medium gray, and 8 pieces of Marx Barbed Wire Fence made in Charcoal Gray. I can't say exactly when all these items will be available on BMCtoys.com and Amazon, but it does look like they will be available in time for Christmas:

There's also a lot of news to go over regarding new BMC Toys product development, but I'll have to save that for a future post. I can say I'm working on these figures for production in January 2019:

 Happy Turkey Day,