This is what I said:

I am thrilled with your expansion into 1/72 scale armour releases. I would like to give you my list of wanted kits, and without getting too specific, could you please e-mail me back telling me if one or some of the kits on my list are going to be produced this coming year?

Here are the kits, in order of most wanted first:

1. Iraqi T-72 Republican Guard.
2. Russian T-64
3. M-109 A6 Paladin
4. AS-90
5. M-60 Patton
6. M-47 Patton
7. M-41 Bulldog
8. M-103 US Heavy Tank
9. M-26 Pershing WWII and Korea

Here is the Revell Response:

thanks for your email and your interest in our products.

The only thing I can guarantee you that one item of your list will be made next year.

Our webside will be updated with all new items by beginning of next year for the Nürnberg Toy Fair.
If you like to be informed about our monthly deliveries please subcribe to our newsletter.

Some distributors like Hannant Co. UK list the first four month earlier because up to now we are selling the first quarter of 2004 already. It is a bit complicated but it is an old tradition in Germany to show the new items to Nürnberg Toy Fair.

Some of your listed items are since years on our to do list, but bear in mind that USA business is done through Revell-Monogram and so not our main market.

With Best Regards, if you like you can send me in the beginning of January a mail again and I will inform you about all new 1/72 military items.

Here is my response:

Just give me this one clue and I will leave this issue alone. Does the
first letter of the new kit start with a T, M, or A?


We'll see what the response is!

that they will do either the M-109 ( also operated by the german Bundeswehr, although not the A6 version ) or the T-72 for a OIF thing ( as NOBODY else seems to do it in the near future... )

Benni

Either will be welcome in my arsenal

The letter is "T"
Also we're working on a "S" letter. Your idea about the last one?


Sincerely Alexey.

http://www.acemodel.com.ua

Alexey,

Are you saying that you know for sure that they are doing a 1/72 scale T-72?

I said that I know for sure we'll produce T-72.
As for Revell - am not sure at all


Sincerely Alexey.

http://www.acemodel.com.ua

Alexey,

What is the "S" letter you are talking about, and when is your T-72 going to be ready for sale?

That letter is a quest for You.
No names will be mentioned at a moment.
T-72 is in progress.


Sincerely Alexey.

http://www.acemodel.com.ua

Revell wrote back, the first letter of the new Revell kit is the letter M. Does anyone have a real guess as to which of the following it is.

M-109 A6 Paladin
M-60 Patton
M-47 Patton
M-41 Bulldog
M-103 US Heavy Tank
M-26 Pershing WWII and Korea

Alexey, seriously now, the T-72 has been on your soon list since forever. I have seen project after project go from ideas into inception, and there has been no movement on this T-72 in years. When are we going to have this kit?

we've begun this project long time ago, but the first attempt was not successful. Then we had to finish some other projects. I'll not mention exact date now, but can say that T-72 project is in progress.

Sincerely Alexey.

http://www.acemodel.com.ua

Hi Alexey

Is the S a modern vehicle or a WW II vehicle???? as for Revell, I think that it will be definately an M109.

Regards
Simon.

Hi Alexey

Re your "S" project, I bet that it is the S-Tank for the reason below, you always do this to me !!!

but i will forgive you !!

Simon.

Being German, Revell could well opt for:
SturmTiger, Sturmgeschutz, or SdKfz xxx, or even Semovente (an injection moulded Italian SPG? will we be so lucky again?)

There are so many AFVs from WW2 that haven't been done by injection moulding in 1:72 that it's depressing.

and I think one of those swedish tanks would fit into ACE´s boxes, compared to a MIG-25

Benni

All,

I recently changed my e-mail address because I was getting an enormous amount of spam every night. Therefore, I will not post my e-mail, I'm only sending it to close friends. I tried to post this message on the Braille Scale forum without my e-mail address and understandably the message was removed. If someone would not mind posting the original message and the subsequent response from Revell it would be appreciated. After all, this tid bit is exciting model news.

Thanks
John

Sorry to say this, but the answer is kind of obvious to me.
Revell-Germany has just done some German WWII kits (Stug, PzIII and King Tiger) and no Allied WWII since the Cromwell, it is therefore to follow the most recent Tamiya new release the M26 Pershing.
I'll personally buy a platoon of whatever they release.

i hope that someone will release the m-60 patton!!!!

When I asked if anyone had a real guess, what I meant to say was: Does anyone have inside information as to what Revell is up to? As for my guess, I agree with Benjamin and Simon, I think it is highly likely that the new mystery "M" kit is the M-109. My reasoning: All they have to do is scale down the 1/35 version they already have. Another very strong candidate in my opinion would be the M-60 which they just released this year and could also be scaled down quickly. I personally would welcome an M-26, but think it highly improbable due to its limited action in WWII, and low visibility battles in Korea. It is cheaper to scale kits down then start from scratch. OIF is now, and replicas of those vehicles are hot. I also don't think it will be the M-26 because they released the Cromwell and Sherman prior to their WWII German kits. The M-109 is also used by both America and Germany. In the end, I will be happy with whatever they produce from my list of wanted kits.