21st Ultimate Soldier 1/48 scale AFVs

[Poiter50]

Today I received 2 Pz 38 (t)s and 4 Marder IIIs from an Ebay seller in Hong Kong. Apart from the fact that there was an extra Marder and one less 38 (t), I noticed that there were some other vehicles shown on the back of the packaging, one of them being a FlakPanzer IV with the 4 barreled 20mm AA gun in a multi sided turret. Wirbelwind, I think is the name of this but I have never seen it available in this format, ie pre painted, pre-assembled. I believe the company has disappeared but does anyone know if the vehicle was actually produced by them before they went out of business?

[moiterei_1984]

I had a quick Google search and it seems it is/ was only available in 1/32.

[fitterpete]

Yeah they made them in 1/48, I have 3 myself
No I don't want to sell any either
Seriously though, keep checking ebay they show up every so often.

[Poiter50]

fp, any chance of seeing what was on the box to help an Ebay search? I find my Perry SPG crew fit nicely in them.

Yeah they made them in 1/48, I have 3 myself
No I don't want to sell any either
Seriously though, keep checking ebay they show up every so often.

[fitterpete]

My boxes are long gone.But the company had many names weirdly.Try
21st Century Toys
Classic Armor Diecast, yeah I know they are plastic but that's what they called them.
New Millenium Toys

Watch the scales as they made 1/48,1/72,1/144(I think) and1/32
If you get desperate you know Tamiya make one, of course you have to build it and paint it but....

[ARKOUDAKI]

21st Century Toys was the company and they were based out of a place near San Francisco, Calif, USA....all production was done in China. The short story is that 21st C did a large range of 1/48, 1/32, 1/144, and 1/18 AFVs, aircraft, etc.... the company bit the dust years ago as they sold mainly through Wal-Mart in the States and their pricing policy ran them into the ground...plus they were terribly disorganized as a business...so it wasn't much of a surprise...but they did last some years and do a lot. The pre-painted planes, AFVs, and figures were pretty nice with a wide range of items. I bought loads of them - mostly 1/32 AFVs - with dreams of reliving my childhood of playing soldiers...one day, right! LOL

21st C did go into 1/48 but only briefly....they did two Marders (as they did in 1/32), a Panzer IV Ausf D and Ausf H, and a Whirlwind...I think that was it before the company went under. Sad too, as they were pretty nice kits, that if you replaced the tracks and did some upgrades would also make nice models.

In fact, 21st C did make some unpainted 1/32 airplane kits (essentially, unassembled and unpainted, kits) that were really nice. Some of these eventually ended up in the UK via discounters...but alas they are all gone now I think. As you have probably gathered, they show up on EvilBay quite a bit and often the prices are beyond stupid...but hey, there is demand so people buy and people sell.

Hope this info helps.

[Mako]

I've got some of the 1/48th scale armor for sale.

Check out the Bazaar of Obscurities, "For Sale" section, of LAF.

Will be adding a few other items too, that have been long out of production, Thursday or Friday, including some of their superb 1/48th scale, prebuilt aircraft models, like the P-51, Me-109G-10 and Me-109K model, Japanese Tony, etc.

[Mako]

I've updated my listing in the For Sale section of the Bazaar of Obscurities, here on LAF.

The following items are available as of right now, though there's been a lot of interest in the 1/49th scale, Wirbelwinds, Marders, and Panzer IVDs:

5 x Panzer IVD, with short 75mm gun - gray camo. $30 each, or all five for $125
Used from the beginning of the war, up through 1943 - 1944.  Apparently, at least a few were still kicking around in Normandy, to oppose the D-Day landings there.

Several Wirbelwinds - yellow, red-brown, and green camo.  Not sure exactly how many I have, since a number of people have contacted me about this item, and I've sold at least one, and perhaps a few more are pending.   $35 each

1 x Kubelwagen - gray camo with a beige canvas soft-top.  $15

3 x Schwimmwagen - gray camo with a gray canvas soft-top.  $15 each

2 x Marder III - yellow, red-brown, and green camo.   $20 each


Also available, are some superb, prebuilt and painted 1/48th scale aircraft from the same company (these are highly detailed models, with painted on national insignia, markings, and even small warning symbols and verbiage):  P-51B with Malcolm Hood and Invasion Stripes, Me-109G-10, Me-109K-4, and a solid-green camo'd. Japanese Hien (Tony).

Photos available upon request.

See my add for more info on the items, and on domestic and international shipping rates.

All items are subject to prior sale, and I just shipped out a Wirbelwind today.  Other sales are pending.

[Poiter50]

PM replied to.

[SBMiniaturesGuy]

21st C did go into 1/48 but only briefly....they did two Marders (as they did in 1/32), a Panzer IV Ausf D and Ausf H, and a Whirlwind...I think that was it before the company went under.

I have a bunch of these, used the PzIV heavily in my recent battle AAR post: http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=75414.0

But they also made a Pz38(t) as well, I have several of them. Too bad they went out of business, nice detail and cheap, cheap, cheap when they were at Toys R Us years back, I cleaned 'em out.

[Mako]

Yes, I really like them as well, so bought a few extras, in surplus to my needs.

I was very sorry to see them go out of business as well.

Their stuff was really smashing (to borrow an olde-English phrase).

Great tanks and planes, ready for gaming, right out of the box.  What's not to love about that.

Quite frankly, I'm surprised they have restarted business, or that someone else hasn't replaced them, since pre-builts are great for collectors, and gamers who don't have the time, or inclination to assemble and paint their own models.

I would have loved to buy more, including Panthers, Tigers, Jagdpanzers, Russian, US, and British armor, more 1/144th scale aircraft, etc.

Their 1/48th and larger, factory assembled and painted aircraft are museum quality models, which are really more like mini-replicas of the originals, given all the fine detailing they put into them.