Summer Vender Road Trip

If you are new to the www.diecastairplane.com blog by owner Steve Howland, welcome. If you are a regular newsletter subscriber then you know that I am out on the road making a round trip of the US from my home base of Massachusetts. The purpose of this trip is to meet with many of the manufacturers we represent at www.diecastairplane.com. It is great to meet the folks we buy from on a weekly, and sometimes, daily basis. And is also great to find out more about the product lines, upcoming products, and more that helps us to serve our customers better. So enjoy the updates that should come every couple of days through August 18. Forgive me if I sometimes wax poetic about the fun of traveling this great country.

Day 1, July 17, 2008
 
I got on the road early this morning (4:30 AM) for the drive to Exton, PA where Franklin Mint is headquartered and arrived about 10:30. I got a chance to meet with Ed Hoopes who is a wholesale rep and Joe, who is the lead designer. At www.DiecastAirplane.com Franklin Mint airplanes are one of our leading lines as they pretty much have a corner on the big 1:48 scale warbirds market. With some great new designs - The F-22 last year  and the PBY Catalina this year -  they are bringing customers some spectacular models. The first two versions of the PBY are now in stock and are selling well. The F-22 has also been extremely popular and we are hoping to see more versions of this model in 2009. Joe says they are working on another modern fighter for next year, but couldn’t give me the details so we’ll have to wait for the 2009 Catalog to see what comes of that.