New “Affordable” Sherman Kit Going Into Production!

People who follow our posts on Flickr and Facebook have probably already seen some of the work on a newer, cheaper M4 Sherman tank kit. The current “premium” M4A3 kit is extremely detailed, which also means it’s one of our most expensive kits. We’ve been scaling back on the level of detail in order to moderate kit prices for many of our recent releases. Since the Sherman tank is among the most popular kit we’ve produced (and it’s high price tag produces the most complaints), we’ve decided to apply some of our thriftiness into a new Sherman tank kit.

Several prototype models were produced and the above photo shows the final model that was decided upon. We consider this to incorporate the very bare-bones minimum requirements that we could still call a Brickmania M4 Sherman kit, while still being far more affordable than our current kit. Here are some of the nice features we’ve manage to include in this kit:

Fully rotating and elevating main gun
Opening hatches for the drivers and tank commander
Upper hull is easily removable from the lower hull.
Sturdy construction and smooth rolling tracks
Fully tiled exterior surfaces
Lower hull is totally hollow and can be easily detailed with crew compartment and engine.
There is even enough room inside so that two drivers can sit side-by-side!

The final price retail price for the new M4 Sherman kit will be $165. While this is higher than our original target price, we felt we could not shave any more cost from this kit without sacrificing playability and structural integrity. The kit is 505 pieces. Figs and BrickArms will cost you extra. We have ordered parts for the first 100 kits and they should be available for sale within a week or two.

Below are pictures of the various prototype models, from which the final design was derived. Some of what you see below have not been incorporated into the final kit. The Sherman with the double row of tracks is one of our older M2A4 Sherman models, but with a newer turret design. It is included in the pictures for comparison’s sake.