I'll be honest, I've never heard of the comic. I assume it's popular in japan? I don't see the appeal of it either, unless it came with some juicy packaging or gimmicks, for you can always substitute markings.

It's simply brilliant marketing. The series is popular in Japan--renowned, even--and anything that ANY modeling company can do to re-package one of its older products with some kind of new guise and/or gimmick is a sign of somebody there using some gray matter.

The markings wouldn't mean a hill of beans to me either way. I often cross-pollinate my German panzer markings with each other, within a degree of accuracy.

Shoot, Black Hawk's Skyrocket model by Minicraft was a popular kit and there's probably a good number of modelers who would buy the Haunted Tank if it was available in Jeb's markings.

Dragon takes a kit they already have, toss in some fictional markings from the comic book series and bang, another market for the old kit. Lots of the folks buying that kit probably don't know a Hetzer from a Jagdpanther, but they're fans of the series. Great way to get another set of legs off of old molds.

Maybe it's just me. I'm not into paper panzers and things of that nature, heck I usually don't paint a pattern if I can't find a picture of it. But I see your and Dragon's points.

Anything that promotes the hobby is a plus.

Not my cup of tea, but I agree with the concept wholehearterdly. Some fantasy or fiction creations are just cool concepts that are fun to model... Hesslers M47/King Tiger from Battle of The Bulge, the aforementioned Haunted Tank, Kilgore's Huey Gunship in Apocalypse Now, the B-17 from Heavy Metal...The list can go on.

Yes, and in the 80s there was Tom Cruise's Top Gun F-14 and the F-5 Aggressor in psuedo Soviet markings by Testors. Dragon released the Hunt for Red October submarine (Kursk sub with a new nose). M*A*S*H had a full line of Revell-Monogram kits that included the Swamp & Jeep, Deuce and a half, and the omni-present Bell chopper along with figures of Hawkeye, Klinger, Radar and Hot Lips. Lindberg released Will Smith's F-18 Hornet from ID4 along with Randy Quaid's PT Stearman biplane.

I've probably missed some, but these were all kits from each company's product line that just got a new box top and decals and made money for that company.

Yes, now there is one I would love to do, not Maverick's Tomcat, but Jester's or Viper's Skyhawk Aggresors... Cant forget the Revell Baa Baa Blacksheep Corasair and Zero releases. Monogram did a whole slew of reboxing for Tour of Duty and Call to Glory TV shows when those were on the air.

Testors did do the A-4, but I do not know enough about it to know whose plane it was.

I have the Hertzer kit and to be honest I just got it as it was the cheapest on Ebay and for some reason there was little choice in 1/35 scale from Dragon. Once out the box no one will know either

And of course Testor's 'F-19 Stealth' from the late '80s. I think about most of the modelers I knew back then picked up one of those. I wish I knew where all the parts to mine are.  

Surely Manny will know.....