MORE FROM NUREMBERG: Muscle Machines, TrueScale Miniatures, Ghostbusters II, Schuco Cobra

MORE FROM NUREMBERG: Muscle Machines, TrueScale Miniatures, Ghostbusters II, Schuco Cobra

Yes, it’s Super Bowl Weekend, and most of the free world will have salsa on their breath and both eyes glued on the game this Sunday. But the first week in February means one thing to hardcore collectors this year: the International Toy Fair in Germany. Nuremberg is hopping with new releases for 2012, and some of the highlights were… well.. surprising.

Take, for instance, Schuco‘s apparently elaborate revisiting of the 1:12 Cobra mold once made famous by GMP. This go ’round, it seems that the tool is getting a freshening up and a few new liveries. We can’t wait. Another surprise is the re-emergence of Muscle Machines; we got these exclusive snaps at the Maisto booth, and from the look of things, the much-missed line is back in good hands. So is the racing heritage of Lotus, a la TrueScale Miniatures; these resin tooling models of the 1977 and 1978 racers look like a great followup to the high-end models of the Tyrrell we saw a while back – and the still-to-come turbine car that purportedly was sent back for further “cooking” by TSM’s head guy, Glen Chou.

While we weren’t surprised by Hot Wheels Elite‘s announcement of 1:43 and 1:18 version of the upgraded “Ecto-1A” from Ghostbusters II (we figured we’d be seeing this one – and possibly a “dirty” version of “Ecto-1”, as it appeared at the beginning of GBII), our pics of the in-process “K.I.T.T.” from the original Knight Rider show a high-detail Trans Am mold in the making. And yes, TV heads – this one will have a working scanner light up front.

The best news is that samples are currently on their way to us – and we’ve got a hankering to shoot some video and tell you all about it. These pictures are only the beginning of a full year of cool models from familiar sources – and brands you may never have heard of.

Game on.

 

[nggallery id=127]

Updated: February 2, 2012 — 8:39 PM
Air Age Media ©
WordPress Lightbox Plugin