It’s a Hummer World!!!
…well with gas prices the way they are right now and the state of the automotive industry, this little 1:18 Hummer HX Concept might be your best bet! we know you’ve seen pics of this one already, but not like this, here it is in it’s production package which kinda makes me want to grab my family, some smores and head out on a camping trip! you know…if gas wasn’t almost 5 bucks a gallon!!! when will this madness end? Who would have ever thought the day would come that you can buy a meal for less than 1 gallon of gas. Oh yeah back to the subject…
hey, if you can afford a lamborghini…
i’ve always liked these types of mash-ups. take a high-end brand, say lamborghini, and match it up with another high-end brand, say versace, and see what you have. it would stand to reason if you can afford a murcielago lp 640 roadster, your not going to have any trouble stepping up to the Versace edition.
this edition will include, for the first time, a transparent engine hood, as well as, and i quote from the press release, “cradle seats are clad in black and white leather, while opulent full grain soft nappa leather – hand-embroidered with the Versace Greek fret motif – upholsters the instrument panel, the doors and the central console.” seriously, i want to be able to have descriptions like that roll off my tongue before i die.
not only will there be a car, but lamborghini and versace will be teaming up on a line of leather luggage, beautifully adorned with both logos on the palladium-engraved tag.
if you are looking for the luggage, i’ll see you down at the versace boutique’s, or at selected lamborghini showrooms. if you want one of the cars, it is made to order…
the day we met donald trump
so i have this really big project i gotta do, a lot is riding on it. but you know what, to me, it feels like story time. so here’s a story about the day we met donald trump.
this goes back a few years. we had received a call from “his people”. they had met with walmart, pitching the idea of a line of the donald’s cars in die-cast; at that time, wm was saying yes to everything (ah, the good old days of die-cast), and suggested they contact maisto. i got the call. and the call after that. and the one after that. you’d of thought i owned the last piece of real estate available in nyc. at any rate, we get together, and they say we want to do some die-cast cars, what do you have? i say we have this great line of limousines, why don’t we add a chip so when the door opens you get donald saying something OTHER than “Your Fired” (which we could not use for legal reasons.) they like it - we sign the deal, and then the realization hits – we have to record him saying stuff.
about 3 weeks of negotiations ensue on the script – “he won’t say that…” is mostly the answer we get. r2b2 suggests he records “this is a pimp ride yo!” his people don’t agree.
finally, we decide on about 10 phrases, and because r2b2 is in a rock band, we figure he can handle the recording and electrical stuff. so we pack our bags and head to ny to meet and record donald trump.
so we get to the building on 5th ave, you know, the gold one, and we meet with our contact.
first thing we notice – she is more nervous than we are. we go up to her office, and await “the call”. it comes, and we are escorted to “his” office floor, and put into a conference room to wait. we get set up in about 5 minutes, do a couple of takes, and wait for donald. and wait. we are just chilling, and we can hear his booming voice down the hall speaking to someone on the phone. we wait some more, and then he bursts into the room. our contact had told us he had this germ thing going on, he won’t shake hands. so of course, as soon as he walks in, he extends his hand, r2b2 and i trip over ourselves to shake his hand, and our contact screws up the intro. don’s smart though, and asks ME if i own the company. i’m dumb though, i say no, and don is like what am i dealing with here – some UNDERLINGS?
so he gets the script, reads it as he’s talking to us “we’ll do a test, I’ll read 1, see if it records, and then i’ll read all of them twice. got it. ready?” r2b2 is fumbling with the controls, trying to track his voice, says ready, and don reads the first one. booms it. home run. his voice is so far in the red i think it broke the machine. so r2b2 has to fiddle around, trying to re-calibrate the machine, don has been in all of about 45 seconds (no exaggeration) after we waited about 45 minutes (also no exaggeration) and, and he lets out a “you want me to come back in 5 minutes?” i look at r2b2, he doesn’t look up, don asks again, ”you want me to come back in 5 minutes?” – and i’m thinkin’ we’re in some trouble here. r2b2 is the coolest guy in the room, gets the machine where it has to be, don rips the 2 takes of each, he says good-bye, and we’re done. 4 months later, the product’s in wm,
4 months after that they are marking it down, and there you go. all in all, it was pretty cool, one of the coolest days i have had working here.
that is until the day we met dj lady tribe… but that is for another story time…
Pro Rodz Unleashed!!!
sometimes we get so caught up with posting about 1:64 scale die-cast releases and the latest news, that we forget about other cool releases like our awesome 1:24 scale Pro Rodz. you can never go wrong with that good ol’ American muscle! if you haven’t found any of these yet, keep your eyes peeled, because they’re out there! here’s a little picture show for all you muscle car fiends…
Let us know what you think! We’d love to hear your comments!
Death Race Anyone???
I personally think this movie is gonna RULE!
Ex-con Jensen Ames (Statham) is forced by the warden of a notorious prison (Allen) to compete in our post-industrial world’s most popular sport: a car race in which inmates must brutalize and kill one another on the road to victory.
Is it art or graffiti?
It’s not often that a toy company’s products get related to art at a national museum but Maisto has done it.
As part of a “Recognize! Hip Hop and Contemporary Portraiture” exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution, Tim “Con” Conlon and Dave “Arek” Hupp were commissioned to create graffiti art for a corridor. A Smithsonian magazine article about it mentioned that the duo had also painted the decoration on some Maisto die-cast trains. See the story at www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/aerosol-200802.html
The Enamelized line of defaced graffiti-decorated trains is no longer in production but you might still be able to locate them at retailers. They are a series of 5″ long freight and passenger cars that were made under the direction of Roger Gastman who wrote the Enamelized book (enami.htm)
2009 Nissan GT-R (A Closer Look)
So we’re sitting here this morning scarfing down some doughnuts before a quick monday morning meeting, when low and behold some boxes come in and it quickly catches our attention.
Did someone order some tools? And what’s with that creepy Mexican puppet? Oh that’s Cantinflas!
See that…Ooh, that’s perdy! She travel’s first class!
Here is a little more detailed shot of the engine, for a 1:24 scale model, and the price point this one is pretty nice!
the old pics didn’t show the details in the clear headlights.
this interior is just as inviting as the real car, extremely detailed and on-point.
here’s a little side-by-side comparison of the tooling model and a 1:24 scale Pro Rodz vehicle. this is the size we work with to get all the details down.
here are some more beauty shots so you can see the detail and accuracy we are putting into this piece.
side view…
don’t forget the rear!
we will continue to keep you updated on the progress of the 2009 Nissan GT-R casting, just stay tuned to the Double D!
R/C Reventon Hits The Shelves
as all of you know, maisto has a twin sistah from another mutha, that being bburago
well bb has had all the fun as it relates to lamborghini’s famous and fabulous $1.5m reventon, building it in just about every scale imaginable. maisto has been left out, until now.
that’s right friends, the reventon is now available in 1:24 radio control!
now you can experience all of the fun of owning one of the world’s most expensive cars, AND freely crash it into your garage wall by accident with little or no body scrapes.
she’s a looker, that is for sure. available today – the 1:24 radio control lamborghini reventon. ciao!
Dodge Challenger Hits The Shelves
we report on our products in various stages in this blog. usually you see it in some sort of finished form, as in pre-production, or first production. with the nissan gt-r you get all the stages. and we realized, you don’t get to see it in full production mode too often. our operations manager here, jane (the brain) advises us regularly when we receive new inventory in the warehouse. sometimes we request it brought up to the pd cage, and we allow the designers to slobber over their creations. so why not take a few photos before pd get’s their grimy hands on it? first up is the 1:24 dodge challenger srt-8
this is from our special edition line, but the detail on the engine is great for the price-point
the interior is extremely detailed, right down to the dual cup-holders
the challenger concept in 1:18 was our #1 model in the americas ly – we are thinking the same might be true for this year’s challenger production version.
Maisto Around The World- Next Stop: Dubai
remember back a few posts ago, where we showed you some awesome photographs of a tru store from our distributor in UAE? it included this massive globe perched atop the department?
ok – you remember that one? well, just last week dubai held their annual toy show, and of course we were a part of it. our team also went out to visit some retail stores, and here is some of what they found.
first off, i was told to quit whining about the temp in nyc, as it got to over 105 in dubai. ouch. here are some more up to date photos of retail stores in dubai – i don’t think this one is the tru…
but i am pretty sure the 2 following shots are from tru…
and will you check out that floor? that can’t be making laker fans too happy to be seeing this right now -
just thinking out loud here, but there have got to be some awesome retail presentations of our products throughout the world, either great designs or just our products in the most improbable places. i’m thinking contest… think i’ll throw that one out to the bosses and see if it sticks. we’ll let you know if it does.
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