I thought I saw that before…
Not that anyone minds seeing a post about something that they might have seen before, but for the record, we did have a post way back when on the VW with peace signs – for those interested, check out Castro’s post from way back in May…
Give Peace A Chance.
Peace. Out.
Maisto Out of the Closet: 1:18 Hippie VW Bug
Here’s another item from our closet of the past. In 2000 we made a half-dozen 1:18 VW Bugs in our Consciousness Expanding series (yep, that’s what it said on the box). Each had its own decoration such as woody side panels, a British flag or flowers. This peace symbol Bug depicts one that might have been on the road in the late 1960s. The car in the photo is missing its front bumper but I think that it looks better that way.
This year is the 50th anniversary of the modern use of the peace symbol. For more about it, see
For a scholarly comment on “Why Hippies Loved the VW Bug” see
(Maisto is not responsible for anything appearing on site links as they are beyond our control).
And the winner is…
Here it is – the new Catalog cover for Maisto – 2009. A very corporate, upscale design, clean, crisp and contemporary. Congrats to Jose U, who created the winning design.
One of the things I like about this year’s catalog is the size – we are down about 15% in page count to 152. Maybe not a big deal to everyone, but we’ll save as many trees as we can. Enjoy!
Deck the Halls With… Street Troopers?
Tis the season, isn’t it? One more time, just for fun, it is the Street Troopers commercial. Project 66 and PT 808 are still available at many fine retailers.
Happy Holidays
we are winding down here in fontana – we’ll be in the office through wednesday of this week, and hopefully we will find just a few more tasty morsels of die-cast delicacies for the faithful. we’ll keep searching, but until then, here is a beautiful card from our pal in the czech republic – happy holidays to you pavel!
and here is a card from all of us here at maisto – happy holidays to you and yours!
Maisto Keeps on Truckin’…
in our never ending quest to bring our loyal fans everything that is new in our line, new designs have popped up for the fresh metal highway haulers. these are roughly a 1/87 scale, and they are looking better than ever with these capd designed grafix. enjoy.
The Nissan GT-R still on track…
we just got in some more samples of the much anticipated Nissan GT-R. the first one is small in stature but huge in anticipation - it is the unveiling of our 1:64 Nissan GT-R Police version from our Need For Speed Undercover line. this baby is due out in early spring, 2009.
why don’t they make cop cars like these? don’t you think we would obey the law just a little more if we knew the authority figure behind us could do 193 mph and packed 480 hp.
on a more “realistic” note, we have 2 stock 1:43 scale samples from the Bburago line – red and white. these are not fully approved yet, but we’ll share just a taste of them with you anyway. enjoy!
Dirt Demons Unleashed!
this time of year is always fun for us as we start to see some of our new concepts materialize into hard core samples. such is the case with our new for 09 line – Dirt Demons.
our objective was simple – take some of our basic 3″ truck tools, make ‘em look the way we would want them to look if price was not a factor, put them on steroids, and unleash the hounds. oh, and one other thing – let’s make ‘em fun by putting a pull-back motor in them. here is a couple example of what we are talking about, these are non-licensed:
here is a version of a Jeep Rescue concept we made for them 3 years ago – now it looks like something you would want to own – complete with roof rack, and black wheels:
more of a ford truck guy?
dodge ram?
or, and i’m sure you knew this was coming, maybe a hummer hx?
whichever direction your off-road truck desires leads you, dirt demons has you covered. and soon, we’ll show off the dirt demons desert run playset. adios muchachos.
Catalog Winner – Bburago
our twin sistah from a different mother, Bburago, has finished their 2009 catalog already, and we have our initial 12 copies. for the 3rd year in a row, lamborghini is featured on the cover, this time a gallardo lp 560-4. here is a pic of the cover:
simply beautiful she is. for a sister.
The Evolution of Towing
or in our case, the evolution of one of our best selling customized skus, the 1:64 elite transport. it’s weird, because we heard collectors really only like the single pack 1:64 scale, in the package, pristine and pure. and while we sell a lot of 1:64 pro rods, all stars, and back in the day, playe*z (legal reasons, y’know), the numbers on elite transport just keep cranking.
it was around march, 2006. we are sitting around, as usual, trying to come up with another item for the sales slugs. we have an item in 1:24 called show haulers, a truck or suv with a trailer and another 1:24 vehicle. it did ok, but pricing got out of hand so it slowed way down. but we thought, what about 1:64? why not. the slugs luved it, we luved it, so we were off and running. we targeted a spring 07 launch. the easiest to start with was a trailer and 2 vehicles.
then we decided on another tool, a maisto flatbed. we all liked the idea, and by the beginning of 2007 we were shipping it.
are the sales slugs happy yet? oh yeah, but not as happy as they would be with another. can you give us something to haul all those cool outlaws castro is always yappin’ about? hmm, not exactly in the same era, but how about a 57 chevy – would that do?
sales took off, especially at target. the slugs came back to us, like a crackhead fiendin’ for another hit: give me more. just one more. capd, always concerned about our sales brethren, said sure, why not!
we just got those samples in, so they should be in the stores in early january. but of course, we were still concerned. we knew the slugs wouldn’t stop. they couldn’t. so before they even asked, we came up with this one, due out in the beginning of 2009
and there you have it. a best-seller for us, and, we hope, a favorite of yours. enjoy.
leave a comment