’55 Buick Century….another Sneaky Peaky
Calling all cars….be on the lookout for a bada**, can I say that? Ok, a gorgeous Black & White, cruisin slow and low! I’d be honored to take a ride downtown in the backseat of this ride! This one would make even “2150″ proud.
Ooh, and she looks so beautiful in red…

ok DD readers… you can pick your jaws up off your keyboards!
A first look at the 1:18 OUTLAWS!
Boy we do have some cool castings here at Maisto, some that have been pretty much stock for their entire existence in our catalog. Well we here in CAPD had to put a stop to that. I mean what good are classics if you can’t have a little fun with them, right? A little drop here, some wheel swaps, a fresh new coat of kustom paint, some pinstriping, and voilá! You have yourselves some fancy lookin’ sleds! 1:18 scale AllStars Outlaws…
’56 Chrysler 300 B


’50 Ford


and there you have it…
1:24 Nissan GT-R pre-production samples
We’ve had some trouble getting the bulges on the hood to look correct but now we’re sure that we’ve got it! Here are the pre-production samples for the Need For Speed: Undercover (blue/white police car) and the Special Edition (pearl white and red) that we’ve just received from our tooling department. We’ll send them to Nissan for review. Upon their approval we’ll begin production.

This is the latest in a series of posts following the making of this die-cast model car from the beginning. Here are some of the earlier posts (in order from the beginning):
2009 Nissan GT-R: And So It Begins
2009 Nissan GT-R: It’s Tooling Model Time
2009 Nissan GT-R: (A Closer Look)
Sneaky Peaky… ’55 Buick Century
We recently got a shipment of production 1/64 ’55 Buick Century’s that looked extremely awesome! There were several paint schemes that would make any grown man drool with envy. As you all know (and if you didn’t now you do), I’m a nut for classic cars and hot rods. Anything vintage and it makes me feel right at home for some reason and I’m not even from that era. I guess it was the way I was raised. Anyways, here are 3 sneaky peaky photos of the ’55 Buick Century. I’m in love with this car! I’ll share more photos later!



Ducati 696 Monster – Oh Yes It Is!
this 1:18 scale beautiful beast has just received final approvals from ducati, and will be hitting the shelves in the not too distant future. really, the pictures say it all.






and yes, friends, we are working on motogp, 2009.

next!
Maisto on Little Britain USA!
B-RAD found this sweet little gem on youtube, the vehicles used in this sketch about Starbucks (am I allowed to say that?), are Maisto Die-Cast! Are there any legal ramifications of me saying a companies name on here? hope not… anyways check it out! it’s actually pretty damn funny! Thanks Brad!
Your Daily Dose of Culture
sabout 10 days ago, i had an appointment at our factory in china. there i was, sitting in the lobby of the factory, waiting. i got there a little early, and had just found out that our guests were running about an hour late – not unusual for that area of china. we have a cool little museum set up on the 2nd floor of the lobby, very nice, with all sorts of cool products we had made. and then i cam across a book.

that’s right, geeks. all sorts of die-cast never before seen, and i am attracted to a book (guess that makes me more of a geek). the title, rencontre, means meeting in french (that’s what google said). it means nothing in itaian, and the book is published in cooperation with bburago. in fact, the entire book is about a 1997 porsche carrera 911. the inside page shows a comparison between the bburago version and porsche’s own version

then, the next photo is of a raw, unpainted, 1:18 bburago porsche 911 carrera

from there, all hell breaks loose. apparently, they gave the unpainted car to a ton of european artists, the artists then painted them up and sent them back for inclusion of the book. each one that is included has a story about the author, inspiration for the oiece, etc. at least that is what i am imagining, as the book is clearly not in english. at any rate, here are the first 5 car versions. remember, these are photos from a 20+ year old book, so cut me some slack for the pix… i took photos of 20 different models, so we’ll do 5 a day for 4 days. and that will be your daily dose. of culture. next!





have a favorite?
Maisto TECH – The NEW Name In Radio Control
maisto will now be branding our car radio-control products under the brand name Maisto TECH beginning in january. All of our former products, with the exception of Street Troopers, were previously under the name custom shop. we decided to change everything, including the packaging, for the new year – and so far the response has been great.

we’ve heard of some big success stories in 08 with the Street Troopers brand, and we will have a new addition, menace hauler, coming in 2009. there is also a new cycle – but you will hear more on that later in the year. the major emphasis will be in our standard vehicles, and bringing out some new 1:14 and 1:16 titles in off-road. not just any titles, but exclusives like the hummer hx and h3t (rumored? to be in TF2 this summer), as well as the jeep wrangler rubicon and the ford raptor svt. all in all, a pretty strong line-up. you will be seeing it in the magazines, but here is a first look at one of the ads we are running.

next.
The Art of Maisto and Bburago
we are back from another successful trip to hong kong. the mood amongst customers was positive, given the state of the economy, and we are placing our outlook at level orange – cautious optimism. while there we are always ready, camera in hand, to take some photos that we hope you might find interesting.
this next grouping of photos are snapshots of what is used to decorate the offices and showroom in hong kong. we hear from many people that the maisto/bburago showroom is one of the finest – not just product lay-out, but everything that goes into the look, the feel, and the style of the headquarters. some of the following is what gives it that feel.
first up – blackie. blackie is a famous photographer from germany that is used a lot by our distributor for their ad layouts. a couple of years ago he showed the bosses some pictures he had put together using our products – they are outrageous, cool, and most definitely blog-worthy…


these two pieces were printed on a canvas material and stretched over a wood frame, giving it a hand-pained look. maybe 36″ by 48″
this next group is a little on the more esoteric side. when we were going through the Bburago facility, they had all sorts of interesting artwork – much of it incorporating actual die-cast pieces. it was all arranged in formation, then painted, usually a very bright color, framed. next.



hope you enjoy the look inside our headquarters.
Need For Speed – 1:64 Group Photo
we thought you might like to see this group shot of the new tools in 1:64 Need For Speed Undercover. You probably have not seen these in the wild yet, they are on their way, we promise. All except for the lexus is f. the tools is ok, the deco is not.

fo’ sho this is the first photo of the 2008 mitsubishi lancer evolution – we just got in the first shot last week – of course we are sharing it with you all FIRST! enjoy…
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