Maisto On The Road – Back In Portugal

Our friend Mr David Lopes sent us some nice photos of a promotion they did in the key toy store Brinka – 16 stores throughout the Portugal featuring Maisto 1:18 and 1:24 HUMMER products. To drive the point home, Mr Lopes made the effort to rent an actual HUMMER, and send it to various stores to mix in with their displays.

That’s the way they roll!

Great job David! Thanks for the photos.

1:18 Pro Rodz 1953 Studebaker

31346 1:18 Pro Rodz — 1953 Studebaker Starliner

Here’s another teaser for you. We just approved this pre-production model so it should be available in about two months. Brad did a great job of making a street machine out of the classic design from the Raymond Loewy studio.

Calling all cars! Be on the lookout for a 1:26 1955 Buick Century

See photos of the pre-production model as well as the tooling model at the Highway Patrol TV show website.

The Maisto die-cast has no direct connection to the TV show. However, the CHP supplied the patrol cars, including the ’55 Buick, to the show in its early years. On the show, the CHP door shield was covered by a generic shield. The Century 2-door sedan was unique to the CHP — it was a short run of Special 2-door sedans that had the Century engine and front fenders (4 venti-ports on each side instead of 3).

Be sure to cruise around to the other pages on the http://www.highwaypatroltv.com site — it has a lot of interesting material including a parody of the show that appeared in Mad magazine and a clip of Broderick Crawford being pulled over on the CHiPs TV show. The website’s host, Gary Goltz, is a real fan and even owns his own 1:1 Highway Patrol ’55 Buick. In addition, he is a big supporter of the 11-99 Foundation that is a nonprofit, charitable organization that provides benefits and scholarships to California Highway Patrol family members.

As always, Maisto takes no responsibility for what is posted on sites other than our own.

How low can you go?

Maisto Volkswagen 1600 Notchback, All Stars #31042

Usually we try to tease you with photos of new stuff that is still months away from the store shelves. Instead, here’s a 1:24 that came out last year. The beautiful liquid blue color was deleted for 2009 so you may have to hunt a little to find one. The notchback body style wasn’t common in the U.S. but it is highly prized by collectors now. The Maisto stylists have really done a number on it by adding huge five-spoke wheels, custom interior, chromed engine and, of course, a seriously lowered suspension.

Maisto Tech 1:14 Ford F-150 Raptor R/C

This pre-production sample for the Maisto Tech Off-Road R/C series just arrived. The 13″ long 2009 Ford F-150 Raptor trucks in metallic orange and metallic blue are ready for off-road adventures. Each runs on a rechargeable 6 volt Ni-Cad battery (battery and charger included) and have the Maisto Tri-Channel feature that allows up to three R/C vehicles on the same frequency to operate simultaneously.

Finally — 1:24 GT-R approved

Maisto 1:24 Nissan GT-R, #31294

On April 19, 2008 we started a series of blog posts about the Maisto 1:24 GT-R promising to show you the steps from beginning to end. We have recently received approval from Nissan for the pre-production samples in the photos above. Normally, the process doesn’t take this long. So now it’s on to production.

More 1:64 ’57 Chevy die-casts

Here are four more pre-production samples. The metallic blue and metallic black ones will be in the Elite Transport line while the metallic brown and  solid blue ones will join Pro Rodz. These should be in stores later this year. These styles have stock hoods unlike the ones below with blowers.

I shot some of these photos so DIMEX could continue putting his special touches on other projects. The cars have been sent to Chevrolet for review.