German Toy Fair 2007
Part 1

01-05.02.07

Once again this year ADH Publishing Ltd travelled to Germany for the annual toy fair at Nuremburg. All of the products announced there, and thus far elsewhere by manufacturers can be see in the individual alphabetic lists.


Coming off the underground system across the road bridge this massive signs alerts all to the event.


The volume of people coming in can be gauged by this look back across the bridge. That is fellow editor, John 'Spud' Murphy to the left, who was there getting all the news for our sister magazine Model Military International.


This is the large walkway leading up to one of the main entrances. It is busy even at 9am on a Sunday morning!

So what did we see?

Academy
The new 1:72 Me 262 and F/A-18C Hornet were not to be seen, no box top, no test shots, nothing, just a mention in the 'New' flyer, so these are obviously a way off release yet. What was there in 1:72, and I know it is not aviation related, was their new-tool M3 halftrack and Ford GPA amphibian, which will nonetheless be of great use in dioramas.
In 1:48 the only item shown was the F-14A Bombcat, which is actually now on sale in the UK.


Accurate Miniatures
Not really much news, except their reissue of the pre-painted 1:100 scale kits from Doyusha, which Airfix are also marketing? They did have the 'Flight 19' boxing of the
TBM-1c Avenger on show, although there was no indication of its release date?


Airfix
Already mentioned above are the new 'MiniKit' range from Airfix that are in fact reissues of the pre-painted, easy-assembly kits made by Doyusha.
Airfix also had the artwork for their new-tool 1:48 Spitfire Mk I, which we are all looking forward to seeing later in the year.
We have all seen it before, but it was good to see the 1:72 Nimrod box art still on display, as this project is progressing with new owners Hornby and will be released (as a limited edition only, like the TSR.2) later this year.

AZ Models
This new firm is going to be quite busy going by their list of releases scheduled for 2007! Many of the box tops were on the Azimut stand, the one that caught our eye was the 1:48 Morane-Saulnier MS.406.

Dragon
There was not much emphasis on aircraft, the Dragon stand being very much about armour and military subjects, but in the back were built-up but unpainted versions of their superb new 1:144 Super Hornets in E and F guise.
The box of the new 1:72 P-38J Droop Snoot was on show as well, this being a conversion of their existing P-38J tooling.
The final item, although not new, was a built-up version of their 1:48 Natter, which as you can see now comes with a far more involved launch tower than the first edition!

Eduard
It is always good to see all the new items due form Eduard and this year there were a number of new kit toolings as well as loads of photo-etched sets.
Due later this month is the all-new 1:144 Me 262, which will first be out as the two-seat
Me 262B-1a, then it will be followed in March by the single-seat Me 262A.
The big news has to be the 1:48 Bf 110s though and examples of the resin prototype parts were on show

Fonderie Miniatures
I am sure a number will be pleased with the announcement of a new 1:48 H.P Hampden, let's hope the quality is better than their Halifax!

Hasegawa
There was not a mass of new aircraft releases announced by Hasegawa, but to be fair they have only announced the first 6 months worth!
Those on show included the new 1:48 'Follow Me' Jeep
Along with the box art for the issue of the Fw 190A-3 with a new-tooled BMW 327 car.
Probably the thing that caused the most interest was the all-new 1:32 P-47D


Heller
With the recent demise of Heller under the previous ownership and the purchase of it, things were very quiet on both the Heller-Germany and main Heller stands. All we noted were a special boxed set for Austrian Air Force machines, which may not even go anywhere other than Austria?
And of course their huge 1:125 Airbus A380, due to be reissued in Air France colours.


Hobbycraft
The new F9F Panther was on show here, just one built form a pre-production example and still showing the various problems that Hobbycraft intent to put right before they issue their version. The Trumpeter version of the -2 and -2P are already out, but these will not have the faults corrected.
The 1:48 F7U Cutlass was once again on show, but no hint was given as to the projected release date?
The major releases from Hobbycraft apart from the Panther and Cougar series are the 1:32 A-36A Apache and P-51/P-51A Mustang. These are being made in China, but not by Trumpeter and it is hoped they will be out at some stage in the not-to-distant future.

See Part 2 for Italeri to Zvezda!

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