Schuco Re-Militarizes

lightning2000 · Post by **lightning2000** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 1:29 pm

Hello All,
While German-based Schuco has dabbled in the military market before, particularly with their line of highly sought after 1:10 scale military motorcycles, it now looks like they're getting into the military sector in a big way. To coincide with the opening of the Nuremberg Toy Fair, they recently announced plans to come out with a complete line of diecast 1:43 scale military vehicles. While we dont as yet have pricing or dates of release for each of the vehicles in the line, I thought you might like to see the line up close by visiting their web page:

http://www.schuco.de/uk/models/militaryseries.htm

Cordially,

Lightning2000
www.themotorpool.bigstep.com

tmanthegreat · Post by **tmanthegreat** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 1:42 pm

Thats a really cool selection, especially concerning all the WWII German armored cars and the modern European military vehicles. Too bad they're 1:43. These vehicles would have been cooler in 1:72 or expecially 1:32 or 1:32!

lightning2000 · Post by **lightning2000** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 1:50 pm

Hi,
Dont quote me here but I think they went with that scale cause they bought up some of the old Victoria molds. Notice the inclusion of the Opel Blitz, Schwimmwagen, Hummer, and jeep. They look suspiciously like the now defunct Victoria/ Sun Star lines. It probably gave them a jumpstart into the category...

Lightning2000
www.themotorpool.bigstep.com

Post by **aferguson** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 3:37 pm

1/43 also matches the most popular diecast car collecting scale.....as there is not much in the way of military vehicles in that scale it kind of gives them a niche all to themselves.

Very interesting choices, including a bunch of Italian and French armoured cars.

Mr. Football · Post by **Mr. Football** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 4:16 pm

Those look terrific.

I'm curious. Are some of these currently being sold at Wal-Mart? There's a line of what I think are 1:43 diecast Military vehicles (jeeps, kubels) boxed in WM's in-house branded packaging that look alot like these. Very nice.

tmanthegreat · Post by **tmanthegreat** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 4:21 pm

What you're seeing at Wal Mart are the 21c/NMT 1:48 scale military vehicles. They have several WWII US & German vehicles as well as some modern US Hummer variants. They do look similar. There's also some 1:50 scale vehicles made by Corgi that can also be found at WM.

mikestanks · Post by **mikestanks** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 7:36 pm

Many of these Schuco releases appear to be identical to the DeAgostini military vehicles released in Italy. I have four of them, and the are identical to the photos.

Most of the DeAgostini Models were modeled by Criel Model, and Italian military model manufacturer.

Mike

www.mikes-tanks.com

mikestanks · Post by **mikestanks** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 7:46 pm

A little further research reveals that DeAgostini released a mix of original models from Criel, as well as releases from the Vitesse Victoria line.

This seems to fit what we are seeing on the Schuco page.

Mike

www.mikes-tanks.com

Hoverbug · Post by **Hoverbug** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 2:02 pm

tmanthegreat wrote:What you're seeing at Wal Mart are the 21c/NMT 1:48 scale military vehicles. They have several WWII US & German vehicles as well as some modern US Hummer variants. They do look similar. There's also some 1:50 scale vehicles made by Corgi that can also be found at WM.

The 21st C "1/48" models are in fact the 1/43 Sunstar series (other than the LOH).

luftpanzer · Post by **luftpanzer** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 11:05 am

Is 1/43rd close enough to use with lionel O gauge trains? I know 1/48 is, Id like to build a kick ass military train with the vehicles that are avalable.