Phil’s Workbench: January 2021

With my journalist hat on, I headed to London on Wednesday to the annual Toy Fair at Olympia. It’s where we see what everyone will be combating over in 11 months time for Christmas.

This 12 months is the yr of the quadcopter. The things have been all over the place with many stand having a big selection in all sized from tiny to large. Some of this stuff are over 2 feet throughout so I can see the upper classes having enjoyable blasting them out of the air as a change from clay pigeons. That and automotive boot gross sales being full of unwanted toys in a number of months time as folks get bored.

Plainly Thunderbirds is due for a brand new outing, this time with a mix of CHI and fashions masterminded by Gerry Anderson’s son. Purists shall be happy to see that the up to date craft do not look massively different from the classic 1960s variations. That we will forget the terrible reside motion film of a few years ago. No signal of FAB1 but let’s hope the proprietor of the Rolls Royce brand would not make them go away and communicate to Ford again.

Obviously I was mainly wanting out for model railway or boat associated stuff. Railways have been coated by Oxford Rail and Hornby and marine parts hardware that i’ve talked about these over on MREmag.com. I caught up with the guys on Pocketbond. Asked about their resin building range. Apparently it’s back on the market however they are struggling to search out anyone to make the stuff in China. Just like the RTR manufacturers, they find the workforce are inclined to desire higher paid electronics work than smelly resin constructing making.

Boats had been thin on the bottom. There were some RTR fashions together with what appeared to be a nitro boat practically 4ft lengthy on the Flying Models stand. Big information is that Playmobile are producing a radio management unit for his or her boats later within the 12 months. A whole bundle, you simply slot it under the hull for energy and management. Using a pair of water jets, there is no want for rudders or uncovered propellers.

The shock is that it is 2.4mhz — the companies previous RC efforts have been 26mhz — and 2.Four does not penetrate water very well. Presumably because the unit is simply just under the floor, this may not be a difficulty, particularly because the vary does not must be big.

I can see plenty of grandads buying in to this and others just grabbing the module to put beneath a scale boat hardware to save the trouble of fitting correct RC.

Sticking with RC, marine fitting cost Revell have a pleasant little fireplace engine model that’s nowhere close to scale however could simply yield components to fit in a 7mm scale mannequin automobile. Top pace isn’t spectacular (for kids) but with a heavy physique on prime, might work for modellers. If you have any kind of concerns relating to wherever and also how to use marine fitting cost, you can call us on our own page. £14.Ninety nine will get you a toy to try out anyway.