Nuremberg Toyfair 2016 - New Product Roundup
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As promised, here's a final round-up of new items announced at the Nuremberg Toyfair that might be of interest to British modellers. It's by no means an exhaustive list of everything announced, but I hope it gives a flavour of the scale and variety of new items coming from the European trade. If there are any items that appeal to you, the following UK suppliers/importers can help:
Contact Gaugemaster for: Noch, Roco, Fleischmann, Maerklin/Trix/Minitrix/LGB, Kato, Herpa, Piko, Wiking and many others
Contact Golden Valley Hobbies for: Busch, Kibri, Vollmer, Viessmann, Auhagen, ACME
Contact South West Digital for: ESU
Contact Mount Tabor Models for: Brawa
Contact Bachmann stockists for : Liliput, Woodland Scenics, Pocketbond
Auhagen, best known for its modular plastic kits, has another large selection of new items and accessories many of which can be adapted for British use. Among the smaller items are a set of small mine cars, industrial workbenches and road trailers in 1:87 scale. The company’s range of static narrow gauge industrial railway items is expanded to 4.7mm gauge TT scale. For N scale, there are kits of platforms, canopies and a useful set of steel railings. All Auhagen items can be ordered in the UK via Golden Valley Hobbies.
Busch, imported into the UK by Golden Valley Hobbies, is expanding its HOf 6mm gauge field railway range with a small 0-4-0T steam locomotive and a couple of new Deutz 0-4-0 diesels with cabs. There are also several new wagons suitable for forestry, mining and peat railways. A collection of field railway models and track is also being introduced in N scale, albeit unpowered!
As ever, there are dozens of new scenic and accessory kits planned for N and HO/OO, including an ostrich farm, a beer garden set, several football-related kits to coincide with the 2016 European Championships, a falconry display, a kindergarten and playground set, cider press, ski-jump and smaller items including a barbecue and garden furniture sets, gazebos, various bird boxes and animal houses, amongst many others. There are also numerous new grass and plant products, including spring, summer, autumn and dry grass strips or mats, ‘crazy paving’ with grass between the slabs and marshy ground cover for moorland.
An interesting development are several ‘facelift’ sets for older layouts containing, trees, grass and other details to give a fresh look to tired scenery.
Amongst the British contingent at the fair was Deluxe Materials, displaying its revised and improved ‘Plastic Magic’ liquid adhesive, which now comes in a more stable bottle with two fine application brushes. One short and one long brush ensure that all the liquid can be reached and allows application in awkward spaces on plastic kits.
Digital specialist ESU is adding a few new items to its range of DCC accessories, including ‘ECoSlink Terminal’ to connect walkabout throttles to the central control station, ‘SignalPilot’ multi-protocol accessory decoder designed specifically to control up to 16 two, three or four-aspect signals, plus a number of other realistic lighting effects.
On the decoder front, ESU is adding the ‘LokPilot Nano’ aimed at N and smaller HO/OO locomotives. Measuring just 8mm by 7mm by 2.4mm it will be available in six-pin direct form or with a six-pin or eight-pin harness. For unpowered vehicles, the six-function ‘LokPilot Fx Nano’ is being introduced to control lighting effects and other functions. Also new for 2016 are two new ‘Stay Alive’ devices to maintain a reliable power supply. ‘PowerPack Mini’ measures 15mm by 9.7mm by 13mm (1 Farad capacity) and ‘PowerPack Maxi’ for larger locomotives will be 27.5mm by 15.7mm by 13mm with a 5 Farad capacity.
Finally, there will be a new ‘Professional’ decoder station designed to test six, eight and 21-pin NEM, PluX22, Next18 and wired decoders with or without sound and an extension unit for larger scale decoders.
As always, the Faller range includes dozens of new items, the most impressive of which is a limited edition 1:87 scale kit of a Cistercian monastery containing around 1,400 parts. On a more humble level, there’s an excellent modern wash plant for HO/OO scale trains (pictured), a segment turntable for branch line termini, kits for modern dairy and fire station buildings, a stationary steam engine and a scrapyard shredding plant (pictured) and several new fairground kits – including working dodgems - in 1:87 scale. For N scale, there’s a second-hand car dealer set and several new rural houses plus a set of rail vehicle lifting jacks suitable for depots.
As well as several new 1:87 scale vehicles, there are new sets of working traffic lights for the Faller Car System in N and HO (compatible with both analogue and digital systems) and a digital conversion kit for analogue Car System vehicles.
Perhaps unknown to many British modellers, the German company Joswood produces a large range of superbly-designed laser-cut kits for various scales. New HO/OO scale items for 2016 include an impressive 1920s brick-built office block which could double as a mid-century main station building. Also on an industrial theme is a 440mm high gas pre-cooler for a coking works to complement existing kits and two designs of concrete loading hopper, typical of those found at gravel or ballast quarries. Also new for this year is a set of loading conveyor belts for rail or road use and a set of kits to assemble a very impressive gantry crane.
Kibri is introducing a 22.3cm high, 1:87 scale lighthouse kit with flashing LED beacon, an excellent modern gantry crane kit (pictured), ideal for rail/road freight terminals and a couple of interesting small items for depots and engineering companies – a ready-made milling machine and a lathe.
Narrow gauge specialist Minitrains is adding four 1:87 scale, 9mm gauge models of the famous Baldwin 2-6-2T First World War field railway locomotive to its collection. Offered with either short or full cab, it will be available in plain black, plain grey or grey with U.S.A. tankside lettering. Also in preparation is a new track system with 140mm radius curves, allowing very small narrow gauge layouts to be built.
Celebrating its 70th anniversary in 2016, Peco made a major announcement in the form of Code 75 OO flexitrack with bullhead rail and more accurate OO sleeper spacing – a product that has been requested for many years. There are no plans to produce matching pointwork at the moment but that could change if there’s sufficient demand. There will also be a new Setrack starter track pack with third radius curves. The OO/HO 25kV AC catenary starter system pack, produced by Sommerfeldt, should be released soon and will contains 12 masts, push-on and push-off hangers, set-up jigs and an installation guide. Contact wires will be sold in packs of five with five lengths ranging from 200mm to 500mm.
Also due from Peco in 2016 is a new Lynton & Barnstaple bogie coach, either an Open Third or centre open observation coach (identity TBC), Welsh narrow gauge style slate wagon and a simple 4w tipper wagon.
The recently-released Glyn Valley Tramway 4w coaches will be released in GVT green, in Talyllyn Railway livery with buffers and as a freelance brake coach with or without buffers.
Peco also plans to introduce its own static grass applicator device, capable of a wide selection of grass fibres from 1mm to 12mm in length and an indexing mechanism compatible with all Peco turntables.
Also from the Peco family, there will be a new OO/HO modern palisade fencing set from Wills and a ‘Nissen Hut’ kit in 4mm scale from Ratio.
Proses continues to expand its range of problem-solving tools and accessories and is introducing a flexible rolling road stand for OO/HO locomotives up to 500mm long (see our review next month). Also in preparation is a ballast glue applicator (N, TT and HO/OO versions available) designed along the same principles as the company’s ballast spreader, two new versions of which are also being added, one with a shut-off valve and another with adjustable height and shut-off valve. The company is also introducing its own limestone ballast in three grades and three colours
Four years on from the launch of its Z21 DCC system, Roco is adding three different boosters for different voltages, a new track occupancy detector and sensor and a Wi-Fi version of its well-known ‘MultiMaus’ handheld controller, designed to work with the Z21 base unit.
Viessmann has added a few new working accessories for 2016, including an animated lumberjack with chainsaw, a woman taking a ‘selfie’ with micro-LED flash and an organ grinder, complete with monkey and optional sound unit in 1:87 scale, tiny 3-D printed working streetlamps for N and Z and an illuminated petrol pump suitable for HO/OO filling stations.
And finally for this year's visit to Germany, after finishing at the show on Friday there was time for a bit of real railway action, during which this ex-DB V100, now operated by Lokomotion and carrying that company's distinctive livery, was a nice surprise. Also here is a pair of Siemens ES64 F4 (Class 189) electrics on an intermodal train and a pair of DB Regio Class 218 diesels, all passing Heimeranplatz S-Bahn station in Munich. Busy location, easy to reach and lots of freight and passenger action. Highly recommended if you're interested in German railways.
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