Vacation time is here again, this year I impulse-bought a cheapish ticket to Europe, and am back in Germany. I am in Hamburg right now, let’s see what’s on some shelves, in pics I was able to take while trying to be discreet, and dodging workers. First, the local Kaufhof:
A selection of Majorette (I didn’t see any HW or MBX single packs here):
Siku single packs and trucks:
Siku double packs and truck sets:
Bburago and a few others:
I actually bought something, a Siku motorcycle. I’m not really into modern material, but I like bikes, and I like this bike. Neat little model, nice detail, with kickstand and realistic tires:
Now on to Karstadt. Kaufhof and Karstadt are both chains of department stores, on the old fashioned model once also seen cities in North America before cheap big boxes became the rule - 4 or 5 floors, groceries sometimes on the basement floor, toys usually on a higher floor, a cafe or cafeteria at top. To start, pretty boring, but the Welly-labeled boxed models at top left seemed unusual to me:
Nice Siku display, with a revolving stand and a selection on the wall, which continued to the left:
Majorette singles and sets:
HW and MBX:
Some larger scale models, a lot of Maisto - 1:18s were amusingly priced at nearly 60 Euro:
They also had a selection of Carrera slot cars, and if I had spare room, I’d probably have a Playmobil hockey set:
Now for some fun. Today I visited Miniatur Wunderland ( http://www.miniatur-wunderland.com/ ), an amazing display of scale models and railways. Diorama makers, this place will blow you away. They also have a shop. Here are some views - lots on sale (models on the wall were regular price), lots of VW content - vdubyajohn, you’d have a field day here:
And the diorama-builders have a sense of humor, as the selection of vehicles was amusing to me, and I was checking out the HO scale vehicle models as much as the dioramas themselves. Here’s a good one from the USA section - every drive-in I see has a Lamborghini next to a Gremlin, with a Pinto Cruisin Wagon, 2x Crossfire, 2x pre-98 Crown Vic, flag-painted Cobra, Phaeton, Twingo, etc etc in attendance:
And in one of the airport parking garage structures (meant to be in Germany), it was fun too. Just an average day at the car park - Tatra, Trabi, Volvo 444, Lamborghini, Volvo 7 series, late 80s Grand Prix (looks like a Mini-Exacts with superdetailing?) and others. Most street scenes had normal cars, someone was having fun here:
There are a few parking garage structures, and they are phenomenal. Not just a shell, they are finished inside too:
I took numerous pics of the displays, fun place. I’ll have to do a Miniatur Wunderland photo dump when I am home, I think it will really impress some people.
I’ll wrap this up with a view of the Binnenalster, and Chilehaus:
That is all.