New Products at the Annual Nuremberg Toy Fair

The new season for RC really only begins when the industry packs their bags for a week in Germany and the annual Toy Fair at the historical town of Nuremberg. This year is no exception and Racer headed out a day before the show officially opens to get set-up and report back with their latest findings and news from the hobby. Being the official press preview day, many of the stands were being built up when we had a walk around hall 7A late in the day where the most important industry moguls were situated.

We first of all bumped into the Schumacher stand with Robin, Chris and Harvey busy with some carpet fitting then it was onto LRP where Andy Krämer was filming videos on their new items. We also saw the guys from Optifuel, Cliff Lett and Rick Hohwart from Team Associated as well as Mario and Martin Hudy as they completed the final elements of the Xray/Hudy booth.

Schumacher Racing

Our first booth we happened to pass on our way out of the press area on Wednesday was the Schumacher Racing one so we immediately stepped in for a chat with Chris Ashton. On show was their new SV2 version of the Cougar 2WD buggy that now features an 8mm longer chassis made of alloy with the option to run saddle pack LiPos or a short stick version. The chassis is finished in a gunmetal colour and is the most noticable update, but it seems that all areas of the package have evolved with larger bearings in the gearbox, new refined mouldings, longer shafts/shorter axles on the driveshafts and this is topped off with a new SV2 body that uses a separate gear cover. A selection of photos of the car are shown below in our automated gallery.
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Team Associated

Team Associated announced this morning that they had released a Factory Team version of their SC10 4×4 short course truck and this took pride of place on their stand alongside their latest TC6.1 touring car and 1:12 chassis designed solely for LiPo battery use. The SC10 4×4 FT chassis layout has been reconfigured and now features a centralised-mass battery mount that allows for the use of a saddle pack LiPo. A carbon fibre chassis brace runs the length of the chassis for more consistency with other notable items being the VTS4 slipper clutch – a variable torque, multi-plate slipper clutch with four drive surfaces, big bore threaded shocks, blue aluminum clamping wheel hexes and anti-roll bar sets included.
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Sanwa

Heiko Wolf at LRP ran through their new range of products on show starting with the Sanwa range that they market through some of their National distributors. First up was a rather interesting telemetry system called TLS-01 (Telemetry Logger System) that you bind with your compatible Sanwa transmitter. We look forward to giving this a review as it has a huge array of functions. There is the capability to record lap time, and all this can be reviewed on a PC after the race. There were more additions to their servo range on show as well as a new 2.4GHz radio called the MX-V that uses FHSS-2 technology in a a three-channel unit that comes in a steerwheel design.

LRP

After a run through of Sanwa products, Heiko quickly changed hats and it was on to the LRP products. As expected, a new year sees new batteries come up for approval in the competition sector and naturally the new LRP packs now offer greater performance than before. They had packs to suit all applications with much higher C ratings for more punch to suit 1:12. 1:10 and 1:8 use. They had the recently announced Vector X20 motor on show as well as images of the new Dynamic 10 four-pole motors in 540 and 550-size that follow LRP’s latest ribbed look. For the SXX speed control, a new upgrade kit is being made available that offers all the functions of the Stock speed control to be used with the standard SXX unit giving you greater flexibility – ie two speed controllers in one. Kit-wise, there was a new licenced Porsche GT3 on the Blast TC platform, an updated S8 Rebel TX truggy as well as a stadium truck version of the S10 Twister buggy.
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Spektrum

Announced today was the DX2E transmitter from Spektrum that targets the first-time 2.4GHz buyer. The two-channel DSM2 compatible transmitter has all of the basic functions required including servo reversing, adjustable steering rates and an interchangeable grip design. Still in keeping with the Spektrum look and feel, this is the first of their wheel transmitters to be released in a matt black finish and is fuel proof.

Losi

Losi’s 1:24 scale Rally Car and SCT models have been tweaked for 2012 and come with a 8750Kv brushless system to make them even faster than before. They also now include a Spektrum 2.4GHz DSM radio system as standard equipment of the RTR package and as you can see, come in a choice of designs.

Ruddog

The guys at Ruddog Distribution, the German distributor for Team Durango have been very busy as their range of Vampire Racing, Pulse RC and RDRP items continues to expand. On their booth they had the first samples of the Revolution Design Racing Products that includes tools, pinions and gauges for a variety of applications. If you race a Team Durango DEX210, then there is a whole raft of brass, carbon fibre and upgrades available to tune the chassis to your requirements. Pulse RC is the range of bodies that they are developing and this line-up currently boasts a 1:10 SC, 1:12 on-road and replacement Lexan shells for the TLR 22 and TD DEX210. Finally, there was the whole Vampire Bloodline range as well as the tuning rotors for these motors.
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Tamiya

The Japanese manufacturer has one of the biggest stands at the Toy Fair and this year was no exception as the full-size Volkswagen Scirocco GT-24 CNG took centre stage – look out for a review of the Tamiya FF-03 version in the May edition of the magazine! Alongside the 1:12 chassis that supports the famous New Man Joest Racing Porsche 956, we spotted the limited edition Avante Black Special, the latest TRF417X touring car that the team will defend their World Championship with in 2012 as well as the new Leonis 4WD entry-level buggy that features shaft drive, three diffs and a stick pack battery configuration. There was also a smart looking GP edition of the F104W, a new Mini Coupe body for the M-05, the Stadium Thunder and a stunning gold drift chassis called the TA05 Ver II GLD.
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