The last few days of 2010 were busy wrapping up a few last models without a chance to reflect on the previous 12 months, a feeling that has summed up the year in general for me. Looking back, it feels like life's throttle was opened all the way back in January, and has been running full bore ever since.
It was certainly a good year for car enthusiasts in the world of entertainment. For the first time in motorsports history, a team has won five consecutive NASCAR points championships. Hollywood also provided quite a bit of car-themed action, including the
Mad Max-inspired vehicles from
Book of Eli, the grim Touareg's from
Repo Men, the Mistmobile from
Kick-Ass, the Audi and drones from
Iron Man 2 (note to Hasbro: stop shortpacking these, they're supposed to be army builders!), Gru's various machines from
Despicable Me, the
A-Team van, the GTO from
Knight and Day, the rides from
The Sorcerer's Apprentice, the classic muscle cars from
The Other Guys, Stallone's pickup from
The Expendables, and the various "grid" vehicles from
Tron: Legay. TV wasn't lacking, either. Even though
Knight Rider did not return, we saw some cool cars in AMC's new series
The Walking Dead and got some actual modeling coverage with the debut of
James May's Toy Stories. 2010 also marked the 50th anniversary of
The Flintstones and the 25th anniversary of
Back to the Future. Looking forward to 2011, we can expect to see
Shift,
Fast Five,
The Green Hornet,
Drive Angry,
Cars 2, and
Transformers 3, so there should be no shortage of cool movie cars in the coming year.
As always, there were a few sad notes this past year as well, including the passing of Jean Simmons, Robert Parker, Joshua Andrew Koenig, Corey Haim, Peter Graves, Robert Culp, Dan DiNicola, Dick Giordano, John Forsythe, Gary Coleman, Dennis Hopper, Rue McClanahan, Jimmy Dean, Peter Fernandez, Patricia Neal, Glenn Shadix, Kevin McCarthy, Barbara Billingsley, Tom Bosley, James MacArthur, Irvin Kershner, Leslie Nielsen. The scale modeling world also saw the passing of Bob Kerr and Jerry Sims.
Last year began my hiatus from bodywork-intensive projects, and this year I continued to focus primarily on upgrades and more "out of the box" builds. These included the
"Stylo" Camaro,
"Pretty Fly" Pinto,
M.A.S.K. Condor,
M.A.S.K. Thunderhawk, Good Guys Wear black Porsche,
Twilight pickup,
Bruce Almighty Saleen,
Dick Tracy Ford,
Judge Parker Corvette,
Highway Patrol Buick,
Man from U.N.C.L.E. Piranha,
Hamstar box,
The Real Ghostbusters Ecto-1,
Fast & Furious Charger #1,
Stingray Corvette,
Tron: Legacy Light Cycle,
Charlie's Angels camaro,
Avatar AT-99 Scorpion,
the Mach 5 F1,
the Fireball 500,
the Mystery Machine,
The Animal,
Turbo Teen (and his
Robot Chicken counterpart),
Barricade,
Jazz,
Mudflap,
C-3PO, and R2-D2.
Model companies also continued to turn out some great products, including my only non-1:24/5 purchases for the year: Pegasus'
Galaxy Quest NSEA Protector and Round 2's 1/32 Batmobile reissue. Round 2 also released the Munsters Koach/Drag-U-La set and the first NASCAR kits in years. Elsewhere, Cub Scouts and Pinewood Derby fans got an official Lightning McQueen template for their cars, Round 2 launched their official
YouTube channel, a massive 1/8 scale subscription-based replica of Bond's Aston Martin debuted, and HobbyLink Japan was really pulling out all the stops with an all-new look, the debut of
HobbyLink.tv, and the introduction of their "our price" system to lessen the impact of the high exchange rates we saw this year. 2011 is shaping up to be a great year in the hobby, as we can look forward to more reissues of hard-to find kits such as the Meyer's Manx and White Road Boss, new toolings from several manufacturers, and not one but two 1/25 Batmobiles: the classic TV car from Round 2 and the Tumbler from Moebius.
On the personal front, I returned to ToyFair and New York Comic Con, and had a great time at each. The vendors at ToyFair revealed some awesome products, including an appearance by Moebius Models as they prepared to enter the 1/24 vehicle market with the much-anticipated Hudson Hornet, Chrysler 300, and International Lonestar. NYCC provided me with the opportunity to meet several of my favorite artists, and get a couple of my models signed by creators Scott Kurtz, Matt Senreich, and Seth Green. Local shows like
Rhinebeck and
HobbyTown USA were fun as well - you don't always realize how much local talent there is until you visit one of these shows.
Joe Johnson and I hosted the second annual
Bandit Awards, and look forward to sorting through this year's candidates. This site also received a few changes, including a face lift, the new "Related Models" links on the right side of every page,
a new opinion piece,
downloadable wallpapers, and several new entries in the
Guest Gallery.
Here's wishing everyone a happy and prosperous 2011!
