The Taurus locomotive should arrive in October. If it does well who knows what PIKO’s next loco might be. Perhaps something from this side of the Atlantic? Who knows…
In the GR add, the reatail price said $399.99, so hopefully one of the wholesalers will sell it in the $300 range, not bad at all for a nice euro loco!
The prototype of the PIKO model has just (afternoon of Sept 2nd 2006) set a new world record on rail of 357kmh (221.8mph).
The MSRP in Germany is 220 Euro, the street price could come in even lower. PIKO has a well established track record for producing interesting starter sets to get people into the hobby at a minimal price.
Several months back, when I heard about this Taurus loco from Piko, I posted a message knowing very well that LGB imports PIKO G items. I then asked at that time if there was any word that LGB of America would be distributing this ‘G’ item also…so now right from the LGB marketing dept. its true! WOW! That is great that LGB of A has considered getting this loco across the Atlantic into the hands of US modelers. I have heard from a gentleman who was at the Nurnberg toy fair and saw the “pre production” Taurus, and he states its around 1:29 scale (to mesh with other “standard guage” G scale) and supposably can negotiate R1.
I was a little upset however, that PIKO decided to produce a modern “e lok” much the same as the new LGB ‘DBAG’ e-lok. Both units are very modern prototypes, (as well as very cool looking!) but I was hoping either Lehmann or this new Piko item was going to be a 1960s Elok. A 1960s German mainline engine to me is much preferable, because it would sit nicely next to the “old timers” narrow gauge LGB…and I happen to like the looks of the 60’s E-loks.
However, LGB just came out with that (rather ugly) 1950s “bulldog” DB diesel engine, so that gives me hope that more 1950/60s prototypes will be considered…and another thing to note is that if you model the Harz system having old time steamers next to modern E loks sitting at a station together is actually prototypical. So there is a “prototype for everything”
Actually the scale of both LGB and PIKO Standard Gauge items based on the DB is 1:27 or thereabouts. “Thereabouts” since the length, height and width may have different scales! In actual fact, taking the LGB BR 101 as an example the scale encompasses 1:23.5 (overall height with lowered pantographs) to 1:33.8 (diameter of the wheels), but many of the dimensions are in the 1:27.2 to 1:27.5 range.