Importing And Building Playmobil’s Porsche GT3 Cup
This kit isn’t available from retailers in the US, so I had to buy one from eBay Germany.
As a Porsche fanatic, I appreciate when some cool and new Porsche ephemera hits the market. I've had my eye on the Playmobil line of Porsche models lately, as they already have a few 991-based street cars available. I heard from a friend in Europe that Playmobil had just launched a new 911 GT3 Cup model and I immediately jumped on German eBay to find one. I believe it was $60 inclusive of international shipping, so I pulled the trigger and waited. The model took over a month to arrive to my house, but I was happy I had it. I've put off assembling this kit until today, but now that it's done, I'm glad it is. It's a neat piece to have on the shelf in my office, and it has the potential to be a decent conversation piece. Here's a short review of the model now that I've assembled it.
This kit is quite comprehensive, and includes pictographic instructions that can be read regardless of language. There are a lot of spares includes here, and would probably be fun when I was a kid. As an adult, I assemble the stuff, apply the decals, and put them back in the box. The car is the only thing I'm interested in here. The above photo is how everything came out of the bag. Obviously most of the car is already assembled, which felt a bit like cheating. The little battery pack goes into the front of the car and uses fiber optics to provide light to the headlights, tail lights, and interior illumination. It's a cool feature that isn't seen on many models, especially in this price point.
Bradley Brownell
Here is the final result. It is actually quite good looking and reasonably close to the subject material. I enjoy that the lights work, I enjoy that there are plenty of decals to apply. The roll cage isn't exactly realistic, but the Playmobil minifig had to be able to fit into the driver's seat. The roof section is removable to get them in and out of the car. I also appreciated that the center lock wheels had different color lugs in the middle and are actually installed with the included wheel gun tool.
If you're interested, check out Playmobil's website for their Carrera S and Targa 4S models, or this GT3 Cup model is now trickling in to eBay UK for English speakers.
