That’s right! I’m running behind again. So let’s catch up on some things you might have missed, at least if I was your only source of metal model news. Quick summary: Universal Studios added a new Hagrid’s Motorbike exclusive, Metal Earth has published the Quidditch Pitch and Bumblebee to the coming soon page, and Piececool has added two new Eiffel Tower models, an updated Yellow Crane Tower model, and the Aries edition of the zodiac crane series.

Diving right in, here is the new Metal Earth exclusive that is only available at Universal Studios. This one is obviously tied to the Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike ride, and appears to come with an optional “ride loading station” from some of the build photos I’ve already seen (yes, already!). Gotta get my hands on this one, that’s for sure!

Source: Facebook Metal Earth Models group

Keeping with Metal Earth, and somewhat with Harry Potter, let’s look at the official photos of the Quidditch Pitch, and some yellow robot thing named Bumblebee. I think I may have heard of that latter one somewhere (can you taste the sarcasm?). I think Bumblebee has the most dynamic pose of the newer transformer models. I never knew I wanted a Quidditch Pitch model, but now I do. And I find myself wondering why Gryffindor and Hufflepuff have one less tower, each, than Slytherin and Ravenclaw. It looks like they sacrificed their 4th stands so that the officiators and faculty could have their own neutral stands or something.

Sources: Quidditch Pitch, Bumblebee

Moving on to Piececool, we’ll start with the doubled model. It’s been a while since I’ve seen Piececool release a Silver/Gold pair of models, but apparently they decided to go “classic” when revisiting the Eiffel Tower. But they’ve definitely made some changes, too. And clearly they want you to know about it, what with all the comparisons in their marketing materials. Can’t blame them, though… the new ones look significantly better. Might have to pick up one of the silver variants, just so I can have 4 different scale versions of the same model…

Sources: Gold, Silver

And we’ll finish up with another odd pairing (meaning I’ve grouped some of these rather oddly). Another updated architecture model, the Yellow Crane Tower, and the latest zodiac crane, the Aries model. I’m really going to need to get at least one of these zodiac cranes, but “mine” won’t come out until much later. As for the Yellow Crane Tower, both color and exacting detail appear to be added, along with a “238%” size increase.

Sources: Yellow Crane Tower, Aries