SportsStuff

By Don Steinberg, Inquirer Staff Writer
Posted: December 03, 2006

Speed Reading

Radar-gun technology - just like the police and baseball scouts use - has arrived in toyland. The Hot Wheels Radar Gun ($20 to $30 retail) is designed to measure the velocity of Mattel's famous miniature race cars, but also will work on life-size bicycles, scooters, SUVs and thrown baseballs, if you aim it right. The gun isn't as precise as professional models but does employ genuine radio-wave radar. A switch will multiply the speed of 1/64-scale Hot Wheels cars by 64 - to display some lawbreaking m.p.h. numbers.

Rocky Road

Probably even more than boxers, sculptors need to make the most of the rare moments when the spotlight shines upon them. And so A. Thomas Schomberg is currently busy casting a third full-size bronze of his famous Rocky statue (the second is in San Diego, and the first, of course, is near the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps).

Schomberg also is selling miniatures for home use at his Web site, rockysculpture.com. The 12- and 20-inch models, cast in resin and hand-painted, are $98 and $468 each. A limited-edition 20-inch version, in bronze on a marble base, sells for $2,600, and only 1,976 will be made. Pair one of these guys with a Robert Indiana LOVE paperweight (available inside the Art Museum) and you have a swanky set of Philadelphia pop-art bookends. Absolutely.

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