TV’s most famous Ferrari is coming soon to a playroom near you

If you weren’t wearing a Hawaiian shirt and driving a Ferrari to solve crimes in the 1980s, were you even there?

Toy-maker Playmobil has tapped into parental pop-culture nostalgia by releasing a Magnum P.I. playset, celebrating the TV series that aired between 1980 and 1988. The set features the iconic ‘Robin 1’ Ferrari 308 GTS and even includes a pint-sized Thomas Magnum, played by actor Tom Selleck.

If you missed tuning in each Saturday night (now more than 40 years ago), the rocking theme song introduced Selleck as Thomas Magnum, a private investigator working on behalf of a mysterious novelist, Robin Masters, on the picturesque islands of Hawaii.

The show ran for 162 episodes over eight seasons and was tremendously successful, earning a number of awards.

The red Ferrari 308, featuring ‘Robin 1’ licence plates belonging to Magnum’s unseen benefactor, featured heavily throughout the series and was a role played by four different model cars.

The vehicle seen in the introduction – without its famous number plates – is a 1978 308 GTS powered by a 177kW 2.9-litre V8 engine. A 1979 model 308 GTS was used during season one, but was replaced by a 1981 308 GTSi for seasons two to six. The GTSi received mechanical fuel injection which offered lower emissions, but also at 151kW, lower power.

For seasons seven and eight, Magnum stepped up to the 1984 Ferrari 308 GTS Quattrovalvole (as represented in the Playmobil set) which offered four valves per cylinder and a power bump to 172kW. You can spot the QV models by the addition of an extra grille louvre in the front luggage cover, to aid cooling.

The Magnum PI Playmobil set joins other licenced pop-culture releases (owned by Universal Studios), including Knight Rider, and Back to the Future.

The set is available for pre-order from $US79.99 ($AU118) and is expected to ship from next month.

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