Leigh’s Diecast Diary

Today we received Minichamps’ weekly release schedule for next week, and there is an item that wasn’t listed in yesterday’s monthly release schedule, namely Tiago Monteiro’s 1:43 2006 Midland-Toyota (DC26418).

We will also receive a Spark delivery next week, which will include the 1:43 1985 Le Mans winning Porsche 956 of Barilla, Ludwig and Winter (SPK991). There will also be one of our most popular ever Spark replicas judging by our pre-orders, the 1:43 Sauber-Mercedes C11 of Schumacher, Wendlinger and Kreutzpointner from the 1991 Le Mans 24 Hours (SPK1251).

Finally, from Mattel next week we will receive their first 1:18 2006 Michael Schumacher special, his Ferrari 248 from the Chinese Grand Prix where he scored his 91st and final Grand Prix victory (DC2605C).

We were very excited today to receive a sample of Minichamps’ 1:12 Rossi 2007 Fiat Yamaha (PO73046). It’s already been photographed and is now on our website. I say a sample, but it almost seems to be a finished model. It looks fantastic and even came in the proper 2007 labelled box. This leads me to think that the first batch has to be almost ready, and that the targeted release date of the end of August, which I originally thought was a little optimistic, may be attainable after all. Watch this space!

We also received Minichamps’ monthly schedule for the next four weeks. As ever, I expect this to be added to as the weekly release schedules come through.

Next week we are down to get the re-release of Fernando Alonso’s 1:43 2001 Minardi (P010020), and Christian Albers’ 1:43 2006 Midland-Toyota (DC26419). There will also be the 1:18 Mercedes SLK (PG033130), with the novel working opening roof which folds down into the boot!

The following week we are down to finally get the bike with the sexiest livery from the 2005 Moto GP grid, namely Makoto Tamada’s Konica Minolta Honda RC211V (PO51006). There is also Hahne’s 1:18 1968 Nurburgring Ford Escort ITC (PG688193).

The week beginning 29th July currently looks a bit quieter, with the re-release of Rossi’s 1:12 2005 Yamaha YZR-M1 (PO53046) the headliner.

The biggie on the last week of the schedule (week beginning 6th August) is Nelson Piquet’s 1:43 1987 Williams-Honda FW11B (P870006). This has been one of our biggest sellers, as it has never been made by anyone before and those of you who collect all the F1 world champions have been clamouring for its release for months! Well, it’s almost here! There will also be the re-releases of Ayrton Senna’s 1:18 1994 Williams-Renault (AS187), and Carl Fogarty’s 1:12 1999 Ducati 996 (P1211), although technically the latter is at least a re-re-re-release!

Today we had a meeting with our new rep from Burago. To be honest I wasn’t expecting much as I hadn’t purchased any Burago stock for at least a year. This was mainly due to their refusal to supply us replicas in solid colours. We were only offered mixed colours which really is a death knell in the mail order business, as a customer is not going to want to order, for example, a 1:18 Lamborghini not knowing whether they are going to receive it in black or in yellow! I had also never been that impressed with the quality of Burago’s offerings.

I was very pleasantly surprised though. On the colours side, because now we will be able to order replicas in specific colourways, and on the quality side, because Burago’s production has shifted from Italy to China and the final product is now miles better than it used to be.

Within the next few days we should be supplied with images of Burago’s current and forthcoming ranges, so that we can get everything onto our website. They’ve got some good subjects not covered by any of the other diecast manufacturers, so it will definitely be worth checking out.

The atmosphere was certainly electric at the British Grand Prix. I’ve never known a buzz like it, which lasted from the moment Lewis Hamilton took a brilliant pole position until about halfway through the race when it became clear that he would not be scoring a fairytale home win.

Looking around the stalls, I was not impressed to see that there was some kind of syndicate situation going on, with everyone who I saw offering the 1:43 Hamilton showcar selling it at £35, a massive £10 over the RRP. The 1:18 Raikkonen 2006 McLaren from Minichamps was also generally on sale at £55, £5 over the RRP.

Anyway, rant over! Kyosho have announced a few exciting new 1:18 releases. From the road car world there is the Mercedes CLK DTM Street cabriolet, available in silver (KY8462S), and red (KY8462R). We have been told not to expect these until early next year. The coupe versions of the CLK DTM Street have already been announced, in black (KY8461BK), and silver (KY8461S).

From racing, there are two BMWs from the 2006 World Touring Car Championship. The drivers featured are Dirk Muller (KY8732B), and Alex Zanardi (KY8732C).

In between checking out the live timings from Silverstone’s F1 free practice sessions today (looking at those timing screens is really addictive!), I managed to get Sun Star’s freshly announced releases up on our website.

They are all from the world of rallying. The first two carry on Sun Star’s 1:18 Ford Escort Mk.II range, with Ari Vatanen’s car from the 1977 RAC Rally (SS4439), and Hannu Mikkola’s winning example from the 1979 Rally of Portugal (SS4440).

Moving on from classic rally to modern rally there are two 1:18 Citroen Xsara WRC offerings, Toni Gardemeister’s colourful entry from the 2006 Acropolis Rally (SS4422), and Daniel Carlsson’s machine from this year’s Rally of Sweden (SS4426).

I’m up at Silverstone this weekend for, what else, the British Grand Prix. Yesterday the weather forecast for the weekend looked pretty bleak, with the question not would I get wet but how wet would I get. Now it looks more promising, although I think I’ll still take my mac!

At the beginning of the week Spark announced 1:43 replicas of practically every car that competed at Le Mans this year. I have now finally got all of these new releases onto the website! As ever, they are all at the top of the ‘2007 Announcements’ link.

Spark’s brand Red Line are releasing this year’s Le Mans Ferraris, which is why they are more expensive as Red Line are the Exoto or CMC of 1:43 replicas with their incredibly high levels of detail.

We received Minichamps’ weekly release schedule for items that we should see next Monday or Tuesday. New items that weren’t on the original monthly release schedule include Anthony Davidson’s 1:43 2006 Honda RA106 ‘third driver’ car (DC26436), and the two 1:43 2007 Renault showcars of Giancarlo Fisichella (DC27403P) and Heikki Kovalainen (DC27404P).

Minichamps also confirmed that we would not see Casey Stoner’s 1:12 2007 Ducati Desmosedici (PO70027) this year. To be honest that wasn’t too much of a surprise, as we’re now into the second half of 2007 and we’re still waiting to see a large number of 2006 Moto GP bikes, plus even a couple of outstanding replicas from the 2005 season.

Today I’ll go through the rest of Minichamps’ new announcements from Monday.

From Formula One, there will be a 1:43 replica of Sebastien Vettel’s 2007 BMW from the American Grand Prix (DC27410V). There he finished eighth to become the youngest points scorer in F1 history, the only teenager to have managed the feat. There are also two black Honda RA106 testcars from pre-season testing this year, of Barrichello (DC26411T), and Klien (DC26411TK).

In terms of classic F1 there will be a replica of the late Stefan Bellof’s Tyrrell-Ford 012 from the 1984 Monaco Grand Prix (P840104), where he finished a heroic third behind Prost and Senna.

From Le Mans there are the three Audi R10s in 1:43 from the 2007 race, including of course the winning car of Biela, Pirro and Werner (P071601). There are also three Porsches from the GT2 class.

IXO have also confirmed this year’s winning Audi R10 in 1:43 as part of its Le Mans Winners collection (LM2007).

All of these plus the rest of the new items are now at the top of our ‘2007 Announcements’ link, so you can check that out to keep up with everything that was confirmed a couple of days ago.

I’m sure the diecast manufacturers do it on purpose! They wait until I’m away for a couple of days and then announce a load of new releases! Yesterday alone there were new announcements from Minichamps, Spark, IXO and Sunstar.

To be honest there’s far too much to cover in one diary entry, so I’ll split the news up over the next couple of days.

The hottest announcement was a 2007 Rossi riding figure from Minichamps. It is from his victorious Jerez slowing down lap when he was riding side-saddle on his YZR-M1 (PO79146), so I think that will look quite impressive.

Next on the list has to be an Assen victory slowing down lap figure in his special leathers when he had his ‘Titanic’ moment stood on the footpegs and with his arms outstretched! That would be mega, please make it Mr.Minichamps!

In other Rossi Minichamps news, we have been told to expect his 2007 Yamaha YZR-M1 (PO73046) as early as September, which will be fantastic if that date can be fulfilled.

In the new releases department, we finally received our delivery of Jadi 1:18 Triumph Stags on Friday, in red (JM98112) and white (JM98111).

Yesterday we received two hot new Minichamps items, Troy Bayliss’ 1:12 2006 Valencia Moto GP Ducati (PO60012), and Lewis Hamilton’s 1:43 2007 McLaren showcar (DC27402P). We didn’t receive enough Hamiltons to cover all of our pre-orders, but we will receive another small delivery around the beginning of August that will cover the balance. This is the first Hamilton replica ever released so is, and will remain, much sought after. We only have a few spare from the August delivery after fulfilling our remaining pre-orders so you really have to order this now if you want one.

Finally today, we have received news that there will be price increases on Spark’s forthcoming releases in the not too distant future. To lock in your pre-orders at the current prices, order soon.