Leigh’s Diecast Diary

We received another sample today, of the long-awaited 1:12 Vincent Black Shadow from Minichamps (Product Code - P134500). As with the 1:12 Rossi 2007 Yamaha sample a month ago, it was encouraging to see that it arrived complete in its ‘proper’ box and looking basically finished. Hopefully this means that we will see the delivery of it in a couple of months or so.

Spark announced a few new releases, the highlight being this year’s Le Mans winning Audi R10 in 1:18 scale (Product Code - SPA180016). All of these can be found in the ‘2007 Announcements’ category.

Finally, we received some preview images from Mattel of some of their forthcoming 1:18 Formula One releases, which you can now check out on our website. These are Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren MP4/22 (Product Code - DC2702M), Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari F2007 (Product Code - DC2706), Alex Wurz’s Williams FW29 (Product Code - DC2717), the Schumacher Monza special (Product Code - DC2605M), and the Schumacher Sao Paulo special (Product Code - DC2605SP).

Today we received a sample of Mattel’s latest addition to its 1:18 Ferrari F430 Challenge range. It is of 2006 Italian Champion Andrea Belluzzi (Product Code - HW9533). We hope to see delivery of this model by the end of the summer, although as the rain continues to lash down outside I’m not sure what passes for summer anymore.

Minichamps have announced some new 1:43 replicas, including some 2007 DTM cars, the winning Porsche RS Spyder from this year’s Mid-Ohio American Le Mans Series race (Product Code - P076697), and, somewhat bizarrely, Takuma Sato’s Jordan from a pre-season test in 2002 (Product Code - P024399)! If you’re making that Minichamps, then there are also other testcars that are worthy, such as Raikkonen’s first Sauber or first McLaren test! Not that I’m biased you understand! All of these new subjects can be found at the top of our ‘2007 Announcements’ link.

If you’re wondering where the 2006 Lewis Hamilton MP4/21 testcar (DC26484) is on our website, I had to remove it today as we are now sold out to pre-orders.

After the hype following the 2007 showcar (DC27402P) selling out on release, and now changing hands for around £100 on Ebay, demand for Hamilton replicas has been higher than for any F1 driver we have ever seen before. The only thing close to it is the demand we have seen for Rossi diecast.

Those of you who have already pre-ordered will of course still get your example, but if you haven’t ordered it yet then I’m afraid it’s already too late. We are expecting to see the 2006 testcar released at the beginning of September, while we should receive our second batch of the 2007 showcar (which again is pre-sold out) this week.

Just to recap, the 1:43 Hamilton replicas still available to pre-order are his 2007 ‘regular’ McLaren (Product Code - DC27402), his 2007 Australian Grand Prix first race / first podium special (Product Code - DC27402A), and his 2006 Canadian Grand Prix first win special (Product Code - DC27402C). To guarantee what you want you really should pre-order as soon as you can.

Another day, another feast of new diecast releases, starting with two biggies! We are delighted to be able to announce that Minichamps will be releasing a replica of Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren MP4/22 that he drove to his first F1 win at this year’s Canadian GP. The car that day sported a new ‘bridged’ front wing and a new aero rear wing, features that will be replicated in these models. It will be available in 1/18 scale (Product Code – DC2702C), and 1/43 scale (Product Code – DC27402C). Demand for these is going to be huge, so my advice is to get your pre order in as soon as you can.

Back on 28th June I promised that as soon as Minichamps announced the 1:12 2007 Rossi Assen Yamaha, it would be plastered all over our websites. Well, this morning they announced the multi-coloured YZR-M1 (Product Code - PO73096), and within five minutes we had it available to pre-order! It’s already been a massive hit.

The replica will be a limited edition, although the edition number is to be confirmed, and it is a little dearer than other Rossi releases at £49.99. We don’t know if this is because of the complicated paint job or because of the new tooling that will be required to create the different fairings that Rossi ran with in that race.

Not to be content with that though, Minichamps also announced another groundbreaking release, James Toseland’s 1:12 2007 Honda Fireblade World Superbike (Product Code - PO71252). It’s great news that they have finally considered it worthwhile to invest in the tooling for the Fireblade, and hopefully in the future other Fireblades will follow. We are also proud to be able to offer this replica signed by James Toseland himself (Product Code - PO71252S). As an aside, his team-mate Roberto Rolfo’s Fireblade will also be available (Product Code - PO71244), but I can’t see that version being quite as popular!

Today we received confirmation from Sun Star of some of their new arrivals, which we should see in the week beginning 20th August.

The big news is that the new shipment will include both colourways of the 1:18 Ford Escort XR3, in black (Product Code - SS4972) and yellow (Product Code - SS4971). The XR3 has been one of our hottest sellers of this year, so our warehouse will be kept busy getting our hundreds of customer pre-orders out the door.

The other big release on the delivery, in a different sense of the word, is the 1:12 Morris Minor 1000 Tourer in cream (Product Code - SS4771).  

The same week we are also down to get the first ever 1:18 model of Jochen Rindt’s 1970 world championship Lotus 49C (Product Code - Q18220), from Quartzo.

Today we received Minichamps’ release schedule for the rest of August, and it’s good to see some gems on it.

Next week we will receive Yukio Kagayama’s 2005 1:12 Suzuki GSX-R1000 (Product Code - PO52271), which will finally complete Minichamps’ collection of 2005 race bikes. There will also be the next 1:18 Morris Minor variant which we saw a sample of at Nuremberg, the saloon in maroon ( Product Code - PG137002), as well as Nigel Mansell’s 1:43 1987 Williams-Honda FW11B ( Product Code - P870005). A good week!

The following week (commencing 20th August) the biggies are the 1:18 2006 orange McLaren MP4/21 pre-season testcars of Kimi Raikkonen ( Product Code - DC2603T) and Juan Pablo Montoya (Product Code - DC2604T). Our customers who have pre-ordered those will be rejoicing at that news! They will also be saving themselves £4 on the RRP, as Minichamps have only just announced that they are increasing it from £42.99 to £46.99. As ever, we will hold the original price for those of you who ordered before today, so there’s a nice little saving for you. We will also see the 1:12 2006 D’Antin Ducati Desmosedicis of Cardoso (Product Code - PO60030) and Hofmann (Product Code - PO60066), as well as the 1:18 Morris Minor cabriolet in green (Product Code - PG137031).

The week after that we will receive Valentino Rossi’s 1:12 2007 Yamaha YZR-M1 ( Product Code - PO73046), which will easily be our biggest release of the month, if not the year!

The last week of the schedule we are down to get the next 1:12 Valentino Rossi figure, after a bit of a gap since we saw the last one. This one will be the 2005 Valencia sitting version. We are currently sold out to pre-orders, but we will do the numbers when we receive our shipment and if we have any spare will offer it for sale again.

There was certainly an exhilarating atmosphere at Brands Hatch at the weekend, with James Toseland riding out of his skin to take his first ever double victory in World Superbikes.

In Hungary the atmosphere must have been distinctly more controversial, thanks to the Alonso-Hamilton qualifying row. It does look as though a McLaren driver will be taking the title this year though, as 20 points in just six races is surely too much for either Raikkonen or Massa to make up. We’ll see.

Anyway, diecast. Today Exoto announced a 1:18 Alain Prost 1990 Ferrari 641/2 in a carbon fibre finish (Product Code - GP97107). Now that Exoto has discovered this carbon fibre effect they are certainly getting their money’s worth out of it, what with the Mansell FW14B (Product Code - GP97114) and now this Prost Ferrari.

We’re not sure as to whether the Ferrari actually took to the track in anger though, or if this is how it would have looked in the windtunnel or at the factory before it had its livery applied.

By the way, this diary is now slightly more cutting edge in that you can now click on the product codes within the entries to go straight to the items that I am talking about!

This last day of our European diecast road trip has been our busiest. This morning we visited two wholesalers in Paris, where we saw that Exoto’s 1:43 transporters have already been released, so we should see them in the UK very soon. The 1977 Elf Tyrrell version (GP006) looked really stunning.

After lunch we visited Socatec, one of our leading aeroplane replica suppliers, and this evening we are driving up to Caen to catch the over night ferry back to Portsmouth.

Then tomorrow morning it’s straight up to Brands Hatch for the World Superbike meeting, where I’ll be working in our smaller Colin Chapman shop on the exit of Clearways. Our much larger megastore will also be open, of course. The big news there today was that Troy Bayliss did the signing of Minichamp’s 1:12 2006 Valencia Moto GP Ducati for us (PO60012S).

Another day, another border crossing! A five hour journey into Holland preceded probably our most constructive meeting of the week.

We visited the country’s leading die-cast importer and came across a few exciting brands and models that we don’t think ever make it into the UK. These included four colourways of the all new Fiat 500 in 1:18 scale, and Eligor’s 1:43 Formula One transporters. I’m certainly going to have my work cut out adding all these finds to our existing ranges!