17th December 2007

A New Chapter for La Storia

Another day, another delivery from IXO! Instead of a restock though, this one had a brand new item on it, the next release in the 1:43 La Storia collection.

It is the twelfth car to be released, but is actually Number 13 in the series, which is Jacky Ickx’s 1968 Ferrari 312 (IXSF13). Number 12, Gerhard Berger’s 1987 Ferrari F1 87 (IXSF12), will probably be the next one to be released.

Finally, congratulations to Mattias Ekstrom on a dramatic victory over Michael Schumacher in the Race Of Champions yesterday. I was at Wembley and found the whole event a great experience. Let’s hope it comes back next year!

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17th December 2007

Episode 11 - Leigh’s Diary - Diecast as it happens

Welcome to the eleventh Leigh’s Diary Vidcast, reviewing all the new diecast replicas that were released last week.

As always, I’ve listed the products below that have been featured in this week’s vidcast. Keep the comments rolling in. You’ll need quicktime installed to view the video on this post.
Quicktime required

 
icon for podpress  Leighs Diary Vidcast Episode 11 [6:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 
icon for podpress  Leighs Diary Podcast Episode 11 [6:21m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

See the vidcast on youtube You can also view this podcast on youtube by clicking here

These are the products featured on this week’s podcast:

1/18 Bentley Continental GTC - Minichamps
1/12 Rossi Aprilia 250cc Imola 1999 - Minichamps
1/12 Stoner Honda RC211V 2006 - Minichamps
1/12 Rossi Honda NSR500 2001 - Minichamps
1/43 Renault R27 Fisichella - Minichamps
1/43 BMW F1.07 Kubica - Minichamps
1/43 Toyota TF107 Trulli - Minichamps
1/43 Williams FW29 Rosberg - Minichamps
1/43 Williams FW29 Wurz - Minichamps
1/43 Super Aguri SA05 Ide - Minichamps
1/43 Super Aguri SA05 Montagny - Minichamps
1/43 Triumph Spitfire - Minichamps
1/43 Porsche 911 Carrera RS - Minichamps
1/43 BMW 320i Peterson DRM - Minichamps
1/43 Chevrolet Corvette C6R Le Mans 2007 #63 - Spark
1/43 Dodge Travco Team Lotus Transporter - Spark
1/18 Ferrari 166 MM - Mattel
1/18 Ferrari 166 MM 60th Anniversary - Mattel
1/18 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Lusso Red - Mattel
1/18 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Lusso Blue - Mattel
1/18 Fiat 131 Abarth Darniche Corsica - Kyosho
1/18 Ferrari 575 GTC Red - Kyosho

Remember you can subscribe to the podcast by clicking the purple podcast icon at the top right or use this link if you wish to subscribe via itunes.

I hope you enjoyed watching or listening to the podcast. Please feel free to leave any comments on what you thought of it or anything you would like me to feature in future shows below.

posted in Podcast, Diecast, Formula 1 | 2 Comments

14th December 2007

A Long-Awaited Restock

Today something happened that I wondered if I would ever see. For the first time since I became Diecast Manager, in January 2005, we finally received restocks of IXO’s 1:43 Ford GT40 of Jacky Ickx and Jackie Oliver that won the 1969 Le Mans 24 Hours (LM1969)! Happy days!

I know we’ve waited longer than that for replicas like the infamous Exoto 1:18 Mansell Williams FW14B and Minichamps 1:43 Senna/Mansell taxi, but that has to be a new record for a restock!

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13th December 2007

Hamilton’s Autosport Award Piece, Anyone?

In all honesty, not much has happened today, so I thought today’s entry could be put to good use to introduce a fantastic new competition that we are running until the end of January.

A couple of weeks ago, Christopher Paul went to the Autosport Awards, as he often does, and spent the next day ‘entertaining’ the rest of us with stories of how he rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous, as he often does!

Anyway, enough of my jealousy. Every year each of the 160 tables at the event has a centrepiece of a 1:18 Formula One car in a special domed display case, signed on a plaque on the side of the base by its driver. At the end of the evening, the table centres are then sold off to the guests.

This year, Lewis Hamilton was the featured driver, and as you can imagine, demand far exceeded supply. Christopher Paul was lucky to make it out of the building with a few examples and his life!

We are going to give one of these table centres away to someone who buys a 1:18 Mattel F1 car from us before the end of January. If you have already bought a 1:18 Mattel F1 car from us, don’t panic, you will still be entered into the draw. If you buy another one though, you will double your chances!

As you all know, signed Lewis Hamilton diecast is a very rare thing indeed, in fact we have never heard of him signing anything else for anyone else. These Autosport Award table centres are worth £1,250 each. It has to be one of the best, if not THE best, competition prize we have ever offered.

We are offering our other table centres for sale to our customers (DC2702MAA), so if you feel your luck hasn’t been with you this year, you can buy one from us straight away to secure yourself a very special, very limited piece of Formula One memorabilia.

posted in Diecast, Formula 1 | 2 Comments

12th December 2007

Rare Massey Ferguson on Phone Order Only..Better Move Faster Than The Tractor Itself!


We received a new delivery from Kyosho today, the highlight undoubtedly being the 1:18 Ferrari 575 GTC in red (KY8391A). It is the last of the three colourways to be released after black and yellow, and looks stunning in a really nice shade of red. Also on the delivery was the next 1:18 1977 Fiat 131 rally car, this one Bernard Darniche’s winning version from the Rally of Corsica (KY8372A).

Finally today, something a bit special for the tractor collectors out there. When I had my ‘tour of northern suppliers’ last week, I came across a Universal Hobbies 1:16 Massey Ferguson 35X ‘Industrial’ in yellow. The box proudly proclaims ‘Special Limited Edition’, and it has never been made available through the normal distribution channels. I had certainly never seen it before. This wholesaler only had seven examples so I snapped them up.

As ever with rare finds like this, I am offering it to diary readers first, to remove the possibility of us over-selling from our website overnight, especially given how few are available. It will cost £59.99 and the code is J2693, so give us a call on 0870 460 3456 if you want to be one of the very few to secure one. Good luck!

posted in Diecast, Other Cars | 0 Comments

11th December 2007

Kimi Gives Our Leigh Some Bottle, Along With All The Signed Replicas

It was one of the highlights of the year today, at least as far as I was concerned! Jason returned from his European jaunt complete with the freshly signed Kimi Raikkonen items from the night of the FIA prize-giving gala in Monaco on Friday. 

These are the 2007 F1 Champion presentation (DC2007S), the ‘standard’ 1:18 F2007 (DC2706S), the 1:18 Australian Grand Prix F2007 (DC2706AS), the 1:12 F2007 Nosecone (AML732RS), and the 1:4 F2007 steering wheel (AML702S). Plus, as a surprise for me, a dedicated signed bottle of Corona Extra that Kimi got through during the signing! Now that’s something a little different for the collection!

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10th December 2007

Whatever You Do, Don’t Shoot The Messenger!

Scale Model Technical Services today confirmed that they’ll be releasing a 1:43 replica of Jack Brabham’s 1966 Brabham-Repco BT19 next year (SMTS038). This is quite significant as I know that there are a lot of people out there who collect all of the F1 World Champions, and, to my knowledge, Brabham’s 1966 Brabham has never been replicated before, so there must be at least one gap in everyone’s collections! That will now be filled by SMTS though, which is great news.

Now, from good news to bad. We have been warned that next year there will once again be price rises across the board in the diecast industry, encompassing all of the manufacturers, from at least 10% to even potentially over 20% in some cases. This time the cause will be attributed to the increase in the cost of labour as opposed to zinc, but the net result will be the same; more expensive diecast!

It is likely that these higher prices will come into effect on February 1st, as this year’s increases did. So, until then, you can take advantage of pre-ordering from us safe in the knowledge that if the price of your replica does go up (again!), you will not be passed on that increase.

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10th December 2007

Episode 10 - Leigh’s Diary - Diecast as it happens

Welcome to the tenth Leigh’s Diary Vidcast, reviewing all the new diecast replicas that were released last week.

As always, I’ve listed the products below that have been featured in this week’s vidcast. Keep the comments rolling in. You’ll need quicktime installed to view the video on this post.
Quicktime required

 
icon for podpress  Leighs Diary Vidcast Episode 10 [4:39m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 
icon for podpress  Leighs Diary Podcast Episode 10 [4:39m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

See the vidcast on youtube You can also view this podcast on youtube by clicking here

These are the products featured on this week’s podcast:

1/43 Ferrari F310 Schumacher Spanish Grand Prix La Storia - IXO
1/12 BMW F1.07 Nosecone - Amalgam
1/18 Bentley Blue Train Special - Minichamps
1/43 Bentley Continental GTC - Minichamps
1/43 Super Aguri SA05 Takuma Sato - Minichamps
1/43 Audi R10 Le Mans 2007 #1 - Spark
1/43 Audi R10 Le Mans 2007 #2 - Spark
1/43 Aston Martin DBR9 Le Mans 2007 #59 - Spark
1/43 Lotus 19 Gurney Daytona 1962 - Spark
1/43 Shadow Can-Am DN4 1974 - Spark
1/43 Lotus Exige Concept - Spark
1/43 Lotus 2 Eleven - Spark
1/18 Jaguar XJR9 3rd Daytona 1988 #66 - Exoto
1/18 Ferrari 500 F2 - Exoto
1/43 Maranello Concessionaires Transporter - Exoto
1/18 Audi R8 - Kyosho

Remember you can subscribe to the podcast by clicking the purple podcast icon at the top right or use this link if you wish to subscribe via itunes.

I hope you enjoyed watching or listening to the podcast. Please feel free to leave any comments on what you thought of it or anything you would like me to feature in future shows below.

posted in Podcast, Diecast, Other Cars, Formula 1 | 0 Comments

7th December 2007

Warning; Incoming Flood of Minichamps F1 Cars

Today we had a new release from Minichamps, in the extremely highly detailed 1:18 Bentley Gurney Nutting Blue Train Special (PG139520), and from IXO, in the latest release in their 1:43 La Storia collection, Michael Schumacher’s 1996 Ferrari F310 (IXSF10). Although this is Number 10 in the series, it is actually the eleventh car to be released, as for some reason Number 11 (Alberto Ascari’s 1952 Ferrari 500 F2, IXSF11) was released before it.

We also received Minichamps’ new weekly release schedule for next week, and there are quite a few items on it that weren’t in the original monthly release schedule.

These are Valentino Rossi’s 1:12 1999 Imola Aprilia 250 CCM, with the Italian flag design (P990096), Casey Stoner’s 2006 Honda RC211V (PO61027), the 1:43 2006 Super Aguris of Yuji Ide (DC26423) and Franck Montagny (DC26423FM), and five 1:43 2007 F1 race cars; Giancarlo Fisichella’s Renault (DC27403), Robert Kubica’s BMW (DC27410), Jarno Trulli’s Toyota (DC27412), Nico Rosberg’s Williams (DC27416), and Alexander Wurz’s Williams (DC27417).

Now that’s more like it!

posted in Diecast, Other Cars, Moto GP, Formula 1 | 0 Comments

6th December 2007

Exotos All Over The Shop

Today we had a new announcement and a new delivery from Exoto. The new announcement was the 1:18 prototype Porsche 936/77 from 1977 (GT18200). The car won Le Mans and the World Sportscar Championship that year, so I presume we’ll see variants along those lines in the future too.

The new delivery included Mike Hawthorn’s 1:18 1953 Ferrari 500 F2 (GP97191), the 1:43 Maranello Concessionaires transporter (GP013), and the #66 Castrol Jaguar XJR9 LM from Daytona 1988 (GT0106). Now, don’t get too excited, this is NOT the #60 car that won the race in the hands of Martin Brundle, Raul Boesel, John Nielsen and Jan Lammers (GT0105), but the third place sister car of Eddie Cheever, Johnnie Dumfries and John Watson. We have been told to expect the winning car in time for Christmas, but I’ll be pleasantly surprised if we do.

Finally today, Mattel provided us with a sample image of their Michael Schumacher Career Statistics presentation (HW6235). We should see this early next year.

posted in Diecast, Formula 1 | 0 Comments


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