Leigh’s Diecast Diary

Just so that you all know.

One of our forum users out there, ‘ukdiecastkid’, seems to think that GT Models gets its models before us.

This isn’t the case; the guy is full of sh*t.

We’ve often checked out the situation when GT Models says they have items in stock before us.

They almost never do.

They invariably take your money up front, then refund it later when it becomes clear that they can’t send the goods out.

Often they say it’s in stock in the hope that a model is going to arrive soon and the customer will never know it wasn’t there at the time of ordering.

The fact is this; nobody in the UK gets models before us.

Remember, GT Models is the company that takes deposits on pre-orders. They don’t hold the prices for customers when the manufacturers increase them. And when they can, they will charge you £100 for a Minichamps Hamilton McLaren 1:43.

Oh, and just in case you wondered, ‘ukdiecastkid’ is actually somebody from GT Models.

We traced their IP address and it was a GT Models address.

So, they’re not all that bright either! Still, good to know they use our site to keep up with developments.

Somebody asked about GPL’s views on the Mattel Canada special.

Have to say we’re not that impressed especially as we had been told that the premium being charged was for the extra tooling costs.

For numerous reasons we can’t really say much more on this subject; suffice it to say that we are de-listing this particular model.

Just for information, the Minichamps version has outsold the Mattel version many times over and it’s not difficult to see why.

There are two diary entries for you today, one from me, and one from our leader Christopher Paul.

Minichamps announced some 1:43 2008 F1 showcars and test cars. The show cars are the BMWs of Heidfeld (DC28403P) and Kubica (DC28404P), the Renaults of Alonso (DC28405P) and Piquet Jnr (DC28406P), and the Toyotas of Trulli (DC28411P) and Glock (DC28412P).

The test cars are Alonso’s Renault R27 (DC28405T), and the Williams FW29s of Rosberg (DC28407T) and Nakajima (DC28408T).

We also received Minichamps’ release schedule for the next four weeks. Next week we will see the second batch of the 1:12 Lawrence of Arabia Brough Superior (P135500), Robert Kubica’s 1:18 2007 BMW F1.07 (DC2710), and Vitantonio Liuzzi’s 1:43 2006 Toro Rosso STR1 (DC26420).

The week beginning 10th March we are due to get the 1:12 Valentino Rossi riding figure from 2006 (PO60146), and the 1:18 Maserati Birdcage of Stirling Moss and Dan Gurney that won the 1960 Nurburgring 1000km (PG601205).

The week after the first F1 race of the season we are scheduled to receive the 1:12 Rossi Jerez sidesaddle victory figure (PO79146), and the 1:43 Ford Focus that he used to win the Monza Rally in 2006 (P068446), as well as the 1:18 Bentley Continental Flying Spur in white (PG139461).

The last week of the schedule currently has nothing significant on it, just a couple of rather obscure 1:43s, but, as ever, by the time we get to that week something more interesting may have joined it (at least I hope so!).