16th
June
2008
We received a Maisto delivery today, which had their two new 1:18 Lamborghini subjects on it. These were the Superleggera in metallic grey (R31149GY) and yellow (R31149Y), and the Murcielago LP640 in orange (R31148O) and yellow (R31148Y).
As you would expect, the 1:18 Gulf Aston Martin DBR9 presentation car (AA80800) has sold extremely well since the end of the Le Mans 24 Hours yesterday. It’s great that AUTOart/Prodrive chose to replicate the 009 car, as that’s the car that secured the team’s second successive GT1 win, making the replica even more special. It’s a bit of a shame that the Villeneuve Peugeot didn’t quite manage the overall win, but you can’t take it away from Kristensen, McNish and Capello for driving every lap on the limit to narrowly secure the victory.
posted in Diecast, Other Cars |
16th
June
2008
Welcome to the thirty third 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.
Leighs Diary Vidcast Episode 33 [4:20m]:
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Leighs Diary Podcast Episode 33 [4:19m]:
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You can also view this podcast on youtube by clicking here
These are the products featured on this week’s podcast:
1/18 Aston Martin DBR9 Presentation Car 2008 - AUTOart
1/18 McLaren MP4/22 2007 #1 F. Alonso - Minichamps
1/18 BMW M3 DTM 1992 #20 W. Gardner - Minichamps
1/18 Audi TT 2006 Silverblue - Minichamps
1/43 BMW F1.06 Brazilian Grand Prix 2006 #17 R. Kubica - Minichamps
1/43 Williams FW28 Fuji Test 2006 K. Nakajima - Minichamps (SOLD OUT)
1/43 Honda RA106 Test Car C. Klien - Minichamps
1/43 Super Aguri SA01 Test Car A. Suzuki - Minichamps (SOLD OUT)
1/43 Ford Capri 3100RS 1st Zolder 2005 - #92 P. Mucke
1/43 Australia A1GP Car 2007/08 - Amalgam
1/43 South Africa A1GP Car 2007/08 - Amalgam
1/43 Netherlands A1GP Car 2007/08 - Amalgam
1/18 Ferrari 575 GTC 2nd Spa 24hr 2004 #11 F.Babini/M.Salo/V.Vosse/P.Peter - Kyosho (SAMPLE ONLY)
1/18 Audi R8 2007 Red - Kyosho (SAMPLE ONLY)
1/18 Porsche 901 Coupe 1964 Ivory White - CMC (SAMPLE ONLY)
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, Due Dates, Diecast, Other Cars, Moto GP, Formula 1 |
13th
June
2008
AUTOart announced a handful of new 1:18 subjects today, which are now available to pre-order from our website. They are all currently at the top of the ‘New Announcements’ section.
The highlights are the BMW Z4 that won the Silverstone Britcar 24 Hour race in 2007 (AA80745), and the #25 Porsche 917L of Elford and Ahrens from the 1970 Le Mans 24 Hours (AA87082). There are also the Nissan R390 GT1s that were campaigned at Le Mans in 1997 (AA89776), and 1998 (AA89876).
For those of you who haven’t got the ‘you must order early’ message yet, just to let you know that we have now sold out of the 1:18 Michael Schumacher Career Statistics presentation (HW6235), and have had to take the 1:43 Robert Kubica 2008 BMW showcar (DC28404P) off our website because we have already sold the number that we will be getting in. I’ve never known replicas to consistently sell out as quickly as they have been doing this year.
posted in Diecast, Other Cars, Formula 1 |
12th
June
2008
Today we received the office copies of our next diecast catalogue. You can’t miss it; it’s got NASCARs on the front cover accompanied by the immortal line ‘Boogety Boogety Boogety’! It should be landing on your doormats sometime around this weekend.
There is also a special offer inside where you get a free 1:18 Minichamps wooden base display case (worth £24.99) when you spend £150, regardless of whether what you have purchased is in stock or not. This offer can also be applied through our website; once you have £150 in your basket, you simply add the display case (AA90084) as well and then enter BR40DB into the promotion code box. If you’re a club member, of course, you only have to spend £135 to get your free case! What more could you possibly want?
‘A better P&P rate’, I hear you cry. Well, we’re doing that too! With the recent price rises our ‘Orders up to £49.99’ band of £4.99 was becoming a bit obsolete, as you just had to buy one 1:18 replica and were over it already into the £7.99 postage bracket (orders of over £50.00).
So, we have revised the scale. The £4.99 postage charge now applies to order values up to £69.99, while orders over £70.00 will now have the postage charge of £7.99.
Obviously, if you’re a club member (in the UK), you don’t have to worry about any of that, as you don’t have to pay any P&P charges!
posted in Uncategorized |
11th
June
2008
Today’s main news story was the arrival of the absolutely magnificent AUTOart/Prodrive 1:18 2008 Aston Martin DBR9 Le Mans showcar in the Gulf livery (AA80800). It is the 009 car that has been replicated.
The specification has changed slightly since it was originally announced; it still comes in commemorative packaging and includes an individually numbered limited edition certificate, but it does not come mounted on a carbon fibre effect base. However, the good news is that the limited edition number has been slashed; it was originally going to be in the region of 8,000 pieces, but the final number is just 2,500.
The rumour at the moment is that AUTOart will NOT be replicating the race car in 1:18, so this could be the only 1:18 Gulf version released. I have to admit that I was going to wait for the race car, assuming that it would eventually be replicated, but on hearing this story have decided to grab myself one of the showcars. It will go nicely with my 2005 Le Mans version and 2006 Mugello Red Bull example!
Although someone may eventually pick up the rights for the race car, in these times of licences not being renewed, I wouldn’t bet anything on it. Not when there’s a limited edition showcar up for grabs right now!
Other news today was that Oxford Diecast have announced the three Vauxhall Vectras from this year’s British Touring Car Championship in 1:43 scale. These will be Giovanardi (OXF2008A), Neal (OXF2008B), and Onslow-Cole (OXF2008C).
Finally, three more 1:43 Formula One cars have crept onto next week’s Minichamps release schedule. These are the two 2008 Toyota showcars of Jarno Trulli (DC28411P) and Timo Glock (DC28412P), and Nico Rosberg’s 2008 Williams pre-season testcar (DC28407T).
posted in Diecast, Other Cars, Formula 1 |
10th
June
2008
There’s a fair bit of news to get through today.
First off, Amalgam have announced a new 1:8 subject in Lewis Hamilton’s winning McLaren MP4/23 from this year’s Monaco Grand Prix (AML834). That’s bound to be popular.
We also saw some new releases from Amalgam in three new 1:43 A1 GP cars from the 2007/2008 season. These were Australia (AML807), South Africa (AML808), and the Netherlands (AML810).
Mattel provided us with a few sample images of some of their forthcoming 1:18 releases. These were Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari Enzo (HW2058) and Ferrari FXX (HW2061), the Ferrari Enzo in red with a yellow roof (HW2064), and the silverblue Ferrari FXX (HW2065).
Finally, we can now offer a signed version of James Toseland’s 1:12 2008 Yamaha YZR-M1 to pre-order (PO83052S).
posted in Diecast, Other Cars, Moto GP, Formula 1 |
9th
June
2008
No, Minichamps haven’t announced a Kubica ‘First Win’ special yet! Can you guess what the theme was of all the questions we got asked today?! As ever, as soon as anything is confirmed, it will be featured in the diary straight away!
We received the new Minichamps delivery today, which had a couple of new 1:18 releases on it, Fernando Alonso’s 2007 McLaren MP4/22 (DC2701), and Gardner’s 1992 Jagermeister liveried DTM BMW M3 (PG922020).
In 1:43 scale the headliner was Kubica’s 2006 Brazilian Grand Prix BMW F1.06 with ‘Thanks Michael’ on the back of the rear wing (DC26417B). I’ll be surprised if we have any of those left by the end of the week! There was also Christian Klien’s 2006 Honda RA106 testcar (DC26411TK), and Peter Muecke’s 2005 Zolder Ford Capri 3100 RS (P058000).
We also received a couple of 1:18 Kyosho samples, so hopefully that means that the models themselves are not too far away. These were the red Audi R8 (KY9213R), and the 2004 Spa Ferrari 575 GTC (KY8393A).
posted in Diecast, Other Cars, Formula 1 |
6th
June
2008
Today saw the first Valentino Rossi ‘special’ of the Moto GP season, with the one-off livery on his Yamaha YZR-M1 for this weekend’s Catalunya Grand Prix at Barcelona.
It is in the light blue of Italy’s national football team, to commemorate the start of Euro 2008 (some football thing I’ve been told!). Valentino’s leathers also look great, decorated in the style of an Italian footballer; blue T-shirt, white shorts, even pink arms and legs!
We’re jumping the gun a bit, but are now offering the 1:12 replica of Rossi’s Catalunya bike to pre-order (DCL2008). The advantage of pre-ordering now is that if the retail price turns out to be higher than £49.99, we will still honour all pre-orders that were placed at £49.99. Do the math!
posted in Diecast, Moto GP |
5th
June
2008
We had a few new deliveries today, from Minichamps, Yat Ming, and Oxford Diecast.
Minichamps released their 1:18 right hand drive Audi TT in black (PG015030B). They also confirmed a new Formula One car that will be on next week’s delivery, Kazuki Nakajima’s 1:43 2006 Williams FW28 testcar (DC26435N), but this is already completely sold out to pre-orders.
The Yat Ming delivery had their new 1:18 Aston Martin DB Mk.IIIs on it, in red (YM92788R), and grey (YM92788G).
Finally, Oxford Diecast released their 1:43 replica of Fabrizio Giovanardi’s Vauxhall Vectra that he used to win last year’s British Touring Car Championship. Can we have more models from that series please!
posted in Diecast, Other Cars, Formula 1 |
