Leigh’s Diecast Diary

A quick entry today, as we’re now in the process of developing our next catalogue as well as going through stock-take proceedings.

The bosses have been kind in deciding to hold off the Universal Hobbies price rise for one extra day only. Therefore tomorrow will now be the last day to grab hold of a Honda RC30, both road (UH88030) and Dunlop pre-order (UH88031) at their original prices. Don’t forget to have a look at their 1:16 scale tractors also.

Hopefully in the midst of our stock-take tomorrow more exciting developments will happen!

With the way that qualifying went on Saturday, it looked like another Massa-owned weekend in the dark at Singapore. But never forget the theory that ‘anything can happen in Formula One’. It certainly did! As the circus moves to Japan in two weeks time, no doubt that Hamilton will be out in force to repeat the domination he showed there last year.

For the benefit of any Raikkonen fans, the whereabouts of Leigh for the Japanese Grand Prix are unclear, so there’s a chance that the jinx could be over…for now!

A quick congratulations to Valentino Rossi on bagging his eighth career World Championship at the weekend, re-establishing himself at the top of the two-wheeled pecking order!

Things were not so action-packed in the diecast world today, but Neo refused to let it go by completely quiet by informing us of three new variants of the 1974 Baur-converted BMW. There’s the 325i E30 in red (NEO43293), the 323i E21 in red (NEO43288) and finally the 2002 E10 in metallic blue (NEO43283).

In a rare occurance for a Leigh’s Diecast Diary entry, it’s road car-galore today.

SMTS made the first move by bringing in several new Aston Martin replicas. Projects covered are the V8 in coupe, volante and POW form, the 1967 DBS V8 and the V8 Vantage OI from 1978. Head on over to the ‘New Releases’ section to see the available colours. Also in the mix is the Jaguar Mk II from 1969, finished in red (SMTS214) and grey (SMTS215).

To cap it all off for another week, the next chapter in the Midsummer Models 1:24 scale traction engine fleet has been given an updated model shot. This now means that The White Rose Of York (MSN002) is due with us any week now.

All eyes are on now Singapore for the weekend then. Just for the record, we have no idea which grandstand Leigh is sitting in either!

In the midst of our warehouse staff packing Hamilton First Wins and Honda RC30s, they managed to find the moment to bring up to us two samples courtesy of AUTOart.

They were both the blue (AA77901) and white (AA77902) variants of the Porsche 928. After a quick look over them, we’re sure that our customers will be pleased with them. The layout of the front-mounted engine is very neat and tidy, as are the piston hinges on both the bonnet and the boot. We’re not forgetting also the pop-up headlights, great stuff!

 So fingers crossed that we will be seeing these in a GPL-bound AUTOart container very soon!

Be warned, BBR’s latest 1:18 scale project is not for the faint-hearted. It’s of the Ferrari F430 coupe (BBR005A), finished in a rather flash metallic red. A limited edition of 1,302 pieces worldwide, it’s crammed full of opening parts; doors, bonnet, engine cover, fuel filler cap and even the glove box too. At £259.99 a pop, it’s certainly one for the heavyweights. But you certainly get the rewards!

Kyosho provided the lighter side of things for the rest of today’s delivery. Along with both colourways of the 1:18 Mini Clubman (red and silver), their attempt at the 1:18 Ferrari 250 GTO in red (KY8431R) was also featured. Leigh will certainly have an enormous webcast to deal with when he arrives back on home soil!

As he mentioned in yesterday’s entry, Leigh has continued his 2008 Formula One world tour with a stop in Singapore for this weekend’s Grand Prix action. We’re wondering though whether he has heard the outcome of the Hamilton/Belgium appeal.

Anyway, on with the diecast, and once again, a massive diecast release has happened while Leigh’s out of the office. Today marks the end of a four-year wait with the arrival of Universal Hobbies’ 1:12 Honda RC30 road bike (UH88030). All signs are hopefully good for a soonish release of the Joey Dunlop version (UH88031), but if you’re still deciding which version to go for, you’d better make your minds up quickly before the Universal Hobbies £5 price rise takes effect on the 1st October.

The bike news carries on with AUTOart announcing a new 1:12 scale replica of the Suzuki Katana GSX 1100S (AA12151). Finished in silver, it’s good to see AUTOart are keeping Minichamps on their toes in this area of the diecast market.

We were also sent details of a new announcement from Spark, this being the 2008 Mazda Furai concept car in 1:43 scale (SPK1000). Since the car itself was publicy unveiled earlier on this year, we noticed it attracted some attention on the forum. So we hope that this new announcement means some diecast prayers will be answered!

Loads of manufacturers ganged up on us today by releasing new models!

From Minichamps we received Lewis Hamilton’s 1:18 2007 Canadian Grand Prix McLaren MP4/22 (DC2702C), which is a limited edition of 7,999 examples, and the re-release of Valentino Rossi’s 1:12 2002 Honda RC211V (PO27146).

Mattel released the 1:18 1947 Ferrari ‘circuit debut’ 125S from Piacenza (HW2072), while CMC released their 1:18 replica of the Porsche 901 in ivory (CMC067C), and Premium Classics released their 1:12 recreation of another Porsche, the 911 Carrera in red (PRE10150).

Schuco also released their 1:12 replica of the VW camper van (SCH190), while we had two new signed subjects from Jason. These were the 1:43 Thrust SSC signed by Andy Green (SPK001S), and the 1:18 2008 Gulf Aston Martin DBR9 #009 showcar signed by Darren Turner, David Brabham and Antonio Garcia (AA80800S).

Red Line announced two new 1:43 subjects today, this year’s Ferrari F2008s. They will be Kimi Raikkonen’s winning car from Spain (RL178), and Felipe Massa’s winning car from France (RL179).

It’s that time again when all the Raikkonen fans hate me when I say I’m going off to a Grand Prix! I’m flying to Singapore tomorrow, and will be back in the office next Thursday. We’re going to keep the diary going in my absence though, as we have a responsibility as the ONLY daily diecast blog in the world to keep loyal diary readers informed of all the latest news! Just don’t expect the same levels of engaging charm, wit and modesty as when I make the entries!

Welcome to the forty-seventh 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 47 [4:26m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Leighs Diary Vidcast Episode 47 [4:25m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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

1/18 Audi 90 Quattro 1st Mid Ohio 1989 #4 H-J. Stuck - Minichamps
1/18 Benetton B191 1991 #19 N. Piquet - Minichamps
1/12 Triumph Hurricane 1973 - Minichamps
1/12 Rossi Riding Figure 1997 - Minichamps
1/43 McLaren MP4/22 1st Canadian Grand Prix 2007 #2 L. Hamilton - Minichamps
1/43 Renault R28 2008 #5 - Minichamps
1/43 Mercedes W196 British Grand Prix 1954 J-M. Fangio - Minichamps
1/43 Bentley Continental GT World Ice Speed Record Breaker - Minichamps
1/43 RUF CTR3 2007 Silver - Spark (SOLD OUT)
1/24 Porsche 917/20 Le Mans 1971 #23 R. Joest/ W. Kauhsen - Spark (SOLD OUT)
1/43 Ferrari F2007 2nd Brazilian Grand Prix 2007 #5 F. Massa - Red Line
1/18 Ferrari F2001 - 1st Hungarian Grand Prix 2001 #1 M. Schumacher - Mattel Elite
1/12 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.2 Coupe 1984 Red - Premium Classix
1/12 Kawasaki Z1000 Mk II 1979 - Wits

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.

It’s 6pm and I’ve only just sat down at my desk for the first time all day! It’s been manic getting things ready for tomorrow’s warehouse sale; I’ve been up to my knees in damages and been trying to get them in some sort of organised display!

Everything’s sorted now though, so we’ll be ready at 9am tomorrow morning when we open our big warehouse door to let you all in! Just as a reminder, there will be 10% off all ‘in-stock non-sale’ models, plus club members will get an additional 10% off all discounted prices as well.

See you in the morning!

Today we started getting things ready for our diecast warehouse sale on Saturday.

For this one we will have more damages than ever before, as a couple of our suppliers would also like to get rid of some of their damages, and so have passed them on to us. We received five pallets of damaged models this morning!

There will also be ‘good’ stock at reduced prices as I try to erase any evidence of any purchasing errors that I have made! Plus 10% off all ‘in-stock non-sale’ models on the day.

Universal Hobbies advised us today that there will be a price rise of £5 on their 1:16 tractors and 1:12 motorbikes, which will take effect on 1st October. So, you have until then to take advantage of the prices that they are at now!

There won’t be a diary entry tomorrow as there’s a ‘GPL management day out thing’, which I won’t bore you with the details about here, so you will next hear from me on Friday.