Leigh’s Diecast Diary

We can confirm another new signing today, in that Roy Salvadori will be signing Shelby Collectibles’ 1:18 replica of his 1959 Le Mans winning Aston Martin DBR1 when it is released later this year (DC559S).

We also managed to find some more examples of a couple more ‘sold outs’ today. They are both Minichamps 1:12 classic bikes; the ‘original’ BSA Gold Star (PG1300), and the ‘original’ Yamaha XT 500 (P163300).

All of Spark’s 2009 announcements were confirmed today, and there are a lot of them! You can click here to see them all, and then use the filters to narrow down what you are interested in.

I think Spark must have announced more 1:43 classic F1 cars than Minichamps did this year, and there are some subjects that are bound to be extremely popular, such as Mika Hakkinen’s Lotuses from 1991 (SPK1676) and 1992 (SPK1674), and Derek Warwick’s 1985 Renault RE60 (SPK1703).

There is also a mammoth selection of classic endurance racing and roadgoing replicas as well, as you would expect from Spark.

We also received the new Minichamps delivery, featuring Lorenzo Lanzi’s 1:12 2007 Ducati 999 (PO70257), and the 1:43 Lamborghini Jota in red (P103680). We should receive the next four-weekly Minichamps schedule next week, which hopefully will have something a bit more meaty on it!

Today Sun Star became the first to announce a 2009 World Rally Car replica! It is Petter Solberg’s Citroen Xsara that he campaigned to third place at the weekend’s Rally of Cyprus (SS4471).

We also put another new subject on our website today, but this one is available now! We have only managed to acquire one example of it, and it is a Lewis Hamilton signed table centre from the 2008 Autosport Awards, containing Minichamps’ 1:18 replica of his championship winning McLaren MP4/23 (DC2822AA).

Today CMC confirmed their 2009 new announcements. Their new road car is the Audi 225 Roadster from 1935, which will be available in three colourways. This replica seems to have jumped the queue so that we will see it before the Ferrari Testarossa (CMC071), so that it can be released this year to commemorate Audi’s 100th anniversary. You can click here to see all of CMC’s new announcements.

There’s also some Trofeu Colin McRae diecast news today. An exciting 1:43 three car set has announced, commemorating Subaru’s 1-2-3 in the 1995 RAC Rally. It will consist of all three podium cars of Colin McRae, Carlos Sainz and Richard Burns (TR691).

Finally, we have come across a few more examples of Trofeu’s 1:43 presentation of McRae’s Subaru Impreza from the 1993 RAC Rally (TR003), which was his first world championship event in an Impreza. It has been sold out for some time now, so these extra few we have acquired probably won’t be around for long.

Welcome to the sixty ninth Leigh’s Diary Vidcast. We see the arrival of the stunning Bugatti Royale, there’s a world-first this week with Fernando Alonso’s 2008 Renault (the first 1:18 replica with a shark-fin), and Leigh becomes a fashion model. New releases are from Bauer, Minichamps, Norev, SMTS and Spark. Keep the comments rolling in. You’ll need quicktime installed to view the video on this post.

 

 Leighs Diary Vidcast Episode 69 [5:41m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

You can also view this podcast on youtube by clicking here

The replicas featured on this weeks podcast are;

1/18 Bugatti Royale Coupe De Ville 1937 - Bauer
1/12 Yamaha YZR-M1 Australian MotoGP 2007 #5 C. Edwards - Minichamps
1/43 Mercedes 300 SLR Le Mans 1955 #19 Moss/Fangio - Minichamps
1/43 Ford Escort MkII RS1800 1st RAC Rally 1975 #1 T. Makinen - Minichamps
1/43 Volvo 740 1986 Metallic Red - Minichamps
1/43 Courage LC70 Le Mans 2008 #24 Terada/Katoh/Takahashi - Spark
1/43 Chevrolet Corvette C6R Le Mans 2008 #73 Blanchemain/Pasquali/Goueslard - Spark
1/43 Pescarolo P01 Le Mans 2008 #4 Nicolet/Faggionato/Hein - Spark
1/43 Aston Martin DBR9 Le Mans 2008 #59 Borcheller/Fittipaldi/Menten - Spark
1/43 Lotus 34 Indianapolis 500 1964 #6 J. Clark - SMTS
1/43 Brabham BT49C 1981 #5 N. Piquet - SMTS
1/18 Renault R28 2008 #5 F. Alonso - Norev
1/18 Porsche RS Spyder Le Mans 2008 #31 Nielsen/Elgaard - Norev
1/18 Fiat 500 Sport 2007 Red - Norev
1/18 Renault Alpine A310 Police Car 1981 - Norev
1/18 Peugeot 402 Eclipse 1937 Marine Blue - Norev
1/18 Simca 1000 LS 1974 White - Norev

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.

We received WIT’s second 1:12 motorbike replica today, the Honda CB 1100RD (WH002). The detail on it is extremely impressive; WIT’s can definitely hold their own against Minichamps in the 1:12 bike market.

I have to make a bit of a correction about yesterday’s entry – I shamefully have to admit that I made a mistake when I said that Jim Clark’s 1964 Lotus 34 (SMTS086) was the car that he campaigned in that year’s Formula One championship. It is instead, of course, his car from the 1964 Indianapolis 500. Sorry!

Diecast Legends presents The Matrix Recasted. Watch Leigh Hobden in his starring role as ‘Diecast’ in this exhilarating spoof of The Matrix. Look out for action, special bullet-time effects and diecast replicas as Leigh takes the red pill to become the One….true diecast guru.

Keep the comments rolling in. You’ll need quicktime installed to view the video on this post.

 

 Leighs Diecast Diary Vidcast - The Matrix Recasted [4:14m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (316)

You can also view this podcast on youtube by clicking here

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 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.

Today we received the new Norev delivery, with the highlight being the first ever 1:18 sharkfin Formula One replica of all time! Which is, of course, Fernando Alonso’s 2008 Renault R28 (DC2805).

We also received a new 1:43 delivery from SMTS, with Jim Clark’s 1964 Lotus 34 (SMTS086), that he took to three wins on the way to third in the drivers’ championship that year, and Nelson Piquet’s 1981 F1 championship winning Brabham BT49C (SMTS193).

Finally, we received the third colourway of AUTOart’s 1:18 Nissan GTR R35, dark grey (AA77388).

We received the new Minichamps delivery today. On it was Colin Edwards’ 1:12 Yamaha YZR-M1 from Phillip Island in 2007 (PO73195). I was surprised to see that it wasn’t a limited edition, although obviously nowhere near as many pieces will have been produced as of the Valentino Rossi version (PO73196).

In 1:43 we had Timo Makinen’s winning Ford Escort from the 1975 RAC Rally (P758401), and the Fangio/Moss Mercedes 300 SLR from the 1955 Le Mans 24 Hours (P553000).

Meanwhile, AUTOart confirmed their 1:18 replica of the Lamborghini Reventon (AA74591). It will cost £79.99, which seems to be the ‘regular’ price point for their new road car releases now, after the recent Lamborghini Espada (AA74501) also retailed for that amount.

Today we took delivery of a very small number of Minichamps Valentino Rossi 1:12 Honda RC211Vs from the 2003 Valencia Moto GP (PO37196). This is the one with the ‘Austin Powers’ livery. It has been sold out for a good couple of years now, so if any of you out there need one to go with your pre-order riding figure (PO30186), you know who to call! Calling us is what you will need to do (0870 460 3456), as we’re not putting this on our website to ensure that we do not oversell. The price is £49.99, by the way.

We also received the much-anticipated Bauer 1:18 Bugatti Royale Coupe De Ville (BA001). It is absolutely immense, and the level of detail on it is astonishing. We only have a couple spare from this first shipment after fulfilling our pre-orders, so you will need to act fast if you don’t want to wait for our second delivery, which is at least another four weeks away.