Leigh’s Diecast Diary

There’s no diecast news to report today, but I’ve never gone a weekday in the office without posting so I see no reason to start now!

I’d just like to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all Leigh’s Diary readers and Diecast Legends customers, and that this blog will resume on Tuesday 4th January.

Cheers!

Today we received a massive new Norev delivery and Mattel announced their new 2011 replicas as well.

There were about 35 new releases on the Norev delivery, headlined by the 1:18 Robert Kubica 2010 Renault R30 (DC21011) and the 1:18 #1 Audi R15 from the 2009 Le Mans 24 Hours (NV188344). You can click here to see all of Norev’s latest new releases.

I think Mattel’s new announcements are the most exciting I have ever seen from them.

For starters, they have announced two fantastic replicas that have been high on our customers’ wish lists for ages: a 1:18 A-Team van (HW7439) and a 1:18 Ghostbusters ECTO 1 (HW1176)! Although Ertl have released a Ghostbusters car before, this was actually 1:21 scale and not 1:18.

Other exciting new 1:18 announcements from Mattel were Fernando Alonso’s Ferrari 458 Italia in white pearl (HW7426), Elvis Presley’s Ferrari Dino 308 Gt4 in black (HW7425), and the Ferrari 348 TB in red (HW7436).

In my view the most exciting 1:43 announcement was Niki Lauda’s Ferrari 312 T2 six wheeler test car from 1977 (HW8380).

Mattel also announced replicas for 2011 cars that we haven’t even seen in real life yet, including the Ferrari Formula One cars, the new roadgoing Ferrari (in coupe and spider versions), and the new Lamborghini.

You can click here to see all of Mattel’s 2011 programme. It’s pretty impressive!

Today we received new releases from Minichamps and Mattel, and WIT’s also announced an exciting new 1:12 motorbike replica.

The new Minichamps releases were dominated by classic Formula One subjects: the 1:43 Nelson Piquet Benetton B189B from the 1990 American Grand Prix (P900120), the 1:43 Aguri Suzuki 1990 Larrouse Lola LC90 (P900030), and the 1:43 Ayrton Senna ‘fifteenth anniversary’ 1984 Toleman TG184 (AS844319).

The latter has actually come through a couple of weeks ahead of schedule, and is a limited edition of just 2,784 pieces worldwide. This is much less than the limited editions of the other 1:43 Ayrton Senna ‘fifteenth anniversary’ releases, so you really don’t have long to think about this one if you want to add it to your collection.

The other new Minichamps release, by the way, was the 1:2 Valentino Rossi 2006 Moto GP helmet from Mugello 2006 (PO62076).

The new Mattel releases were both Ferrari Formula One World Champion replicas: the 1:43 Juan Manuel Fangio 1956 Ferrari D50 (HW6276) and the 1:43 Phil Hill 1961 Ferrari 156 (HW6278).

The new WIT’s announcement is very exciting as it is a worldwide limited edition of just 500 pieces, and it is exclusive to us here at Diecast Legends! It is the Kawasaki Ninja GPZ 900R as featured in Top Gun and ridden by Tom Cruise (WH027), complete with all the stickers that were on it in the film! We hope to receive it quite soon, in the first quarter of 2011.

We only had  three new Mattel releases today, but sometimes it’s quality, not quantity! The most exciting is the 1:18 Ferrari 512S that was driven to third in the 1970 Nurburgring 1000km by John Surtees and Nino Vaccarella (HW6259) . We also received an Elite model of the Batmobile from the Dark Knight (HW6940) , and the 1955 Ferrari 410 Superamerica in gold (HW6250) .

Sun Star and Vitesse announced some new models, which are due in 2011.  Highlights include Sun Star’s 1:18 Audi Quattro in white (SS4155) , and the classy Mercedes 220 SE coupe in silver and black (SS3567) . From Vitesse, two rallying Ford Escorts in 1:43, both of which were driven by Ari Vatanen.

 There is the ‘Black Beauty’ from the 1982 Rally of Ireland (V42368) ; the other Escort is from the 1980 Monte Carlo Rally (V42369).

After the drama of all the exciting new diecast deliveries over the last couple of weeks today was a bit quieter by comparison!

We did receive a new Sun Star delivery, consisting of Lasse Lampi’s 1:18 Audi Quattro from the 1982 RAC Rally (SS4197), Markku Alen’s 1:18 Fiat 124 from the 1976 Monte Carlo Rally (SS4948), the 1:18 Fiat 124 Spider in white (SS4927), and the 1:24 1946 AEC Regent bus (SS2925).

It’s not often I write a blog post at the weekend but I was in the office today and delighted to see our first ever Model Icons delivery arrive at our warehouse!

The two models we received were the 1:18 1962 Jaguar Mk.II in red (MI201001) and the 1:18 1962 Jaguar Mk.II in green (MI201002). As we expected from the pre-production samples we had seen, both look very impressive.

So, if you were putting off buying one of these because you weren’t sure if we would be able to despatch them in time for Christmas, now you can go ahead!

We received several exciting deliveries today, including, earlier than expected, restocks of the Minichamps 1:12 Valentino Rossi 2009 Yamaha YZR-M1 (PO93046)!

We also received Sun Star’s latest 1:18 classic rally Ford Escort, of Bjorn Waldegaard from the 1976 RAC Rally (SS4448). It is a limited edition of 1,800 pieces.

Talking of limited editions, another new release was the 1:18 CMC 15th anniversary commemorative unpainted Mercedes SSKL, complete with its own display case (CMC087). The base comes with a Bauer-esque mirrored plaque so that you can see all the detail on the underneath of the model. It is a limited edition of 2,000 examples worldwide. We weren’t able to acquire anywhere as near of this presentation as we would have liked but, after fulfilling our pre-orders, we still have six pieces left. These last six probably won’t stay on our shelves for long!

Finally, we received several new releases from Premium ClassiXXs and Schuco. You can click here to see the latest Premium ClassiXXs new releases and here to see the latest Schuco new releases.

We received two exciting new signed replicas into stock today: the Nick Mason signed 1:18 Ferrari 512S (HW6253S) and the Stirling Moss signed 1959 Aston Martin DBR1 (DC559BS).

The Nick Mason car is a limited edition of just 50 examples (that’s all we were able to get hold of!), and after fulfilling our pre-orders we only have 25 left.

Stirling Moss wins our ‘top bloke of the year’ award, after signing for us even though his hand was bandaged after only just having come out of hospital after an operation on it!

In other news, AUTOart announced a new 1:18 replica today, the 2010 Lexus LFA in white (AA78831).

Today we received some sample images from Minichamps of two of their 1:43 Formula One cars that we will see released just after Christmas.

These are Nelson Piquet’s Benetton B189B from the 1990 American Grand Prix (P900120), and Aguri Suzuki’s 1990 Larrouse Lola LC90 (P900030). They look extremely impressive; I’ve got both on pre-order!

More Minichamps news today was that we will receive our second delivery of the Valentino Rossi 1:12 2009 Yamaha YZR-M1 (PO93046) next week, so we will be able to despatch it in time for Christmas after all!

Today we received new deliveries from Minichamps and from Spark.

New releases on the Minichamps delivery included the 1:43 Lewis Hamilton 2010 McLaren showcar (DC210402P), the 1:18 Jody Scheckter 1973 McLaren M23 (PG731830), the 1:43 Alessandro Nannini 1989 Japanese Grand Prix winning Benetton B189 (P890019), the 1:2 Valentino Rossi 2004 Phillip Island helmet (PO42096), and the 1:2 Valentino Rossi 2006 helmet (PO62046).

You can click here to see all of Minichamps’ latest new releases.

There were also some interesting classic Formula One releases on the new Spark delivery, including the 1:43 Patrick Tambay 1984 Renault RE50 (SPK1708) and the 1:43 Jacky Ickx 1974 Lotus 76 (SPK1770). We also received Colin Chapman’s helicopter (SPK0271)!

You can click here to see all of Spark’s latest new releases.