The New Minichamps Release Schedule
Today we received Minichamps’ second release schedule of 2010, taking us up to the middle of March. There’s a lot of 2009 Formula One replicas on it!
In the first week of the schedule (week beginning 15th February), we will receive the 1:43 Brawn two car set of Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello from the 2009 Australian Grand Prix (DC29422A2), and the 1:43 Lewis Hamilton ‘Fuji Speedway’ edition McLaren MP4/23 from the 2008 Japanese Grand Prix, complete with green grooved tyres (DC28422J).
We will also see the first new Ayrton Senna 1:18 replica in a good couple of years, which will be his Toleman TG184 from the 1984 Portuguese Grand Prix (AS842).
The following week sees the release of Jorge Lorenzo’s first Moto GP bike, his 1:12 2008 Yamaha YZR-M1 (PO83048). There will be two more 1:43 2009 F1 replicas as well; Sebastien Bourdais’ Toro Rosso STR4 (DC29411) and Kazuki Nakajima’s Williams FW31 (DC29417).
In the third week of the schedule, the week beginning 1st March, we are scheduled to receive Adrian Sutil’s 1:43 2009 Force India VJM02 (DC29420).
For the penultimate week of the schedule we will see no less than three 1:18 2009 F1 replicas and, better news still, their prices have actually come down! They will now be £54.99 instead of £59.99, and if you have already pre-ordered one from us we will of course reduce the price on your order.
The 1:18s we will see this week will be Fernando Alonso’s Renault R29 (DC2907), Sebastien Bourdais’ Toro Rosso STR4 (DC2911), and Rubens Barrichello’s Brawn BGP001 (DC2923). We will also see Sebastien Buemi’s Toro Rosso STR4 (DC29412) in 1:43.
The last week of the release schedule covers the week beginning 15th March, which will be the Monday after the first Grand Prix of the season! The 1:18 2009 F1 cars to be released this week will be Nelson Piquet Jnr’s Renault R29 (DC2908) and Sebastien Buemi’s Toro Rosso STR4 (DC2912), and the price of these has also been reduced by £5.
We will also see the 1:18 2009 McLaren MP4/24s released, of Lewis Hamilton (DC2901) and Heikki Kovalainen (DC2902).
Another new 1:18 release will be the 2009 Le Mans winning Peugeot 908 of David Brabham, Alex Wurz and Marc Gene (PG091209). This has gone up in price by £5, so will now be £64.99, with our exclusive version signed by all three victorious drivers (PG091209S) now £129.99.
The new 1:43 2009 F1 replica to be released in this week will be Giancarlo Fisichella’s Force India VJM02 (DC29421).
The final noteworthy subject in the last week of the schedule is the next 1:12 Valentino Rossi figure, which will be from Barcelona 2008 when he had the ‘football kit’ leathers on (PO80086). Like the Peugeot, this has also been subject to a £5 price rise, and will now cost £39.99. I would expect Minichamps’ other Rossi figures which have already been announced but not released yet to also go up to £39.99.
I’m off to Nuremberg tomorrow with our Graphic Design team and we will be attending the show from Thursday until Saturday, photographing all the new samples. This diary will still be ‘manned’ though to keep you up to date with the news from the Toy Fair! And don’t forget, Minichamps, 2010 announcements will be live on our website from midnight tomorrow (Wednesday) night!
