Leigh’s Diecast Diary

Today we have been completely flooded with Minichamps news! First off, we received their release schedule for June. You can click here to see it in its entirety.

In the first week (week beginning 7th June) we will receive the 1:43 Michael Schumacher 2010 Mercedes showcar (DC210403P), and the 1:12 Norton Commando 750 Fastback in silver (P132004).

The highlight the week after that is the re-release of the 1:12 Triumph Speed Twin (P133700), and the following week we will see the 1:12 Honda CBX 1000 in red and black (P161501B).

In the week beginning 28th June we are scheduled to receive Robert Kubica’s 1:43 2003 Dallara F302 from the Euro F3 Championship (P030393)

In the final week of the schedule (week beginning 5th July), we will receive the pre-sold out 1:12 Valentino Rossi 2008 Barcelona Yamaha YZR-M1 (DCL2008), and the 1:8 Nico Rosberg 2008 helmet (P080007B).

Then, we received two more bits of Minichamps news last thing today.

The first of these is a new Top Gear announcement, which is the 1:43 Bugatti Veyron that was declared ‘Car Of The Decade’ at the end of the 2009 series (P431101). It will come in flip-lid gift box packaging and be an individually numbered limited edition.

The other bit of news is that we have been able to obtain a few more of the long sold out 1:18 Williams FW14 ‘taxi’ of Nigel Mansell and Ayrton Senna from the 1991 British Grand Prix (PG911805). We should receive these in the next week or so, so if you missed out first time, now you have another chance!

Today we received the new Minichamps delivery for the week. Highlights were the 1:12 Honda CB750 in red (P161002), and the 1:18 Jackie Stewart and Chris Craft Ford Escort ITC from the 1970 RAC TT at Silverstone (PG708117).

The new 1:43 releases were the 1993 VW Golf GTI in red (P055561), Sindel’s 1976 Porsche 934 (P766455), and Snobeck’s 1988 Mercedes 190E (P883527).

Following on from their success of their 1:18 Lancia Delta HF Integrale replicas, Kyosho today announced two new variants of them.

These are the Lancia Delta HF Integrale in white (KY8341WP) and blue (KY8341BL). The last plain colourway, red, sold out quite quickly, and in my opinion white and blue are even more desirable, so these may not last long either.

Today we received several new replicas from Spot-On, which is Norev’s 1:42 ‘retro’ brand (and I did mean 1:42, not 1:43!). The models even come presented in ‘period’ boxes as well.

The new items that came in were an MGA in green (SON104), an Austin Healey 100 in silver/yellow (SON105), a Jaguar XKSS in beige (SON107), and a Triumph TR3 in red (SON108).

There was also a four car set containing an MGA in red, an Austin Healey 100 in yellow, a Jaguar XKSS in green and a Triumph TR3 in blue (SONPS4).

It’s been rather a slow diecast start to this sweltering week, but Minichamps did at least enable me to have something to talk about by announcing a couple of new 1:43 Porsche subjects towards the end of the day.

These are the 2010 Porsche 911 GT3R Hybrid presentation car (P108900), and the #9 Porsche 911 GT3R Hybrid from the 2010 Nurburgring 24 Hours (P108909), which was only held a week or so ago.

Hopefully tomorrow the diecast news will be as hot as the weather!

Today we received CMC’s first new model in quite a long time, which was the #124 black Ferrari Testa Rossa (CMC081). This car’s claim to fame is the most expensive car ever sold at auction; a staggering 12.1 million US dollars!

AUTOart also announced a couple of new 1:18 replicas today, in the form of the Saleen Mustang S281, in red (AA73059) and silver (AA73057).

Today Minichamps announced a few new replicas. You can click here to see them all.

The two most interesting were the next two subjects in Minichamps’ 1:43 Formula One World Champions collection, which will be Jackie Stewart’s Tyrrell 003 from the 1971 German Grand Prix (P710002WC), and Emerson Fittipaldi’s Lotus 72 from the 1972 Italian Grand Prix (P720006WC).

Another exciting new announcement was Tazio Nuvolari’s winning Auto Union Type D from the 1938 British Grand Prix at Donington Park (P380004).

The new 1:18 subject was Klaus Ludwig’s 1981 DRM Championship winning Group 5 Ford Capri Turbo (PG818601). That’s going to look awesome!

Today we received new deliveries from Minichamps and Spark.

To see all the Minichamps new releases click here. The highlights were Nelson Piquet Jnr’s 1:43 2009 Renault R29 (DC29408), and Frank Biela’s 1:43 1991 DTM Audi V8 (P911445).

You can click here to see Spark’s new releases. Their new 1:43 releases ranged from Johnny Herbert’s 1992 Lotus 102D (SPK1675) to the 1990 Le Mans winning Jaguar XJR12 (SPA43LM90), via the Porsche 935 and bicycle that attempted to break the cycling speed record (SPK1939)!

Today Sun Star confirmed what we will see from them on their next delivery, which we should receive in the middle of June.

Top of the stack is the 1:18 Roger Clark 1975 Welsh Rally Ford Escort Mk.II (SS4446). This was only announced at the beginning of the year, and given how the last 1:18 Sun Star rally Escort sold out on release (the Mikkola 1979 RAC Rally version), it would be a good idea to get your order in for this one.

Other 1:18 rally cars on the delivery are Darniche’s 1981 Corsica Lancia Stratos (SS4514), and Snobeck’s 2009 Catalunya Peugeot 307 WRC (SS4697). You can click here to see everything else scheduled to arrive on the delivery.

Today we received the latest IXO 1:43 delivery. You can click here to see all of their new releases.

It included the latest La Storia car, which although still a 1994 Ferrari 412 T1, was actually Jean Alesi’s car (IXSF22) and not Gerhard Berger’s as originally announced.

Another exciting new release was the latest Valentino Rossi rally car, which was The Doctor’s Ford Focus WRC from the 2008 Monza Rally (RAM370).

Other significant new replicas were Colin McRae’s 1989 RAC Rally Ford Sierra (RAC176), Kris Meeke’s 2009 Brazil Rally Peugeot 207 (RAM368), and the #007 LMP1 Lola Aston Martin from the 2009 Le Mans 24 Hours (LMM166).