Leigh’s Diecast Diary

Today we received some new Minichamps replicas, and Spark announces their 1:43 LMP1 and LMP2 2010 Le Mans cars.

In the new Minichamps delivery was the long awaited 1:43 Ford P68 F3L (P688407), which was announced some four years ago! Other highlights include the 1:43 Robert Kubica Dallara F302 (P030393) and the 1:43 1936 German Grand Prix winning Auto Union Type C (P360004).

Spark has announced the second batch of 2010 Le Mans cars covering the LMP1 and LMP2 classes. This, of course, includes the Audi R15 that took overall victory in the endurance classic, driven by Romain Dumas, Timo Bernhard and Mike Rockenfeller (SPA43LM10). There is also the Mansell family’s Ginetta Zytek, which unfortunately Gregg and Leo didn’t get chance to drive after Nigel came a cropper after less than 20 minutes! (SPK2550).

You can click here to see all of Spark’s 2010 Le Mans announcements.

Today we received some new Amalgam replicas, and the next Minichamps release schedule.

The new Amalgam releases are the 1:4 2010 Mercedes MGP W01 steering wheel, as handled by Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg (AML1014), the 1:12 Felipe Massa 2010 Ferrari F10 nose cone (AML1007), and the 1:12 Fernando Alonso 2010 Ferrari F10 nose cone (AML1008).

You can click here to see the new Minichamps release schedule in full.

In the first week (week beginning 12th July) we will see the second 1:43 2010 Formula One showcar, which will be Nico Rosberg’s Mercedes (DC210404P).

The week after that we will see the re-release of the 1:12 Valentino Rossi 2008 Yamaha YZR-M1 (PO83046).

For the week beginning 26th July we are down to receive Minichamps’ next 1:12 classic bike, which will be the Honda Gold Wing in red (P161601), the 1:18 Nico Rosberg 2010 Mercedes showcar (DC21004P), and the 1:43 Tazio Nuvolari 1938 British Grand Prix winning Auto Union Type D (P380004).

Then we move into August, when the new releases will be headlined by the 1:12 Valentino Rossi 2009 Yamaha YZR-M1 (PO93046), the 1:12 Moss/Gurney Maserati Birdcage from the 1960 Nurburgring 1000km (PH601205), and the 1:43 Mauricio Gugelmin Leyton House C901 (P900015).

For the last week on the schedule (beginning 9th August), we hope to receive the 1:12 Nicky Hayden 2009 Ducati Desmosedici (PO90069) and Ivan Capelli’s 1:43 1990 Leyton House C901 (P900016).

I’m at Goodwood for the rest of this week, where we will have our two vending trailers in the merchandise area over the duration of the event. They’re back to back so you won’t have to walk far between them! As an added incentive to buy from us instead of someone else (on top of the chance of meeting me of course!), quote the password ‘Mansell’ and you will get 10% off all your purchases!

So for the rest of the week this blog will be in the hands of my assistant Matt. If he does a good job then I will upgrade him to ‘able’ assistant!

Today Spark announced its first 1:43 2010 Le Mans cars, covering the GT1 and GT2 classes. We hope that models of the cars from the prototype classes will be confirmed at a later date.

The highlight has to be the GT2 BMW ‘Art car’, as driven by Andy Priaulx, Dirk Muller and Dirk Werner (SPK2588). There is also the GT2 winning Porsche 997 GT3 RSR of Marc Lieb, Richard Lietz and Wolf Henzler (SPK2583), and the GT1 winning Saleen S7R of Roland Berville, Julien Canal and Gabriel Gardel (SPK2572).

You can click here to see all of Spark’s 2010 Le Mans announcements.

We’ve been flat out today supplying the July issue of Diecast Monthly to the printers, so today’s diary entry will be a little on the brief side! July’s issue, by the way, will start to land on your doormats from the end of next week.

We received a new delivery from Norev today. You can click here to see Norev’s new releases. Highlights were the 1:18 Citroen GT (NV181610), the 1:18 2009 Le Mans LMP2 class winning Porsche RS Spyder (NV187537), and the 1:43 2007 Renault R27 which commemorated the team’s 30 years in Formula One (NV518970).

Today we had the very exciting news of Spark announcing its first modern Formula One race car replicas!

Spark’s classic F1 models over the past few years have been sensational, and we can’t wait to see that skill transferred to modern day subjects.

Spark have announced the Lotus T127s of Jarno Trulli (DC210418) and Heikki Kovalainen (DC210419), the Hispania F110s of Karun Chandhok (DC210420) and Bruno Senna (DC210421), the Virgin VR-01s of Timo Glock (DC210424) and Lucas di Grassi (DC210425), and the Sauber C29s of Pedro de la Rosa (DC210422K) and Kamui Kobayashi (DC210423K).

Minichamps have already announced the Saubers as well, so it will be very interesting to see each model manufacturer’s take on them!

Today Spark confirmed the colours of their new 1:43 Aston Martin road car replicas, having not given them colours when they were announced earlier in the year.

The Aston Martin One-77 will be available in metallic grey (SPK2160) and blue pearl white (SPK2161), the Aston Martin Cygnet will be available in white (SPK2162), whilst the second colourway (SPK2163) is still to be confirmed, and the Aston Martin Vantage V12 will be available in glacial blue (SPK2164) and carbon black (SPK2165).

There hasn’t been much news in the way of diecast today, but I still have something pretty exciting to report.

We are delighted to have been asked by James Allen to get involved with the Formula One FOTA Fans’ Forum, which will take place in the theatre at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, in London’s Piccadilly at 1pm on Thursday 1st July.

The event will be in the form of a 90 minute discussion with a panel of key F1 personnel, including McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh, Lotus’s Tony Fernandes, Mercedes’ Jock Clear, Ferrari’s Luca Colajanni, and Force India’s Paul di Resta. You will have the opportunity to ask questions and give your view on all key talking points in the sport at present, such as new circuits, team orders and overtaking.

We have been able to obtain 20 tickets from the 150 places available, which will be available to Grand Prix Legends customers on a first come first served basis. You simply have to be free next Thursday and email us your question that could be used in the event, which will be run to a ‘Question Time’ format. For further details on this unique opportunity simply click here.

Good luck!

Today’s news is all about Minichamps! Today we received a new delivery, some new announcements, and news of some cancellations from them!

Working backwards, Minichamps have cancelled the 2010 Formula One showcars for the Lotus, Virgin and Hispania teams.

They did, however, announce some new 1:43 2010 Formula One race cars. These are the Williams FW32s of Rubens Barrichello (DC210409) and Nico Hulkenberg (DC210410), and the Sauber C29s of Pedro de la Rosa (DC210422) and Kamui Kobayashi (DC210423).

And finally, on to the new delivery. We were surprised to see the re-release of the 1:18 Michael Schumacher 1991 Jordan 191 (PG910032) a week early, but it’s here nonetheless. Also released, after what must have been at least a four year wait, is the 1:43 #7 Ford P68 F3L from the 1968 Nurburgring 1000km (P688407). It looks stunning. To see all the latest Minichamps releases, click here.

The big news today is that we can announce that Mark Webber will be signing Minichamps’ 1:18 replica of his 2009 Chinese Grand Prix Red Bull RB5 for us (DC2914CS)! We have also heard that both the 1:18 Webber China special (DC2914C) and 1:18 Vettel China special (DC2915C) will arrive with us in the week beginning 5th July, and both are pre-sold out with the Minichamps UK importer. I know I’ve been saying that a lot this week, but every occasion I’ve said it is true! We will also receive the 1:18 Michael Schumacher 2010 Mercedes showcar (DC21003P) in the week beginning 5th July.

We hope to be able to get both Mark Webber (DC2914CS) and Sebastian Vettel (DC2915CS) to sign their China cars for us over the British Grand Prix weekend, so you won’t have long to wait if you do opt for the signed version.

On top of that news, we also received a new Sun Star delivery today. The highlight is Roger Clark’s winning 1:18 Ford Escort from the 1975 Rally of Wales (SS4446). You can click here to see the other new Sun Star releases.

Finally, there were some new announcements today as well. These are all Universal Hobbies 1:16 tractors, and are the Nuffield Universal Four Row Crop (J2885), the Fordson Dexta (J2897), and the launch version of the Fordson Super Major (J2951).

Today it was Spark’s turn to send us a new delivery, and there was plenty on it! You can click here to see Spark’s latest releases.

Formula One highlights are Stefano Modena’s Tyrrell 020 from the 1991 Monaco Grand Prix (SPK1732), and Jacques Laffite’s winning Ligier JS17 from the 1981 Austrian Grand Prix (SPK1636).

Away from Formula One, we received Patrick Tambay’s 1977 Can-Am Championship winning Lola T333 (SPK1142), and the M&M’s sponsored VW Fun Cup car (SPK0835), which looks really cool!