Leigh’s Diecast Diary

Today we received exciting new deliveries from Minichamps and from AUTOart. In fact, it was probably our most exciting AUTOart delivery ever!

From Minichamps we received Tazio Nuvolari’s 1:43 1938 British Grand Prix winning Auto Union Type D (P380004), Nico Rosberg’s 1:18 2010 Mercedes showcar (DC21004P), and the 1:12 Honda Gold Wing in red (P161601).

I hardly know where to start with the AUTOart delivery! We received the orange Koenigsegg CCX (AA79001), Steve McQueen’s Porsche 908/2 from both Sebring (AA87072) and Holtville (AA87073), Walter Rohrl’s 1984 Audi Quattro from San Remo (AA88405), and Stig Blomqvist’s 1985 Audi Quattro from Monte Carlo (AA88311). We’ve been waiting seven years for the Blomqvist Audi, which has to be a new diecast world record!

We also received the exciting Xanavi liveried Nissan GTR from the Super GT series (AA80876) and the black test car (AA80878) as well, along with the Alfa Romeo Montreal in brown (AA70173).

Today CMC announced two new 1:18 releases. The first is a fifth colourway of the Porsche 901, dark blue (CMC067).

The second is a special 15th anniversary car, an unpainted Mercedes SSKL in a wooden base display case (CMC087). It will be a limited edition of just 2,000 pieces worldwide, and only 1,000 will be coming into Europe. It’s certainly a very special subject.

Today we received the new Norev delivery, which had several exciting new releases on it.

In 1:18 these included Mike Rockenfeller’s 2009 DTM Audi A4 (NV188328), the #5 Porsche RS Spyder from the 2009 Le Mans 24 Hours (NV187529), and the 2010 Renault Formula One showcar (DC21011NV).

In 1:43 Norev’s new releases included the #3 Aston Martin DBRS9 from the 2009 FIA GT3 Championship (NV270513), Juan Manuel Fangio’s Mercedes 300 SLR from the 1955 Mille Miglia (NV351108), and the 2010 Renault Formula One showcar (DC210411NV).

We also received news today that the Minichamps 1:12 Valentino Rossi 2009 Yamaha YZR-M1 (PO93046) has been delayed. It was originally due to be released next week. Hopefully the revised release date won’t be too far away!

It always seems to kick off when I’m away! The last time Rossi ran a one-off colour scheme I’d taken some time off as well! On the subject of the 2010 Laguna Seca Moto GP specials, it was confirmed today that Minichamps will be replicating them. We are still waiting on the official announcement from the UK importer however.

We are also delighted to be able to offer the Jorge Lorenzo 2010 Laguna Seca Yamaha YZR-M1 signed by the man himself (DCL2010LS), who of course actually won the race.

Whilst at the German Grand Prix at the weekend I picked up one of the 1:18 Vettel 2010 Red Bull showcars in the special edition Hockenheim themed box. We are going to give it away as a prize to a lucky customer who pre-orders any of the 2010 Red Bull showcars from us. Hopefully we should see the standard 2010 Red Bulls of Vettel and Webber released soon, considering the Vettel version has clearly already been made.

We received WIT’s trio of colourways of the Suzuki Hayabusa today; orange (WH017), white (WH018), and black (WH019). Clearly the heaviest 1:12 replica bike ever, and one of the most imposing, any of the colourways will certainly look the part in your collection.

If you were watching the Moto GP at Laguna Seca yesterday, it won’t have escaped your attention that Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo both had a special one-off livery. The reason for the special livery, was to celebrate Fiat’s launch of its famous 500 model in the US. To decorate the bikes, the team asked fans to send in photos of themselves, these would photos be used to fill 500 vacant spots on each bike. Needless to say, there were more than enough responses! According to reports, the spaces on Valentino’s bike were filled in less than 15 minutes! Also on the bike is the Fiat 500 logo, decorated with the US stars and stripes.

Anyway, despite the fact that Minichamps hasn’t officially announced these bikes, we have decided to offer the bikes ahead of time, as we are 99% sure that they will get made. This is a unique opportunity for customers to get an order in early. With more and more Rossi bikes selling out either before, or on release, pre-ordering is more important than ever.

Valentino’s bike is under code DCL2010R, and Jorge’s winning YZR-M1 is under code DCL2010L.

In other news, we have also received a new Spark delivery. For all you Beatles fans out there we have George Harrison’s Mini in 1:43 (SPK1515). Spark continues their classic F1 range with Kunimitsu Takahashi’s Tyrrell 007 from the 1977 Japanese Grand Prix (SPK1639).  There is also the 1991 Jaguar XJR-14 Le Mans test car, as driven by Brits Andy Wallace and Derek Warwick (SPK715) .

Norev’s 1:18 Ford Capri (NV182712) has finally arrived! It’s a great looking model, and will take pride of place in any Ford collection.

We have also received restocks of three 1:43 Minichamps Ford Escort mkII RS1800s. Firstly, there is the Escort mkII RS1800 Rallye (P758400) in plain white. There are also two cars from the DRM, which was the precursor to the DTM series. Both of these cars were run and prepared by the famous Zakspeed team, during the 1976 season. Armin Hahne’s Escort (P768433) has a rather fetching Castrol livery, and the second car, driven by German racing legend Klaus Ludwig (P768432), is just as pretty in blue and white. 

I arrived at Grand Prix Legends HQ this morning to see a stack of 100 Minichamps 1:18 2009 Mark Webber signed Red Bull China cars (DC2914CS) in our warehouse! Mark signed them for us yesterday afternoon and Jason dropped them off yesterday evening, so our warehouse team have been busy despatching them to our customers today.

You may remember that on Monday I said we only had 35 of these signed Mark Webber Red Bulls left to sell. That number has already reduced to 24! If he wins again in Germany this weekend there probably won’t be any left by the end of next week!

Staying with the Red Bull theme, Amalgam today announced 1:12 2010 Red Bull RB6 nose cone replicas for Mark Webber (AML1027) and Sebastian Vettel (AML1026). A 1:4 2010 Red Bull steering wheel is still to be confirmed but we hope that it will end up being announced.

Matt will be filling in for me tomorrow and on Monday as I’m off to Hockenheim for the German Grand Prix. It looks like it could be a thriller, and with the weather looking dodgy I’m glad I’ll be sitting in a covered grandstand!

Today SMTS provided us with sample images of their forthcoming 1:43 Cooper Bobtail replicas.

There will be three versions; the Stirling Moss and Phil Hill car from the 1956 French Grand Prix support race (SMTS249), the Jack Brabham car from the 1955 British Grand Prix (SMTS269), and the Jack Brabham car from the 1955 Australian and New Zealand Grands Prix (SMTS270).

HPI also announced some new 1:43 replicas today. You can click here to see them all. They are mainly Toyota rally and Le Mans cars and include some very interesting subjects.

Today we had to remove the Minichamps 1:12 Valentino Rossi 2009 Estoril figure (PO90146) from sale as we have already reached the limit of our allocation, even though it could be another year yet before we see the figure released!

You can click here to see the other ten Minichamps Rossi figures that have been so far announced but not yet released, so that you can get your pre-orders in on those before we also have to stop pre-selling them!

Kyosho announced a set of price rises today, which like those of Minichamps and Mattel will take effect from 1st August. Generally their 1:18 replicas have gone up by £10.

Today our signings man, Jason, confirmed that Mark Webber will be signing Minichamps’ 1:18 replica of his 2009 Chinese Grand Prix Red Bull RB5 for us on Wednesday (DC2914CS).

Out of the limited edition of just 100 pieces, we have already pre-sold 65. It’s very unlikely that the remaining 35 will last for long once we get the cars back complete with Mark’s signature!