Leigh’s Diecast Diary

I’m back! I really enjoyed the Bahrain Grand Prix, I loved how enjoyable it was not having a favourite to worry about – if I’d been a Vettel fan I’d have been tearing my hair out!

It was a pretty quiet day on my return in terms of diecast news, although I had plenty to do working on a Minichamps presentation that we are going out to their headquarters in Germany to give next Wednesday.

Spark confirmed some new 1:43 replicas that we will see from them next week, including Johnny Herbert’s 1991 Lotus 102B (SPK1677), the #50 Lancia LC1 from the 1982 Le Mans 24 Hours (SPK661), and, under Bizarre, the Bluebird Speed Record Car from Bonneville 1935 (BZ0433).

Right, back to Powerpoint!

Just gone live on the website. Greenlight Collectibles’ new 1:18th scale Steve McQueen ‘Bullitt’ is the ‘68 Mustang from the 1969 cult movie, all contained in great film themed box with Bullitt detailing!

So Leigh is away in Bahrain and I get the pleasure of hijacking his blog for a little while.

The F1 Practice times are pretty interesting with Schumacher bringing in a very respectable time. Hamilton is probably quietly pleased with himself with him beating his new team mate!!

This weekend is going to pretty interesting that is for sure.

So to launch the F1 seaon with a bang I manged to persuade the powers at GPL that a Free Shipping offer was in order so until Monday there is free UK shipping on anything in stock on our website on order over £30.

McLaren, Mercedes GP and Ferrari 2010 merchandise is now available on the website and as an added bonus for pre ordering the gear free Uk delivery will be applied at the basket.

Many thanks to those who answered my question regarding the hot model of the day on the forum.

I see the overseas delivery issue has been raised again by the usual suspects!! I agree it would be nice to reduce the postage for overseas customers when we have a UK free ship promotion on. Yes I am sure would increase sales, although at this point in time I cannot make the website give a discount on shipping. I can only set it to free - Sorry I cannot afford to do that for you guys!!

Therefore for the overseas readers of this blog and forum  I can do a deal for you.

• Order anything in stock over the weekend from now 1500 GMT Friday  and  before 0900 GMT Monday where the order value is over £30.
• Forward to me jon@grandprixlegends.com, your order confirmation with a little note saying Cheers Jon
• and I will reduce the postage by £5 if the order is under £80 and £8 if the order is more than £80.

I am looking forward to a barage of email confirmations come Monday morning.

Have a great weekend whatever you are up to.

Jon

Today we received new deliveries from both Minichamps and Mattel.

On the eve of the 2010 Formula One season, Minichamps has released no less than four new 2009 Formula One replicas. In 1:18 these were Rubens Barrichello’s Brawn BGP001 (DC2923), Fernando Alonso’s Renault R29 (DC2907), and Sebastien Bourdais’ Toro Rosso STR4 (DC2911). These were joined in 1:43 by Sebastien Buemi’s Toro Rosso STR4 (DC29412).

For 1:43 road car diecast models we received the Ford Escort Mk.III cabriolet in black (P085031) and the Alfa Romeo 75 V6 in silver (P120461).

Mattel released its latest 1:18 Elite TV & Film replica, which was the Ferrari 360 Spider that was featured in the remake of The Italian Job (HW9905). Its other new 1:18 replica was the Ferrari F40 Le Mans test car (HW9922).

The new 1:43 Mattel releases were the Ferrari 430 GT2 (HW9950), the Ferrari 330 P4 (HW9956), and the Lamborghini Miura concept car in green (HW4881) and in yellow (HW4882).

Today Spark confirmed what we will see on its next delivery, which we are due to receive in the week beginning 15th March.

Its 1:43 classic Formula One range will continue to go from strength to strength, when we will see the release of Mika Hakkinen’s 1992 Lotus 102D (SPK1674), Patrick Tambay’s 1985 Renault RE60 (SPK1702), and Eddie Cheever’s 1984 Alfa Romeo 184T (SPK1712).

There won’t be a diary entry from me on Monday as I’ll be off to glamorous Coventry for The Model And Hobby Show! It’s basically a breakaway from the London Toy Fair from all the diecast importers and distributors, which is great news for us in the diecast business as we know that everything on display there will have an interest and relevance to us!

Today we received this week’s new Minichamps delivery.

It included two of their more popular 1:43 road car replicas, the Aston Martin Lagonda in metallic grey (P137800) and the Ford Escort XR3i in red (P085071).

Formula One was represented by Adrian Sutil’s 1:43 2009 Force India VJM02 (DC29420).

Tomorrow we expect to keep the new delivery momentum going with some new releases from Kyosho!

Today Spark confirmed their new 2010 announcements, all 310 of them! You can click here to see a PDF listing of them all. They can be pre-ordered over the phone now on our Orderline 0844 887 8888, and by the end of the week they will be available to pre-order off of our website as well.

There’s some really exciting subjects that have been announced. In 1:18, there are several new Le Mans winners, including the Ford GT40s from 1968 and 1969, and the three Audi R8 LMS cars from the 2009 Nurburgring 24 Hours.

For me though, the most exciting new 1:18 announcement was Spark’s first 1:18 Formula One car, Jim Clark’s 1963 F1 Championship winning Lotus 25.

In 1:43 there were a good 50 new Formula One replicas announced, covering the 1950s up to the 1990s. These include such gems as Peter Gethin’s 1971 Italian Grand Prix winning BRM P160, Patrick Depailler’s 1978 Monaco Grand Prix winning Tyrrell 008, Alain Prost’s 1983 French Grand Prix winning Renault RE40, and Jean Alesi’s 1990 Tyrrell 019.

Spark has also decided that a 1:43 Le Mans Winners Collection is not enough, so it has started a Daytona Winners Collection as well!

Allied to this are CanAm cars, all of the 2009 Audi DTM cars, another vast array of cars that have competed at Le Mans over the years, and several interesting road car subjects as well.

If you can’t find something you like, you can’t have been looking properly!

Today we received the new Minichamps delivery, with two 1:12 replicas the headliners. The first of these was Jorge Lorenzo’s 2008 Yamaha YZR-M1 (PO83048), his first Moto GP bike. We are also offering this replica signed by Lorenzo (PO83048S), and now that it is here we can get on with pinning the young Spaniard down for the signing.

The second 1:12 release was a car, which was Carroll Shelby’s 1960 Maserati Birdcage (PH601698). This looked impressive enough in 1:18 when Minichamps released it in that scale a couple of years ago, but in 1:12 it looks absolutely stunning!

In 1:43 we received two 2009 Formula One cars, Kazuki Nakajima’s Williams FW31 (DC29417), and Sebastien Bourdais’ Toro Rosso STR4 (DC29411). That only leaves a few left to complete the grid now.

Today CMC confirmed its new 1:18 announcements for 2010, and they are all very exciting subjects.

First there is the absolutely beautiful Bugatti Type 57 SC Atlantic, which will be available in blue (CMC083) and black (CMC085).

There will also be a CMC 1:18 transporter, the Bartoletti Ferrari example from 1957 (CMC084).

Moving on to racing replicas, we will see two racing versions of the Ferrari Testa Rossa. The first will be the #22 Testa Rossa from the 1958 Le Mans 24 Hours, as campaigned by Ed Hugus and Ernie Erickson (CMC080). This is in the NART colours of white with a blue stripe. The second racer will be Alan Connell’s 1959 Testa Rossa, in black with a red nose (CMC081).

Finally, there will be Rudolf Caracciola’s winning Mercedes SSKL from the 1931 German Grand Prix (CMC082).

If we see all of these released in 2010, it will surely be CMC’s best year ever!

Today we received a new delivery from IXO, headlined by the latest release in its La Storia collection, Mike Hawthorn’s 1953 Ferrari 553 (IXSF23). This has actually jumped the queue and been released ahead of #22 in the series, which will be Gerhard Berger’s 1994 Ferrari 412 T1 (IXSF22).

As ever there were also several new 1:43 rally replicas released, among them Matt Wilson’s Ford Focus WRC from the 2008 Monte Carlo Rally (RAM306), Gilles Panizzi’s Peugeot 106 XSI from Corsica 1993 (RAC178), and Stephane Sarrazin’s Peugeot 207 from the 2009 Monte Carlo Rally (RAM364).

You can click here to see all of the new IXO models released today.

Today we received the new Minichamps delivery which, by my reckoning, contained the first new 1:18 Ayrton Senna release for about two years, his 1984 Portuguese Grand Prix (AS842). It looks significantly different to the original Toleman release with the red and white striped bodywork, which was a one-off livery for that race.

The other new 1:18 release was Manfred Winkelhock’s BMW M1 from the 1980 DRM Championship (PG802925).

In 1:43, we received the Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 in white (P103800W) and the Porsche 911 GT3 in black (P068020).

We also received the 2010 Minichamps Edition 1 catalogue (MCCAT10), so that is now available straight from stock as well.