Leigh’s Diecast Diary

Today, Minichamps announced is range of 2012 1:43 and 1:18 Formula One race car replicas.

Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes are the teams getting the 1:18 treatment and these three are joined by Lotus F1, Force India, Sauber, Toro Rosso and Williams in the smaller scale.

There were also a few limited edition special replicas too: Nico Rosberg’s 2012 Chinese Grand Prix winning Mercedes MGP F1 W03 is available in both 1:43 (DC212408C) and 1:18 (DC21208C); there was also Kimi Raikkonen’s Lotus E20 from the 2012 Bahrain Grand Prix (DC212409B), and the Finn’s Lotus Renault R30 2012 Valencia test car (DC212409T).

The German brand also announced a 1:43 Mercedes F1 two car set (DC212408C2) commemorating Mercedes’ victory at the Chinese Grand Prix, the marque’s first since 1955. The set will feature Nico Rosberg’s 2012 Chinese Grand Prix winning Mercedes MGP F1 W03 and Juan-Manuel Fangio’s 1955 Italian Grand Prix winning Mercedes W196.

Click here to see all of Minichamps’ F1 announcements.

We should also mention that the 1:18 Lewis Hamilton 2011 McLaren MP4-26 (DC21103) has been added to next week’s Minichamps delivery.

Today we received some new replicas from Minichamps, plus new announcements from Schuco.

The top model on the Minichamps delivery was the 1:43 Red Bull RB7 that Sebastian Vettel drove to victory in the 2011 Turkish Grand Prix (DC211401T). We also received a couple of nice British roadcar subjects from them too: the 1:43 1969 Aston Martin DBS in metallic red (P137601) and the 1:18 2011 Bentley Continental GT in metallic grey (PG139920).

The most interesting Schuco announcements were the 1:18 1995 Porsche 993 Cup 3.8 in white (SCH0345) and the 1:18 1995 Porsche 993 Turbo in black (SCH0315).

The 1:12 AC Cobra 289 in matt black (SCH6726) also looks as if it’s going to be mightily impressive.

Click here to see all of Schuco’s 1:18, 1:10 and 1:12 announcements.

Today Greenlight Collectibles announced three 1:18 Indycars from the 2012 season, and we received a fantastic new delivery from Spark.

The trio of Indycars that Greenlight has announced consists of the 1:18 2012 Dallara DW12 of Dario Franchitti (GL10910), as well as the cars driven by Mike Conway (GL10922) and Charlie Kimball (GL10928).

Spark’s latest delivery was full of quality subjects; we particularly like Alan Jones’s 1977 Austrian Grand Prix winning Shadow DN8 (SPK1756), the Lotus 56B that Emerson Fittipaldi drove in the 1971 Italian Grand Prix (SPK1776) and the Matra MS84 that Jackie Stewart tested in practice for the 1969 Dutch Grand Prix (SPK1600).

Click here to see the rest of Spark’s new releases.

Today, Minichamps released their 1:18 Sebastian Vettel 2011 Red Bull RB7 (DC21101).

That means that our fantastic 1:18 Sebastian Vettel 2011 World Champion Presentation (DC2011) will be able to be despatched from tomorrow!

Today BBR announced some new replicas, and we received one new release from IXO.

BBR has announced a 1:43 replica of the 1965 Maserati Quattroporte in four colours: red (BBR160A), dark blue (BBR160B), green (BBR160C) and silver (BBR160D).

They also announced two very exciting modern F1 subjects: the 1:43 2012 Ferrari F2012 launch car (BBRC82) and the 1:43 2012 Fernando Alonso Ferrari F2012 Jerez test car (BBRC81).

Incredibly, IXO has released their 1:43 replica of Sebastien Loeb’s 2012 Monte Carlo Rally winning Citroen DS3 WRC (RAM482) just three months after the event!

Today Minichamps revealed details of their May release schedule.

It all kicks off on the week beginning 7th of May, when we will receive the 1:18 #78 2010 BMW M3 GT2 from the 2010 Le Mans 24 Hours (PG102078). This car was driven by Jorg Muller, Augusto Farfus and Uwe Alzen.

After that, it starts getting good for Rossi collectors! On the 14th of May we will see the 1:12 Valentino Rossi 1999 Rio figure (P990096F). Just seven days later, on the 21st May, the 1:12 Valentino Rossi 2011 launch figure (PO110846F) will arrive.

On week four of the schedule we will see the 1:2 Valentino Rossi 2010 Laguna Seca helmet (PO102096). On the week beginning 4th of June will see the 1:18 Mark Webber 2011 Red Bull RB7 (DC21102).

You can click here to see the full schedule.

In other news, the 1:12 Valentino Rossi 2000 Honda VTR 1000 from the Suzuka 8 Hours (PO01446) has been delayed until June.

Today we received new releases from TrueScale Miniatures, and a couple of new announcements from BBR.

Our favourite TrueScale releases come in the form of the fantastic value 1:18 Ayrton Senna McLaren figures. There is a Senna figure with his hand on his hips (TSM11AC04) and one with his arms raised in celebration (TSM11AC23).

Other highlights included the famous #59 ‘Ueno Clinic’ liveried McLaren F1 GTR (TSM114356) that J.J. Lehto, Yannick Dalmas and Masanori Sekiya drove to victory at Le Mans in ’95, and the #51 ‘Harrods’ liveried Mclaren F1 GTR (TSM114357), which came third in the same race. This car was driven by Derek Bell, Justin Bell and Andy Wallace.

We also received Ronnie Peterson’s 1977 Tyrrell P34 that came third in the Belgian Grand Prix (TSM114352).

BBR announced two more extremely desirable 1:43 Ferrari subjects: the #16 1959 Ferrari 250 GT TDF from the Sebring 12 Hours (BBRBC56) and the Gilles Villeneuve 1982 Ferrari 126 C2 from the United States West Grand Prix (BBRBG321).

By the way, we recently were able to acquire just a dozen examples of Minichamps’ 1:43 2012 Nuremberg Toy Fair Model (P133023), which we offered in today’s diecast e-mail bulletin, however these were all sold out within an hour of it being sent out!

We only had one release today, but it was a great release if you’re a Rossi fan! It was IXO’s 1:43 Valentino Rossi 2009 Ford Focus RS from the Monza Rally (RAM406).

In other news, Top Model sent us a sample image of their 1:18 1979 Jody Scheckter Ferrari figure (TM21).

It looked as if it was going to be a pretty quiet day today, but just at the last minute we received a great new delivery from Minichamps.

The undoubted highlight was the 1:12 Valentino Rossi 2008 Misano figure (PO80146). We also received three 1:43 Formula One replicas: the Nico Rosberg 2011 Mercedes MGP W02 (DC211408), Lewis Hamilton’s 2011 Chinese Grand Prix winning McLaren MP4-26 (DC211403C) and the Red Bull RB7 that Sebastian Vettel drove to victory in the 2011 Malaysian Grand Prix (DC211401M).

We also received one new announcement from Universal Hobbies today in the form of the 1:16 Ford 5000 Doe Demonstrator (J2705D).

Top Model have sent us some sample images of two of their forthcoming 1:18 Formula One driver figures: Mika Hakkinen in McLaren overalls from 1998/99 (TM23) and Kimi Raikkonen in Ferrari overalls from 2007 (TM24). We hope to see both of these released in May.

By the way, don’t worry about the HANS device on the Hakkinen figure; we know it shouldn’t be there and so does Top Model, so the final figure will come through without it!