Leigh’s Diecast Diary

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!

The highlight of today was that we got all of Spark’s 2010 announcements up on our website! You can click here to view them in all their glory, complete with nice pictures!

At the risk of sounding like a stuck record, yes it’s another short entry because of the Nuremberg catalogue – but the good news is that we supplied it to the printers today, so I won’t use it as an excuse again…well, until next year!

Today has been flat out on our Nuremberg issue of Diecast Monthly, so I’m afraid the diary entry will be brief and to the point!

We did receive the new Kyosho delivery as we had hypothesised yesterday, headlined by the original 1959 Morris Mini Minor in white (KY8105W). The red version was also released as well (KY8105R).

The highlight of the delivery for me was a 1:18 replica of one of my favourite rally drivers, Carlos Sainz’s 1993 Lancia Delta from the Acropolis (KY8342D). A plain red Lancia Delta HF Integrale was on the delivery too (KY8341RM).

Right, I’m off home now!

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!

The big news today was that we were able to confirm our second signing from Mattel’s 1:18 Elite In Music collection.

Following on from Jay Kay’s Ferrari Enzo (HW6255S), we are very excited to also now be able to offer Nick Mason’s Ferrari 512S signed by the musical legend himself as well (HW6253S).

For the rest of the day we were flat out preparing our March ‘Nuremberg special’ issue of Diecast Monthly! This will be supplied to the printers at the end of next week, so should land on your doormats around the weekend of the Bahrain Grand Prix!

Today we received not one, but two 1:16 tractor replicas from Universal Hobbies! These are the Massey Harris 820 Pony (J2800) and the Champion Elan (J2824).

In 1:18 the big news was the latest announcement from Mondo Motors. As with the Lamborghini Reventon, and as with the Pagani Zonda F, they have struck first in announcing a 1:18 replica of the awesome Aston Martin One-77 (MD50105). This is due to be released over the summer, and is definitely going to be a huge hit.

Kyosho also announced several new 1:18 replicas today, covering Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and several Lancia rally cars as well among others. All of the new Kyosho announcements can be viewed by clicking here.

Finally today, Spark was the bearer of good news in confirming price reductions (yes, that’s right, price reductions!) across all of its replicas yet to be released, ranging from £5 to £15. If you have pre-ordered Spark models at the higher prices from us, don’t worry, we will of course charge you the new lower prices!

Today Model Icons announced a few new 1:18 replicas. The first two of these are variations on the Jaguar Mk.II that was announced a couple of weeks ago. These will be immensely popular though, as they are of the famous 1962 Coombes car with the ‘BUY 12’ registration plate, as driven by Graham Hill and Roy Salvadori (MI321001), and a 1968 Jaguar 240 in the livery of the Staffordshire police (MI999001).

Model Icons has also confirmed several other 1:18 British police car replicas as well, namely the 1977 Ford Escort Mk.II of the Hampshire police (MI999002), the 1975 Ford Escort Mk.II of the Thames Valley police (MI999003), the 1985 Ford Escort Mk.III of the Cambridge police (MI999004), the 1987 Ford Escort Mk.III of the Essex police (MI999005), and the 2005 BMW 5 Series of the Metropolitan police (MI999006).

We’ve had customers clamouring for replicas of 1:18 British police cars for years, so these new announcements from Model Icons are definitely going to go down very well indeed!

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!