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Monday 30th November

Today both Minichamps and Spark announced commemorative replicas for Lewis Hamilton from this year’s Turkish Grand Prix, when he of course won the race to secure the 2020 Formula One world championship and equal Michael Schumacher’s all-time record of seven titles. Minichamps will be producing both 1:18 and 1:43 specials of Hamilton’s Mercedes F1 W11 from the event. A really nice touch with them is that they will feature the worn intermediate tyres that Hamilton’s Mercedes took the chequered flag with. Meanwhile, Spark has announced a 1:5 replica of Lewis’s helmet from the race, when he sported a revised design for his lid.


Friday 27th November

It had looked like this week was going to be all about the new announcements without any new releases to speak of, but then today we received a new 1:43 delivery from Spark! The hero model on it is Lando Norris’s 2020 McLaren MCL35 from the Barcelona pre-season test, but it is ably supported by other subjects like Nelson Piquet’s 1983 Italian Grand Prix winning Brabham BT52B, Jean-Pierre Nicolas’s 1978 Monte Carlo Rally winning Porsche 911, and more.


Thursday 26th November

Today Tecnomodel announced a quartet of 1:18 Aston Martin endurance racers from the early 1950s. These consist of two DB3s from 1952, and two DB3S’s from 1953. Taking them chronologically, there are first the DB3s from 1952. The first of these is the #25 car from that year’s Le Mans 24 Hours, which was crewed by Lance Macklin and Peter Collins. It retired after being involved in an accident. The #27 example was driven by motorcycle legend Geoff Duke in the 1952 British Empire Trophy on the Isle of Man. Moving on to the two DB3S machines, there is first the #30 machine that finished second in the 1953 edition of the gruelling Sebring 12 Hours, courtesy of Reg Parnell and George Abecassis. Finally, there is the #611 DB3S that Reg Parnell took to a fifth place finish in the 1953 Mille Miglia. His navigator was famous motor racing photographer Louis Klementaski.


Wednesday 25th November

Not content with announcing 1:43 replicas of 34 cars that competed in this year’s Nurburgring 24 Hours on Monday, Spark today also confirmed 1:43 models of 45 cars from the Spa 24 Hours as well! We’ve never known them to replicate so many cars from the biggest GT3 race in the world before, with the winning Porsche 911 GT3 R of Earl Bamber, Nick Tandy and Laurens Vanthoor obviously included.


Tuesday 24th November

Today Tecnomodel announced that it will be replicating the stunning Ferrari 712 Can-Am car in 1:18 scale. The 712 was a one-off version of the 512M, and was developed for the Can-Am series where almost anything went. Ferrari’s challenger sported the largest engine that the Italian concern has ever produced, at a mammoth 6.9 litres (which was rounded up to seven litres for the car’s naming convention). This gigantic, screaming V12 produced a gargantuan 680 bhp. Although the car won the first race that it competed in (an Interserie race at Imola in 1971 with Arturo Merzario behind the wheel), it achieved limited success in the actual Can-Am series. Its best result was a fourth place, scored by the great Mario Andretti at Watkins Glen in 1971. Despite its mediocre record, however, it will always remain one of the most outrageous Ferrari competition cars ever produced. Tecnomodel’s four 1:18 replicas of the Ferrari 712 are the aforementioned #50 car that Andretti took to a fourth place finish at Watkins Glen in 1971, the #40 machine that Jean-Pierre Jarier crossed the line 10th with at the same circuit a year later, the #10 example that Brian Redman retired from the 1974 Watkins Glen race with suspension failure, and a plain red press version.


Monday 23rd November

Today Spark announced 1:43 replicas of no less than 34 cars that competed in this year’s Nurburgring 24 Hours! As well as the usual GT3 suspects from BMW (including, obviously, the race-winning M6 GT3 of Alexander Sims, Nicky Catsburg and Nick Yelloly), Audi, Mercedes, Porsche and Lamborghini, there are also a couple of GT4 Aston Martins, and a singleton Toyota Supra, KTM X-Bow, SCG and TCR class-winning Honda Civic!


Friday 20th November

Today we received Greenlight’s 1:18 replica of Fernando Alonso’s Dallara IR-12 from this year’s running of the Indianapolis 500. This could well have been the versatile Spaniard’s last attempt at the great American race, as for the next two years he is committed to his Renault/Alpine F1 contract, and who knows if he will attempt it again after that? Therefore this model will probably prove to be very collectible indeed.


Thursday 19th November

Today Spark followed up its 1:5 helmet delivery of yesterday with a new 1:43 delivery. Highlights include the Mercedes 300 SLR that Stirling Moss and Peter Collins took to victory on the 1955 Targa Florio, Brett Lunger’s Hesketh 308 from the 1975 American Grand Prix, and Riccardo Patrese’s winning Brabham BT52B from the 1983 South African Grand Prix.


Wednesday 18th November

Today we received Spark’s 1:5 replicas of Lewis Hamilton’s 2020 Mercedes helmet and Lando Norris’s 2020 McLaren helmet. Lewis’s helmet, of course, was a brand new design for this year, as he went on to break almost every Formula One record that wasn’t his already. Meanwhile Lando sported a rather colourful affair! Both of these 1:5 helmet replicas measure some 6cm in height, and come complete with their own display case.


Tuesday 17th November

Today BBR announced a 1:18 replica of the famous dark blue Ferrari 250 GTO; chassis #4219 GT. It will be a limited edition of just 108 pieces worldwide, so we can see it selling out to pre-orders before it is even released. Chassis #4219 GT is the car thar Mamie Spears Reynolds, heir to the Reynolds tobacco fortune, initially bought for Pedro Rodriguez to race in the 1963 Daytona Continental, which the Mexican won. After being retired from contemporary racing the following year, the car was bought by George C. Dyer Snr, who had it painted dark blue, the colour it still wears today. More recently, the car won the 2006 Villa d’Este Concours d’Elegance.


Monday 16th November

Today TopSpeed announced 1:18 replicas of the brand new Chevrolet Corvette C8.R from this year’s Daytona 24 Hours. There will be the yellow #3 car of Nicky Catsburg, Antonio Garcia and Jordan Taylor, and the grey #4 machine of Marcel Fassler, Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner.


Friday 13th November

Today we received another TrueScale Miniatures 1:18 pre-war Bentley, in the form of W.O. Bentley’s own 1930 Bentley 8 Litre. Registered GK 706, Bentley covered thousands of miles in this car across Britain and Europe. Forced to sell it when the company was taken over in 1931, W.O. was later reunited with it at a Bentley Drivers’ Club celebration held in his honour. Many years after his death, Bentley Motors acquired chassis YF 5002. It has since become a symbolic company car for each subsequent Bentley CEO.


Thursday 12th November

Today Look Smart provided us with the first sample images of its 1:18 replica of the 1989 Ferrari F1 640, as raced by Nigel Mansell and Gerhard Berger. The Mansell model is based on his winning car from that year’s Hungarian Grand Prix, while the Berger example is based on the Austrian’s victorious machine from the Portuguese Grand Prix.


Wednesday 11th November

Today we received TrueScale Miniatures’ 1:18 replica of Tim Birkin’s Bentley Blower Number One. If ever there was a pre-war racing car that deserved the 1:18 treatment, this is it! Birkin’s finest moment in the car was probably at Brooklands in 1932. Four days before the Easter Monday meeting he broke Kaye Don’s outer circuit lap record, setting a new marker of 137.58 mph. Birkin then officially equalled that speed in a thrilling three-lap invitational race for 100 sovereigns in the August meeting, beating the V12 Delage of John cobb by just a fifth of a second.


Tuesday 10th November

Today we received Minichamps’ 1:18 replica of Lewis Hamilton’s 2019 Monaco Grand Prix winning Mercedes F1 W10. This is the car that ran with the red halo in tribute to Niki Lauda, who had passed away just before the event. The model is a limited edition of just 720 pieces worldwide, and is completely sold out to customer pre-orders.


Monday 9th November

Today Look Smart, as expected, confirmed 1:43 replicas of all 16 Ferrari 488 GTEs that took part in this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours. We expect to see them coming through from very early in the New Year.


Friday 6th November

Today Tecnomodel announced four 1:18 replicas of the Ferrari 308 GTB 4 LM. They are the test car that Niki Lauda drove at Fiorano in 1976, the #31 machine that Maurice Dantinne campaigned in the 1978 Havirov International, the press car in red, and a street version in yellow.


Thursday 5th November

As if it didn’t bring us enough dramatic news yesterday, Minichamps today announced several more specials from the 2020 Formula One season! Although ironically, probably the most exciting new subject is not actually a Formula One race car! It is instead a 1:18 replica of the Safety Car from the Tuscan Grand Prix at Mugello, when it ran a one-off red livery to commemorate Ferrari’s 1,000th world championship grand prix. It also got a lot of track time with all of the various incidents during the race! There are also 1:18 and 1:43 specials for the two Mercedes F1 W11s of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas that finished 1-2 in the Tuscan Grand Prix, as well as a pair of 1:43 Renault RS20s. The first of these is Daniel Ricciardo’s third-placed car from the Eifel Grand Prix. That result not only marked the Australian’s first podium for two years, but the team’s first as a fully-fledged constructor since 2011! There is then Fernando Alonso’s steed from a test at Barcelona a few weeks ago, as the Spaniard got to grips with a contemporary Formula One car again in preparation for his comeback next year.


Wednesday 4th November

Minichamps announced something truly exciting today, in the form of both 1:18 and 1:43 specials commemorating Lewis Hamilton’s 91st Formula One victory in the recent Eifel Grand Prix at the Nurburgring. This, of course, saw him tie Michael Schumacher’s all-time record of grand prix successes, and a momentous achievement like that doesn’t exactly come around very often! These specials will be enhanced by the fact that they come complete with the celebratory pit board that Hamilton’s Mercedes team made up to commemorate his fantastic achievement, and the Schumacher helmet that Michael’s son Mick presented to Lewis after the race.


Tuesday 3rd November

Today we received Kess’s 1:43 replica of the 1987 Aston Martin Lagonda Shooting Brake in blue, some three years after it was originally announced!


Monday 2nd November

Today we received a Minichamps 1:43 father and son two-car set, commemorating Michael and Mick Schumacher’s Macau F3 Grand Prix exploits. There is Michael’s winning Reynard F903 from 1990, and Mick’s Dallara F317 from 2018. It is a limited edition of just 333 pieces worldwide.


Friday 30th October

Today we received IXO’s trio of 1:18 replicas of the fearsome Group B Lancia Delta S4 from 1986, as driven by rallying legends Henri Toivonen, Markku Alen and Miki Biasion. All three of these models are from the Monte Carlo Rally, which Toivonen won that year. He would tragically lose his life later that season, along with co-driver Sergio Cresta, in a violent accident on the French round of the championship, with Group B subsequently outlawed at the end of the year.


Thursday 29th October

Today there were several new 1:43 classic road car announcements from Matrix. Highlights include the 1975-1976 Jensen GT, which will be available in gold metallic and blue metallic, and the 1972 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 NART Spider Michelotti, which will be available in red and blue.


Wednesday 28th October

Spark followed up on its plethora of new announcements yesterday with a new delivery today! Top of the list was the 1981 Lotus 88 presentation car, that comes complete with a Colin Chapman figure sat inside the cockpit! Other new releases include the 2020 Racing Point Barcelona pre-season test cars of Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll, and the four 2020 Ford Fiesta WRCs of Esapekka Lappi, Teemu Suninen, Gus Greensmith and Devidas Jocius.


Tuesday 27th October

Today Spark announced a whole host of new 1:43 classic Formula One and other race car announcements! Our favourite from this latest batch is Jacques Laffite’s Frank Williams Racing Cars-entered Williams FW (essentially a re-badged Iso) from the 1974 German Grand Prix. This was Laffite’s very first Formula One race, as the Frenchman embarked upon a 13-year stint in the top echelon of motorsport. This subject will surely go down very well indeed with collectors, because not only is Laffite quite a popular driver amongst our customers, but replicas from the first iteration of Frank Williams’s Formula One concern are very sought after as well. Other featured F1 drivers from yesteryear include Alan Jones, Jody Scheckter, Mika Hakkinen, Jochen Rindt, Nelson Piquet and more. From endurance racing, there is the Alan Mann-developed Ford GT40 that legends Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart shared in the 1966 Sebring 12 Hours, as well as several other GT40s. Classic rallying and road cars are also not left out.


Monday 26th October

We started the week with a massive new delivery from Minichamps! The headline replica on it was its 1:18 special commemorating Lewis Hamilton clinching the 2019 Formula One world championship at last year’s American Grand Prix. It is a limited edition of, appropriately, just 2,019 examples worldwide, and was a complete sell-out on release with the German model manufacturer. We have just 10 pieces left after fulfilling our customer pre-orders.


Friday 23rd October

After having been pretty quiet for quite some time, Kess today announced a whole host of 1:43 classic Ferrari and Alfa Romeo road car replicas. Subjects include the curvy 275 GTB 4 Competizione Speciale Allegretti, the 250 GT Coupe Speciale by Pininfarina in two very cool shades of blue, and more.


Thursday 22nd October

Today Tecnomodel announced a very interesting new 1:18 subject in the form of the 1952 Ferrari 375 Indy. With Formula One changing to F2 regulations for 1952, Ferrari still wanted to race its ‘big’ 375 with its 4.5 litre engine, and so opted to campaign it in that year’s Indianapolis 500, which in those days was a points-scoring round of the world championship. Ferrari lengthened the wheelbase of the car, and strengthened the chassis and suspension. It also utilised three new Weber 40IF4C carburettors in the engine to increase its output to 380 bhp. Despite these modifications, the project was not a success for Ferrari. Alberto Ascari was the only one of the team’s four entrants to qualify for the event, and only lasted 40 laps before retiring with a wheel failure. The fact that this is the only time that Ferrari ever competed in the famed Indy 500, however, means that this replica will surely still go down a storm with collectors. Tecnomodel will of course be replicating Ascari’s #12 machine from the race, as well as a plain red version, the #35 car that Johnny Mauro failed to qualify, and the #6 example that currently resides in the Ferrari museum.


Wednesday 21st October

We received what we considered to be some rather bizarre news from Spark today, in that it has cancelled its 1:43 replicas of the #91 and #92 Porsches from this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours. This was despite the model manufacturer officially announcing them along with all the other ‘non-Ferraris’ from the race just a few days ago! Now we will just have to wait and see if another model-maker confirms that it will be replicating them instead.


Tuesday 20th October

Today we received MCG’s pair of 1:18 replicas of the 1973 BMW 2002 Turbo. The model is available in white and silver.


Monday 19th October

Today we received CMC’s re-release of its 1:18 replica of Rudolf Caracciola’s 1931 Mille Miglia winning Mercedes SSKL, some 14 years after it was originally produced! This new rendition comprises almost 2,000 separate parts. As you would expect, the cockpit is completely true to the original, with all the instruments faithfully replicated. The windscreen is moveable, and the seats are real leather. The radiator mesh grille is made from stainless steel, while the double-wing engine hoods are fastened with ‘functioning’ leather belts. Once you have undone those belts and opened the bonnet, you will see that the six cylinder engine features all the associated cables and piping. On the running board you will find a jerry can, along with a wooden hinged toolbox that actually contains miniature tools!


Friday 16th October

Today we received BBR’s 1:18 replica of the #27 Ferrari 330 P3 Spider that was campaigned by Pedro Rodriguez and Richie Ginther in the 1966 Le Mans 24 Hours. We really like the detail of the blue tape around the headlights! This replica is a limited edition of just 250 pieces worldwide, and was an instant sell-out on release with BBR. We have just five examples remaining after fulfilling our customer pre-orders.


Thursday 15th October

Today we received Look Smart’s 1:43 replicas of the Ferrari SF1000s of Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel from this year’s F1 pre-season test at Barcelona. We only have three examples of each driver remaining after fulfilling our customer pre-orders, by the way!


Wednesday 14th October

Today IXO announced 1:18 replicas of the Fiat 131 Abarths that Walter Rohrl and Markku Alen campaigned in the 1980 Rally Portugal. Rohrl led Alen home in a 1-2 finish for the Italian team.


Tuesday 13th October

Today Spark announced just over 20 new 1:43 replicas, encompassing single-seaters, endurance racing, touring cars and rallying, from both today and yesteryear. Our favourite is Jackie Stewart’s winning Matra MS7 from the 1968 Pau F2 Grand Prix, followed by Bernard Beguin’s victorious BMW M3 from the 1987 Rally France.


Monday 12th October

Today Spark officially confirmed which cars it will be replicating in 1:43 scale from this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours. As expected, it will be reproducing all 43 ‘non-Ferraris’ that participated in the event!


Friday 9th October

Today we received KK’s 1:18 replica of the 1961 Jaguar E-Type Series 1. It has been produced in British Racing Green and metallic grey.


Thursday 8th October

We received a new 1:43 delivery from Spark today. Highlights include Tim Schenken’s Surtees TS9B from the 1972 Argentinian Grand Prix, and the BMW 3.5 CSL that Ronnie Peterson and Dieter Quester shared in the 1976 Watkins Glen 6 Hours.


Wednesday 7th October

Today we received a pair of new 1:18 releases from Cult, which are both available in two different colours. There is the Jaguar XK150 OTS Roadster, in green and red, and the Austin 1100, in yellow and maroon.


Tuesday 6th October

Today we received BBR’s 1:18 replicas of the three works 315 S Ferraris from the 1957 Le Mans 24 Hours. This is the first time that these cars have been replicated in this scale. A whole host of famous Ferrari drivers lined up for the Scuderia at Le Mans in 1957. Phil Hill and Peter Collins drove the #6 entry, while Mike Hawthorn and Luigi Musso steered the #7 machine. The #8 315 S would be piloted by Stuart Lewis-Evans and Martino Severi. Engine problems would account for the #6 and #7 cars, both having had spells in the lead, while the #8 came home in fifth place, as Jaguar swept the board with its D-Type.


Monday 5th October

Today we received Tecnomodel’s quartet of 1:18 replicas of the 1963 Ferrari 330 LMB. The first of these is the #12 example that Jack Sears and Mike Salmon campaigned to a fifth place finish in the 1963 Le Mans 24 Hours. Next up is the #19 machine that Mike Parkes and Lorenzo Bandini shared in the Sebring 12 Hours earlier that year. The car failed to finish after a hefty wallop led to a split in its fuel tank. The final racing version is the bronze #47 derivative that Dan Gurney took to the bottom step of the podium in the 1963 Bridgehampton 500 km. Completing the quartet is Tecnomodel’s traditional press car replica.


Friday 2nd October

Today we received a new 1:43 delivery from Spark, which was absolutely rammed with classic F1 (and F2) subjects! Highlights include Dan Gurney’s winning Eagle T1G from the 1967 Belgian Grand Prix, Jackie Stewart’s winning Matra MS80 from the 1969 Race of Champions, Ronnie Peterson’s Lotus 59 from the 1969 Albi F2 Grand Prix, and Jochen Rindt’s Lotus 59 from the 1969 Albi F2 Grand Prix.


Thursday 1st October

Today we were delighted to receive our exclusively-commissioned 1:18 replica of Stirling Moss’s winning Lotus 18 from the 1961 Monaco Grand Prix, which is an individually numbered limited edition of just 150 examples worldwide. It has been produced for us by the same resin model specialists that delivered our exclusive Mike Hawthorn 1958 Morocco Ferrari and 1957 Le Mans winning Ecurie Ecosse Jaguar D-Type, so you know that quality and accuracy won’t be an issue. Therefore, you will find it finished in the correct Rob Walker colours of dark blue with a white stripe. And, in the cockpit (which is all the more visible with the side panels removed), you will see all three pedals in the footwell, the Lotus-branded steering wheel, and all the instrumentation on the dashboard behind it. At the rear, you will find the four carburettors of the Coventry Climax 1.5 litre engine correctly exiting the bodywork on the left. It has taken almost 60 years for this celebrated Formula One machine to be replicated in 1:18. It is only going to be produced this once!


Wednesday 30th September

Today we received Matrix’s 1:43 replica of Donald Healey’s 1931 Monte Carlo Rally winning Invicta 4.5 litre S-Type. The model is already completely sold out with Matrix, while we have just half a dozen pieces spare after fulfilling our customer pre-orders.


Tuesday 29th September

Today Look Smart announced that it will be replicating a trio of Ferraris from the 1965 Formula One season in 1:43 scale. These are the 158s of John Surtees from the Belgian Grand Prix and Bob Bondurant from the American Grand Prix, and the 1512 of Lorenzo Bandini from the Belgian Grand Prix.


Monday 28th September

Today Spark confirmed no less than seven 1:43 racing Porsches from the popular IROC series in the mid-1970s. They cover several of the star names that raced in the championship: Emerson Fittipaldi, Mark Donohue, Peter Revson, David Pearson, George Follmer, Bobby Unser and A.J. Foyt.


Friday 25th September

Today Cult confirmed that it will be adding two more subjects to its repertoire of 1:18 classic British road cars. These are the 1953 MG TD, which will be available in green and in cream, and the 1957 Ford Zodiac 206E, which will be produced in green/beige and yellow/brown.


Thursday 24th September

Look Smart was pretty quick off the mark in announcing 1:18 and 1:43 replicas of the Tuscan Grand Prix Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel today. That race, of course, was Ferrari’s 1,000th world championship grand prix, and to commemorate the occasion the team ran its cars in a much darker red livery, akin to the paint finish that would have adorned its original front-engined racers some 70 years ago.


Wednesday 23rd September

We received a sizeable new 1:43 Spark shipment shipment today. New releases on it include Jackie Stewart’s 1969 Italian Grand Prix winning Matra MS80, Kimi Raikkonen’s 2020 ‘Valentine’s Day’ Alfa Romeo C39 shakedown car and Elfyn Evans’ 2020 Rally Sweden winning Toyota Yaris WRC. Also not to be forgotten is the re-release of the #6 Lola Mk.6 GT that Richard Attwood and David Hobbs campaigned in the 1963 Le Mans 24 Hours; this is the model where some retailers had it listed for up to £399.99 before Spark confirmed that it would be reproducing it!


Tuesday 22nd September

Today Tecnomodel announced the first ever 1:18 replica of the Lotus 12, which was the first ever Lotus Formula One car! The Lotus 12 was developed over the course of 1957, making its Formula One debut the following year. The team’s debut appearance in the world championship was at the 1958 Monaco Grand Prix, and Tecnomodel will be replicating the cars of both Graham Hill (#26) and Cliff Allison (#24) from that race. Hill retired with a broken halfshaft, while Allison crossed the line in sixth place, although you didn’t get a point for that in those days. Allison did register an impressive fourth place finish at the Belgian Grand Prix later in the year in the #40 machine, which will also be offered in 1:18. That would remain the car’s best result, before it was succeeded by the 16. A true legacy had been born.


Monday 21st September

We had a new batch of 1:43 announcements from Spark to start the week. As ever, there are several interesting classic Formula One subjects included, such as the McLaren M23 that Jody Scheckter used to obliterate half the field in the 1973 British Grand Prix, and the similar machine that Gilles Villeneuve used to make his grand prix debut in the same event four years later. Classic endurance racing and rally cars are of course also featured, including Paddy Hopkirk’s 1964 Monte Carlo Rally winning Mini Cooper S.


Friday 18th September

It’s our favourite day of the year, when we offer the entire Le Mans 24 Hours grid to pre-order in 1:43 scale! There are 59 cars taking part in this 2020 edition of the great endurance race, so check them out and pre-order your favourites now! Traditionally Spark makes the replicas for the majority of the field, with the exception of the Ferraris which are usually produced by Look Smart. Enjoy the race this weekend!


Thursday 17th September

Today Norev announced just over 20 new replicas, most of them being 1:18 scale, and most of them being road cars. Highlights include the 1992 Ford Escort Cosworth in purple metallic, the 1979 Alpine A310 V6 in silver, and the 1963 AC Cobra 289 in blue metallic.


Wednesday 16th September

Today both Spark and Minichamps announced 1:43 specials from the 2020 Italian Grand Prix. Both model makers will be commemorating Pierre Gasly’s first grand prix victory, along with specials for the other two drivers on the podium as well: Carlos Sainz Jnr and Lance Stroll. Minichamps has then also announced Italian GP specials for the respective drivers’ team-mates.


Tuesday 15th September

Today Spark followed up their new 1:18 shipment of yesterday with a new 1:43 one! Highlights on today’s new delivery included John Surtees’ BRM P138 from the 1969 Spanish Grand Prix, the Gulf-liveried Mirage M1 that Jacky Ickx and Brian Muir shared in the 1967 Le Mans 24 Hours, and Didier Auriol’s winning Lancia Delta HF Integrale from the 1992 Monte Carlo Rally.


Monday 14th September

Today we received an immense new 1:18 delivery from Spark! New releases included the three Ford GT40 Mk.IIs that finished first, second and third in the 1966 Le Mans 24 Hours, and several modern and classic Formula One and endurance racers too.


Friday 11th September

Today we received a couple of 1:18 replicas of iconic classic rally cars from IXO. The first of these is the 1993 Toyota Celica GT-Four, as driven by that year’s world champion Juha Kankkunnen, and Didier Auriol. The other is the 1988 Ford Sierra RS Cosworth, with versions available for rallying legends Carlos Sainz and Stig Blomqvist.


Thursday 10th September

Today we received TrueScale Miniatures’ 1:18 replica of Emerson Fittipaldi’s Lotus 56B from the 1971 Race of Champions at Brands Hatch. The gas turbine powered, four wheel drive car was peerless in the practice sessions in wet weather, but it was too heavy to be competitive in the drier conditions of qualifying and the race.


Wednesday 9th September

Today we received a very special piece of memorabilia in the form of a full-size replica of the steering wheel from Nigel Mansell’s 1992 Formula One world championship winning Williams FW14B, signed by the great man himself. The replica measures some 27cm across, and comes complete with its own display stand. It is an individually-numbered limited edition of, appropriately, just 92 pieces worldwide, and we have just six pieces remaining after fulfilling our customer pre-orders.


Tuesday 8th September

Spark announced something rather fun today, in the form of 1:43 replicas of the Rebellion team’s two garishly-liveried cars from the 2019 Le Mans 24 Hours Drivers Parade! They come complete with figures of the three race drivers from each car, along with their chauffeur as well!


Monday 7th September

Spark announced a couple of appealing new 1:18 classic Formula One subjects today. The first of these is from the last time that Niki Lauda drove a Formula One car before he retired from the sport for the first time. During practice for the 1979 Canadian Grand Prix, the double world champion (as he was then) returned to the pits in his Brabham BT49 and informed team boss Bernie Ecclestone that he had decided to retire, effective immediately. Of course, the Austrian would return to the grid with McLaren three years later, and record a third and final world title before retiring for good at the close of the 1985 season. The second new announcement is Riccardo Patrese’s winning Brabham BT49B from the 1982 Monaco Grand Prix. This was one of the most chaotic races in the history of the world championship, with the lead changing hands several times in the closing laps. Alain Prost crashed out of the lead on the antepenultimate lap, handing the lead to Patrese. Who then had a spin on the penultimate lap! This handed the lead to Didier Pironi. Who then ran out of fuel on the last lap! This would have handed the lead to Andrea de Cesaris, but he had also run out of fuel, earlier on in the last lap! And so, amazingly, the lead returned to Patrese, who scored his first grand prix success in highly dramatic circumstances.


Friday 4th September

Some four years after originally announcing it, Spark today finally provided us with a sample image of its 1:18 replica of Jacques Laffite’s Ligier JS5 ‘teapot’ from the 1976 Long Beach Grand Prix! It earned its nickname by dint of its inordinately high airbox, which was outlawed after the first few races of the 1976 season after the FIA introduced regulations to limit the measurements of certain areas of the bodywork. This classic Formula One car was one of Spark’s most popular ever replicas in 1:43 scale, and we expect that pattern to be repeated with this larger rendition.


Thursday 3rd September

Today we received news of the imminent arrival of another world championship winning special for a British Formula One hero, although this time the model manufacturer in question was Spark, and the subject in question was its 1:43 replica of Jackie Stewart’s winning Matra MS80 from the 1969 Italian Grand Prix. Stewart’s victory in this race secured the first of his three world titles. We expect to receive this model towards the end of the month.


Wednesday 2nd September

Today Minichamps confirmed that we will see its 1:18 replica of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes F1 W10 from the 2019 American Grand Prix, the race in which he secured his sixth world championship, later this month. Appropriately, Minichamps has made this replica a limited edition of 2,019 pieces worldwide. Unsurprisingly, it is already a complete sell-out with the German model manufacturer, before it has even been released. As for us, we have a mere dozen pieces currently unsold from the quantity that we will be receiving in the very near future. If you don’t want to miss out on this 1:18 Lewis Hamilton championship winning special, then you really need to act now.


Tuesday 1st September

Today TopSpeed announced a 1:18 replica of the colourful #85 Ford GT from the 2019 Le Mans 24 Hours. This is the car that was driven by Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Felipe Fraga, and which initially won the GTE Am class of the race before it was disqualified due to an irregularity with the fuel tank. Despite this, Spark’s 1:43 replica of this car has proved extremely popular with collectors, so we expect this TopSpeed 1:18 rendition to go the same way.


Friday 28th August

Today Spark announced a new 1:5 2020 Formula One helmet, in the form of Lando Norris’s lid from the British Grand Prix. Norris ran a one-off helmet design in this race, which had been penned by a young fan.


Thursday 27th August

Today we received our second new 1:43 Spark delivery of the week! There was a very desirable new classic Formula One replica on it, in the form of Jan Lammers’ Shadow DN9 from practice for the 1979 Monaco Grand Prix. The Dutchman may have failed to qualify for the race, but the car’s dramatic livery of a lion painted across the front of the car has ensured that this model has gone down a storm with collectors. Other highlights on this new shipment included the colourful #3 Rebellion R13 of Thomas Laurent, Nathanael Berthon and Gustavo Menezes from last year’s Le Mans 24 Hours, and Eddie Cheever’s Lola THL2 from the 1986 American Grand Prix.


Wednesday 26th August

We are now down to our last dozen pieces of Minichamps’ 1:43 replica of Lewis Hamilton’s 2019 Monaco Grand Prix winning Mercedes F1 W10. It comes complete with the red halo that the Mercedes team ran with in that race in tribute to its non-executive chairman and three-time Formula One world champion Niki Lauda, who had passed away in the days leading up to the event. The model is a limited edition of just 1,296 pieces.


Tuesday 25th August

Minichamps recently announced that it will be replicating the 2020 Mercedes AMG GTR Formula One Safety Car in 1:18 scale. The German model company’s 1:18 rendition of the 2019 F1 Safety Car sold out on the day that it arrived with us, so we expect the 2020 version to go the same way, especially with its colourful new ‘We Race As One’ graphics.


Monday 24th August

Today we received a smaller than usual 1:43 delivery from Spark, headlined by the first of its 1967 Eagle replicas: the T1G that Dan Gurney drove to victory in the Race of Champions at Brands Hatch. Also on the shipment were Ove Andersson’s 1971 Monte Carlo Rally winning Alpine A110, and another Gurney model: his winning Lotus 19 from the 1961 Nassau Trophy.


Friday 21st August

Today Spark announced just over a dozen new 1:43 racing car announcements; both classic and modern. Our favourite is probably Jackie Stewart’s Matra MS5 from the 1966 Pau F2 Grand Prix. Stewart actually started the race in the #22 car, but he retired early with fuel injection problems. Consequently his team-mate Jacky Ickx in the #24 machine was instructed to pit and hand his car over to Stewart, the Scot bringing it to the finish in fourth place. Other interesting subjects from this new batch of announcements include the #7 Toyota TS010 that a certain Eddie Irvine, Jacques Villeneuve and Tom Kristensen shared in the 1992 Mine 500 km, and the #6 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 from the 2019 Bathurst 12 Hours that had the really cool red and white ‘circles’ retro livery.


Thursday 20th August

Today we had a new announcement from Minichamps that is bound to appeal to both Formula One and Moto GP fans alike! It is a 1:12 two bike and riding figure set for Valentino Rossi and Lewis Hamilton, from their ‘ride swap’ at the Valencia circuit in Spain towards the end of last year. (Vale also drove a Mercedes F1 car during the day, Minichamps having already announced 1:18 and 1:43 replicas of this). Minichamps has set a pre-order deadline date of the end of next week for this commemorative set, so Friday 28th August. In all likelihood, it will then base the limited edition quantity on the number of orders it has taken at that date, and no more. If you want to be totally assured of receiving an example, you really need to have acted by then.


Wednesday 19th August

We had an absolutely thrilling new announcement today, in the form of a half scale replica of the legendary Jim Clark’s Lotus Formula One helmet from the mid-1960s. It will specifically be of 1965/1966 vintage, featuring a deep blue shell (Pantone 289 to be precise), a white peak with a three-stud fixing, and a cloth strap complete with metal buckle. It will measure about 13cm in height, by the way. The model will be supplied in a soft bag and presented in fully-branded packaging, with a donation from the sale of every example going to The Jim Clark Trust.


Tuesday 18th August

Today we received Cult’s pair of 1:18 replicas of the 1955 Aston Martin DB2-4 Mk.II FHC Notchback. It is available in 2-tone blue and red/beige.


Monday 17th August

There were several new replicas announced by Norev today; in 1:12, 1:18 and 1:43 scale. The most exciting of these is probably a new colour of the iconic 1983 Ford Capri 2.8i in 1:18; namely red. But there are plenty of other new road car announcements to check out too, both classic and modern!


Friday 14th August

Today Burago released its 1:18 replica of the stunning Lamborghini Sian FKP37 in matt green. It comes with a full complement of opening parts, which is amazing value for money when you consider the RRP of just £44.99.


Thursday 13th August

Today we received a new 1:43 delivery from Spark. The hero model on the new shipment was Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes F1 W11 test car from the F1 pre-season test at Barcelona. This, of course, was the last time that the team ran in its traditional silver livery. Other highlights on the new delivery include Derek Daly’s Ensign N179 from the 1979 South African Grand Prix practice, the #25 Porsche 911 GT1 that finished second in the 1996 Le Mans 24 Hours, and Ari Vatanen’s second placed Ford Sierra RS Cosworth from Rally Finland in 1987.


Wednesday 12th August

Today it was Spark’s turn to announce some additions to their 2020 Formula One programme. First up, there will be both 1:18 and 1:43 specials commemorating Lewis Hamilton’s dramatic victory in the British Grand Prix, when he completed the final lap with a punctured left front tyre. We have been informed that, unfortunately, these replicas will not feature a punctured left front tyre; now that would have been something! There will also be 1:18 and 1:43 specials celebrating Max Verstappen’s success in the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix a week later, as well as a 1:43 replica for Force India’s replacement driver Nico Hulkenberg.


Tuesday 11th August

We had an exciting modern 1:18 F1 announcement from Minichamps today, in the form of Lando Norris’s McLaren MCL35 from this year’s season-opening Austrian Grand Prix. This, of course, was the scene of young Lando’s first ever grand prix podium, thanks to a mesmeric performance on the final lap. There haven’t been any 1:18 F1 McLaren replicas for a couple of years now, so this subject is bound to go down extremely well indeed with collectors.


Monday 10th August

Today Tecnomodel announced a quartet of 1:18 replicas of the 1966 Ferrari 312 F1. There will be versions made available for John Surtees, Ludovico Scarfiotti, Lorenzo Bandini and Mike Parkes. 1966 proved to be quite a tumultuous season for the Scuderia. It looked like the team would be able to mount a serious title challenge with Surtees early on, but the 1964 champion quit the Italian outfit after winning the Belgian Grand Prix, ostensibly due to a falling out concerning his place in the Le Mans squad. He then defected to Cooper, and would finish the season second in the standings after taking victory in the season finale in Mexico. Surtees’ exit left Scarfiotti, Bandini and Parkes to share driving duties over the rest of the 1966 campaign. F1 part-timer Scarfiotti only competed in two races that year, but he did take victory in his and the team’s home race at Monza, which was only his fourth ever grand prix. Parkes and Bandini also put in more than respectable performances to score two podiums each over the course of the year.


Friday 31st July

We received a humdinger of a new 1:18 announcement from Tecnomodel today, in the form of the first ever Le Mans 24 Hours winning Bentley, from 1924! The car in question is the 3 Litre Sport, which was driven by John Duff and Frank Clement. Tecnomodel will be modelling it with both the roof on and the roof off. The reason that this Le Mans winner is being modelled with both the roof on and the roof off is that it raced in both of those guises! Under the quirky Le Mans rules that year (which was only the second ever running of the great endurance race), all convertibles had to come into the pits after five laps and have their hoods raised. Then, after running for at least two laps with the hoods up, they had to return to the pits again and have the hoods checked for robustness, before removing them once more. The 1924 running of the race distilled into a battle between the sole Bentley and the three-strong Lorraine-Dietrich effort. In the closing stages the Bentley enjoyed a sizeable lead after the Lorraine-Dietrichs had all experienced various delays, but at its final pit stop it lost half an hour when one of the wheels proved almost impossible to remove. Fortunately the Duff/Clement 3 Litre Sport had just enough in hand to still hang on for a famous victory, and lay the foundation for Bentley’s enduring affinity with Le Mans. Tecnomodel will also be producing a pair of roadgoing 1:18 replicas of the 3 Litre Sport, by the way. These are gloss blue with the roof on, and gloss dark red with the roof off.

The Daily Diecast Digest is going to be taking a summer holiday next week, so normal service will be resumed on Monday 10th August.


Thursday 30th July

Spark announced something rather niche today, in the form of a quintet of 1:43 replicas of 2020 Porsche 911 GT3 R endurance racing showcars for the GPX Racing team. GPX Racing is one of Porsche’s leading teams in the GT Challenge (what used to be Blancpain) series, and for this year it has based its livery on classic Porsche Targa Florio colour schemes of the past, which are known as the Diamond, the Spade and the Club. There are also two mainly black versions from pre-season testing at Paul Ricard. As none of the replicas have any specific drivers assigned to them, they are being termed as showcars. We are probably not going to be holding any stock of these showcar replicas when they are released, so placing your pre-order now is the only way to guarantee that you will be able to get hold of what you want.


Wednesday 29th July

We received a new 1:43 delivery from Spark today, crammed with the usual exciting classic motorsport subjects, and a handful of modern ones too. Highlights include Jackie Stewart’s winning Matra MS10 from the 1968 American Grand Prix, Jack Brabham’s Brabham BT24 with the experimental aeroscreen from the 1967 Italian Grand Prix practice, Sandro Munari’s 1977 Monte Carlo Rally winning Lancia Stratos HF, and some 2020 Toyota WRC cars.


Tuesday 28th July

Today Spark announced that it will be replicating Alfa Romeo reserve driver Robert Kubica’s 2020 helmet. It will be available in both 1:5 and 1:8 scale.


Monday 27th July

Today Tecnomodel released its 1:18 replica of Mike Hawthorn’s 1954 Spanish Grand Prix winning Ferrari 553 Squalo. This car has never been replicated in 1:18 scale before, with Tecnomodel’s rendition being a limited edition of just 220 pieces worldwide. We have a mere eight examples remaining after fulfilling our customer pre-orders.


Friday 24th July

It's Formula One replica news again today, this time from Look Smart, which has just announced both 1:18 and 1:43 replicas of the Ferrari SF1000s that Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel drove in the season-opening Austrian Grand Prix. Leclerc scored an impressive second place in this race, which in truth was probably more than the car deserved on pace, while Vettel finished 10th after a spin.


Thursday 23rd July

Today Spark announced a quartet of 1:18 Alfa Romeos from the 2020 Formula One season. They will be the Barcelona pre-season test cars of Kimi Raikkonen, Antonio Giovinazzi and Robert Kubica, and the C39 that Raikkonen shook down at Fiorano.


Wednesday 22nd July

Today we received BBR’s sumptuous 1:18 replica of the 2019 Ferrari SF90 Stradale in red, which looks absolutely stunning with its contrasting black roof. The model is a limited edition of just 449 pieces worldwide, and was a complete sell-out with BBR before it was even released. We have a mere five examples remaining after fulfilling our customer pre-orders.


Tuesday 21st July

Today Spark gave us an update concerning its 1:5 replica of Lewis Hamilton’s 2020 Mercedes Formula One helmet. You may recall that, at the beginning of the year, Hamilton announced a new helmet design, which was to be mainly white and purple. It was an image of this helmet that we used when we first started marketing this replica. However, Lewis then changed his helmet design once again before the 2020 campaign got underway in Austria; now it was mainly purple and black. Well, Spark has now confirmed that it will be modelling the purple and black helmet, that is to say the version that Hamilton has been using in the races this year.


Monday 20th July

Today was one of those days when we received a complete deluge of new 1:43 announcements from Spark; over 50 of them! Highlights from this batch include Jim Clark’s third placed Lotus 15 from the 1961 Dutch Grand Prix, the Porsche 718 RS that Stirling Moss and Graham Hill shared in the 1961 Targa Florio, and Jackie Stewart’s winning Matra MS80. There’s loads more worth taking a look at though, so make sure you check them all out.


Friday 17th July

Hot on the heels of Spark, Minichamps today announced its own line-up of 2020 Formula One race car replicas! Minichamps has announced models in both 1:18 and 1:43 scale. It is the Mercedes, Red Bull and Racing Point teams that will have their 2020 machines replicated in both sizes, so that means that fans of Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas, Max Verstappen, Alexander Albon, Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll are covered, whichever scale they collect. In 1:43 only we will see replicas for the drivers of McLaren (Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz Jnr), Alfa Romeo (Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi), Renault (Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon), AlphaTauri (Pierre Gasly and Daniil Kvyat), Haas (Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean) and Williams (George Russell and Nicholas Latifi). Minichamps has the exclusive licence for the latter two teams, so you will not be able to find replicas of their drivers from anyone else.


Thursday 16th July

Today Spark announced its first 2020 Formula One race car replicas in 1:43 scale. Of course, there will be replicas for the first two race winners of the new season, so chronologically that’s Valtteri Bottas’s winning Mercedes from the opening Austrian Grand Prix, and team-mate Lewis Hamilton’s victorious steed from the following Styrian Grand Prix. Also bound to go down a storm with collectors is the Lando Norris Austria McLaren, as the youngster famously scored his first podium thanks to a stunning final lap of the race. The other 2020 F1 cars that Spark has so far confirmed 1:43 2020 race replicas of are for Norris’s McLaren team-mate Carlos Sainz Jnr, and then the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Alexander Albon, the Racing Points of Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll, the Renaults of Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon, and the AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly.


Wednesday 15th July

It’s Look Smart making the news again today, as we have just received its 1:18 replicas of the 1990 Ferrari F1 641s of Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell. The Prost model is from the French Grand Prix, when he took Ferrari’s 100th grand prix victory. The Mansell car is from the Portuguese Grand Prix, which was the Englishman’s only win of the season.


Tuesday 14th July

Today we received Look Smart’s 1:18 replica of Charles Leclerc’s 2019 Belgian Grand Prix winning Ferrari SF90. This of course, was the young Monegasque’s first ever grand prix victory. We only have four examples remaining after fulfilling our customer pre-orders, while the Look Smart 1:18 Leclerc Italian Grand Prix winning Ferrari, which also arrived today, is already completely sold out.


Monday 13th July

Today IXO announced its latest 1:18 classic rally car replica, which is the 1986 Group B Peugeot 205 T16. There will be models for Juha Kankkunen, Timo Salonen and Bruno Saby. 1986 was the final year for the fearsome Group B regulations, with Kankkunen defeating the Lancia of Markku Alen to secure the first of his four world titles. He scored three victories that year. His team-mates also enjoyed a successful campaign, with reigning champion Salonen taking two wins to end the season third in the points, and Saby taking the first WRC victory of his career, in France. These 1:18 IXO replicas continue the brand’s tradition of excellent value for money, with a RRP of just £69.99 each.


Friday 10th July

Today Spark completed its whitewash of the week’s diecast news by announcing some 15 new 1:43 replicas. These vary from 1960s Formula 2 cars for the likes of Jacky Ickx and Jo Schlesser to several classic endurance racers. These are all limited edition ‘foreign market’ specials, so make sure that you get your pre-order in for anything that you like the look of to avoid missing out.


Thursday 9th July

Today we received our absolutely mammoth new delivery from Spark, which was littered with exciting 1:18 and 1:43 releases. Highlights in the larger scale included the Lewis Hamilton 2019 Formula One world championship winning special and Jim Clark’s 1965 British Grand Prix winning Lotus 33. In 1:43 the standouts were the Aston Martin DBR1 that Clark and Roy Salvadori took to a third place finish in the 1960 Le Mans 24 Hours, and Perry McCarthy’s Andrea Moda S921 from the 1992 Monaco Grand Prix.


Wednesday 8th July

Spark is really dominating the news this week, and today we have another Jim Clark replica from the resin model specialist to tell you about. It is the 1:43 #7 Aston Martin DBR1 that Clark shared with Roy Salvadori to take a third place finish in the 1960 Le Mans 24 Hours, which is due to arrive with us in the next couple of days. There’s nothing more popular than a replica of a Jim Clark racing machine, so do not delay if you haven’t yet got your order in for it.


Tuesday 7th July

We received a pleasant surprise from Spark today, as we were informed that we had been granted an extra couple of dozen pieces of its 1:18 replica of Jim Clark’s 1965 British Grand Prix winning Lotus 33, which we are due to receive in the very near future. For the last few weeks we have had this model down as sold out to customer pre-orders, so we are delighted that we are now in a position to allow a few more collectors the opportunity to acquire this replica.


Monday 6th July

We received notice from Spark today that we will receive an absolutely humongous new delivery of 1:18 replicas in the next few days. The chief model on the shipment will be the 1:18 Lewis Hamilton 2019 world championship winning special from last year’s American Grand Prix. Spark has really gone to town with this celebratory replica, providing a whole host of accessories with it. To start with, the 1:18 recreation of Lewis Hamilton’s second placed Mercedes F1 W10 from the American Grand Prix sits on the ‘Reserved parking for 2019 World Champion’ platform that the Englishman drove onto in parc ferme after the race. Also included is the World Champion board that he pulled up in front of, as well as two celebratory pit boards that his Mercedes team made up; one commemorating his title success, and one celebrating the first time in F1 history that a team had won six consecutive drivers’ and constructors’ championship doubles. Finally, there are the trophies that the team won in the race. You get all this for £154.99, which is only £5 more than the price of a standard Spark 1:18 replica, so this special really does represent excellent value for money.


Friday 3rd July

Spark treated us to a new 1:43 delivery today to end the week. There was one very desirable replica in particular on it, in the form of Gunnar Nilsson’s Lotus 77 from the 1976 Austrian Grand Prix. Nilsson made his F1 debut that season, scoring his first podium in just his third world championship event, with a third place finish in the Spanish Grand Prix at Jarama. He then repeated that result at the Osterreichring.


Thursday 2nd July

Today we snapped up the last three examples of Tecnomodel’s 1:18 replica of the 1955 Le Mans 24 Hours winning Jaguar D-Type, as driven by Mike Hawthorn and Ivor Bueb. This model was completely sold out to pre-orders, but after a handful of cancellations these three units were freed up. So, for a very limited time, you still have an opportunity to add this replica to your collection!


Wednesday 1st July

Today TrueScale Miniatures announced 1:43 replicas of all four works Bentley Continental GT3s that competed in the 2019 Spa 24 Hours. 2019 was the centenary year for Bentley, so the team went all out, entering two pairs of special colour schemes to commemorate the anniversary.


Tuesday 30th June

Tecnomodel has just announced what will surely be a contender for the most popular model of 2020. It is the McLaren M8F Can-Am car in 1:18. The two works McLarens of Peter Revson and Denny Hulme dominated the 1971 Can-Am season, winning eight of the 10 races between them (the Lola T260 of Jackie Stewart won the other two). Crucially, Revson took five of those victories, against three for Hulme. This allowed the American to take the title by just 10 points; 142 to 132. Stewart was next on 76. On the last two occasions that Tecnomodel has replicated 1:18 McLaren Can-Am cars, they have completely sold out within days of being announced. There are no two ways about it; if you don’t want to miss out on either of these two eye-catching orange monsters, you need to place your pre-order now. Tecnomodel will also be producing two privateer versions of the M8F. These are the #8 machine that Helmut Kelleners took to a third place finish in the 1972 Nurburgring Interserie race, and the #2 variant that Gregg Young campaigned in Can-Am the same year.


Monday 29th June

We received a new delivery from Minichamps today to start off the week, headlined by its 1:18 replicas of the Sauber C9s from the 1988 Le Mans 24 Hours. Or, to be more precise, from Le Mans 24 Hours practice and qualifying, as the team withdrew from the event after a series of tyre failures leading up to the race. The team ran an awesome livery that year though, so these replicas have still proved very popular with collectors.


Friday 26th June

Spark has just announced half a dozen 1:43 replicas of cars from the 2019 World Rallycross Championship. Of course, there will be a car for last year’s World Rallycross Champion Timmy Hansen, as well as one for his brother Kevin. The other WRX stars to have their 2019 cars replicated are Andreas Bakkerud, Liam Doran, Mattias Ekstrom and Krisztian Szabo. We will probably not be holding any stock of these models when they are released, so a pre-order will be necessary if you want any of these.


Thursday 25th June

Today we have big news for all the Fernando Alonso fans out there (for we know there are many), as Greenlight has just confirmed that it will be replicating the Spaniard’s mount from this year’s forthcoming Indianapolis 500 in 1:18 scale! (Please note that we are currently using an image of Alonso’s 2019 Indy 500 car until his 2020 steed is launched). Now, if you are an Alonso fan, and are planning to purchase this replica regardless of where he finishes, then you really need to act now. The Alonso car is always the most popular amongst collectors; even last year when he didn’t even qualify! Consequently it always sells out the most quickly. If you decide to wait until the weekend of the race and see where the versatile Spaniard finishes before placing your pre-order, then you could well be too late. Please heed this warning!


Wednesday 24th June

Today Matrix announced a plethora of new 1:43 subjects, with the headliner being the beautiful Maserati Birdcage Tipo 61. Matrix will be producing three derivatives of it, all of which were driven by the legendary Stirling Moss. There will be the #5 machine that he and Dan Gurney shared to win the 1960 Nurburgring 1000 km, the #23 car that the same duo drove in the Sebring 12 Hours that year, and the #7 example that Moss drove to victory in the Cuba Grand Prix. Other highlights from the new Matrix 1:43 announcements include the 1967 Ford GT40 Mk.III, the 1956 Ferrari 410 Superamerica Pininfarina, and the 1954 Aston Martin DB2-4 Vignale.


Tuesday 23rd June

Today IXO announced a trio of 1:18 replicas of the Colibri-backed Ford Escort RS 1600 Mk1s from the 1974 RAC Rally. There will be cars for event winner Timo Makinen, as well as his team-mates Markku Alen and Hannu Mikkola, who failed to reach the finish. As an RAC Rally winning machine that has never been replicated in 1:18 scale before, we can see the Makinen version in particular going down very well indeed with collectors.


Monday 22nd June

We start the week with yet another new 1:43 delivery from Spark, headlined by its 1:43 replica of 1966 Formula One world champion Jack Brabham’s Brabham BT19 from that year’s Dutch Grand Prix. That race was one of four wins (all consecutive) that ‘Black Jack’ took that season to secure his third and final world title. It was also, of course, the only time that a Formula One champion drove his own make of car, a feat that will probably never be repeated.


Friday 19th June

Today Minichamps announced an exciting subject that transcends both Formula One and Moto GP collectors! It is the Mercedes F1 W10 that Valentino Rossi drove in his famous ‘Ride Swap’ with Lewis Hamilton at the Valencia circuit in December last year, which will be available in both 1:18 and 1:43 scale. Unfortunately, Minichamps has not announced a corresponding 1:12 replica of the Yamaha YZR-M1 that Lewis Hamilton rode on the same day! Hopefully this omission will be corrected soon!


Thursday 18th June

Today IXO announced three 1:18 replicas of the iconic 1983 Lanica 037 Rally. They are for Walter Rohrl, Markku Alen and Attilio Bettega, and are all from the gruelling Acropolis Rally, which Rohrl won that year.


Wednesday 17th June

Spark have been busy once again, today confirming almost 50 new 1:43 announcements! Top of the stack in this tranche of new subjects is Innes Ireland’s winning Lotus 21 from the 1961 American Grand Prix. This was, of course, Team Lotus’s first ever world championship grand prix victory. It doesn’t get much more significant than that, so this 1:43 replica is bound to go down well with collectors. Other highlights include the 1981 Lotus 88 presentation car that includes a Colin Chapman figure, and Ronnie Peterson’s 1969 Lotus 59 F2 car. There are of course a myriad of other classic F1, Le Mans and rally cars too!


Tuesday 16th June

Today TopSpeed treated us to a first look of its 1:18 replica of the stunning Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato Shooting Brake in Lava Red. TopSpeed first announced this 1:18 replica a couple of years ago, and we have now been told to expect to see it released in September.


Monday 15th June

Today Spark announced that it will be reproducing its 1:43 replica of the #6 Lola Mk.6 GT that Richard Attwood and David Hobbs campaigned in the 1963 Le Mans 24 Hours. Spark first produced this model a couple of years ago, with it selling out instantly on release. Of course, we sold all our examples at the correct RRP, but a couple of the less scrupulous vendors (the usual suspects!) kept some back to sell on eBay at an inflated price. Make that a highly inflated price, because as of this morning it was being listed for between £190 and £399.99! But, for a limited time, you will be able to acquire an example from Diecast Legends for the much more reasonable outlay of £59.99. Not that you have long to take advantage of this second chance and avoid shelling out your hard-earned money to the eBay scalpers, as Spark has only given us until 2.00pm tomorrow to place our confirmed order for the reproduction of this model. That’s tomorrow as in Tuesday 16th June! Just make sure that you get your order in by then, and you will be able to acquire this very significant subject from Le Mans history for your collection, as well as save a small fortune in the process!


Friday 12th June

BBR announced another 1:18 replica of an iconic classic racing Ferrari today. This time, it is the #19 Ferrari 250 GTO from the 1962 Le Mans 24 Hours. Driven by Jean Guichet and Pierre Noblet, the car won the GT class and finished in a highly impressive second position overall. BBR has limited this model to just 200 pieces worldwide, and it has unsurprisingly been an instant sell-out with the Italian model manufacturer. We have managed to secure just six units, so you will need to move quickly if you want to avail yourself of one of those.


Thursday 11th June

We received a new 1:43 shipment from Spark today, which unusually was dominated by touring car subjects. We received Andy Rouse’s and Tim Harvey’s Ford Sierra RS500s from the Macau Guia race in 1988 and 1989 respectively, and the Aston Martin Vantages of Paul di Resta and Jake Dennis from last year’s DTM series.


Wednesday 10th June

Today BBR announced a really exciting new 1:18 replica, which is the Ferrari 250 GTO that Stirling Moss tested at Monza in 1961. Willy Mairesse also drove the metallic grey/silver car. This was the second prototype of the vehicle, and Moss proved that it had great potential by lapping the Italian circuit in a faster time than a 250 GT SWB had ever managed. Obviously, as this is a replica of a Stirling Moss car, demand is going to be high. And, as the car is going to be modelled by BBR, we know that it is going to look absolutely sumptuous, and demand is bound to be greater still. Therefore the 300 pieces that BBR has stated that this model is going to be limited to are bound to be snapped up in a heartbeat, so do not delay in placing your pre-order.


Tuesday 9th June

In the next few days we are due to receive Spark’s quartet of 1:43 replicas of Aston Martin Vantages from the 2019 DTM season. The Daniel Juncadella and Ferdinand Habsburg versions are already sold out to customer pre-orders, while we currently only have a couple spare of the Paul di Resta and Jake Dennis variants from our allocation. Therefore you can’t afford to hang about if you haven’t already got your order placed.


Monday 8th June

Cult announced a new 1:18 classic road car replica today, in the form of the 1955 Aston Martin DB2-4 Mk.II FHC Notchback. It will be available in 2-tone blue and red/beige. We have been given a very short lead time with this new subject, as the models have already been produced and are due to arrive with us next month. It is therefore essential to get your pre-order in now to avoid missing out, as classic Astons are always a big deal for collectors and demand could easily outstrip supply with these.


Friday 5th June

Classic race car transporter replicas always go down well here, so today we were excited to receive IXO’s 1:43 model of the Volvo F88 as utilised by the Lotus Formula One team in the 1980s! At just £76.99 it represents excellent value for money.


Thursday 4th June

We received a bumper new delivery from Norev today, containing both 1:18 and 1:43 subjects. From a 1:18 replica of the 1969 Chevrolet Corvette in metallic green to a 1:43 rendition of the 2018 Ford Focus RS in metallic orange, and plenty more besides, collectors of both classic and modern road car replicas are well catered for with this shipment.


Wednesday 3rd June

Today we received Matrix’s pair of 1:43 replicas of the one-off AC A98 Le Mans car. It is available in plain green, and as the #3 car that competed in the race in 1964, as driven by Jack Sears and Peter Bolton.


Tuesday 2nd June

Today we received a new 1:43 delivery from Spark, which is always a pleasure! Highlights on today’s shipment include Ronnie Peterson’s March 721X from the 1972 Belgian Grand Prix, Mario Andretti’s Parnelli VPJ4 from the 1975 Swedish Grand Prix, and Alain Prost’s McLaren MP4/2 from the 1984 German Grand Prix. And, of course, much, much more!


Monday 1st June

Today we received our exclusively commissioned 1:18 replica of the 1957 Le Mans 24 Hours winning Jaguar D-Type, as driven by Ron Flockhart and Ivor Bueb, resplendent in its Ecurie Ecosse blue. It’s been completely sold out to pre-orders for some time now, so we can’t accept any more orders for it, but we just thought we’d let you know that it’s arrived!


Friday 29th May

Today we received AUTOart’s trio of 1:18 replicas of the 2016 Pagani Huayra BC. It is available in three two-tone colours: blue/carbon blue, purple/carbon and red/carbon. Although AUTOart has championed the sealed bodyshell format over the years, it has clearly gone the extra mile with this 1:18 replica. The front and rear bodywork both open as they do on the real car, revealing all the mechanical components underneath. The doors also open to reveal all the carbon detailing within the cockpit.


Thursday 28th May

Today Spark announced a pair of 1:8 helmet replicas for 2020 Alfa Romeo F1 drivers Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi. These come up in size a little larger than a golf ball, by the way. We will probably not be holding any stock of these when they are released, so a pre-order is the only way to be certain of adding these to your collection.


Wednesday 27th May

Today Spark announced six 1:18 replicas of classic Porsches from the Le Mans 24 Hours. There are two Gulf 917Ks from the 1970 Le Mans 24 Hours, the winning 1977 Porsche 936 of Jacky Ickx, Jurgen Barth and Hurley Haywood, two 936s from 1978, and the 936 of Ickx and Derek Bell that won the 1981 edition of the event.


Tuesday 26th May

Another day, another awesome piece of motorsport memorabilia hand-signed by a British Formula One world champion! Today, it is a half-scale replica of Jackie Stewart’s 1969 Matra helmet, hand-signed by the three-time Formula One world champion. And what’s more, it’s already in stock with us! 1969, of course, was the year in which Stewart secured the first of his three world titles. This half-scale helmet replica measures some 13cm in height. It is a limited edition of just 250 pieces worldwide, with proceeds of the profits going to Jackie’s Race Against Dementia charity. There aren’t many opportunities to acquire something like this these days!


Friday 22nd May

Today we have something a little bit different, and more than a little bit special, to tell you about. It is a full-size replica of the steering wheel from Nigel Mansell’s 1992 Formula One world championship winning Williams FW14B, hand-signed by the great man himself! The replica measures some 27cm across, and comes complete with its own display stand. It is an individually numbered limited edition of, appropriately, just 92 pieces worldwide. We will be in a position to despatch this special piece of memorabilia in the next few days. Don’t think about it for too long though!


Thursday 21st May

Today BBR announced its latest 1:18 replica of a classic Le Mans Ferrari. It is the #27 330 P3 Spider from the 1966 edition of the race, as driven by Pedro Rodriguez and Richie Ginther. We like the touch of the blue tape to protect the headlights! This model is limited to just 250 pieces worldwide, and was sold out within moments of BBR announcing it. We were able to acquire a mere 10 units, which we expect to be snapped up by our customers extremely quickly.


Wednesday 20th May

Today Look Smart got in on the act of announcing replicas from the big 2020 Formula One pre-season test at Barcelona, joining Spark and Minichamps in that regard. The Italian model manufacturer has confirmed 1:18 and 1:43 replicas of the Ferrari SF1000s for both Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel, so that means that all the teams are now represented.


Tuesday 19th May

Today we received the half scale replica of Charles Leclerc’s 2020 Ferrari Formula One helmet. For those of you not in the know, a half scale helmet replica comes in at about 13cm in height. We sold out of Leclerc’s 2019 half scale helmet before it was even released, so we do not expect the spare stock that we currently have of his 2020 version to hang around for long.


Monday 18th May

After a bit of a hiatus during the coronavirus pandemic, Tecnomodel today announced its first new 1:18 replica in quite some time. It is the 1977 Porsche 936 Le Mans car. The most popular version amongst collectors will no doubt be the #4 example that won the 1977 Le Mans 24 Hours, in the hands of Jacky Ickx, Jurgen Barth and Hurley Haywood. Tecnomodel will also be producing the #3 variant as driven by Ickx and Henri Pescarolo, as well as the car in plain white and matt black These models are all subject to Tecnomodel’s usual ridiculously low limited edition numbers.


Friday 15th May

Spark well and truly spoiled us today, by announcing over 50 new 1:43 replicas! And what’s more, most of them are classic Formula One and Le Mans cars, our favourite! If we had to pick a favourite from this delectable selection, then we would probably plump for Jackie Stewart’s victorious Matra MS80 from the 1969 Italian Grand Prix. Not only was it a famously close race, with the top four covered by just 0.19 seconds, but the win also secured Stewart the first of his three world titles. It doesn’t get much more significant than that! There are also classic F1 cars for the likes of John Surtees, Riccardo Patrese, Jan Lammers, and more. We also like Jochen Rindt’s F2 Lotus from 1969. As far as Le Mans cars go, there are subjects for Allan McNish and Martin Brundle amongst others, while the classic Targa Florio is also represented this time round. If touring cars are your thing then there are Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworths for Robb Gravett and Andy Rouse, while collectors of rally and road car replicas will also find something worth looking at. Thanks Spark, you’ve catered for everyone!


Thursday 14th May

Today we received a new 1:43 delivery from Spark that was completely dominated by classic Formula One cars! We’re talking subjects like Niki Lauda’s 1984 British GP McLaren, James Hunt’s 1973 American GP March, two Parnellis for Mario Andretti from the mid 1970s, and more. You can click here to see all of Spark’s most recent new releases.


Wednesday 13th May

We have just received the second delivery of Minichamps’ 1:43 special commemorating Lewis Hamilton clinching the 2019 Formula One world championship at last year’s American Grand Prix. This means that you can now purchase it from stock for immediate despatch, as our initial shipment was completely consumed by customer pre-orders. The replica comes in a standard 1:43 Minichamps display case, with the world Champion platform that Lewis parked on after the race printed on the base. It is a limited edition of, appropriately, 2019 pieces worldwide!


Tuesday 12th May

Today Spark announced that it will be reproducing its 1:43 replica of the #85 Keating Motorsports Ford GT from last year’s Le Mans 24 Hours. This, of course, was the car that initially took victory in the GTE Am class of the race, only to be excluded the day afterwards due to an issue with the fuel tank. It was driven by Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Felipe Fraga. We had considered that demand would not be that high for this model, as we reckoned that the car’s disqualification would dampen collectors’ enthusiasm for it. However, we sold out of our first shipment on the day that it arrived with us last week. Spark must have also felt that it had underestimated the demand for this replica, which is why it has announced that it will be producing another batch of it.


Monday 11th May

Today Minichamps released its pair of 1:43 Williams FW42 replicas for George Russell and Robert Kubica from the 2019 Formula One season. The team may have finished a clear last in the constructors’ standings last year, but it is still one of the most popular outfits on the grid. This is evidenced by both of these replicas being an instant sell-out on release with Minichamps, although we currently have a few examples of each driver spare after fulfilling our customer pre-orders.


Thursday 7th May

Today Spark announced its line-up of 1:5 helmet replicas for the 2020 Formula One drivers. (These replicas measure approx. 6cm in height, by the way, and come presented in their own display case). Of course, Lewis Hamilton’s new 2020 lid is featured, complete with its new purple theme. His team-mate Valtteri Bottas is also represented. The other teams to have both of their drivers’ helmets replicated in 1:5 are McLaren (Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz Jnr), Alfa Romeo (Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi), Renault (Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon) and Racing Point (Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll). We will then also see 1:5 helmet recreations for Red Bull’s Alexander Albon and Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly.


Wednesday 6th May

Today we received BBR’s sumptuous 1:18 replica of the GTE Pro winning Ferrari 488 GTE from the 2019 Le Mans 24 Hours. The car was driven by James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Daniel Serra. The model is a limited edition of just 248 pieces worldwide, and was a complete sell-out with BBR before it was even released. As for us, we have a mere three pieces left in our warehouse after fulfilling our customer pre-orders.


Tuesday 5th May

Today Spark announced that it will be reproducing its 1:5 replica of Lewis Hamilton’s 2019 Mercedes helmet. It is specifically the lid that he donned when he took victory in the British Grand Prix, coming complete with the Union Jack decoration on the top. This model was initially a complete sell-out with us within moments of arriving in our warehouse last year. If you missed out then, make sure that you take advantage of this second opportunity now.


Monday 4th May

No doubt influenced by the recent release of the Le Mans ’66 movie, Spark today announced five 1:18 Ford GT40 replicas from 1966. Two of these are re-releases, while the other three are being replicated in 1:18 for the first time by the model manufacturer. The key re-release is the winning Mk.II from Le Mans 1966, as driven by Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon. With some people asking up to £400 on eBay for the original version, this is a great opportunity to add this model to your collection for considerably less than that. We will then see Spark 1:18 replicas for the first time of the second placed Ken Miles/Denny Hulme car, and the third placed Ronnie Bucknum/Dick Hutcherson machine. Another re-release is the winning Ken Miles/Lloyd Ruby car from the Daytona 24 Hours that year, while the GT40 X1 roadster that the same duo took to victory in the Sebring 12 Hours will be replicated in 1:18 scale for the first time.


Friday 1st May

Today Look Smart released its pair of 1:43 replicas commemorating Charles Leclerc’s first ever two grand prix victories, which were secured just a week apart in the 2019 Belgian and Italian Grands Prix. Both were emotional affairs for the young Monegasque; his Belgian win followed the death of his friend Anthoine Hubert just the day before in a Formula 2 race, while he took the victory in Italy in his first race for Ferrari on its home turf.


Thursday 30th April

Today IXO announced a trio of 1:18 replicas of the fearsome Group B Lancia Delta S4 from 1986, as driven by rallying legends Henri Toivonen, Markku Alen and Miki Biasion. These three models are all from the Monte Carlo Rally, which Toivonen won that year. He would tragically lose his life later in the season, along with co-driver Sergio Cresto, in a violent accident on the French round of the championship. IXO’s 1:18 rally replicas always represent excellent value and always sell out quickly, so you will need to get your pre-order in quickly if you don’t want to miss out on these.


Wednesday 29th April

Today Spark informed us that its 1:18 replica of Jim Clark’s 1965 British GP winning Lotus 33 is just about to leave China on a sea shipment. This means that it is scheduled to arrive with us at some point in July. As this replica was first announced last summer, we have long since passed Spark’s ‘order deadline guarantee’ for it. As the model is ready to ship, the production quantity is completed, and cannot be added to. And although we currently still have a few examples spare after taking into account our customer pre-orders that have already been placed, we very much expect this model to be a complete sell-out by the time we receive it. If you haven’t pre-ordered it yet, then you really do need to get a move on.


Tuesday 28th April

Spark has absolutely peppered our warehouse with new deliveries since last week, so we have plenty of new releases from the resin model specialist to tell you about. From classic racing cars like the Lotus Elite that the great Jim Clark raced at Brands Hatch in 1958 and Mario Andretti’s 1976 Japanese Grand Prix winning Lotus, through to some of last year’s Le Mans cars, there are plenty of subjects covered.


Monday 27th April

Today Spark announced that it is going to be reproducing its 1:43 special celebrating Lewis Hamilton’s 2019 Formula One world championship success in last year’s American Grand Prix. The first shipment of this special arrived in our warehouse last week, and was sold out literally within hours of turning up. We then received countless phone calls and emails from collectors begging to be allocated an example, especially with it already trading on eBay for £99.99, some £35 more than its RRP. We were unfortunately unable to help then, but Spark has now come to the rescue by confirming that it will be reproducing the model in the summer. Now, there is something important that you need to know about this re-release. Although Spark has been quick to agree to re-manufacture the model, so that collectors who missed out first time around will now have an opportunity to add it to their collection, the company has given us very little time to place our second order. In fact, we have to confirm our final quantity for this reproduction by 2.00pm tomorrow; that’s tomorrow as in Tuesday 28th April! So you need to act immediately to avoid missing out a second time.


Friday 24th April

Today Spark announced its range of 1:43 replicas from the 2020 World Rally Championship. It may not have a Hyundai licence, but it has made up for that with a whole host of 2020 WRC subjects from Toyota and Ford, plus an Abarth 124 from the Monte Carlo Rally!


Thursday 23rd April

Today Spark announced that it will be producing the 2020 Formula One cars for the Mercedes and Red Bull teams in 1:18 scale, as they ran in the Barcelona pre-season test. So, that’s 1:18 replicas for Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas, Max Verstappen and Alexander Albon. Spark has initially given us a release date of early autumn for these models.


Wednesday 22nd April

Today we received Spark’s 1:43 replica commemorating Lewis Hamilton’s 2019 Formula One world championship success, which he secured at the American Grand Prix. Spark has really gone to town with this celebratory replica, providing a whole host of accessories with it. The 1:43 model of Hamilton’s second-placed Mercedes F1 W10 from the Austin race sits on the base of a larger display case than usual for a Spark 1:43 replica, in order to accommodate the ‘Reserved parking for 2019 World Champion’ platform that he drove onto in parc ferme after the finish. Also included is the World Champion platform that he pulled up in front of, as well as two celebratory pit boards that his team made up; one commemorating his success in the world championship, and one celebrating the first time in F1 history that a team had won six consecutive drivers’ and constructors’ championship doubles. Finally, there are the trophies that the team won in the race. You get all this for £64.99, which is just £5 more than the price of a standard 1:43 replica, so it really does represent excellent value for money. We have very few left after fulfilling our customer pre-orders though, so you will need to be quick!


Tuesday 21st April

Today Spark announced a 1:18 replica of Ronnie Peterson’s six-wheeled Tyrrell P34 from the 1977 Formula One season. ‘Superswede’ scored a best result of third place during the year, which he attained at the Belgian Grand Prix.


Monday 20th April

Today Look Smart announced a 1:18 replica of Eric van de Poele’s 1991 Lamborghini 291 F1 car, which represents a second chance of sorts for collectors. This is because, a couple of years ago, Look Smart replicated the car of van de Poele’s team-mate, Nicola Larini, in 1:18. The model was such a hit that it was an instant sell-out on release, leaving many collectors unable to obtain an example for their collection. So now, there is another opportunity. The replica is specifically modelled on van de Poele’s car from the 1991 San Marino Grand Prix, which was probably the 291’s finest hour. Van de Poele had hauled the car of the little Modena Lamborghini team up to an astonishing fifth place, only to agonisingly retire with just a few laps to go, thanks to a fuel pump problem.


Friday 17th April

Today Minichamps, like Spark a couple of weeks ago, announced its line-up of 1:43 2020 F1 replicas. Minichamps has positioned its models as launch cars, as opposed to specifically saying that they are from the Barcelona pre-season test like Spark has done, but they are essentially the same thing. Minichamps is replicating the cars for every team on the 2020 grid except Ferrari, and has the exclusive licence for the Williams and Haas teams, as Spark will not be replicating these. We have been told to expect to see these 2020 launch cars coming through in the autumn. It is likely that supply is going to be kept extremely tight with these, as no-one is going to want to risk sitting on excess stock, especially if we have a worst case scenario of no racing happening at all this year. If you don’t want to end up with a hole in your collection, then your safest bet is to place your pre-order for what you want now.


Thursday 16th April

Today we received a humongous new delivery from Norev, consisting of just over 30 new releases, with most of them in 1:18 scale. From several versions of the 2018 Citroen C3 WRC rally car in 1:18, to the 1980 Morgan Plus 8 in red in 1:43, and with plenty in between, there’s plenty to check out!


Wednesday 15th April

Today Spark announced a whole host of new announcements in 1:43 scale, which are all due to be released in the late summer/early autumn. As usual, there is a fantastic mix of classic and modern F1, race and rally cars, and a couple of road cars too. You can click here to see all of Spark’s latest new announcements, with the first 30 on show being today’s tranche. Our favourite is probably Jack Brabham’s Brabham BT24 from the 1967 Italian Grand Prix free practice. In that session the car ran with a distinctive aeroscreen that went right along the cockpit to just in front of Brabham’s head. The concept wasn’t used in the race, but it certainly created a big talking point. Other highlights include the original Stig from Top Gear’s, or Perry McCarthy’s, Andrea Moda from the 1992 Monaco Grand Prix, and the Porsche 962C in which Jo Gartner lost his life during the 1986 Le Mans 24 Hours.


Tuesday 14th April

Today Spark informed us that we will see a 1:43 replica of one of Jim Clark’s racing cars released in the next few days. It is the Lotus Elite that the Scotsman took to a second place finish in the 1958 National GT race at Brands Hatch. The event was won by a certain Colin Chapman!


Thursday 9th April

Today CMC confirmed that it will be reproducing its 1:18 replica of Rudolf Caracciola’s winning Mercedes SSKL from the 1931 Mille Miglia. It first produced this model back in 2006, but it will be completely retooling it from scratch, in order to make as perfect a 1:18 recreation of the car as it possibly can. We can’t wait to see this updated and improved version!

And as it’s the day before Good Friday, Happy Easter everyone!


Wednesday 8th April

Spark has just confirmed its 1:43 replicas from this year’s running of the Bathurst 12 Hours, which over the last few years has cemented its reputation as one of the world’s most prestigious GT races. The resin model specialist will be producing seven key cars from the race, although not the winning Continental GT3, as it does not possess a Bentley licence. It is unlikely that we will be holding any stock of these models once they are released, so you will need to pre-order what you want to be sure of getting hold of it.


Tuesday 7th April

Today Look Smart released its quartet of 1:43 replicas of the Ferrari 312 B2 from the 1972 Formula One season. The cars in question are Jacky Ickx’s winning car from the German Grand Prix, Mario Andretti’s fourth placed machine from the South African Grand Prix, Clay Regazzoni’s fourth placed example from the Argentinian Grand Prix, and Nanni Galli’s 13th placed 312 B2 from the French Grand Prix.


Monday 6th April

Today Spark confirmed that it will be replicating the trio of Audi R8 LMS GT cars that competed in the 2018 California 8 Hours in 1:43 scale. These vehicles featured a ‘combination’ livery that produced an American flag Stars and Stripes effect when they were lined up alongside each other. Unfortunately, the team just missed out on a dream podium sweep in the race. The #29 car of Mies, Haase and van der Linde won the race, with the #19 machine of Frijns, Vanthoor and Winkelhock backing them up in second place, but the #17 R8 of Riberas, van der Linde and Leonard slightly let the side down in fifth position.


Friday 3rd April

Today we received a bumper new delivery from Spark, with some 40 different new 1:43 releases on it. About half of these are already sold out to our customer pre-orders, but there is still a good selection remaining, covering the usual mix of F1 and endurance racing subjects, from both the modern and classic eras.


Thursday 2nd April

Spark surprised us today by announcing its full range of 1:43 2020 Formula One cars, as they ran in the pre-season test at Barcelona. This is a good move from Spark, as it will allow fans of the drivers and teams in question to keep their collections going, even if the unthinkable happens and there ends up being no racing at all this year. Spark’s licences for 2020 are for the Mercedes, Red Bull, McLaren, Alfa Romeo, Renault, AlphaTauri and Racing Point teams, so that’s quite a few drivers covered. Away from the regular race drivers, there will also be 1:43 replicas for Alfa Romeo reserve driver Robert Kubica from Barcelona, as well as Kimi Raikkonen’s shakedown car from Fiorano in its one-off Valentines Day livery. Spark has currently slated a release date of late summer for these models, and has guaranteed to fulfil all pre-orders that are placed for them by next Tuesday, the 7th April. So, get your name down for what you want by then, and you will be covered.


Wednesday 1st April

IXO announced something a little different today, in terms of a pair of 1:43 transporters from the 2019 World Rally Championship. They will be produced for the Toyota and Hyundai WRC teams.


Tuesday 31st March

Today we finally received the announcement that all DTM and Aston Martin fans have been waiting for; that Spark will be replicating all four Aston Martin Vantages that raced in the 2019 DTM series, in both 1:18 and 1:43 scale! So, that’s the cars for Paul di Resta, Jake Dennis, Daniel Juncadella and Ferdinand Habsburg. It wasn’t an official works Aston Martin effort per se, with the cars run by the R Motorsport outfit, and the team generally struggled to match the much-better funded manufacturer operations of Audi and BMW. The drivers performed more than respectably though, scoring several points finishes between them, and as Aston Martin replicas always go down well with our customers, we can see these models being over-subscribed. Spark has guaranteed to fulfil all pre-orders that are placed for them by this Friday, however, the 3rd April, so make sure that you’ve pre-ordered what you want by then and there will be no chance of you missing out.


Monday 30th March

Today BBR informed us that we will see its 1:18 replica of Steve McQueen’s chestnut brown Ferrari 250 GT Lusso released in the next few days. It is a limited edition of just 180 pieces worldwide, and we currently have a mere four examples spare after fulfilling our exiting customer pre-orders!


Friday 27th March

Today Minichamps presented us with a first model image of its 1:12 Valentino Rossi bike and figure special from the 2018 Catalunya Moto GP. The rider figure is holding an Andreas Perez flag, as Rossi did on the slowing down lap after finishing third, in tribute to the 14 year old who had lost his life in a Moto 3 Junior race earlier that weekend.


Thursday 26th March

Today Look Smart released its 1:18 replicas of Gerhard Berger and Michele Alboreto’s Ferrari F1 87/88s from the 1988 Formula One season. That year may have been completely dominated by the McLaren team, which won 15 out of the 16 races, but the Scuderia achieved a storybook result at its home race in Italy. Just the month after the passing of legendary team founder Enzo Ferrari, Berger and Alboreto took a one-two finish at Monza. These models come complete with their own display cases.


Wednesday 25th March

Today we received Tecnomodel’s set of 1:18 replicas of the 1967 Ferrari 312 F1, as piloted by Lorenzo Bandini and Chris Amon. It was in the #18 car that Bandini lost his life in the closing stages of that year’s Monaco Grand Prix. After clipping the barriers and overturning his Ferrari, he succumbed to his serious injuries and burns three days after the race. The #2 and #20 versions were both driven by Chris Amon, the New Zealander finishing fifth in the 1967 drivers’ classification after taking four podium finishes.


Tuesday 24th March

Today saw the release of Burago’s pair of 1:43 replicas of the 2019 Ferrari SF90s, as driven by Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel. We know that we always bang on about Burago’s value for money, but you can’t fault the detail on these models for just £24.99 each!

Also, just to let you know that our mail order business continues to remain open, with models currently being despatched as normal during these challenging times.


Monday 23rd March

Today Spark provided us with a first look of its 1:43 replica commemorating Lewis Hamilton’s securing of the 2019 Formula One world championship in the American Grand Prix. The sample image also reveals that the model will come complete with the world champion board that Hamilton pulled up in front of after the race, along with two celebratory pit boards. We have been told to expect to see it released in April.


Friday 20th March

We have been told to expect Minichamps’ 1:43 replicas of the 2019 Williams FW42s of George Russell and Robert Kubica in the next week or so. The team may have performed rather woefully last year, but judging from our customer pre-orders, it is without doubt still one of the most popular outfits on the grid.


Thursday 19th March

We are now offering to pre-order both 1:18 and 1:43 replicas of Aston Martin’s first ever luxury SUV: the DBX. It will be replicated in the larger scale by TopSpeed, while the smaller version will be produced by its sister brand TrueScale Miniatures. As there were samples of these models on display at Nuremberg, it hopefully won’t be too long before we see them released.


Wednesday 18th March

Today Minichamps provided us with a first sample image of its 1:12 bike and figure special commemorating Valentino Rossi’s pole position in the 2018 Mugello Moto GP. And what’s more, we were told to expect to see it released in the very near future! Rossi’s pole position at Mugello in 2018 was the first time that he had headed the grid for some 18 months, since the Motegi race towards the end of the 2016 season. It also remains his last pole position to date, so if he fails to add to his tally that will make this special all the more collectible. It is a limited edition of just 1,002 pieces worldwide, so it will not be available for long anyway.


Tuesday 17th March

Today IXO announced a couple of Ford Sierra RS Cosworth touring car replicas in 1:18 scale. They are both from 1987, and both come finished in the striking Texaco livery. They are the #67 car from the Nurburgring 24 Hours, as driven by Klaus Ludwig and Klaus Niedzwiedz, and the #7 machine from the Spa 24 Hours, when the two Klauses were joined by Thierry Boutsen.


Monday 16th March

Today BBR announced a 1:18 replica of the 1966 Ferrari 365 California. Only 14 examples of the real car were produced, but BBR’s limited edition of the model is a little higher than that, although not by much, at just 108 pieces worldwide.


Friday 13th March

IXO announced something a little bit different today, in the form of a 1:43 replica of the Volvo F88 transporter as used by the Lotus Formula One team in the 1980s. Minichamps and Spark have both produced several Lotus F1 cars from the era in this scale, so this transporter will allow you to get quite a nice diorama going!


Thursday 12th March

Today Burago announced a couple of 1:18 replicas of modern supercars. These are the Ferrari Monza SP1 in silver, and the Lamborghini Sian FKP37 in matt green. These models continue Burago’s tradition of fantastic value for money, with RRPs of just £49.99 and £44.99 respectively.


Wednesday 11th March

Today Minichamps informed us that we should see its two 1:12 Valentino Rossi 2018 specials that come with a figure included towards the end of this month. The first of these celebrates the Italian’s pole position at Mugello. The second of these is from the Catalunya race, where Vale finished third. On the slowing down lap he carried an Andreas Perez flag, in tribute to the 14 year old who had lost his life in a Moto 3 Junior race earlier that weekend.


Tuesday 10th March

TrueScale Miniatures has just announced a 1:18 replica of the 1930 Bentley 8 Litre, which was the last car that W.O. Bentley designed for Bentley Motors. TrueScale will be replicating W.O.’s own personal example of the 8 Litre, which was the second car off of the production line. Registered GK 706, Bentley covered thousands of miles in it across Britain and Europe. Forced to sell it when the company was taken over in 1931, W.O. was later reunited with it at a Bentley Drivers’ Club celebration held in his honour. Many years after his death, Bentley Motors acquired chassis YF 5002. It has since become a symbolic company car for each subsequent Bentley CEO.


Monday 9th March

Tecnomodel is really leaving no stone unturned in its quest to replicate every classic roadgoing Ferrari that has ever turned a wheel! Its latest announcement is a 1:18 replica of the Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona prototype vehicle, which it will be offering in four different colours. Scaglietti created the bodywork for the prototype, while the much more wedge-shaped production version was penned by Pininfarina.


Friday 6th March

Today we received a humongous delivery of new 1:18 replicas from Spark. It only contained five different models, but they accounted for hundreds of customer orders! There are two Lewis Hamilton 2019 Mercedes replicas, which are his winning car from Monaco, complete with red halo and helmet in tribute to Niki Lauda who had recently passed away, and his victorious machine from Silverstone, which features the driver figure holding the Union Jack. We then move on to a British hero from yesteryear, in the form of James Hunt’s winning Hesketh 308 from the 1975 Dutch Grand Prix. Finally, there are the two 2019 Racing Point RP19s of Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll.


Thursday 5th March

Today Tecnomodel released its 1:18 replica of the Ferrari 801 that British hero Mike Hawthorn took to a third place finish in the 1957 British Grand Prix. We only have two examples left of the 160-piece limited edition after fulfilling our customer pre-orders, so don’t take too long deciding whether you want to add it to your collection or not.


Wednesday 4th March

Today Look Smart announced a trio of 1:43 replicas of the Ferrari 330 P3s that competed in the 1966 Le Mans 24 Hours. So, that’s the #20 car of Ludovico Scarfiotti and Mike Parkes, the #21 machine of Lorenzo Bandini and Jean Guichet, and the #27 example of Richie Ginther and Pedro Rodriguez.


Tuesday 3rd March

Today we added a couple of dozen replicas to the dedicated Sale section of our website, all with savings of up to 33% off of the original RRP. We currently have almost 500 different models available in our Sale, but only until they sell out!


Monday 2nd March

Today Matrix released its 1:43 replica of the 1913 ‘Black Bess’ Bugatti Type 18. Aviator and sportsman Roland Garros, a personal friend of Ettore Bugatti, was the first owner of this car. Following the First World War (n which Garros was shot down and killed), the car was sold to English racing driver Ivy Cummings. She named it Black Bess, after highwayman Dick Turpin’s legendary steed.


Friday 28th February

Today Cult released its pair of 1:18 replicas of the 1955 Austin Healey 100S. We have been waiting some three years for these! You can choose between two-tone white and Labeila Blue, which is the colour that most of the cars off the production line were finished in, or two-tone white and dark green.


Thursday 27th February

Today TrueScale Miniatures released its pair of 1:43 Ford GTs that ran with retro liveries in the 2019 Daytona 24 Hours. The #66 car of Bourdais, Hand and Muller ran in the Motorcraft colour scheme, while the #67 of Briscoe, Dixon and Westbrook was finished with a Castrol paint job. In the race the #67 placed fourth in class, while the #66 was seventh.


Wednesday 26th February

Today Spark informed us that we will see its 1:18 replica of James Hunt’s 1975 Dutch GP winning Hesketh 308 released next week. This is one of the few remaining iconic Formula One cars that has never been replicated in 1:18 scale, but not for much longer! The 1975 Dutch Grand Prix, of course, represented Hunt’s very first grand prix win. It was also the sole victory for the little Hesketh team before it folded at the end of the season.


Tuesday 25th February

Look Smart had big news for collectors of 1:18 Le Mans winners today, as it announced the first ever 1:18 replica of the Ferrari 275P that won the 1964 edition of the event, in the hands of Nino Vaccarella and Jean Guichet. Ferrari took six successive victories at the greatest endurance race in the world from 1960 to 1965. It was never as dominant as it was in 1964, hedging its bets with top-line crews in both the 275P and 330P. In the end it was Vaccarella and Guichet who took the victory in the 275P, with the podium completed by the 330Ps campaigned by Graham Hill/Jo Bonnier and John Surtees/Lorenzo Bandini.


Monday 24th February

TrueScale Miniatures announced something a little different today, in the form of a 1:18 replica of Tim Birkin’s Bentley Blower Number One. If ever there was a pre-war racing car that deserved the 1:18 treatment, this is it! Birkin’s finest moment in the car was probably at Brooklands in 1932. Four days before the Easter Monday meeting he broke Kaye Don’s outer circuit lap record, setting a new marker of 137.58 mph. Birkin officially equalled that speed in a thrilling three lap invitational race for 100 sovereigns in the August meeting, beating the V12 Delage of John Cobb by just a fifth of a second.


Friday 21st February

We conclude our bumper week of 2020 new announcements with 24 new offerings from Norev! There are plenty of road car replicas, both classic and modern, in both 1:18 and 1:43 scale. Joining them is a 1:18 rallying interloper in the form of Jean-Paul Cirindini’s Renault Supercinq GT Turbo from the 1990 Corsica Rally.


Thursday 20th February

Cult took their turn to announce some new models today, confirming a couple of 1:18 classic road car subjects. The first of these is the Rover 3500 Vitesse, which will be available in red and metallic blue. This is joined by the Aston Martin Zagato Spyder, which will be replicated in black and silver.


Wednesday 19th February

Tecnomodel has just announced four 1:18 replicas of the Ford Escort RS Turbo that the Zakspeed team developed for use in the DRM series. Of the four cars being replicated, it is the #53 car of Armin Hahne that scored the best result; second place in the Norisring round of the 1978 season. The other Zakspeed Escorts getting the 1:18 treatment are Walter Nussbaumer’s #2 car from Zolder in 1979, and two #58 machines for Wolfgang Boller from 1980: the green and red example from Zolder, and the multi-coloured affair from the Norisring. These replicas will be limited editions of between just 70 and 100 pieces each.


Tuesday 18th February

Today we got all of Matrix’s new 2020 announcements up onto our website, with its usual offering of classic road car replicas, in both 1:18 and 1:43 scale. There are plenty of Ferraris featured, as well as several British cars from the likes of Aston Martin, Jensen and Rolls-Royce.


Monday 17th February

Today Minichamps released its 1:18 replica of Jean Alesi’s Tyrrell 018 from the 1990 American Grand Prix at Phoenix. This was the race when the mercurial young Frenchman really put his name on the Formula One map, duelling with the legendary Ayrton Senna for the lead before ultimately having to settle for second place.


Friday 14th February

Today it was the turn of Maxichamps in the 2020 new announcement stakes, as we got all 76 of their newly confirmed 1:43 road car subjects up onto our website! There is quite a range available, from iconic classics like the Ford Cortina Mk.I and Porsche 911 to more modern supercars like the Jaguar XJ220 and McLaren F1. For those of you not in the know, Maxichamps is a brand name of Minichamps. Its 1:43 road car replicas come in at just £36.99, representing excellent value for money.


Thursday 13th February

Today we got all 144 of Minichamps’ new announcements for 2020 up onto our website for viewing and pre-ordering! Something new for the German model company this year is a range of half-scale Formula One steering wheels, which will measure some 14cm across. Another novelty is a mammoth 1:4 replica of Valentino Rossi’s 2004 Yamaha YZR-M1, which will measure some half a metre in length! Of course, there is the usual staple of classic and modern race and road car models, in both 1:18 and 1:43 scale. Enjoy checking them all out!


Wednesday 12th February

Today Minichamps provided us with its 1:18 replica of Lewis Hamilton’s 2019 Mercedes F1 W10. This, of course, is the car that he took to his sixth world championship success last year. The model is a complete sell-out on release with Minichamps, while we have only just over a dozen pieces currently still available after fulfilling our customer pre-orders.


Tuesday 11th February

We will shortly be receiving Minichamps’ 2020 Edition 1 catalogue. As has become standard practice over the last few years, Minichamps launched its new catalogue on the opening day of the Nuremberg Toy Fair. The publication consists of 196 pages of glossy photographs of all of the Aachen model company’s current and forthcoming subjects. This is the definitive record of Minichamps’ 2020 programme.


Monday 10th February

Today BBR provided us with its first model sample images of its 1:18 replicas of the three works 315 S Ferraris from the 1957 Le Mans 24 Hours. These cars have never been replicated in 1:18 scale before. A whole host of famous Ferrari drivers lined up for the Scuderia at Le Mans in 1957. Phil Hill and Peter Collins drove the #6 entry, while Mike Hawthorn and Luigi Musso steered the #7 machine. The #8 315 S would be piloted by Stuart Lewis-Evans and Martino Severi. Engine problems would account for the #6 and #7 cars, both having had spells in the lead, while the #8 came home in fifth place, as Jaguar swept the board with its D-Type.


Friday 7th February

Today KK announced a 1:18 replica of the 1970 Alfa Romeo Montreal, in three different colours. It will be available in red, orange and silver. It also comes in at a very competitive price, with a RRP of just £81.99.


Thursday 6th February

Today we got all of AUTOart’s new 1:18 announcements for 2020 up on our website for pre-ordering; all 44 of them! There’s something for everyone, from the Aston Martin DB4 GT Continuation to the Koenigsegg Jesko, with plenty more in between!


Wednesday 5th February

Today Matrix announced a pair of 1:43 replicas of the AC A98 Le Mans car, which has never been reproduced before. The A98 only raced once, but it generated plenty of headlines (literally in some cases). AC produced it as a one-off in order to compete in the 1964 Le Mans 24 Hours. At this time there was no speed limit in the UK and it achieved a speed of 185 mph while being tested on the M1, which made the front page of the national newspapers. Jack Sears and Peter Bolton were entrusted with the car in the race, and ran competitively initially. They then lost time recovering from an act of sabotage, as the fuel filter had started to become blocked with newspaper that had been placed in the fuel tank. A much more tragic event was to befall the car, however. Just after 10pm Bolton suffered a tyre failure, and was collected by the Ferrari of Giancarlo Baghetti. As the two cars went off the circuit they struck three young spectators (aged between 17 and 19) who had been standing in a prohibited area, who all lost their lives. Baghetti was uninjured, while Bolton suffered minor injuries. And that was the brief but tumultuous history of the AC A98, which would not race again. Matrix will be producing both the #3 car from Le Mans, and a plain green version.


Tuesday 4th February

Today BBR delivered its 1:18 replica of the Ferrari F8 Tributo, as it was displayed at last year’s Geneva Motor Show. A limited edition of 488 pieces worldwide, it was sold out with BBR before it was even released. We have just three examples left after fulfilling our customer pre-orders, and then that’s it.


Monday 3rd February

We added Minichamps’ 1:18 replica of the distinctively liveried Schiesser Porsche 956K that Stefan Bellof and Thierry Boutsen campaigned in the 1985 Hockenkeim 1000km today. At 33% off, you can now obtain it from us for just £83.33 instead of its original asking price of £124.99!


Friday 31st January

Today Matrix released its 1:43 replica of the first ever petrol-engined four-wheel drive car, and also the first with a braking system connected to all four wheels. It is the 1903 Spyker 60-HP.


Thursday 30th January

Today we received our first new 1:18 release from TopSpeed in quite some time. It is the ‘new’ Bentley Continental GT in Sequin Blue.


Wednesday 29th January

IXO announced a 1:18 replica of 2019 World Rally Champion Ott Tanak’s Toyota Yaris WRC today. At just £69.99 it continues IXO’s tradition of offering excellent value for money.


Tuesday 28th January

Minichamps released another 1:12 Moto GP replica today, in the form of Cal Crutchlow’s 2018 Honda RC213V. This could well be the last time we see a replica of one of the British hero’s bikes, as Minichamps cancelled its model of his 2019 steed.


Monday 27th January

Today Minichamps released its 1:12 replica of Valentino Rossi’s Yamaha YZR-M1 from the post-season Valencia test at the end of 2017. His team ran with a hybrid race/test livery during the test, with the tail of the YZR-M1 finished in the usual Yamaha racing blue, while the front and side fairings had a ‘naked’ carbon fibre effect, all overlaid with the usual sponsors. This model is a worldwide limited edition of just 1,002 pieces.


Friday 24th January

Today we received two new 1:18 classic Ferrari road car announcements from Tecnomodel. These are the 1956 Ferrari 410 Superfast, which will be available in four colours, and the one-off 1967 Ferrari 330 GT 2+2 Shooting Brake, which will be available in three colours. These are limited editions of no more than 150 pieces each, so they will probably not be available from stock once they are released.


Thursday 23rd January

Spark announced another 1:18 replica of a Le Mans 24 Hours winning car today, in the form of the 1991 Mazda 787B of Johnny Herbert, Bertrand Gachot and Volker Weidler. This car may have been replicated by AUTOart before, but that version is almost impossible to get hold of now, and if you do find an example you will have to pay through the nose for it! Much better to go for Spark’s forthcoming offering instead!


Wednesday 22nd January

Spark grabbed our attention today by announcing a 1:18 replica of a really significant car from the history of motor racing that has never been replicated in this scale before: the 1930 Le Mans 24 Hours winning Bentley Speed Six of Woolf Barnato and Glen Kidston! The victory marked Bentley’s fourth consecutive victory in the great endurance event, and it’s fifth overall. It also allowed Barnato the incredible distinction of a 100% success rate in his three starts in the race! Demand for this model is probably going to be huge, and could well exceed supply. Spark has guaranteed to fulfil all pre-orders that are placed for it by next Wednesday, the 29th January. So, get your pre-order in by then, and you will not miss out. Wait until after that date, and we will not be able to make the same promise.


Tuesday 21st January

Spark announced a very exciting 1:43 classic endurance racer today, in the form of the Border Reivers-entered Aston Martin DBR1 that Jim Clark and Roy Salvadori shared in the 1960 Le Mans 24 Hours. The duo were in contention for the win in the wet conditions of the first half of the race, but as the track dried the more powerful Ferraris were able to show their hand. Clark and Salvadori still finished third. Replicas of Jim Clark cars always go down a storm with our customers, so make sure that you get your pre-order in to avoid missing out on this one.


Monday 20th January

Today we finally received confirmation as to who will be producing 1:43 replicas of the two BMW M8s from the 2018 Le Mans 24 Hours. The answer is TrueScale Miniatures! So, that’s the #81 car for Martin Tomczyk, Nicky Castsburg and Philipp Eng, and the #82 car for Augusto Farfus, Antonio Felix da Costa and Alex Sims. They will cost £74.99 each, and are currently slated to be released in April.


Friday 17th January

Today IXO released its 1:43 replica of the Hyundai i30 N TCR that Gabriele Tarquini took to victory in the 2018 WTCR series. At 56 years of age, Tarquini smashed the record for oldest ever FIA motorsport champion!


Thursday 16th January

Minichamps told us today that next week we will see its 1:43 replica of Mick Schumacher’s 2018 European Formula 3 Championship winning Dallara F317. The model is a limited edition of just 650 pieces worldwide, so we can’t see it remaining available for long.


Wednesday 15th January

We have just added Spark’s 1:18 replica of the 2018 Le Mans 24 Hours winning Toyota TS050 of Fernando Alonso, Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima into our Sale. At 20% off, you can now pick it up from us for just £111.99 instead of its original RRP of £139.99!


Tuesday 14th January

Tecnomodel confirmed its first new 1:18 announcement of the year today, in the form of the Ferrari 330 LMB endurance racer, which has never been produced in this scale before. Four variants will be offered. The first of these is the #12 example that Jack Sears and Mike Salmon campaigned to a fifth place finish in the 1963 Le Mans 24 Hours. Next up is the #19 machine that Mike Parkes and Lorenzo Bandini shared in the Sebring 12 Hours earlier that year. The car failed to finish after a hefty wallop led to a split in its fuel tank. The final racing version is the bronze #47 derivative that Dan Gurney took to the bottom step of the podium in the 1963 Bridgehampton 500 km. Completing the quartet is Tecnomodel’s traditional press car replica.


Monday 13th January

Minichamps today told us that in the next week or so we should see its third and final 1:43 Lewis Hamilton Dallara Formula 3 replica. This one will be the F302 that he raced in the 2004 Macau Grand Prix. It will be a worldwide limited edition of just 504 pieces.


Friday 10th January

Today Minichamps released its pair of 1:18 BMW M4s from the 2018 DTM. They both feature quite striking liveries; there is Bruno Spengler’s black BMW Bank sponsored car, and Timo Glock’s yellow Deutsche Post liveried machine.


Thursday 9th January

Ironically, the day after Minichamps announced that it was cancelling its 1:12 2019 Honda Moto GP replicas, it released its 1:12 replica of Marc Marquez’s 2018 Moto GP Championship winning Honda RC213V! This model could well end up resembling the end of an era, then!


Wednesday 8th January

Today Minichamps informed us that it has cancelled its 1:12 2019 Honda Moto GP replicas. So, that means no 1:12 replica for 2019 champion Marc Marquez, no last Moto GP bike for Jorge Lorenzo, and no 2019 steed for British hero Cal Crutchlow, with Takaaki Nakagami and Stefan Bradl also affected.


Tuesday 7th January

Today we received word that we should see the release of Minichamps’ 1:18 replica of Lewis Hamilton’s 2019 Mercedes F1 W10 in the next couple of weeks or so. This model is already completely sold out to pre-orders with Minichamps itself, while we only have about two dozen spare after fulfilling our own customer pre-orders. Which isn’t very many at all given that we’re talking about last year’s Formula One world champion!


Monday 6th January

Happy New Year y’all! Spark has already given un something to shout about in 2020, in the form of the release of its 1:43 replica of the 2019 Le Mans 24 Hours winning Toyota TS050, as driven by Fernando Alonso, Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima. Le Mans winning replicas garner a big following amongst collectors, so don’t delay in adding this one to your collection.


Monday 23rd December

Just in time for Christmas, Minichamps today released its 1:43 replica commemorating Lewis Hamilton clinching the 2019 Formula One world championship in the American Grand Prix. This is a phenomenally quick turn-around for the German model-maker, given that the race only took place less than two months ago! The model comes in standard Minichamps packaging, with the World Champion platform printed on the base. It is a limited edition of, appropriately, 2019 pieces worldwide.

This is the last Daily Diecast Digest entry of 2019, as it’s now time for diecast Christmas holidays! Happy Christmas and 2020 to you all.


Friday 20th December

The deliveries just in time for Christmas theme continued today! This time is was AUTOart’s turn, who released no less than 18 new 1:18 replicas, across six different toolings. These were the Aston Martin Vulcan, Bugatti Vision GT, Ford GT, Ford Focus RS, McLaren P1, and Lamborghini Centenario. We’ve never known so many large deliveries to scrape in just in time for Christmas before!


Thursday 19th December

Today, just in time for Christmas, we received two exciting 1:43 replicas from Spark. These are Lewis Hamilton’s 2019 British Grand Prix winning Mercedes F1 W10, complete with driver figure holding Union Jack in celebration, and the 2019 Daytona 24 Hours winning Cadillac Dpi-VR of Fernando Alonso, Kamui Kobayashi, Jordan Taylor and Renger van der Zande. If you haven’t yet pre-ordered either of these, then you’ve still got just about enough time left to get involved and receive them in time for the holiday!


Wednesday 18th December

It’s Minichamps making the news again today, with the release of their 1:43 replica of Daniel Ricciardo’s 2018 Red Bull RB14 Silverstone shakedown car, finished in the dramatic ‘camouflage’ livery. It is a limited edition of just 850 pieces worldwide.


Tuesday 17th December

We received another 1:12 2018 Moto GP replica from Minichamps today, in the form of that year’s (and, indeed, practically every year since he joined the series!) world champion Marc Marquez’s Honda RC213V. We have just three examples left after fulfilling our customer pre-orders.


Monday 16th December

Today we received Minichamps’ 1:12 replica of Valentino Rossi’s 2018 Yamaha YZR-M1. This was the bike that Vale took to third in the riders’ points that year, with consistency the key as he failed to win a race all season. This model is already completely sold out with Minichamps, while we are down to our last eight pieces at the time of writing.


Friday 13th December

Today we published our first diecast review video on YouTube! It is of Burago’s pair of 1:18 replicas of the 2019 Ferrari SF90 Formula One car, as driven by Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel. Diecast Manager Leigh takes you through everything to like (and a couple of things not to like as much) concerning the model, which has the amazing value for money RRP of just £69.99!


Thursday 12th December

Today BBR released its 1:18 replica of the #21 Ferrari 330 P3 from the 1966 Le Mans 24 Hours, as driven by Lorenzo Bandini and Jean Guichet. It may not have been the most decorated Maranello machine to have competed at La Sarthe, retiring after 17 hours with engine problems, but it was certainly one of the most beautiful. The model is a limited edition of just 250 examples, and is already completely sold out with BBR. We have a mere six pieces left.


Wednesday 11th December

Today Spark announced two new 1:18 versions of a pair of Formula One world championship winners. The first of these is Graham Hill’s 1962 BRM P57, with the new rendition being his winning car from the Dutch Grand Prix, when it ran with the stackpipe exhaust arrangement. Then there is Jack Brabham’s 1966 Brabham BT19, with the new variant being his winning machine from the French Grand Prix.


Tuesday 10th December

Today we were informed that Tecnomodel’s 1:18 replica of Juan Manuel’s 1951 Formula One world championship winning Alfa Romeo 159 is on its way to us! We expect to see it either at the very end of this week, or the very beginning of next. We have less than 10 pieces spare after fulfilling our already placed customer pre-orders, so you do not have many chances remaining with this one.


Monday 9th December

As it’s the day after the annual Autosport Awards, that can only mean one thing; we are thrilled to be able to offer a tiny number of the highly desirable table centre presentations from the event! There were even less produced than usual this year, with the limited edition run just 120 as opposed to the usual 130. This year Jackie Stewart was the guest of honour, and so the presentation comprised a 1:18 pewter representation of his 1969 Matra MS80, marking the 50th anniversary of his very first world championship success. They have obviously all been hand-signed by the triple Formula One world champion. As is usually the case, we were only able to obtain a handful of these table centres. We think that the 2019 offering is one of the most desirable for quite some time, so we can’t see them remaining available for long.


Friday 6th December

We received some new 1:43 announcements from Spark today, which were headlined by a couple of Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworths that touring car legends Tim Harvey and Andy Rouse campaigned in the Macau Guia race in the late 1980s. They are specifically Harvey’s winning car from the 1989 edition of the event, and Rouse’s third placed machine from 1988. Hopefully we will also see some BTCC versions confirmed at some point!


Thursday 5th December

Today Tecnomodel confirmed that we will see its 1:18 replica of Juan Manuel’s 1951 world championship winning Alfa Romeo 159 in the next week or so, so just in time for Christmas! Although Exoto has replicated this car before, that was many years ago now, and the price was beyond excessive then! We currently have a mere 10 examples of this replica spare after fulfilling our already placed customer pre-orders.


Wednesday 4th December

BBR recently confirmed that it will be replicating the stunningly beautiful Ferrari 250 GTO in 1:18 scale. The model will be a limited edition of just 300 pieces worldwide, which were all sold within a day of it being announced. We were able to obtain a mere half a dozen examples from that quota, which we do not expect to remain unaccounted for for long.


Tuesday 3rd December

Today BBR informed us that we should see its 1:18 replica of the #21 Ferrari 330 P3 from the 1966 Le Mans 24 Hours in the next week or so. Lorenzo Bandini and Jean Guichet were the drivers. The model is a limited edition of just 250 pieces worldwide, and is a complete sell-out on release with BBR. We have about half a dozen spare after fulfilling our existing customer pre-orders, and then that’s it!


Monday 2nd December

Today we added about 40 different replicas to the dedicated Sale section of our website, all with savings of 33% off of the original RRP. That makes it just over 550 different models in our Sale now, so you’re bound to find a deal in there that’s right up your street!


Friday 29th November

Today we received BBR’s sumptuous 1:18 replica of the 1969 Ferrari 246 GT. Enzo Ferrari was originally against having it produced at first, as felt that the concept of a mid-engined road car would be too dangerous for ‘normal’ drivers on ‘normal’ roads; thank goodness that he relented! This superb piece from BBR pays more than a fitting tribute to this iconic car. Appropriately, its limited edition size is just 246 pieces.


Thursday 28th November

It was sample model image time from Minichamps again today, as it gave us a first look of its 1:43 replica of Daniel Ricciardo’s camouflage-liveried Red Bull RB14 from a shakedown session at Silverstone in 2018. It is scheduled to arrive with us next week, and we think that it looks absolutely stunning.


Wednesday 27th November

Today Minichamps provided us with a sample model image of its 1:12 replica of Valentino Rossi’s 2018 Yamaha YZR-M1, and confirmed that we will see it released next week. Despite not winning a race last season, Vale was still able to put a consistent enough campaign together to finish third in the riders’ points, bested only by Honda’s Marc Marquez and Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso. Minichamps has already declared that this Rossi 2018 replica is sold out to pre-orders before it has even been released. As for us, we only have about a dozen pieces spare after taking our own customer pre-orders into account.


Tuesday 26th November

Today Spark confirmed its early 2020 1:43 release schedule, which had no less than 28 new announcements on it! As usual, classic F1 subjects dominate (just the way we like it!), with a smattering of endurance racing, rallying and road car replicas. Highlights include the 1984 McLarens of Niki Lauda and Alain Prost, the 1979 Brabhams of Lauda and Nelson Piquet, a pair of 1967 Eagles for Dan Gurney, and a 1973 March for James Hunt.


Monday 25th November

We are delighted to have already received our shipment of the 1:18 pewter sculpture depicting the moment from Nigel Mansell’s victory lap in the 1991 British Grand Prix, when he gave Ayrton Senna a lift back to the pits. It is a limited edition of just 555 pieces worldwide, with 1992 Formula One world champion Mansell having hand-signed every one. Without doubt, this is a very special piece.


Friday 22nd November

Today Burago released its pair of 1:18 replicas of this year’s Formula One Ferrari, the SF90H, as driven by Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel. The pair have won three grands prix between them so far this year, although maybe the less said about their last race together the better! At just £69.99 each, these Burago 1:18 F1 Ferrari models continue to offer phenomenal value for money.


Thursday 21st November

Today Spark announced a trio of 1:43 specials from the recent action-packed Brazilian Grand Prix, for all three podium finishers. Or, to clarify, all three podium finishers after post-race penalties had been applied! So that’s Max Verstappen’s winning Red Bull, Pierre Gasly’s second placed Toro Rosso, and Carlos Sainz Jnr’s third placed McLaren. For Gasly and Sainz, of course, the result marked their first ever visits to a grand prix podium. The Sainz special will also come with a celebratory pit board included.


Wednesday 20th November

Tecnomodel did it again today, with the announcement of another 1:18 classic Formula One Ferrari that has never been produced in this scale before! This time, it is the 1954 553 Squalo. Truth be told, the 553 Squalo wasn’t Ferrari’s most successful Formula One vehicle. But on one occasion everything came together, and Mike Hawthorn duly took the car to victory in the 1954 season-closing Spanish Grand Prix. This is the #38 car, and will probably be the most popular variant with collectors. Then there will be Froilan Gonzalez’s winning #2 machine from the non-championship Silverstone International Trophy, the #21 car that the Argentinian drove in the French Grand Prix, retiring with engine failure, and the red test example that Alberto Ascari drove at Monza.


Tuesday 19th November

Today Minichamps announced 1:18 and 1:43 specials for both Mercedes drivers from this year’s American Grand Prix. Valtteri Bottas won the event after a late-race pass on team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who secured his sixth world title with a runner-up finish. These will both be limited editions, and the demand will obviously be high, so you know what you need to do to avoid missing out!


Monday 18th November

Today we received Norev’s pair of 1:18 replicas of the 1992 Ford Escort RS Cosworth, in white and Petrol Blue. The latter is a UK market exclusive limited edition of just 1,002 pieces worldwide!


Friday 15th November

We’re always on the look-out for something different at Diecast Legends, and so we are pleased to be able to offer this 1:18 pewter sculpture depicting one of the most famous moments from the history of Formula One. It is from the 1991 British Grand Prix, and the moment when race winner Nigel Mansell gave Ayrton Senna a lift back to the pits after the race. It was a unique event, making this a very special piece. And to put the icing on the cake, Nigel Mansell has hand-signed every one of the 555-piece limited edition as well. For the dyed-in-the-wool diecast collectors amongst you, we would just point out that this 1:18 pewter sculpture is a piece of art. It is therefore not going to match the likes of a Minichamps or Spark offering in terms of the straightness and accuracy of wings, suspension components and so on - we just felt that we needed to put that out there!


Thursday 14th November

Today we received a bumper 1:43 delivery from Spark. A couple of classic F1 race winning cars were the highlights, in the form of Jim Clark’s 1965 British GP Lotus and Nigel Mansell’s 1986 Belgian GP Williams. There was also the Lotus Elite that Jim Clark and John Whitmore shared in the 1959 Le Mans 24 Hours, and much more!


Wednesday 13th November

Today Burago provided us with a first sample image of its 1:18 replica of Charles Leclerc’s 2019 Ferrari SF90. With a RRP of just £69.99, the company’s products continue to offer exceptional value for money. We have been told to expect both Leclerc and Vettel’s cars in time for Christmas.


Tuesday 12th November

We have just received Spark’s 1:18 replica of the Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo Tribute that Timo Bernhard famously took to a new lap record at the daunting Nurburgring Nordschleife last year. It comes complete with the celebratory pit board that Porsche made up to celebrate the achievement. We literally only have a couple left after fulfilling our customer pre-orders.


Monday 11th November

Today Tecnomodel provided us with sample images for its forthcoming quartet of 1:18 Jaguar D-Type replicas. Chief of these is the 1955 Le Mans winner, as driven by Mike Hawthorn and Ivor Bueb. Although AUTOart has replicated this car before, that was quite some time ago now, and it now has an asking price of about £800 on Ebay! Then there is the Cunningham entry that was driven to victory by Sherwood Johnston in the 1955 Watkins Glen Grand Prix, and the car that Ninian Sanderson and John Lawrence took to a second place finish in the 1957 Le Mans 24 Hours. Finally, there is the press car, which is finished in gloss dark green.


Friday 8th November

Today Spark confirmed the full details of its 1:18 and 1:43 specials commemorating Lewis Hamilton’s 2019 Formula One world championship success at last weekend’s American Grand Prix, which we have been taking pre-orders for since Monday. Spark has now informed us that these specials will include a couple of particularly exciting extras, in both scales. These are the World Champion platform that Lewis drove onto in parc ferme after the race, and the celebratory pit board that he pulled up in front of. These extras have made these specials a little more expensive than first advertised, with the 1:18 now having a RRP of £154.99, and the 1:43 now retailing at £64.99. Given what is supplied with the replicas, however, they still represent extremely good value for money. Unsurprisingly demand for these specials has been huge since we first started offering them to pre-order at the beginning of the week. Now that Spark has confirmed the full details of the extras that will be included, that demand will surely get greater still. If you haven’t done so already, you will need to place your pre-order to ensure that you don’t miss out.


Thursday 7th November

It’s Tecnomodel making the news again today, with the announcement of not one, but two classic 1:18 Formula One Ferraris that have never been produced in this scale before! First up is the 1955 Ferrari 625 F1. There will be Maurice Trintignant’s 1955 Monaco Grand Prix winner, the #16 car that Castellotti and Hawthorn shared in the British Grand Prix, the #10 car that Farina, Trintignant and Maglioli shared in the Argentinian Grand Prix, and a plain red press version. Then, there will be the 1967 Ferrari 312 F1. The first example to be replicated will be the #18 machine in which Lorenzo Bandini tragically lost his life in the Monaco Grand Prix. There will also be no less than three replicas for Chris Amon; from the German, Italian and Dutch Grands Prix.


Wednesday 6th November

Tecnomodel has just announced its latest 1:18 classic racing subject: the 1960 Porsche 718 Formula 2 car. Truth be told, we wouldn’t normally be that excited about the announcement of a 1:18 Porsche F2 car, even if it is from our friends at Tecnomodel, and even if it has never been produced in this scale before. However, add British motor racing legends Stirling Moss and Graham Hill into the mix, and suddenly our opinion varies considerably! Tecnomodel will be replicating Moss’s winning Rob Walker car from the 1960 Aintree 200, as well as Graham Hill’s silver works machine from that year’s Solitude Grand Prix. Tecnomodel will also be producing Hans Herrmann’s 718 F2 from the Solitude race, as well as a plain silver ‘press’ car.


Tuesday 5th November

Today Minichamps finally released its 1:43 special commemorating Lewis Hamilton’s 2018 Formula One world championship success, secured at last year’s Mexican Grand Prix. It is a limited edition of 1,018 pieces worldwide, and unsurprisingly is a sell-out on release with the German model company. We still have a handful left after fulfilling our customer pre-orders, but our spare stock is probably not going to last long.


Monday 4th November

We know we’re jumping the gun a bit on this one, but we are already offering to pre-order resin 1:18 and 1:43 championship winning specials of Lewis Hamilton’s 2019 Mercedes F1 W10 from yesterday’s American Grand Prix! These haven’t been officially announced by the world’s leading resin model manufacturer yet (we’re sure you know who we are talking about!), but it is surely only a matter of time before they are. Given the enormity of Lewis’s achievement of winning his sixth Formula One world championship (now only one behind the legendary Michael Schumacher’s all-time record!), demand for both scales is bound to be huge. Get your name down right away, and there will be no chance of you missing out.


Friday 1st November

We have more Minichamps release date information today, the German model maker confirming that we will see its next two 1:12 Valentino Rossi motorcycle replicas before the end of the year. These are his 2018 Yamaha YZR-M1, and his Valencia test bike from November 2017.


Thursday 31st October

Today Minichamps confirmed that next week we will at last see its 1:43 special commemorating Lewis Hamilton winning the 2018 Formula One world championship, at last year’s Mexican Grand Prix. We were also provided with a sample model shot of it! This replica is already completely sold out to pre-orders with Minichamps, while we currently only have a few spare after fulfilling our own customer pre-orders.


Wednesday 30th October

Today we received a 1:43 classic road car replica from IXO that represents amazing value for money. It is the 1987 Ford Sierra RS Cosworth, which has a RRP of just £24.99! So well done IXO; a lot of the other model manufacturers out there could do with taking a leaf out of your book!


Tuesday 29th October

Today we received the first new release in Spark’s 1:43 Le Mans winners collection for quite some time: the 1930 Bentley Speed Six, as driven by Woolf Barnato and Glen Kidston. This was Bentley’s fourth consecutive win in the great endurance race, and fifth overall.


Monday 28th October

Today Spark confirmed that it will be replicating the eight Audis from this year’s DTM championship in 1:43 scale. Obviously, 2019 DTM champion Rene Rast’s RS5 is included, as are the cars for Nico Muller, Jamie Green, Robin Frijns, Pietro Fittipaldi, Jonathan Aberdein, Loic Duval and Mike Rockenfeller.


Friday 25th October

It feels like it has been a little while since we last had an exciting new 1:18 classic F1 announcement from Tecnomodel, but by golly they delivered today! Their new 1:18 subject is the 1971 Ferrari 312 B2. The most popular variant will probably be the #2 car that Jacky Ickx took to victory in the 1971 Dutch Grand Prix. Tecnomodel will also be producing the #4 machine that he took to a third place finish in that year’s Monaco Grand Prix. As far as other drivers are concerned, there will be Mario Andretti’s fourth placed #5 car from Germany, and Clay Regazzoni’s third placed #3 312 B2 from Holland. Tecnomodel’s replicas continue to sell out before they are even released, so popular are they with collectors, and so tiny are their limited edition quantities. You really need to place your pre-order now for any of these 1:18 1971 Ferrari 312 B2 replicas to avoid missing out.


Thursday 24th October

Today IXO announced another couple of 1:18 rally car replicas, at the model-maker’s usual phenomenal value for money. These latest new subjects cost just £69.99 each! They are Sebastien Ogier’s 2018 Ford Fiesta WRC and Didier Auriol’s 1993 Toyota Celica GT-Four.


Wednesday 23rd October

We received another couple of new 1:18 classic British cars from Cult today. They are the 1968 Jaguar E-Type Series II in dark red and the 1988 Aston Martin Virage in green.


Tuesday 22nd October

Today Minichamps announced 1:18 specials of the two Mercedes F1 W10s that Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas took to a 1-2 finish in this year’s Chinese Grand Prix. This, of course, was the 1,000th world championship grand prix, so these are pretty significant subjects.


Monday 21st October

Today we received Cult’s trio of 1:18 replicas of the 1955 Jaguar 2.4 Mk1. It is available in green, blue and black. Our remaining stock numbers are very much on the low side after fulfilling our customer pre-orders, so consider yourself warned!


Friday 18th October

Today CMC provided us with the first sample image of its 1:18 replica of the gargantuan Mercedes 600 Pullman limousine. We will not be holding any spare stock of this model when it is released, so placing a pre-order will be the only way to be sure of obtaining one.


Thursday 17th October

We have just sold the final example of our exclusive SMTS-commissioned 1:18 replica of the 1957 British GP winning Vanwall, as driven by Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks. As promised, this model will never be made available again!


Wednesday 16th October

Minichamps has just informed us that we will see its 1:12 re-release of T.E. Lawrence’s Brough Superior SS100 before the end of the year. However, on the flip side, we have also been told that the replica has been subject to a not insignificant price rise. It will now retail at £249.99 instead of the originally published £169.99.


Tuesday 15th October

Today we received Minichamps’ 1:43 replica of almost certain 2019 Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes F1 W10! Our first delivery is already almost sold out, but restocks are due at the end of the month.


Monday 14th October

Today TopSpeed announced a 1:18 replica of this year’s Daytona 24 Hours winning Cadillac. Although it famously had Fernando Alonso amongst its driving strength, he was ably supported by Kamui Kobayashi, Jordan Taylor and Renger van der Zande.


Friday 11th October

Today IXO announced another four 1:18 classic rally car replicas, all at the stonkingly good RRP of just £69.99 each. Chronologically, these are Achim Warmbold’s 1975 Alpine Renault A310, Hannu Mikkola’s 1980 Ford Escort Mk2 RS1800, Ari Vatanen’s 1983 Opel Manta 400, and Bernard Beguins’s 1988 BMW M3.


Thursday 10th October

You can tell that Look Smart can’t get enough of Ferrari’s recent run of F1 success, as it has just announced specials from the Singapore Grand Prix to go with its ones for Charles Leclerc from Belgium and Italy! For Singapore Look Smart will be producing specials for both drivers in both 1:18 and 1:43 scale. So, that’s race winner Sebastian Vettel, and second placed Leclerc. Although many think that it should have been the other way round!


Wednesday 9th October

Today Spark announced that it will be replicating a trio of cars from this year’s Spa 24 Hours in 1:18 scale. Obviously, the winning Gulf-liveried Porsche of Richard Lietz, Michael Christensen and Kevin Estre will be replicated, as will the second placed Rowe GT3 R of Frederic Makowiecki, Patrick Pilet and Nick Tandy. Completing the set will be the quirky Herbie tribute Porsche Cup car of Loic Deman, Stephane Lemeret, Marc Duez and Angelique Detavernier!


Tuesday 8th October

Today we received some 24 new road car replicas from Norev, in both 1:18 and 1:43 scale. From 1940s’ Jeeps to modern Mercedes, via iconic classics like Corvettes, Cobras and Porsches, you’re bound to find something worthy of a home in your collection if road car models are your thing.


Monday 7th October

Today we received a couple of 1:43 rally car replicas from IXO, representing both the past and the present! The former is Juha Kankkunen’s 1985 Toyota Celica, while the latter is Thierry Neuville’s Hyundai i20 from this year’s Monte Carlo Rally.


Friday 4th October

It’s Look Smart making the news again today. The company has just announced four 1:43 replicas of the 1972 Ferrari 312 B2. There will be Jacky Ickx’s car from Germany, Mario Andretti’s machine from South Africa, Clay Regazzoni’s example from Argentina, and Nanni Galli’s vehicle from France.


Thursday 3rd October

Today Look Smart announced 1:18 and 1:43 specials commemorating Charles Leclerc’s victory in front of the adoring tifosi at this year’s Italian Grand Prix. This was also Leclerc’s second ever grand prix win, which followed immediately after his first just a week earlier at Spa.


Wednesday 2nd October

Today Spark also confirmed the previously announced 1:43 replicas that we will see on its winter release schedule. Top of the stack is this year’s Daytona 24 Hours winning Cadillac, which famously had Fernando Alonso amongst its driving strength. His co-drivers were Kamui Kobayashi, Jordan Taylor and Renger van der Zande.


Tuesday 1st October

Today Spark confirmed its 1:43 winter release schedule, which as usual had a whole host of new announcements on it that we hadn’t known about before. Our favourite of these is the 1929 Le Mans 24 Hours winning Bentley Speed Six, as driven by Woolf Barnato and Tim Birkin.


Monday 30th September

Today Spark announced eight 1:43 replicas of cars from this year’s Suzuka 10 Hours. The winning #25 Audi R8 LMS GT3 of Dries Vanthoor, Kelvin van der Linde and Frederik Vervisvch will obviously be modelled, but we suspect that the most popular Suzuka car will be the #11 McLaren 720S GT3 that had a certain Mika Hakkinen amongst its driver roster!


Friday 27th September

It’s taken a while, but TrueScale Miniatures has finally released its 1:43 replicas of the four Ford GTs from the 2017 Le Mans 24 Hours! On the same delivery we have also received TrueScale’s 1:43 replica of the 2018 Aston Martin Vantage in Hyper Red.


Thursday 26th September

Today Spark announced no less than 31 1:43 replicas of cars from this year’s running of the Spa 24 Hours. Obviously, the winning #20 Gulf-liveried Porsche is included, as is the quirky Porsche Cup car that featured a Herbie tribute livery! We will not be holding any stock of these Spa replicas when they are released, so a pre-order is going to be necessary to avoid missing out on adding any of them to your collection.


Wednesday 25th September

Today Spark announced some additions to its 2019 Formula One programme. In both 1:18 and 1:43 scale, we will see the Racing Points of Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll. Spark will also be replicating Alexander Albon and Pierre Gasly’s cars from the Belgian Grand Prix, after they had swapped seats, in 1:43 scale. Finally, also in 1:43 scale, we will see the Alfa Romeos of Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi from the Italian Grand Prix. In this race the team’s livery featured an Italian flag-inspired strip across the top of the engine cover and the rear wing endplates.


Tuesday 24th September

Today we received our first delivery of new 1:18 replicas from TopSpeed for quite some time. Amongst the new releases are three colours of the Aston Martin Vantage: Hyper Red, Lime Essence and China Grey. Joining them are the Aston Martin DB11 in Lightning Silver, and the Jaguar F-Type Project 7 car in black.


Monday 23rd September

For the second day running the news is about a Minichamps 1:43 replica of a 2019 British F1 driver’s car! We have just taken delivery of Lando Norris’s 2019 McLaren MCL34; the car with which he has made such an impact during his maiden Formula One season. It’s great to see McLaren so much more competitive this year, and hopefully that will continue for the foreseeable future.


Friday 20th September

We have been told to expect Minichamps’ 1:12 replica of Valentino Rossi’s Yamaha YZR-M1 from the 2017 Malaysia Moto GP in the not too distant future. The race was run in wet conditions, which is why this replica comes complete with both a ‘dirty’ race-aged effect, and wet weather tyres. This special is already a complete sell-out with Minichamps, while we have a mere 10 pieces still available to sell after taking into account our already placed customer pre-orders.


Thursday 19th September

We have been told to expect Minichamps’ 1:12 replica of Valentino Rossi’s Yamaha YZR-M1 from the 2017 Malaysia Moto GP in the not too distant future. The race was run in wet conditions, which is why this replica comes complete with both a ‘dirty’ race-aged effect, and wet weather tyres. This special is already a complete sell-out with Minichamps, while we have a mere 10 pieces still available to sell after taking into account our already placed customer pre-orders.


Wednesday 18th September

Tecnomodel has just confirmed that it will be replicating the Porsche 917 Spyder in 1:18 scale, which predominantly raced in the European-based Interserie championship. Leo Kinnunen won the 1971 running of the series in the #11 car, while Jurgen Neuhaus also competed that season in the #1 machine. Ernst Kraus ran his #17 Spyder the following year, while the #5 example was raced by Helmut Marko and Michel Weber in the 1971 Paris 1000 Km.


Tuesday 17th September

Look Smart has just announced 1:18 and 1:43 replicas commemorating Charles Leclerc’s very first Formula One victory at this year’s Belgian Grand Prix. After being thwarted in Bahrain by mechanical problems and then by Max Verstappen in Austria, it was third time lucky for the Monegasque. His success was tinged with sadness, however, as his close friend Anthoine Hubert had lost his life in a Formula 2 accident at the same circuit the previous day.


Monday 16th September

Today Spark announced a dozen replicas of helmets for this year’s Formula One drivers. 10 of them will be in 1:5 scale (about 6cm in height), while the two Alfa Romeo drivers of Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi will also have their lids modelled in 1:8 scale, which is about the size of a golf ball. The 1:5 Hamilton helmet replica, by the way, is specifically from the British Grand Prix, as it features the Union Jack design on the top.


Friday 13th September

IXO has just confirmed a couple of 1:43 replicas from the early career of the second most successful WRC driver of all time, Sebastien Ogier. They are both from rallies that the Frenchman competed on with a Peugeot 206 XS: his #50 machine from the 2006 Tour of Cadabelles, and his #66 steed from the Tour of Provence in the same year.


Thursday 12th September

Lucky Step is clearly out to set the world record for most different colourways produced of a 1:18 replica, as it has just announced another four options for its Jaguar XJ6! These are burgundy, dark green, blue and grey.


Wednesday 11th September

Today Matrix added a couple of cars to its roster of 1:43 classics. The first of these is the 1973 Jaguar XJ 12-PF Pininfarina, which will be available in silver and bronze. Then there is the 1948 Talbot Lago T26 Grand Sport cabriolet by Saoutchik. For this one, you can choose between having the replica with the roof either open or closed!


Tuesday 10th September

Today Spark announced a dozen 1:43 replicas from this year’s WTCR series. British tin-top heroes Gordon Shedden and Rob Huff are covered, amongst several other top touring car drivers.


Monday 9th September

Today TrueScale Miniatures provided us with sample images of its 1:43 replicas of the Ford GTs from this year’s Daytona 24 Hours. They both ran in retro liveries, with the #67 car featuring the Castrol colours, while the #66 machine ran in a Motorcraft livery. We think that they both look stunning.


Friday 6th September

Another day, another fantastic new 1:18 announcement from Tecnomodel of a classic Formula One car that has never been replicated in this scale before! Today, it is the 1971 McLaren M19A.

Ironically, we expect the version that isn’t finished in the famous McLaren orange to possibly be the most popular amongst collectors! This is Mark Donohue’s blue Sunoco M19A that was entered for him by Roger Penske in the 1971 Canadian Grand Prix. It was Donohue’s very first grand Prix, the American scoring a sensational third place on his debut. It would remain the only podium finish of his Formula One career. If you prefer your classic McLaren replicas in the team’s traditional orange, then you have three options. These are the #9 machine that Denny Hulme took to a fourth place finish in the 1971 Monaco Grand Prix, the #10 example that Peter Gethin campaigned to ninth place at France that year, and the #26 M19A that Hulme brought across the line 12th in Holland.


Thursday 5th September

We know that Tecnomodel are the kings of replicating iconic cars from the history of motor racing in 1:18, that for some bizarre reason or other have never been produced in that scale before. But today, the Italian model-makers surpassed themselves; they announced the first ever Ferraris to have competed in the Formula One world championship!

Everyone knows that the first world championship grand prix was held at Silverstone in 1950, but a lesser known fact is that Ferrari did not join the series until the second round of the year, in Monaco. Alberto Ascari finished the team’s first race in a highly impressive second place in the #40 125 F1. Tecnomodel will of course be replicating Ascari’s Monaco machine, along with three other 1950 125 F1s in 1:18 scale. These are the #18 car that failed to finish the Swiss Grand Prix in the hands of Ascari, the #24 example that Luigi Villoresi took to a second place finish in the non-championship San Remo Grand Prix, and a plain red press version. Given the enormity of the significance of these replicas, pre-ordering is a must.


Wednesday 4th September

Today Spark confirmed the cars from the 2019 Le Mans 24 Hours that it will be replicating in 1:18 scale. From the top LMP1 class, there will be the two Toyotas as well as the two colourful Rebellions in their one-off liveries. There will be four replicas from LMP2 (including the class winning Alpine), and a few Porsches, Aston Martins and a single Corvette from the GT categories.


Tuesday 3rd September

While many of them have now sold out, we thought we’d remind you that we still have a fair selection of 1:18 Tecnomodel replicas available at a massive £100 off of the RRP. That means you pay just £149.99 instead of £249.99! We are only bringing these replicas in from Europe to meet our customer orders for them; with our next shipment due in a couple of weeks. This will be your last chance to obtain most of these models at this amazing price.


Monday 2nd September

Some nine years after it was originally announced, we have at last received Minichamps’ 1:12 bike, figure and flag set from the 1995 500cc season! 1995 was the second of Mick’s five consecutive championships in the top class, as he took seven wins to secure the crown.


Friday 30th August

Today we added almost 70 different models to the dedicate Sale section of our website, all with savings up of to 33% off of the original RRP. That makes it almost 700 different replicas in our Sale in total, some with savings of over 50% off of the original RRP, so you're bound to find a bargain to suit you!


Thursday 29th August

AUTOart has just confirmed that we should see all four colourways of its 1:18 replica of the outrageous Aston Martin Vulcan over the next couple of months. Officially these are Stratus White, Matt Black, Apple Tree Green Metallic and Madagascar Orange.


Wednesday 28th August

Next week we are due to receive Minichamps’ 1:43 Fernando Alonso two-car set. Commemorating the Spaniard’s 300th grand prix start, it will comprise his 2001 Minardi PS01 and 2018 McLaren MCL33.


Tuesday 27th August

We have just been able to unearth a mere dozen more examples of Minichamps’ 1:18 replica of Lewis Hamilton’s 2018 championship winning Mercedes F1 W09. This was initially released a couple of months ago, but it was completely sold out to our customer pre-orders before it even arrived with us. If you missed out then, get in touch soon before this very limited re-supply is all snapped up!


Friday 23rd August

Today Minichamps announced three new additions to its burgeoning 1:8 Valentino Rossi helmet collection, which are all from 2019. They will be producing his ‘standard’ lid, as well as his colourful one-offs from pre-season testing and his home race at Mugello.


Thursday 22nd August

Some two and a half years after it was initially announced, we today received Sun Star’s 1:18 replica of Will Gollop’s 1986 Metro 6R4. It of course comes in the Silkolene livery that the Englishman was famous for campaigning in the European Rallycross series.


Wednesday 21st August

Today we received a new 1:43 delivery from Spark. Highlights on it were a couple of 1:43 classic Formula One cars, in the form of Guy Edwards’ Hesketh 308D from the 1976 German Grand Prix and Johnny Herbert’s Benetton B188 from the 1989 Brazilian Grand Prix.


Tuesday 20th August

Today Spark announced several new 1:43 announcements. You can click here to see all of Spark’s recent new announcements, with the first 17 models shown from today’s batch. As ever, there are several interesting classic F1 subjects, particularly the 1990 Coloni of Bertrand Gachot, which never qualified for a race!


Monday 19th August

We have just received Minichamps’ pair of re-releases of the 1994 Williams FW16s of Ayrton Senna and Damon Hill. Suffice to say, the Senna replica is from the San Marino Grand Prix, where the great Brazilian scored his 65th pole position, and partook in his final racing laps before reaching the Tamburello corner on lap six. The Damon Hill car is from the first race of the campaign in Brazil, in which he finished second. After a tragic and controversial year he was pipped to the drivers’ title by Michael Schumacher, by just one point. These replicas come complete with decal sheet in order to make them race-authentic, if you know what we mean!


Friday 16th August

We’ve had some huge news to end the week on, with Spark confirming that it will be producing the first ever 1:18 replica of James Hunt’s 1975 Dutch Grand Prix winning Hesketh 308! This is one of the few remaining iconic Formula One cars never to have been replicated in this scale before, but Spark will soon be righting that wrong. Spark has also announced another belter of a classic Formula One car in 1:18 scale; namely Jim Clark’s winning Lotus 33 from the 1965 British Grand Prix. The Scot won his second world championship that season thanks to a string of five consecutive victories across the middle of the campaign, with the third of those coming at his home event at Silverstone.


Thursday 15th August

Today Tecnomodel announced another very appealing classic racing car subject in 1:18 scale, which is the 1964 specification Ferrari 250 GTO. The 250 GTO received a restyle for 1964, taking several cues from the 250 LM. The first of the four different examples that Tecnomodel will be replicating in 1:18 is a plain red press version. Next up is the #30 car with a white stripe across the bonnet, which Piper, Gammino and Rodriguez took to seventh overall and first in class in the 1964 Sebring 12 Hours. The third model is the #83 machine that Parkes and Guichet piloted to second overall (and another class win) in the Nurburgring 1000 km that year. Finally, there is the #25 250 GTO with the blue nose that Ireland and Maggs campaigned in the 1964 Le Mans 24 Hours. They finished sixth (Jackie Stewart was also entered in the car, but did not drive).


Wednesday 14th August

Tomorrow we will receive Minichamps’ 1:43 two-car set commemorating the Williams Formula One team’s 40th anniversary in 2017. It consists of Alan Jones’ 1978 FW06, and Felipe Massa’s 2017 FW40. It is a limited edition of just 300 pieces worldwide.


Tuesday 13th August

Today we received the fourth and final batch of our exclusive SMTS 1:18 replica of the Vanwall that Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks famously shared to win the 1957 British Grand Prix at Aintree. We have just a dozen pieces remaining after fulfilling all of our customer pre-orders for this special replica. Once they’re gone, that’s it; this model will never be made by SMTS again. It’s taken 62 years for this very significant Formula One car to be replicated in 1:18 scale. You’ll kick yourself if you miss the opportunity to acquire it while it’s there!


Monday 12th August

Today we received several new 1:18 classic rally car replicas from IXO. Subjects include the iconic Peugeot 205 T16, Audi Sport Quattro S1 and Porsche 911 Carrera RS from some truly halcyon times in the world rally championship.


Friday 9th August

Today we added almost 60 different models to the dedicated Sale section of our website, all with savings of up to 33% off of the original RRP. Our bargain of the month is KK’s 1:18 replica of the 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 Spyder. At 33% off, you can now pick it up for just £59.33 instead of its original RRP of £88.99!


Thursday 8th August

Today we received BBR’s 1:18 replica of Gilles Villeneuve’s Ferrari 126 C2 from the 1982 Belgian Grand Prix. This, of course, was the last car that the mercurial Canadian ever drove, as he tragically lost his life in the qualifying session for the event. It is a limited edition of 300 pieces worldwide, and was a complete sell-out on release with BBR. We have just four examples left after fulfilling our customer pre-orders.


Wednesday 7th August

Today Minichamps provided us with its first image of the Ayrton Senna and Satoru Nakajima Lotus ‘taxi’ replica from the 1987 Italian Grand Prix. And what’s more, it confirmed that it will arrive with us next week in both 1:18 and 1:43 scale! This is the most exciting Ayrton Senna replica to have been released for many years. If you haven’t yet got your order in for it, then you need to move swiftly, as the remaining stock will no doubt be consumed quickly now that everyone knows how good it is going to look!


Tuesday 6th August

Today we received samples of our next two 1:18 exclusive replicas, which are Stirling Moss’s winning Lotus 18 from the 1961 Monaco Grand Prix, and the Ecurie Ecosse Jaguar D-Type that won the 1957 Le Mans 24 Hours in the hands of Ron Flockhart and Ivor Bueb. This means that we should see them released at some point during the autumn. Neither of them have ever been produced in 1:18 scale before. These replicas will both be limited editions of just 250 pieces worldwide, and will only be available from Diecast Legends. Get your pre-order locked in now.


Monday 5th August

Today we are able to offer you around 75 different 1:18 Tecnomodel replicas at a massive £100 off of the RRP; that means you pay just £149.99 instead of £249.99! Normally, of course, Tecnomodel replicas sell out as soon as they are released, but we have just been able to source a supply of older stock from Europe at this fantastic price. We will receive our delivery of these models later this month. With many of them there are literally just one or two examples available, so you will need to move quickly to secure what you want.


Friday 2nd August

Today Tecnomodel announced yet another 1:18 replica of a classic Formula One Ferrari that has never been offered in this scale before! This time it is the Ferrari 801 from 1957. There will be four different versions available, with two for the legendary Mike Hawthorn: the #10 car that he took to a third place finish in the British Grand Prix, and the #8 machine with a blue nose that he finished second with at the Nurburgring. Then there will be Peter Collins’ third placed #12 Ferrari 801 from the French Grand Prix, as well as a plain red ‘press’ version.


Thursday 1st August

Today Spark announced no less than three 1:43 specials from the 2019 German Grand Prix! As well as Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes with the one-off livery of the front half of his Mercedes painted white, there will be Max Verstappen’s winning Red Bull and the Toro Rossi that Daniil Kvyat took to a sensational third place finish in the tricky weather conditions.


Wednesday 31st July

Today we received BBR’s 1:43 replica of Dan Gurney’s Ferrari 330 LMB from the 1963 Bridgehampton 500 km. It is a worldwide limited edition of a mere 72 pieces, and we have just one example left after fulfilling our customer pre-orders!


Tuesday 30th July

We received two new 1:18 releases from AUTOart today: the 2015 Jaguar E-Type Lightweight in silver and the 2017 Bugatti Chiron in black. These 1:18 replicas have recently been released in other colours by AUTOart and sold out extremely quickly; we expect the same thing to happen with these two new versions.


Monday 29th July

There was big news today, and impressively quick news as that, as Minichamps already announced 1:18 and 1:43 replicas for both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas from yesterday’s dramatic German Grand Prix! To celebrate 125 years since what is recognised as the first ever motor race, which Benz itself competed in, the Mercedes team ran with the front half of its cars painted white. This paid homage to the colour that the marque initially used for its motorsport entries, before switching to silver in the 1930s, ostensibly to save weight on its racing machines.


Friday 26th July

Today Matrix announced several new replicas, in both 1:18 and 1:43 scale. There’s some interesting classic Aston Martin road cars in 1:43, while the Lister-Jaguar Knobbly has also been confirmed in 1:18. It’s one of Matrix’s most interesting sets of new announcements for some time.


Thursday 25th July

We received a little 1:43 delivery from Spark today. As usual it was dominated by classic Formula One cars, including Johnny Herbert’s sole grand prix start for Ligier! Modern subjects were included too though, with this year’s Bathurst 12 Hours winning Porsche amongst others.


Wednesday 24th July

Today we received a 1:18 replica of an iconic classic British car from MCG, in the form of the 1973 Ford Capri Mk.1 in metallic light blue. It represents great value with a RRP of just £63.99.


Tuesday 23rd July

Today Spark announced 1:18 and 1:43 specials commemorating Lewis Hamilton’s spectacular home victory in this year’s British Grand Prix. They will both come complete with the Union Jack that Hamilton carried on his victory lap. His win this year officially made him the most successful driver in the history of the event, as with his sixth British GP win he surpassed the five wins held by fellow F1 legends Jim Clark and Alain Prost.


Monday 22nd July

We’ve started off the week with a new half scale helmet announcement! Courtesy of Bell, it is Charles Leclerc’s 2019 Ferrari lid. We can already say that it is the helmet that he scored his first Formula One podium with, and hopefully by the end of the year we will also be able to say that it is the helmet that he took his first grand prix win with!


Friday 19th July

It’s been a while since we’ve had an exciting new 1:18 announcement from Cult, but we had one today: the awesome 1990 Jaguar XJR-15! It will be available in both metallic blue and metallic orange. Cult’s replicas only make it into the UK in tiny numbers, so place your pre-order now if you don’t want to miss out on this one.


Thursday 18th July

Today we received another one of IXO’s 1:43 classic Jaguar road car replicas, in the form of the 1961 Mk.10 in metallic light blue. It represents great value at just £34.99. IXO still has a few more classic 1:43 Jaguar road cars on its books which are yet to be released, and we can’t wait to see them.


Wednesday 17th July

Today we received a trio of 1:18 Ford Escort Mk.1 RS1600 rally car replicas from IXO. They are all from the 1971 RAC Rally, and are the cars for rallying legends Timo Makinen, Hannu Mikkola and Roger Clark.


Tuesday 16th July

Today we received CMC’s last two fantastically detailed 1:18 replicas of the iconic Jaguar C-Type. These of course are the 1953 Le Mans winning car of Tony Rolt and Duncan Hamilton, and the C-Type that Jimmy Stewart drove to victory in the 1954 BARC Sports Car race at Goodwood. We are originally expecting these to arrive with us yesterday, but they experienced a slight delay en route.


Monday 15th July

We received a nice new 1:43 delivery from Spark to start the week. There’s a nice selection of classic Formula One cars on there, like Jackie Stewart’s winning Matra MS10 from the 1969 South African Grand Prix, and Jim Clark’s victorious Lotus 18 from the 1960 Oulton Park Formula Junior race. And, if obscure backmarkers are more your thing, how about Pascal Fabre’s AGS JH22 from 1987?


Friday 12th July

Today we had an exciting new 1:43 announcement from Spark. It is the Porsche 919 Hybrid EVO Tribute that Timo Bernhard famously took to a new lap record at the daunting Nurburgring Nordschleife last year. The replica even comes complete with a standing driver figure and celebratory pit board! Place your pre-order by next Wednesday, 17th July, and there will be no chance of you missing out.


Thursday 11th July

Today Minichamps announced several 2019 Formula One specials. First up are the two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly from the Austrian Grand Prix, where Max of course secured that famous last-gasp win after a fantastic comeback drive. These will be available in both 1:18 and 1:43 scale for both drivers. Next up are 1:18 replicas of the two Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas from the Monaco Grand Prix, which ran with tributes to the great Niki Lauda who had passed away just before the event. Lewis took a narrow victory in the race.


Wednesday 10th July

Today it was CMC’s turn to provide us with some exciting 1:18 classic racing car news, as it confirmed that it will be delivering its final fabulously detailed 1:18 replicas of the glorious Jaguar C-Type to us next Monday! As usual, they have left the best until last, with the 1953 Le Mans winning car of Tony Rolt and Duncan Hamilton, and the example that Jimmy Stewart drove to victory in the 1954 BARC Sports Car race at Goodwood, the latter resplendent in its wonderful shade of Ecurie Ecosse blue. The Jaguar C-Type is CMC’s most exciting 1:18 replica for many years, so unsurprisingly we do not have many left to sell from our allocation after fulfilling our already-placed customer pre-orders. Act now, and you should still be in time!


Tuesday 9th July

Tecnomodel just can’t help itself but announce really exciting 1:18 replicas! Today’s stunner was the first ever 1:18 replica of the Ferrari F1 275 that participated in the first ever Formula One world championship, in 1950. There will be four different versions produced: Alberto Ascari’s fifth placed #4 car from the Belgian Grand Prix, the #8 machine that failed to start the French Grand Prix in the hands of Luigi Villoresi, the T-designated car that Ascari drove in testing for the non-championship Geneva Grand Prix, and a plain red ’press’ example. As usual with Tecnomodel, the limited edition numbers on these will be ultra-low!


Monday 8th July

Today Tecnomodel gave us some huge news to start the week, by confirming that it will be replicating the 1951 Alfa Romeo 159 Formula One car in 1:18 scale! There will be four different versions, headlined by Juan Manel Fangio’s world championship winner. The other three are for Giuseppe Farina, Paul Pietsch and the plain red press car. For many collectors, this will be the first opportunity to add Fangio’s 1951 Alfa Romeo to their 1:18 world champions collections. As, although Exoto has replicated this car before, that was many years ago, and the price was beyond excessive! All four of these Alfa Romeo 159 replicas will be subject to the usual paltry Tecnomodel limited edition numbers, so to avoid missing out on any of them you really do need to place your pre-order now.


Friday 5th July

Today Minichamps released its quintet of 1:18 replicas of 2016 Ford GT Le Mans cars. Chief of these is the #68 car of Sebastien Bourdais, Dirk Muller and Joey Hand that took victory in the GT Pro class that year. The other three team cars are also available, along with the plain black test car.


Thursday 4th July

Today we added around 50 different models to the dedicated Sale section of our website, all with savings of 33% off of the original RRP. Our highlight this month is Minichamps’ pair of 1:43 replicas of the 2018 Haas Formula One cars for Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean. At 33% off, they can now be snapped up for just £53.33 each instead of £79.99 each! But as always, only whilst stocks last!


Wednesday 3rd July

Spark was quick off the mark today, already announcing 1:18 and 1:43 specials commemorating Max Verstappen’s fantastic win in the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday! After dropping to eighth place following a poor start Verstappen’s pace was meteoric, snatching the win from Charles Leclerc with just a couple of laps remaining. There hasn’t been a grand prix victory this hyped for quite some time, so we think that demand is going to be high for these 1:18 and 1:43 specials. Spark has guaranteed to fulfil all pre-orders for these specials placed by next Tuesday, 9th July, so get involved by that deadline date and you will have nothing to worry about.


Tuesday 2nd July

Today we received Spark’s autumn release schedule. As usual, it was full chock full of new announcements that we hadn’t known about before! Our favourite model on the schedule is the 1:43 replica of Jim Clark’s winning Lotus 33 from the 1965 British Grand Prix at Silverstone. The legendary Scot is still a huge favourite amongst collectors, so we can see demand for this one being on the high side. As you would expect, the rest of the schedule is peppered with classic F1 and endurance racing subjects! Spark has guaranteed to fulfil all pre-orders placed for these autumn release schedule models that are placed by this Friday, 5th July, so make your move by then and there will be no chance of you missing out.


Monday 1st July

Today we received Matrix’s pair of 1:43 replicas of the Lister-Jaguar Knobbly. There is the plain green and yellow version from 1957, and Stirling Moss’s winning #29 example from the 1958 Daily Express Trophy sports car race at Silverstone.


Friday 28th June

Where would this Daily Diecast Digest be without Tecnomodel! The Italian model-maker dominates the news most weeks! And it has provided the news again today, with another 1:18 announcement of a classic Formula One Ferrari: the 1984 126 C4. Tecnomodel will be replicating Michele Alboreto and Rene Arnoux’s machines from the European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring, which they took to second and fifth place finishes respectively.


Thursday 27th June

BBR announced another ultra-low 1:43 limited edition replica today. It is the gold Ferrari 330 LMB that Dan Gurney took to a third place finish in the 1963 Bridgehampton 500 Km. The limited edition size is just 72 pieces worldwide.


Wednesday 26th June

Today BBR announced that it will be producing 1:18 and 1:43 replicas of Ferrari’s first ever plug-in hybrid vehicle: the SF90 Stradale. The twin-turbo V8 and three e-motors combine to generate a not too shabby 986 bhp!


Tuesday 25th June

Tecnomodel announced another barnstormer of a 1:18 classic Formula One announcement today, in the form of Niki Lauda’s Ferrari 312 B3 from the 1974 Spanish Grand Prix. This, of course, was the Austrian’s first ever grand prix victory. We can’t believe that non-one has ever replicated it in 1:18 scale before! There will also be two 1974 Ferrari 312 B3 replicas for Clay Regazzoni: his winning car from the German Grand Prix, and his low airbox pre-season test car.


Monday 24th June

Tecnomodel started the week with yet another exciting new 1:18 announcement that has never been replicated in this scale before! This time, it is the 1968 Ferrari 312/68 Formula One car. There will be four different versions produced, with our favourite being Jacky Ickx’s winning car from the 1968 Belgian Grand Prix. This was the Belgian’s very first Formula One win. Two of the other three variants are also for Jacky Ickx, from the Dutch and German Grands Prix. Finally, there is Derek Bell’s machine from the American Grand Prix. As we’re talking Tecnomodel, all four of these offerings are obviously going to have limited edition numbers very much on the low side. Get your pre-order in now, and you will not miss out.


Friday 21st June

Today we received Tecnomodel’s 1:18 replica of Jim Clark’s 1960 Lotus 18. The 18 was a hugely significant car in the history of grand prix racing, as it was the very machine that the legendary Scot scored his first ever world championship podium in. The race in question was the Portuguese Grand Prix, which was only the fifth occasion that Clark had competed in a world championship event. Tecnomodel’s replica is based on the car from that very race.


Thursday 20th June

Today we took delivery of Spark’s 1:18 replica of the 2018 Le Mans winning Toyota TS050, as driven by Fernando Alonso, Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima. This, of course, was finally the first win for the Japanese marque in the great endurance race, after coming so close on so many previous occasions.


Wednesday 19th June

With Kimi Raikkonen notching up his 300th grand prix this season, and returning to the team with which he made his F1 debut back in 2001, Minichamps has just announced a couple of 1:43 specials for the Iceman. The first 1:43 special is a two-car set, consisting of Kimi’s 2001 Sauber and 2019 Alfa Romeo C38. The second is essentially a re-release, in the form of his 2001 Sauber.


Tuesday 18th June

Today Tecnomodel announced another zinger of a new 1:18 subject that has never been replicated in this scale before: the 1989 Aston Martin AMR1 endurance racer! There will be four different versions of this replica available: the #18 and #19 cars from the 1989 Le Mans 24 Hours, the #18 car from the 1989 Brands Hatch round of the World Sportscar Championship, and the Dijon test car. As usual for Tecnomodel, the limited editions involved are tiny, at no more than 100 pieces for each variant. Place your pre-order for the example you want within the next couple of days, and you will not miss out.


Monday 17th June

So, after a dramatic turn-around in the closing stages of the Le Mans 24 Hours, it was the #8 Toyota TS050 of Fernando Alonso, Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima that took a second successive win in the endurance classic! We are already offering 1:18 and 1:43 replicas of the winning Japanese machine to pre-order. They haven’t officially been announced yet, but we have no doubt that they will! You can also click here to see the entire Le Mans grid available to pre-order in 1:43 scale. There was a whole host of one-off liveries employed at the race this year, so there’s plenty to get excited about!


Friday 14th June

It’s our favourite day of the year, when we offer the entire Le Mans grid to pre-order in 1:43 scale! There are a record 62 cars in the field this year, so check them out and pre-order your favourites now! There’s loads of stunning liveries to look out for this year, including four different retro colour schemes from the Ford GT Pro team, and Porsche’s GT Pro squad offering two pairs of special paint finishes as well. Traditionally Spark makes the replicas for the majority of the field, with the exception of the Ferraris which are usually produced by Look Smart. Enjoy the race!


Thursday 13th June

Tecnomodel has been extremely busy this week; the Italian model-maker has now just announced four 1:18 replicas of the stunning 1969 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona Coupe Speciale! It will be available in gloss red, metallic blue, gloss yellow and metallic bronze. As is usually the case with Tecnomodel, these are all extremely limited editions (at between just 60 and 140 pieces each worldwide), so there is very good chance of these being sold out to pre-orders before they are even released. Get your pre-order in now, and you will not end up disappointed.


Wednesday 12th June

Today Look Smart announced a pair of very interesting supercar concept cars from the Geneva Motor Show, in both 1:18 and 1:43 scale. These are the 1970 Ferrari 512S Modulo, and the 1967 Lamborghini Marzal. These will likely only make it to the UK in tiny numbers, so get your pre-order in now to avoid missing out later.


Tuesday 11th June

Today Tecnomodel announced another belter of a 1:18 replica, in the form of the Jaguar D-Type endurance racer! The first of the Jaguar D-Types that Tecnomodel will be replicating in 1:18 scale is the winning car from the 1955 Le Mans 24 Hours, as driven by Mike Hawthorn and Ivor Bueb. Although AUTOart has replicated this car before, that was quite some time ago now, and it now has an asking price of about £400 on Ebay! The second version is the Cunningham entry that was driven to victory by Sherwood Johnston in the 1955 Watkins Glen Grand Prix. The third D-Type is the car that Ninian Sanderson and John Lawrence took to a second place finish in the 1957 Le Mans 24 Hours, while the fourth and final version is the press car, finished in gloss dark green. As usual with Tecnomodel, we’re talking tiny limited editions. These four replicas are limited to between just 70 and 120 pieces each worldwide. You will need to get your pre-order in now to ensure that you don’t miss out.


Monday 10th June

Today we added almost 100 different replicas to the dedicated Sale section of our website. As always, there are savings of up to 33% to be had off of the original RRP! Our bargain of the month for June is Look Smart’s 1:18 replica of Sebastian Vettel’s winning Ferrari SF71H from the 2018 Australian Grand Prix. At 20% off, you can now pick it up from us for just £175.20 instead of £219.00! But hurry, as we only have six left at this price!


Friday 7th June

Today Spark announced a couple of very interesting 1:43 race support vehicles. These are the Team Lotus Ford Transit from 1973, and the Elva race support truck from 1947.


Thursday 6th June

Today we are providing the news, as we are delighted to announce another exclusive 1:18 replica! It is the 1957 Le Mans 24 Hours winning Jaguar D-Type, as entered by the Ecurie Ecosse team, and as driven by Ron Flockhart and Ivor Bueb. It is a truly iconic car from the history of motorsport that has never been replicated in 1:18 scale before, and it will be exclusively available from us at Diecast Legends! The replica is being produced for us by the same industry-leading model maker that delivered our exclusive Mike Hawthorn 1958 Morocco Ferrari, so you know that quality won’t be an issue, and neither will accuracy. This exclusive 1:18 replica will be a limited edition of just 250 examples worldwide, so get your pre-order in now to avoid missing out.


Wednesday 5th June

Today BBR confirmed a very exclusive 1:43 replica, as it is a limited edition of just 36 (as in thirty-six!) pieces worldwide. It is of a Ferrari 250 GT Lusso, and is specifically chassis #5031, which is the very car that Fiskens sold at auction last year. Not many collectors are going to have the opportunity to add this one to their collection!


Tuesday 4th June

Today Tecnomodel announced another 1:18 replica of a classic Formula One car that has never been modelled in this scale before! It is the Honda RA273. There will be two cars for Richie Ginther from the 1966 season (Italy and Mexico), and two cars for John Surtees from the 1967 season (South Africa and Germany). As usual for Tecnomodel, the limited edition replicas are tiny, at between just 90 and 120 pieces each worldwide. Get your pre-order in now, though, and you will not miss out!


Monday 3rd June

Today Spark announced a 1:18 replica of Lewis Hamilton’s winning Mercedes F1 W10 from this year’s Monaco Grand Prix. As you would expect, the replica will feature the various Niki Lauda tributes that the Mercedes team ran with at that race, including the red halo, and Hamilton’s Lauda replica helmet.


Friday 31st May

Today Spark released its 1:43 replica of one of the nicest looking cars from the 2018 Le Mans 24 Hours: the #1 Rebellion of Bruno Senna, Andre Lotterer and Neel Jani. We have just five examples left after fulfilling our customer pre-orders, so do not delay.


Thursday 30th May

Today Matrix released its 1:43 replica commemorating what was probably Stirling Moss’s greatest ever drive: his victory in the 1955 Mille Miglia. With Denis Jenkinson reading the pace notes alongside him, Stirling was unstoppable, and romped to a famous win.


Wednesday 29th May

Today Minichamps announced a sextet of 1:43 replicas from the weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix, complete with Niki Lauda tributes. So, that’s the two Mercedes of race winner Lewis Hamilton and third placed Valtteri Bottas with red halos (Hamilton also wore a Lauda replica helmet), the two Haas cars of Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen which featured a Lauda tribute across the top of their engine covers, and the two Toro Rossos of Daniil Kvyat and Alexander Albon that had a Lauda tribute on the piece of bodywork in front of the sidepods.


Tuesday 28th May

We have now received Spark’s 1:43 replica of what was probably the most celebrated car at Le Mans last year: the #92 Porsche 911 RSR in the ‘Pink Pig’ retro livery! Driven by Michael Christensen, Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor, it won the GT Pro class. We have just half a dozen examples still available after fulfilling our customer pre-orders, so it will not be around for long.


Friday 24th May

Today BBR announced a 1:18 replica of one of the most iconic Ferraris ever: the 1969 Dino 246 GT. It will be a limited edition of just 246 pieces worldwide, so is one that you will need to pre-order if you want to be certain of acquiring your example.


Thursday 23rd May

We have just received Look Smart’s 1:43 replica of Sebastian Vettel’s winning Ferrari SF71H from the 2018 Canadian Grand Prix. What was significant about this event was that it was Vettel’s 50th grand prix victory. Only three other drivers have reached that milestone.


Wednesday 22nd May

Today Minichamps confirmed its line-up of 1:12 2019 Moto GP bikes. Obviously, the Yamaha of Valentino Rossi will be replicated, as will his team-mate Maverick Vinales, and the two Repsol Hondas of Marc Marquez and Jorge Lorenzo. British hero Cal Crutchlow will also get a 1:12 model, as will rookie sensation Fabio Quartararo and his Petronas Yamaha team-mate Franco Morbidelli. The other two riders that will get 1:12 replicas of their 2019 machines are Takaaki Nakagami and Stefan Bradl. Minichamps’ 1:12 Moto GP replicas are making it into the UK in ever tinier quantities, so there is a good chance that these will not be available from stock when they are released. Place your pre-order for your favourite(s) now, and there will be no chance of you missing out.


Tuesday 21st May

It’s Tecnomodel in the news again today, as the Italian model maker has just provided us with its trio of 1:18 replicas of the 1958 Ferrari Dino 246 Formula One car. These are for Peter Collins, Luigi Musso and Olivier Gendebien. A standard Tecnomodel 1:18 replica is special enough, but these ones are even more so, as they come with authentic race aged bodywork, that recreate the dirt and grime that would have built up on the cars during the race, particularly on the nose and around the exhaust exits. These are also the lowest limited editions that we have ever seen from Tecnomodel. The Collins car is limited to just 90 examples worldwide, the Musso to 65, and the Gendebien to a mere 60!


Monday 20th May

Tecnomodel announced a new 1:18 roadgoing Ferrari replica today, in the form of the 1968 P6 Pininfarina. It will be available in metallic blue and pearl white as limited editions of 130 pieces each, and red as a limited edition of just 120 pieces.


Friday 17th May

Today Spark confirmed its late summer release schedule, and as usual for one of its release schedules these days, it had several new announcements on it that we hadn’t known about before. Our favourite replica on the schedule is one that we did know about previously, however. It is the #43 Lotus Elite that the legendary Jim Clark and John Whitmore campaigned in the 1959 Le Mans 24 Hours. The duo brought the Border Reivers-entered machine home in 10th place overall, and second in the GT1.5 class. As far as the new announcements on the release schedule go, unsurprisingly classic F1 and endurance racing subjects abound. Spark has pledged to fulfil all pre-orders for these models placed by next Friday, 24th March, so get your pre-order in by then for what you want and there will be no chance of you missing out.


Thursday 16th May

Today TrueScale Miniatures released its pair of 1:43 replicas of the most awesome McLaren supercar ever: the Senna! It is available in both Mira Orange and Victory Grey.


Wednesday 15th May

In the very near future we are due to receive Tecnomodel’s trio of 1:18 replicas of the Ferrari Dino 246 from the 1958 Formula One season. Tecnomodel’s models are special anyway, but these ones will be even more so in that they will come in a realistic ‘dirty’ race-aged finish. There will be Peter Collins’ winning car from the 1958 British Grand Prix, along with Luigi Musso’s Monaco Grand Prix example and the yellow Ecurie Francorchamps version that Olivier Gendebien campaigned in the Belgian Grand Prix.


Tuesday 14th May

Today Norev released its 1:18 replica of the iconic 1986 Ford Sierra RS Cosworth in white. It’s a sealed bodyshell replica, so you get the most authentically recreated body shape possible. And at just £79.99, it represents really good value for money as well.


Monday 13th May

Minichamps started off the week by releasing its 1:18 replica commemorating Michael Schumacher’s very first Formula One victory, in a Benetton B192 at the 1992 Belgian Grand Prix. It is a limited edition of just 1,992 pieces worldwide (see what they did there!), and we have a mere dozen examples left in our warehouse after fulfilling our customer pre-orders.


Friday 10th May

Today’s news is a biggie, as Minichamps has at last released its 1:18 replica of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes F1 W08 from the 2017 Mexican Grand Prix! This, of course, was the race in which he survived contact with championship rival Sebastian Vettel (which resulted in a puncture for the Mercedes man) to come home in ninth place and secure his fourth Formula One world championship. We only have a dozen examples still available after fulfilling our customer pre-orders, which really isn’t very many at all! This replica may have taken a long time coming, but it will be sold out in next to no time!


Thursday 9th May

BBR seems to have dominated this Daily Diecast Digest over the last few days! Today’s news from the Italian model-maker is that it has just released its 1:18 replica of the 1957 Ferrari Superfast 4.9. It is a limited edition of just 500 pieces worldwide, and is a complete sell-out on release with BBR. We were able to acquire just six examples, and had already pre-sold half of these. There’s not long to think about obtaining one, then!


Wednesday 8th May

Today we added almost 100 replicas to the dedicated Sale section of our website. As usual, there are savings of up to 33% to be had off of the original RRP! Our bargain of the month is Burago’s pair of 1:43 replicas of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen’s 2018 Ferraris, which at 33% off are now available at just £19.99 each compared to their original RRPs of £29.99 each!


Tuesday 7th May

Following on from an exciting new 1:18 road car announcement on Friday, BBR confirmed an exciting new 1:18 endurance racing subject today. It is Eugenio Castellotti’s winning Ferrari 290 MM from the 1956 running of the Mille Miglia. It will be a limited edition of just 200 pieces worldwide.


Friday 3rd May

Today BBR announced a very exciting new 1:18 replica, in the form of Steve McQueen’s Ferrari 250 GT Lusso. Chassis #4891 was bought new in 1963 as a gift for McQueen by his first wife, Neile Adams. This replica is a limited edition of just 180 pieces worldwide, and was completely sold out with BBR within hours of being announced. We have been able to acquire a mere 10 pieces, which will surely be snapped up pretty quickly.


Thursday 2nd May

Today Matrix announced a raft of new 1:43 road and race car announcements. Highlights for us were the Mercedes 300 SLR that Stirling Moss and John Fitch drove to victory in the 1955 RAC TT at Dundrod, Malcolm Campbell’s 1937 Bugatti T57S Roadster, and the 1931 Bentley 8 Litre Dottridge Brothers Tourer. With many of these new announcements we will not be holding any stock when they are released. If we take zero customer pre-orders, we will buy in zero examples! Definitely make sure that you place your pre-order if you don’t want to miss out on any of these.


Wednesday 1st May

Today Look Smart announced 1:18 and 1:43 replicas of Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc’s Ferraris from this year’s Chinese Grand Prix. That race, of course, as the 1000th world championship grand prix, and so was a highly significant event. Particularly with Ferrari being the only team that has competed in the sport (almost) from the very beginning!


Tuesday 30th April

Today we received our first new delivery in quite a while from TopSpeed, who treated us to a pair of new 1:18 supercar replicas. These are the Aston Martin DB11 in Sunburst Yellow, and the Ford GT in white with blue stripes.


Monday 29th April

Today IXO released a pair of 1:43 replicas of the 1935 Jaguar SS1 Airline Coupe. One is of a plain black road car, and one is of the #99 machine that Sydney Light campaigned in the 1935 Monte Carlo Rally.


Friday 26th April

Today we received Spark’s 1:43 replica of the ‘Rothmans’ retro livery Porsche 911 RSR from last year’s Le Mans 24 Hours. Driven by Richard Lietz, Gianmaria Bruni and Frederic Makowiecki, the car came home in second place in the GT Pro class. We only have a dozen examples left after fulfilling our customer pre-orders, so do not delay.


Thursday 25th April

Today Look Smart announced a quintet of new 1:43 Formula One and endurance racing Ferrari replicas. The F1 cars are Ludovico Scarfiotti’s 156 from the 1964 Italian Grand Prix, and Michele Alboreto’s F1/87 from the 1987 Monaco Grand Prix. Of the three endurance racers, our favourite is the 330P that Graham Hill and Jo Bonner took to a second place finish in the 1964 Le Mans 24 Hours.


Wednesday 24th April

Today we received word that we should receive Spark’s 1:43 specials for Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso from the 2018 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at some point next week. Both will come in special packaging featuring doughnut tyre marks on the base, replicating the manoeuvres that the drivers performed after the race. The Alonso version also comes with a ‘Gracias Fernando’ pit board, his McLaren team commemorating what could have well been his last ever grand prix.


Tuesday 23rd April

Highway 61 released a 1:18 muscle car replica today, in the form of a Plymouth Barracuda. This is specifically the version that was commissioned in memory of Americam dragster racer Ronnie Sox, who passed away in 2006.


Thursday 18th April

Today it was TrueScale Miniatures and TopSpeed’s turn to cancel some of their back catalogue, which amounted to a couple of dozen product cancellations between them. We really have entered the era where no-one is willing to be left sitting on expensive stock, and that now seems to have extended to the model manufacturers themselves. If they haven’t taken enough pre-orders for a replica, then they would seemingly now prefer to cancel it rather than produce it and be left with the risk of sitting on however many units.

Oh, and Happy Easter to everyone!


Wednesday 17th April

Look Smart announced a very poignant 1:18 replica today, in the form of the Ferrari 250 TRI/61 that brothers Pedro and Ricardo Rodriguez shared in the 1961 Le Mans 24 Hours. The Mexicans may have failed to finish the race (retiring late on with an engine failure), but that will in no way detract from the collectibility of this model.


Tuesday 16th April

Today Minichamps announced its first ever Formula E replicas. Specifically, it will be replicating the new Gen 2 car for all 22 drivers on the current Formula E grid (that’s season 5, running from 2018 to 2019) in both 1:18 and 1:43 scale. We probably won’t be holding any stock of these once they are released, so if you don’t pre-order you won’t get!


Monday 15th April

Today Burago confirmed that it will once again be replicating Ferrari’s Formula One car, the 2019 SF90, in both 1:18 and 1:43 scale. Obviously, both of the team’s drivers Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc will be available in both scales. We think it highly unlikely that the models will come with Mission Winnow branding included, as the project seems to be seen as a form of tobacco advertising.


Friday 12th April

Today we received BBR’s 1:18 replica of the 1960 Le Mans 24 Hours winning Ferrari 250 TR, which has never been replicated in this scale before. The car was driven by Olivier Gendebien and Paul Frere. We have just four pieces remaining after fulfilling all of our customer pre-orders, so it’s really ‘last chance’ territory with this model now!


Thursday 11th April

Not content with announcing a 1:18 replica of a legendary sports car racer yesterday, Tecnomodel confirmed another one today! Today it was the turn of the Ford P68 to receive Tecnomodel’s 1:18 treatment. There will be five versions replicated; three racing ones and two press cars. As always, these will not be in plentiful supply once they are released, so you know what you need to do in order to safely secure your example!


Wednesday 10th April

Today Tecnomodel announced four 1:18 replicas of the brutal Aston Martin AM V8 sports car racer! One will be from the 1979 Le Mans 24 Hours, one will be from the 1979 Silverstone 6 Hours, one will be from the 1980 Silverstone 6 Hours, and one will be the Gulf-liveried car that was on display at Goodwood in 2008. As ever, the limited editions on these are verging on ridiculously small, so pre-order your favourite version now so you don’t miss out when they are released.


Tuesday 9th April

Today Minichamps announced the cancellation of some 200 of its pre-order models that were yet to be released. Although most were of pretty obscure German GT racing cars that frankly won’t be missed, there were some significant items in the cull. These included the 1:18 Scheckter 1977 Wolf, the 1:12 Vincent Black Lightning, and the 1:43 two-car set commemorating Lewis Hamilton equalling Ayrton Senna’s pole position record. All affected customers will be contacted in the very near future.


Monday 8th April

Today Cult announced several new 1:18 classic road car replicas. Most of the subjects are British cars; we’re talking iconic vehicles like the Aston Martin DB6, Austin Healey 100S, Jaguar E-Type, and more. Make sure that you check them all out and pre-order what you want now to avoid missing out later.


Friday 5th April

Minichamps released another 1:18 replica of an RAC Rally winning Ford Escort RS1800 today; namely Timo Makinen’s car that was victorious on the event in 1975. You can also click here to see all of Minichamps’ other recent new releases.


Thursday 4th April

Today Spark announced a whole host of new announcements, covering the usual vast array of Formula One, endurance racing, touring car, rallying and road car subjects. Our favourite is a rather unusual 1:43 replica of the legendary Ayrton Senna’s Group N Honda Civic that he tested at the Suzuka circuit in 1990. That will surely make an interesting addition to the collections of all you Senna fans out there!


Wednesday 3rd April

Today we added almost 50 replicas to the dedicated Sale section of our website. As always, there are savings of up to 33% to be had off of the original RRP. Our bargain of the month is Minichamps’ 1:43 replica of Nigel Mansell’s 1982 Lotus 91, which at 33% off is now available from us for only £53.33 instead of £79.99!


Tuesday 2nd April

Today BBR informed us that we will see its 1:18 replica of the 1960 Le Mans 24 Hours winning Ferrari 250 TR 60 next week. Driven by Olivier Gendebien and Paul Frere, the car took a pretty dominant victory after being lucky to survive running out of fuel and just about being able to coast back to the pits at the time of the first refuelling stops. We have just seven pieces left from our allocation after fulfilling our customer pre-orders, so do not delay if you haven't yet got your order in.


Monday 1st April

Today Spark announced its 1:43 World Rally Car programme for 2019. The company will be replicating the cars of the drivers from the Citroen, Toyota and Ford teams. So, that’s Ogier, Lappi, Tanak, Meeke, Latvala, Evans, Suninen and Greensmith all covered.


Friday 29th March

A week after Minichamps did the same, Spark confirmed its programme from the 2019 Formula One grid today. In 1:18 scale Spark will be producing replicas for the Mercedes, Red Bull, Alfa Romeo and Renault teams, along with Verstappen and Raikkonen's one-oo livery shakedown cars from Silverstone and Fiorano respectively. In the smaller scale, Spark will be replicating the cars from Mercedes, Red Bull, Alfa Romeo, Renault, McLaren and Toro Rosso. Again, Verstappen and Raikkonen's shakedown cars will be modelled.


Thursday 28th March

Today Greenlight announced that it will be replicating Fernando Alonso's Dallara from this year's Indy 500 in 1:18 scale, as it did in 2017. So, all you Fernando Alonso fans out there can get your pre-order in nice and early! If you wait until seeing if Fernando has a good result at Indianapolis before placing your order, you could well be too late! By the way, we are aware that we are currently using an image of Fernando's Indy racer from 2017! When his 2019 car breaks cover we will update the image.


Wednesday 27th March

Today we received a new 1:43 delivery from IXO. There was a wide range of new releases on it, including a modern WRC car, a classic roadgoing Jaguar Mk.1 and Ford Capri, and even a classic bus as used by the Los Angeles Police Department!


Tuesday 26th March

Today Minichamps released a pair of 1:18 replicas of Ford Escort RS1800s that won rounds of the World Rally Championship. Hannu Mikkola took the blue Eaton Yale-backed car to victory in the 1978 RAC Rally while Ari Vatanen emerged triumphant from the 1980 Acropolis Rally in his version in Rothmans colours.


Monday 25th March

Today we received Norev's 1:43 replica of the Aston Martin DB5 in French Blue. We don't believe that anyone has ever replicated this iconic car in this finish before, which was one of eight official colours that the car was originally offered in upon its release in 1963.


Friday 22nd March

The 2019 Formula One season may only be a week old, but that hasn’t stopped Minichamps from already announcing its 1:18 and 1:43 replicas from the grid! This year the German company will be producing 1:18 replicas in diecast for the Mercedes, Red Bull and Alfa Romeo teams, and that’s unfortunately it in the larger scale. If ever there was a sign that Chase Carey and co need to take note of the diminishing popularity of the top echelon of motorsport, then this is it. Right, now we’ll put the soapbox away!

In 1:43 Minichamps will be covering nine of the 10 teams, with the usual exception of Ferrari. The Mercedes and Red Bull cars will be replicated in diecast, while the rest will be produced in resin. Also worthy of note is Max Verstappen’s Red Bull from the Silverstone shakedown, when it ran with a snazzy one off-livery, along with Kimi Raikkonen’s ‘Valentine’s Day’ Alfa Romeo from a shakedown at Fiorano (Minichamps had already announced the latter in 1:43 scale, but has only just confirmed it in 1:18 as well). These ones are bound to be popular, so place your pre-order if you don’t want to miss out or you may end up disappointed.


Thursday 21st March

Next week we will receive Tecnomodel’s quartet of 1:18 replicas of the sexy Lotus 40 sportscar racer from 1965. Three of these are completely sold out to our customer pre-orders, but we still have a handful left to sell of Jim Clark’s second placed car from the 1965 Riverside 200 Miles. Act now, and you will still be in time to acquire one.


Wednesday 20th March

Today we got all of Minichamps’ new 1:18 and 1:43 road car announcements for 2019 up onto our website. Please bear in mind that if we pre-sell zero of a model, then we will buy zero when it is released! Therfore you really do need to pre-order a model that you want to esnure that you don’t miss out on it.


Tuesday 19th March

Today we received Look Smart’s awesome 1:18 replica of Gilles Villeneuve’s Ferrari 312 T5 from the 1980 Canadian Grand Prix, the home hero finishing in fifth place. This equalled his best result of the season in what was generally an uncompetitive year for the Prancing Horse. Look Smart has done its usual impressive job on this 1:18 replica, right down to the fabric seatbelts and perfectly mirrored finish on the front and rear wings. As usual for a 1:18 Look Smart model, it also comes with its own display case. We were only able to bring 10 examples into the country.


Monday 18th March

Today we got our first look at Spark’s 1:18 and 1:43 replicas of the #92 ‘Pink Pig’ Porsche 911 RSR from the 2018 Le Mans 24 Hours. They look absolutely stunning in the retro livery from the 1971 edition of the race. And not only did it look good, but it won the GT Pro class too, in the hands of Michael Christensen, Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor. Unsurprisingly, this has been one of the best-selling Le Mans replicas of recent times. If you haven’t yet got your pre-order in, then we think that it would be a very good idea to rectify that soon.


Friday 15th March

Early next week our next Minichamps delivery will arrive, which will have no less than four 1:18 2018 Formula One replicas on it! We will receive the two 2018 Force India VJM11s of Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon, and the two 2018 Toro Rosso STR13s of Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley.


Thursday 14th March

Tomorrow we are due to receive SMTS’s second batch of 50 1:18 1957 British Grand Prix winning Vanwalls, as driven by Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks. That takes care of customers 51 – 100 in the queue! We will probably receive our third batch towards the end of April, so numbers 101 – 150 in the queue should receive your example then. When we receive the fourth batch, we will finally be able to sell the model direct from stock!


Wednesday 13th March

In the next couple of days we are due to receive Tecnomodel’s next 1:18 replica, which will be the Ferrari 275 GTB/C. There will be two versions: a plain red car and the yellow #24 machine that finished third in the 1965 Le Mans 24 Hours in the hands of Willy Mairesse and Jean Beurlys. With both of these, we have just one example left to sell after accounting for our customer pre-orders. So, if you haven’t yet got your order in for either of these and want to obtain one, then you’d best hop to it!


Tuesday 12th March

Today we finished getting all of AUTOart’s new 1:18 announcements for 2019 up onto our website. As you would expect, supercars dominate, with several 1:18 replicas for the likes of Aston Martin, McLaren, Bugatti, Lamborghini and Koenigsegg. As usual with AUTOart, we have had to guesstimate the prices as best we can, as the company never confirms the RRP of a replica until it is about to be released. You will then be charged that confirmed RRP when your model is released.


Monday 11th March

Today we received a new delivery from Norev, which featured the usual mix of modern and classic road cars, in both 1:18 and 1:43 scale. The 1:18 1971 Citroen SM in gold was our favourite, being technically a re-release, but the original batch sold out instantly when it was produced a few years ago, so don’t miss out a second time if you weren’t quick enough first time around!


Friday 8th March

Toda we received one of the most exclusive pieces that we have ever offered! It is BBR’s 1:18 ‘rain effect’ replica of the Ferrari 250 GTO in silver. There is a rain drop finish all over the model’s bodywork and windows, save for the area covered by the windscreen wipers, as you would find in real life. The water drop finish extends to the base which has been made up like a road, complete with tyre tracks being left in the rain behind the car! A display case cover is also included. And if that’s not special enough, how about a limited edition of just 20 (as in twenty!) pieces worldwide? We were able to acquire just four examples, and can’t see them hanging around for very long.


Thursday 7th March

Today AUTOart released the latest two colours of its 1:18 replica of the 2017 Aston Martin Vanquish S: Lightning Silver and Kopi Bronze. AUTOart Astons are always a big hit with our customers, so you can’t bank on either of these being available for long.


Wednesday 6th March

Tecnomodel announced a couple of exciting new 1:18 replicas of iconic classic racing sports cars today, in the form of the McLaren Elva Mk.1 and the Ferrari 308 GTB. There will be four McLaren Elva replicas, for Bruce McLaren, Graham Hill, Charles Vogele and even Elvis Presley! The latter is from the 1966 movie Spinout. There will also be a trio of 1:18 replicas of the Ferrari 308 GTB, which are all of cars that were driven by Carlo Facetti and Martino Finotto. As is always the case with Tecnomodel, the limited edition numbers on these are going to be tiny, so pre-order now to avoid potentially missing out.


Tuesday 5th March

Today Look Smart announced a pair of 1:43 Ferrari 312Ts from the 1975 Italian Grand Prix. There will be the #11 car for race winner Clay Regazzoni, and the #12 machine for his team-mate Niki Lauda, who finished third.


Monday 4th March

Today Spark announced 1:43 replicas of the top three cars in the 2019 Bathurst 12 Hours. The Australian endurance race is fast becoming one of the most prestigious events in the international GT calendar, and this year’s edition was a thriller, with the lead changing hands in the final few minutes! Ultimately, the race was won by the #912 Porsche 911 GT3 R of Matt Campbell, Dirk Werner and Dennis Olsen. Second was the #62 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Jake Dennis, Marvin Kirchhofer and Matthieu Vaxiviere, and third was the #999 Mercedes AMG GT3 of Maximilian Buhk, Maximilian Gotz and Raffaele Marciello. With all of three of these replicas the numbers making it into the UK are going to be tiny, so pre-order now to avoid missing out.


Friday 1st March

Today Minichamps announced some new F1 specials from 2018 and 2019, all of which are very low limited editions, and all of which have a pre-order guarantee deadline of only next Tuesday, 5th March! Therefore you need to act extremely quickly if you don’t want to risk missing out on any of these. Highlights include Kimi Raikkonen’s ‘Valentines Day’ test car from earlier this year, plus several cars for Lewis Hamilton and McLaren as well.


Thursday 28th February

Today we got CMC’s new 2019 announcements up onto our website, with the Ferrari 275 GTB/C clearly their subject of choice for this year! There will be a plain red roadgoing version from 1966, as well as three racing versions. The masters of miniature engineering have also announced their latest ‘exploded’ 1:18 replica in a picture frame: this one a Jaguar C-Type.


Wednesday 27th February

Today IXO announced its first set of 1:43 2019 World Rally Car replicas, which are all from the Monte Carlo Rally. First up is Sebastien Ogier’s winning Citroen C3 WRC from the event, the Frenchman just holding off the Hyundai of Neuville in a nail-biting finish. This was not only Ogier’s first rally back with Citroen, but also the marque’s 100th WRC victory, so this is a very significant subject indeed. Also announced was the aforementioned Hyundai i20 WRC of Neuville that finished second, as well as the car of his team-mate, the legendary Sebastien Loeb, who finished fourth in his first ever WRC start that wasn’t in a Citroen. Finally there was the Ford Fiesta R5 WRC of young British hotshoe Gus Greensmith, who won the WRC2 category as well as finishing in a highly impressive seventh place overall.


Tuesday 26th February

Today we received CMC’s latest two stunning 1:18 replicas of the Jaguar C-Type. There is Dr. Christian Jenny’s red concours example, and the #20 Ecurie Francorchamps machine that was driven by Roger Laurent and Charles de Tornaco in the 1953 Le Mans 24 Hours. We have just three and two pieces left of each respectively after fulfilling our customer pre-orders, so you will not have long to think about acquiring either of them!


Monday 25nd February

Today we got Minichamps’ new 1:18 race car announcements for 2019 up onto our website. There’s a whole host of endurance racing, touring car and rallying subjects, both modern and classic, so check them all out!


Friday 22nd February

Today Norev announced just over a dozen new replicas, in 1:18 and 1:43 scale. The most interesting is probably a 1:18 replica of the 1970 Bertoletti race car transporter that was utilised by the David Piper Racing team; at 62cm in length that one is going to be pretty massive!


Thursday 21st February

In the next week or so we should receive Spark’s 1:18 replica of the ‘Rothmans’ retro livery Porsche 911 RSR from the 2018 Le Mans 24 Hours. This is the car that finished second in the GT Pro class, crewed by Richard Lietz, Gianmaria Bruni and Frederic Makowiecki. A model of a car as celebrated as this isn’t going to be available for long, so get your order in now if you haven’t already done so.


Wednesday 20th February

We had another new 1:18 announcement from Tecnomodel today, in the form of the Porsche 356 SL that the Stuttgart marque campaigned in sportscar racing in the early 1950s. The limited edition numbers on these will be between just 80 and 100 pieces each. We will not be holding any stock of these once they are released, so placing a pre-order is the only way to acquire one.


Tuesday 19th February

Today Spark announced a trio of new 1:18 announcements, with our favourite being the first ever 1:!8 replica of a Formula One Shadow; namely Jean Pierre Jarier’s DN5 from the 1975 Brazilian Grand Prix! Jarier took pole position for that event, before retiring from the race with fuel system issues. The other two new Spark 1:18 announcements are Jean-Eric Vergne’s winning Techeetah from Season 4 of the Formula E Championship, and Romain Dumas’s victorious Volkswagen ID R from last year’s running of the Pikes Peak Hillclimb.


Monday 18th February

Today Matrix released its trio of 1:43 Stirling Moss Ferrari 250 GTs. There are his two winning cars from the Goodwood RAC TT in 1960 and 1961, as well as his victorious machine from the 1960 Nassau TT race in the Bahamas.


Friday 15th February

Today we got Minichamps’ new Valentino Rossi announcements for 2019 up on our website. There will be a new Rossi 1:12 bike, figure and flag special, from the 2018 Catalunya Moto GP. There will also be four new Rossi 1:8 helmets, all from the 2018 Moto GP season.

Today is also the last day of our 1:43 Spark Super Sale, with all models still accounted for reduced by yet another £1, now to the frankly ridiculous price of just £19.99! So ridiculous, in fact, that we can’t hold them at this price for long; anything still left on Monday will go up to £24.99!


Thursday 14th February

Today Tecnomodel provided us with sample model shots of its five different 1:18 replicas of the Lola T70 Mk.3 sports car racer, which it first announced last year. We think they all look fantastic, and can’t wait for them to arrive in our warehouse in a couple of months. As usual, the limited edition numbers are low, so make sure that you pre-order the one you want to avoid missing out.

We’ve now reached double digits with our 1:43 Spark Super Sale, reaching Day 10, which means that all unsold replicas have now been reduced to £20.99! A few more sold out yesterday, so you’re really cutting it fine now if there’s something you really want!


Wednesday 13th February

Today we got Minichamps’ new 1:18 Formula One announcements from Nuremberg up on our website. We think the best one is Fernando Alonso’s first ever Formula One car; his Minardi PS01 from the 2001 Australian Grand Prix. We can’t believe that no-one has ever replicated this before! The 1980s Tyrrells are also pretty cool.

We’re now into Day 9 of our 1:43 Spark Super Sale, so everything still available has been reduced once again, now to just £21.99!


Tuesday 12th February

We received a new delivery from Spark today, headlined by the Frank Williams Racing Cars-entered ISO FX3B of Howden Ganley from the 1973 South African Grand Prix. You can click here to see all of the other recent new Spark releases.

We have now progressed to Day 8 of our 1:43 Spark Super Sale. With the latest £1 price reduction, all remaining replicas are now just £22.99!


Monday 11th February

Tecnomodel is just showing off now, with another exciting 1:18 announcement today! It is the 1982 Ford C100 Group C sportscar racer, and there will be four different examples available: two from Le Mans, one from the Nurburgring 1000 km, and one from the Monza 1000 km.

It’s also Day 7 of our 1:43 Spark Super Sale. That means that everything still unsold has now been reduced to just £23.99! A good couple of dozen lines sold out over the weekend at £24.99, so things are really getting serious now!


Friday 8th February

It looks like we have a great year with Tecnomodel ahead of us, as our friends in Italy have just announced another really exciting 1:18 replica. This time it takes the form of the 1960 Lotus 18 Formula One car. Surely the most popular version is going to be the car that the great Jim Clark scored his very first podium in, at the Portuguese Grand Prix. There will also be the Lotus 18 that fellow legend John Surtees took to his first grand prix rostrum, at the British Grand Prix. Along with cars for Jim Hall, Ron Flockhart and Alan Stacey. As usual for Tecnomodel, the limited editions are very much on the low side (at between just 60 and 120 pieces worldwide), so pre-order now or lament missed opportunities later!

We’ve now reached Day 6 of our 1:43 Spark Super Sale, with everything yet to be snapped up reduced once again, now to just £24.99! When we started the 1:43 Spark Super Sale this time last week there were almost 200 different models available; now we are down to 150. How many more will disappear over the weekend at this even lower amazing price?


Thursday 7th February

Spark announced a good three dozen new 1:43 announcements today. Our favourite are the pair of retro livery Porsche 911 RSRs from the 2018 Petit Le Mans race, which paid homage to the Le Mans winning 911 GT1 from 1998. The #911 car of Pilet, Tandy and Makowiecki went on to win the GTLM class of the event. You can click here to see all the other new 1:43 Spark announcements. Spark has pledged that all pre-orders placed by Tuesday 12th February will be 100% guaranteed, so order by then and there will be no chance of you missing out.

Today was also Day 5 of our 1:43 Spark Super Sale, with the replicas still remaining reduced yet again, now to £25.99. Another couple of lines sold out today, so the selection of what is available at these crazy prices is rapidly reducing!


Wednesday 6th February

We received a really pleasant surprise from Tecnomodel today, the Italian model maker announcing four 1:18 replicas of the iconic Lotus 40 sports racer. And what’s more, two of them are for the legendary Jim Clark! As usual the limited editions on them are miserly, at between just 80 and 120 pieces worldwide. So you won’t be surprised when we tell you that pre-ordering is a must!

It’s also Day 4 of our 1:43 Spark Super Sale today. The remaining replicas have now been reduced to just £26.99!


Tuesday 5th February

We received a massive new delivery from Spark today, with almost 30 different new 1:43 releases on it. There are far too many to cover here, so you can click here to see them all. The highlight, though, is Nigel Mansell’s Lotus 87 from the 1981 Las Vegas Grand Prix.

And, talking of Spark, today is Day 3 of our 1:43 Spark Super Sale. The replicas remaining have now been reduced to £27.99!


Monday 4th February

Tecnomodel released another sensational 1:18 classic race car replica today, in the form of the 1959 Lotus 16. There are four variants in total: two for Graham Hill, one for Innes Ireland and one for Bruce Halford. With three of them, we literally have only one example left in stock after fulfilling our customer pre-orders!

It is also Day 2 of our 1:43 Spark Super Sale today, with all the models still available now reduced to £28.99.


Friday 1st February

Today we launched our 1:43 Spark Super Sale, which has to be the most fun and dynamic Sale that we have ever offered! Basically, we have slashed the price of almost 200 different 1:43 Spark replicas to just £29.99. With many of them we have just one piece remaining in our warehouse. But wait, there’s more! For the next few work days, we are going to reduce the price of the models not yet snapped up by £1. So on Monday, everything remaining will be reduced to £28.99. On Tuesday, the price will be £27.99. And so on, until we’ve either sold everything or just can’t take the price any lower!

But, how low will we go? And how long dare you wait? Is it worth hanging on one more day for the price to come down by another pound for a replica that you want, or will someone else beat you to it who didn’t want to take that chance? As we went home tonight, the status of half a dozen models in the Spark Super Sale on our website had already changed to ‘Sold Out’…


Thursday 31st January

Today we received Tecnomodel’s quartet of 1:18 McLaren M6A and M6B replicas from the 1967 and 1968 Can-Am seasons. These new releases emphasise just how important pre-ordering is, as the Bruce McLaren and Moises Solana examples are already completely sold out, while it won’t take very long at all for the Donohue and Motschenbacher variants to go the same way.


Wednesday 30th January

Today IXO announced that, as usual, it will be replicating Moto GP legend Valentino Rossi’s steed in 1:43 scale from the latest edition of the Monza Rally; in this case the Italian’s Ford Fiesta RS WRC from 2018. If you’ve collected them all so far, then make sure you don’t miss getting your name down for one!


Tuesday 29th January

Today we received Minichamps’ 1:43 replica of Nigel Mansell’s 1984 Lotus 95T. As usual for a replica of a Nigel Mansell car, we have very few examples remaining after fulfilling our customer pre-orders (just nine in this case), so don’t leave it too long.


Monday 28th January

Today we are celebrating Fernando Alonso’s win in the weekend’s Daytona 24 Hours, by already offering a 1:43 replica of his winning Cadillac to pre-order. Of course, it was not a solo effort, as Fernando shared driving duties with his Toyota WEC team-mate Kamui Kobayashi, along with Jordan Taylor and Renger can der Zande. Now, although Spark has not yet officially announced this 1:43 replica yet, we cannot imagine a world where they do not end up eventually doing so! And when they do, demand is going to hit the roof! Place your order now, and you will be at the front of the queue, with no danger of missing out if demand ends up exceeding supply.


Friday 25th January

It appears that 12 Art couldn’t wait until next week’s Nuremberg Toy Fair before announcing its new 1:12 replica for 2019, as today it confirmed what it will be! It will be the Aston Martin DB4 convertible. Introduced in 1961, only 70 convertibles were built out of the total DB4 production run of 1,110. We have no fears that this 1:12 replica will measure up to 12 Art’s previous impressive offerings. And at almost 40cm in length, we mean that literally!


Thursday 24th January

After a quiet start with its 1:18 series of replicas, IXO today announced a really desirable subject in the larger scale; namely the legendary Ford Escort Mk.II RS1800 from 1977. The RRP is just £63.99, which is sensational value for money for a 1:18 replica in this day and age. At this price we can see them getting snapped, so do not delay in placing that pre-order.


Wednesday 23rd January

Spark surprised us today by announcing that it will be the model manufacturer producing the Today Minichamps informed us that we will see its 1:43 replicas of the 1984 Lotus 95Ts for 1:43 replicas of the Ford GTs from the 2018 Le Mans 24 Hours, instead of TrueScale Miniatures as has been the case in previous years. This is a pretty big deal for collectors, as a Spark 1:43 replica retails at £53.99, compared to the £99.99 asking price for a TrueScale. Therefore get your pre-order in sharpish if the RRP was putting you off initially, as at this price we wouldn’t be surprised to see demand outstrip supply.


Tuesday 22nd January

Today Minichamps informed us that we will see its 1:43 replicas of the 1984 Lotus 95Ts for Nigel Mansell and Elio de Angelis next week. Both are already sold out with Minichamps, and we also would rather have had a few more to sell from stock after fulfilling our customer pre-orders! If you want either of these 95Ts, you really need to place an order now to avoid being disappointed later.


Monday 21st January

It was pretty quiet on the diecast news front today, so we decided to create our own! You can now obtain the Daniel Ricciardo hand-signed Minichamps 1:18 2014 Red Bull RB10 from us at a sensational 50% off, so for just £99.99 instead of £199.99! We only had a dozen examples of this signed replica left in our warehouse at the start of the day, and had got through more than half of those by the time we went home with the customer email bulletin we did on it! Move quickly and you might still be able to take advantage of this fantastic offer!


Friday 18th January

Today Minichamps provided us with its 1:18 replica of Alain Prost’s 1986 Formula One world championship winning McLaren MP4/2C. We had originally expected this replica to be released complete with ‘McLaren’ logos, as the team ran with in races where tobacco advertising was not allowed. Instead, as with Minichamps’ 1:18 replica of Prost’s 1985 McLaren MP4/2B, it has come with Marlboro decals included that you can affix to the model yourself, for the most authentic final finish possible. We’ll take that!


Thursday 17th January

Today 12 Art treated us to the release of its latest 1:12 replica: the Jaguar XK120 OTS. It is available in both green and silver. OTS, by the way, stands for either Open Top Sportscar or Open Two Seater, depending on who you talk to! At 38cm in length, we think that the asking price of £296.99 is fantastic, especially as these models come from the same people who bring you the wonderfully detailed 1:43 replicas of Matrix. We have less than half a dozen pieces of each example remaining in our warehouse after fulfilling our customer pre-orders.


Wednesday 16th January

Today we received a fantastic new delivery from Cult, which featured no less than five different 1:18 classic British cars on it! Chronologically, these were the 1961 Austin Healey Sprite, 1962 Triumph Vitesse DHC, 1968 Jaguar E-Type Series II, 1973 Ford Escort Mk.I Mexico, and 1995 Jaguar XJR X300. Our remaining numbers on all of these are rather on the low side after fulfilling our customer pre-orders, so get involved soon to avoid missing out.


Tuesday 15th January

We received a couple of very interesting new 1:43 releases from Matrix today. The first of these is a Citroen car and trailer set, as used by the BBC for filming purposes in the 1970s. It even comes complete with a TV and camera and cameraman’s chair on the roof of the car! Unsurprisingly this replica is already completely sold out with Matrix, so once we’ve sold what we’ve got we will not be able to obtain any more! Matrix’s other new 1:43 release is the 1937 Rolls-Royce Phantom III Aero Coupe De Foudre, which is notable for the unique Lalique glass nude kneeling figure mascot!


Monday 14th January

For the first time in quite a while we received a new 1:43 Ayrton Senna replica today. Courtesy of Minichamps, it commemorates the first time that the legendary Brazilian ever drove a Formula 3 car, being his Ralt RT3 from a test session at Silverstone in 1982. Senna would then go on to win his first F3 race a few weeks later, at Thruxton.

We’ve also got something for the bargain hunters amongst you today. We can now offer Minichamps’ 1:43 replica of Lewis Hamilton’s 2016 Mercedes W07 for just £37.49, which is a whopping 50% off of the original RRP of £74.99. But only while stocks last, though!


Friday 11th January

We received a rare TopSpeed delivery today, with the company not having released that many different replicas through 2018. It started this year off with a gem though, in the form of the awesome Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato in 1:18 scale. Resplendent in its intimidating colourway of Lava Red, we think it looks really impressive. Replicas of modern Aston Martins always disappear from our shelves quickly, so make of that titbit what you will!


Thursday 10th January

Minichamps surprised us today with the no-warning-at-all release of four 1:43 2018 Formula One replicas! These were the McLaren MCL33s of Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne, and the Haas VF-18s of Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen. So thank you Minichamps; without you it would have been a pretty quiet week this week!


Wednesday 9th January

There’s big news for Ayrton Senna fans today, as Minichamps confirmed that we will see two new 1:43 replicas for the Brazilian legend over the course of January. The first of these commemorates the first time he ever drove a Formula 3 car, as it is of the Ralt RT3 that he tested at Silverstone in 1982. The second replica is of his Ralt RT3 from the Thruxton Formula 3 race in November 1982, which was Ayrton’s first race in the category as he sized it up prior to his full campaign in 1983. Of course, he was victorious!


Tuesday 8th January

Minichamps confirmed today that we will see its 1:18 Alain Prost 1985 McLaren MP4/2B and 1986 McLaren MP4/2C world championship winners before the end of the month. Although these have been produced previously by Solido, that was many years ago now, and it is probably fair to say that the Minichamps versions will be of a higher quality. And the Minichamps replicas will come complete with driver figures, which the Solido ones didn’t. If you also take into account the general trend that world championship winning replicas always sell out pretty quickly, then it is safe to assume that you can’t afford to procrastinate with these.


Monday 7th January

Happy New Year everyone! We have some pretty big news to start 2019, in that we closed our St Martins Models shop in London yesterday. All the stock has already been brought back to our HQ here in Guildford, so now we have a bigger range than ever on our shelves! As always, you are welcome to come and peruse them whenever is convenient. Maybe we’ll see you one day soon!


Friday 21st December

Spark have really treated us this week, and did so again today with the release of their 1:43 Bedford race car transporter, as used by the Lotus F1 team from 1963 to 1967. This one has gone down very well indeed with collectors; so well, in fact, that we have just eight pieces left in our warehouse after sending out our customer pre-orders. You really don’t have long to decide about this one.

This is the last Daily Diecast Digest entry of 2018, as we’re now going on our Christmas break. We hope you all have a joyous and restful holiday. See you next year!


Thursday 20th December

Today Minichamps provided us with a trio of 1:12 2017 Moto GP replicas, all Honda RC213Vs. The first of these is that year’s champion, Marc Marquez. Then we also have his team-mate, Dani Pedrosa, and British hero Cal Crutchlow. These are all sold out already with Minichamps, and our remaining stock of each one is down to single digits after fulfilling our customer pre-orders. Make haste!


Wednesday 19th December

We received a nice surprise from Spark today, with the sudden release of its 1:43 replica of this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours winning Toyota TS050 of Fernando Alonso, Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima! So, if you were struggling to think of the perfect gift for the endurance racing fanatic in your life, now you have the answer! Given the hype surrounding Fernando’s victory at La Sarthe this year, we do not expect this model to hang around for long, so don’t wait until the New Year to place your order!


Tuesday 18th December

Today we received the first ever 1:18 replica of Graham Hill’s 1962 Formula One world championship winning BRM P57, courtesy of Spark. Why it took some 56 years for just one of the leading model makers to conclude that this iconic racing machine was worth replicating in 1:18, I will never know! At least it’s now here. But not for long! We have a mere two dozen examples left in our warehouse after fulfilling our vast number of customer pre-orders, so if you don’t want to miss out on this one, you will need to act sooner rather than later.


Monday 17th December

Today Spark provided us with its 2019 spring release schedule. But 95% of the subjects were brand new announcements, as we’d never been made aware of them before! And we’ve only been given until this Wednesday, 19th December, to place our order for guaranteed delivery! So, make sure you check out the Spark new announcements area of our website, and pre-order what you like the look of now to ensure that you don’t miss out. My favourite is Jim Clark’s winning Lotus 18 from the Oulton Park round of the 1960 Formula Junior series.


Friday 14th December

Today we were pleasantly surprised to already receive the CMC shipment that we were talking about on Tuesday! So that means that the first example of the company’s exquisite 1:18 replica of the glorious Jaguar C-Type (the British Racing Green version), is now residing in our warehouse, ready for immediate despatch! And, nestled alongside it, is the final version of CMC’s 1:18 replica of the Ferrari D50, this the one that Juan Manuel Fangio drove to victory in the 1956 British Grand Prix, on the way to the fourth of his five world championships.


Thursday 13th December

It seems like an age since we last received any of Minichamps’ 1:8 Valentino Rossi helmets, but today two turned up together. These are Vale’s ‘standard’ 2017 helmet, and his 2017 ‘tribute’ helmet, which paid homage to the recently departed Angel Nieto and Nicky Hayden. These helmets are really collectible, and we only have a dozen of each example remaining after fulfilling our customer pre-orders, so you will need to be quick.


Wednesday 12th December

It’s good to see that Matrix’s 1:43 Racing Car Collection is carrying on apace, the Dutch model company having just announced a triumvirate of Ferrari 250 GTs for Stirling Moss. They are all race-winning cars: the 1960 and 1961 Goodwood RAC Tourist Trophy winners, as well as the winning machine from the 1960 Nassau TT race in the Bahamas. More of this please, Matrix!


Tuesday 11th December

Today we heard that we should receive our next CMC shipment just in time for Christmas. On it will be their first 1:18 Jaguar C-Type replica (the British Racing Green version), the C-Type being only the second British car that the company has ever replicated, following on from the Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato several years ago. As you would expect, it’s a stunner, being made up of some 1,555 pieces, with each individual example taking about six hours to assemble. Also on the delivery will be CMC’s final variant of its 1:18 replica of Juan Manuel Fangio’s Ferrari D50 from the 1956 British Grand Prix. The Argentinian won the race on the way to securing the fourth of his five world championships.


Monday 10th December

Spark giveth, Spark taketh away! We were surprised to hear today that Spark has now cancelled its 1:43 replica of Kimi Raikkonen’s Sauber C37 from the post-Abu Dhabi Grand Prix test, having only announced it last Wednesday! I can’t ever remember such a short period of time between a model initially being announced and then being cancelled – so sorry to all you Kimi Raikkonen fans out there!


Friday 7th December

We end the week with our monthly addition of several replicas into the dedicated Sale section of our website! As always, there are savings to be had of up to 33% off of the original RRP. Bargain of the month is Minichamps’ 1:43 replica of Ayrton Senna’s Williams FW16 from the 1994 Brazilian Grand Prix. At 33% off, it is now yours (while stocks last) for £59.99 instead of £89.99!


Thursday 6th December

In the next week or so, we are due to receive Look Smart’s pair of 1:18 replicas of this year’s Ferrari SF71Hs for Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen. What we love about Look Smart’s 1:18 replicas, apart from their awesome detailing, is that they come complete with their own display cases; why can’t the other model manufacturers do that? Look Smart’s offerings always make it into this country in tiny numbers, so you won’t have forever to consider purchasing either of these.


Wednesday 5th December

Spark really spoiled us today, with the announcement of some really exciting specials from the 2018 F1 season. First off, there will be 1:18 and 1:43 replicas commemorating Lewis Hamilton’s fifth world championship success at this year’s Mexican Grand Prix. These will both come complete with the #HiFive celebratory pit board included. Then there will be a pair of specials for Hamilton and Fernando Alonso from the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. These will come in special packaging featuring doughnut tyre marks on the base, replicating the celebrations that the two drivers performed after the race. This could well have been Alonso’s last ever grand prix, of course, and he had a special one-off livery, so his special is doubly significant, even triply so! There is then a 1:43 replica commemorating Kimi Raikkonen’s return to Sauber, in the post-season Abu Dhabi test. Finally, there are both 1:18 and 1:43 specials celebrating Max Verstappen’s victory in the Mexican Grand Prix. So, thank you Spark; Christmas has come early!


Tuesday 4th December

For some time now we’ve been pleading with our friends at Tecnomodel to produce more British subjects, as well as more Formula One subjects. So we were delighted when their latest announcement ticked both of those boxes! It will be the Lotus 16 from the 1959 Formula One season, and there will be four different derivatives produced. Both Lotus 16s from the 1959 Dutch Grand Prix will be replicated, with Innes Ireland finishing fourth in the #12 car, and Graham Hill coming home seventh in the #14 example. Hill’s #28 Lotus 16 from the 1959 British Grand Prix will also be recreated by Tecnomodel, the future world champion finishing ninth on that occasion. Finally, there will be the #44 car that Bruce Halford campaigned in the 1959 Monaco Grand Prix, albeit not for very long, as he was eliminated in a multi-car accident on lap two. As always with Tecnomodel, the limited edition numbers on these replicas are almost ridiculously small, at between just 90 and 100 pieces each.


Monday 3rd December

It’s the day after the annual Autosport Awards, so you know what that means – we are delighted to be able to offer a handful of the famous and highly collectible table centres from the event! As ever, only 130 have been produced. This year Nigel Mansell had the honour of being the subject of the table centre, with Amalgam’s 1:18 polished pewter representation of his 1989 Ferrari F1-89 640. They have obviously all been hand-signed by the 1992 Formula One world champion. The few that we have been able to acquire can be despatched from our warehouse immediately, so if you act now you can have one in your hands within a week of the Autosport Awards evening itself!


Friday 30th November

Today we received Minichamps’ 1:43 replicas of the two 2018 Force India VJM11s of Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon. The supply of Minichamps’ F1 cars has tightened up considerably over the last few years, and that trend has continued this year; after fulfilling our customer pre-orders for this pair of Force Indias, we have just 10 pieces remaining of each. They are both already completely sold out with Minichamps too, so it’s not as if we can go back and get any more!


Thursday 29th November

Today's entry is big news for Kimi Raikkonen fans, as we have just taken delivery of Burago's 1:18 replica of his last ever Formula One Ferrari! It is, of course, the Iceman's 2018 SF71H. It could also well end up being the car that he scored his last ever grand prix win in, so unsurprisingly demand has been on the high side. Right now we still have some numbers spare after fulfilling our customer pre-orders, so you've still got time to place you order if you haven't done yet.


Wednesday 28th November

Today Minichamps announced no less than four 1:18 Williams FW16 replicas from the 1994 Formula One season, for Ayrton Senna and Damon Hill. There will be a 1:18 replica for each of the legendary Brazilian’s grand prix starts that he made with the Williams team: Brazil, Pacific and finally, tragically, San Marino. There will also be a 1:18 Williams FW16 replica for Damon Hill from the 1994 Brazilian Grand Prix, which he finished in second place.


Tuesday 27th November

Today we received news that we should receive Spark’s 1:18 replica of Graham Hill’s 1962 BRM P57 around the middle of December, so hopefully in time for Christmas assuming that it isn’t subject to any delays. This, of course, is one of the last remaining Formula One championship winning cars never to have been replicated before in 1:18 scale, so unsurprisingly demand has been huge. In fact, we only have a couple of dozen pieces spare from our shipment once we have taken our considerable number of existing customer pre-orders into account. If you haven’t yet got your name down, and don’t want to miss out, then you will need to move quickly.


Monday 26th November

Today we enjoyed a bumper 1:43 Spark delivery, with some 40 new releases on it! There’s far too many to list individually, so it’s best if you click here to check them all out. Highlights include the 1933 Le Mans winning Alfa Romeo of Raymond Sommer and Tazio Nuvolari, and Sebastien Ogier’s 2018 world rally championship winning Ford Fiesta WRC.


Friday 23rd November

It’s Burago’s turn to make the headlines today, with the release of its 1:43 replicas of the 2018 Formula One Ferrari SF71Hs for Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen. At just £29.99 each, they represent phenomenal value for money. Of course, the SF71H will be Kimi’s last ever Formula One Ferrari, while Sebastian once again won several races in another almost-but-not-quite bid for the championship. At these prices, you will not be surprised to hear that these Burago 1:43 F1 Ferrari replicas always sell out quickly, so act soon if you don’t want to miss out!


Thursday 22nd November

Today was a big day, in that we received Bell’s selection of half scale Formula One helmets for this year’s Formula One drivers. Top of the tree is Lewis Hamilton’s lid, which he donned on his way to an historic fifth world championship. There is also fan favourite Kimi Raikkonen’s last Ferrari helmet, as well as what could well be Fernando Alonso’s last Formula One helmet ever! Plus the 2018 helmets for Esteban Ocon and Marcus Ericsson. If you’re not well-versed in these matters, these half scale helmets come in at about 13cm in height. They’re also hard work to source, I can tell you! So order soon, or you might end up having to wait for when we get restocked on these.


Wednesday 21st November

With Minichamps’ ‘standard’ 1:18 and 1:43 replicas of Lewis Hamilton’s 2018 Mercedes F1 W09 all but sold out to customer pre-orders, we are now offering the German model-maker’s 1:18 and 1:43 replicas of Lewis’s Mexican Grand Prix ‘world championship special’ to pre-order. We should stress that Minichamps hasn’t officially confirmed these yet, but given that it has produced a world championship winning special for the last several years, we think it’s a pretty safe bet! And, as demand for these specials is bound to be huge following Hamilton’s fifth world title, it will probably pay to get your name down early!


Tuesday 20th November

Today we received a 1:18 Le Mans 24 Hours winning Ferrari from BBR. It is the #21 250P of Ludovico Scarfiotti and Lorenzo Bandini from the 1963 edition of the race. I’m surprised at just how low the limited edition is for such a desirable subject at a mere 199 pieces worldwide, and indeed it was an instant sell-out on release with BBR. We have just 10 pieces spare after fulfilling our customer pre-orders, and they will surely not hang around in our warehouse for long!


Monday 19th November

Today Norev announced a special 1:18 replica of the 1992 Ford Escort RS Cosworth. Why is it special? Because it is 100% exclusive to the UK market, that’s why! It will be a strict limited edition of just 1,002 pieces, with each one individually numbered. It will be a sealed bodyshell replica, so there will be no unsightly panel gaps, and the price will be just £79.99. In its eye-catching shade of Petrol Blue, we can’t see this one being available for very long. It is due to be released in the spring.


Friday 16th November

Spark announced today that it will be re-issuing its 1:43 replica of the famous original ‘Pink Pig’ from the 1971 Le Mans 24 Hours, which was the #23 Porsche 917/20 of Reinhold Joest and Willi Kauhsen that was decorated in the style of a butcher’s meat cuts. I assume that this decision has been influenced by the considerable number of pre-orders that Spark has received for its 1:43 Pink Pig ‘retro livery’ Porsche from this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours, which celebrated the marque’s 70th anniversary. The #92 911 RSR of Michael Christensen, Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor went on to take victory in the GT Pro class of the race. Wouldn’t these two look just great together?


Thursday 15th November

Today CMC released what is probably the most significant version of its outstanding 1:18 replica of the 1956 Ferrari D50. It is certainly the one with the most interesting story behind it, being the #26 car that Ferrari team-mates Juan Manuel Fangio and Peter Collins shared in the 1956 Italian Grand Prix. Collins had originally started the car, before selflessly handing it over to Fangio at a pit stop. If Collins had stayed behind the wheel, then he would have become the 1956 Formula One world champion. But by handing his car over to Fangio, he selflessly allowed the Argentinian to clinch the fourth of his five world championships by going on to finish that race in second place. No doubt Collins felt that he had plenty more opportunities to become champion in the future, but tragically he would lose his life at the Nurburgring just a couple of years later. This 1956 Italian GP version of the D50 was a complete sell-out with CMC almost within days of originally being announced. We have just half a dozen pieces left after fulfilling our customer pre-orders; once those go, that’s it!


Wednesday 14th November

At Diecast Legends we have one day every month when we add a load of replicas into the dedicated Sale section of our website. Well, today is that day! There are savings to be had of up to 33% off of the original RRP, and at these reduced prices items do tend to sell out quickly. Top bargain this month is Norev’s 1:18 replica of the 1982 Ford Capri Mk.III in green, which at 33% off is now available for just £49.99 instead of £74.99!


Tuesday 13th November

CMC today provided us with sample model shots of all six of its forthcoming 1:18 replicas of the Jaguar C-Type. This will be only the company’s second ever take on a British subject, following on from the Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato a few years ago. The six different examples of the C-Type will be a plain British Racing Green version, the #19 Ecurie Ecosse entered car of Ian Stewart and Ninian Sanderson from Le Mans in 1952, the plain red concours version owned by Christian Jenny as it appears today, the yellow #20 car of Roger Laurent and Charles de Tornaco from the 1953 Le Mans 24 Hours, the winning #18 machine of Tony Rolt and Duncan Hamilton from the 1953 Le Mans 24 Hours, and the white #13 C-Type that was driven by Francisco Ibarra and Fernando Pinal in the 1953-1954 Panamericana. They all look absolutely amazing, and we can’t wait to see them released early next year.


Monday 12th November

Spark today announced a new 1:18 replica for Denny Hulme from his 1967 world championship winning season. Spark released the first ever 1:18 replica of Hulme’s 1967 title-winning Brabham BT24 last year, which unsurprisingly sold out in a heartbeat. This new announcement is the Brabham BT20 that the team campaigned earlier in the year, and specifically the car that Denny took to victory in the Monaco Grand Prix. With the BT24 not ready for the start of the campaign, Brabham fielded the tried and tested BT20 for the opening rounds of the championship. If you missed out first round, then don’t let history repeat itself!


Friday 9th November

Today Look Smart announced that it will be celebrating Kimi Raikkonen’s return to the top step of a Formula One podium at the 2018 American Grand Prix, some five and a half years since his previous visit. It was great to see him win for probably one last time. The Italian company has confirmed both 1:18 and 1:43 specials of Kimi’s Ferrari SF71H from the Austin race to commemorate the Iceman’s achievement. Surely a must-have for Raikkonen’s legion of fans out there!


Thursday 8th November

Today Spark revealed what we can expect to see on its 2019 first quarter release schedule. Many of these are brand new announcements that we hadn’t heard about before, so make sure you check them out. Up until last year Spark produced an annual catalogue with all of its new announcements in it, but it stopped doing that this year. So now the first we hear of many new Spark announcements is when they suddenly appear in these release schedules. Highlights this time round are Johnny Herbert’s Benetton from his first ever grand prix (Brazil in 1989), several 1970s F1 cars, and the 1930 Le Mans winning Bentley of Barnato and Kidston.


Wednesday 7th November

Today we are extremely excited to be launching SMTS’s next 1:18 project. It will be one of the key Formula One cars that unfathomably has not been replicated in that scale to date. It will be Stirling Moss’s winning Lotus 18 from the 1961 Monaco Grand Prix. While the 1955 Mille Miglia is widely considered to be the greatest win of Moss’s career, his most celebrated Formula One success has to be Monaco 1961. That race wasn’t so much a case of David versus Goliath, but David versus three Goliaths. It was Moss in his nimble Lotus 18 (with side panels removed to provide extra cooling on a sweltering day) against the three Ferrari 156 Sharknoses of Ginther, Hill and von Trips. Over 100 laps and two hours 45 minutes, Moss soaked up all the pressure that the Italian cars could throw at him, and put in a performance that would go down in folklore. The sooner you place your pre-order for this very significant replica, the closer to the front of the queue you will be when SMTS starts producing it.


Tuesday 6th November

It was Norev’s turn to provide us with some new road car announcements today, after Matrix’s yesterday, although Norev’s are in 1:18 scale and are from a more modern era. Nothing wrong with that though, as they include the awesome Ford Escort RS Cosworth from 1992, complete with its legendary ‘whale tail’ rear spoiler! Another one for Fast Ford fans is a new colourway of the 1986 Sierra RS Cosworth (white), while hot hatches are also represented with the 1992 Peugeot 205 GTI. If your collecting taste prefers to go further back than that, then there are also cars from the early 1960s, like the Simca Aronde Monthlery, and the Porsche 904 GTS.


Monday 5th November

Today Matrix announced some half a dozen new 1:43 classic road car subjects. Recently we had started to feel that Matrix’s 1:43 road cars were getting a tad too specialist and obscure, but we think that these ones are pretty good. There is Prince Bernhard of Holland’s Ferrari 500 Superfast Speciale Pininfaina, a pair of Ferrari 212 Inter Vignale Coupes (including the famous ‘bumblebee’), a Maserati Mexico Speciale by Frua, an Aston Martin DB2/4 Coupe Bertone Arnolt, and a BMW 1602 Bauer Coupe.


Friday 2nd November

A day after providing us with its 1:18 replica of the Ferrari 365 GTC/4, Tecnomodel confirmed the next Italian road car that it will be replicating in that scale. This next subject will be an Alfa Romeo; specifically the 1954 2000 Sportiva Bertone. This is the car that was intended to be produced in limited volumes for Alfa Romeo’s more sporting clientele, as well as homologated for grand touring racing. Ultimately only four were ever built. Tecnomodel’s 1:18 replica will be available in four colours: red, metallic silver, metallic green and metallic gold. As usual for Tecnomodel, the limited edition numbers are very much on the low side. Need we say more?


Thursday 1st November

Today we received Tecnomodel’s latest 1:18 Ferrari road car replica. It is the 365 GTC/4, which was produced for two years from 1971. It was a 2+2 grand tourer that was based on the 365 GTB/4 Daytona, with 505 examples constructed in total. Tecnomodel has produced its 1:18 rendition in four colours: red, silver, blue and metallic bronze, with the latter having already sold out to pre-orders. Not surprising, given that it is a worldwide limited edition of just 80 pieces (as are silver and blue). The limited edition of the red colourway is a little higher at 100, but you can’t bet on any of these being available for long.


Wednesday 31st October

Minichamps continued its recent run of 1:43 classic Formula One releases today, with a pair of interesting 1991 Williams FW13B test cars, for Damon Hill and Nigel Mansell. Hill was Williams’ test driver at the time, while Mansell was getting some mileage in on his return to the team from his two-year spell at Ferrari. The Hill car in particular has tiny numbers remaining after fulfilling our customer pre-orders (we’re not exactly flush with the Mansell version either!), so you’ll need to get a move on if you don’t want to miss out on these.

And talking of missing out on things, we sold out of Minichamps’ 1:12 Barry Sheene 1977 Suzuki RG500 today, as we predicted!


Tuesday 30th October

Just a week after releasing its 1:12 replica of Valentino Rossi’s 2017 Yamaha YZR-M1, Minichamps today supplied us with the bike and figure special celebrating Vale’s sole victory of the 2017 Moto GP season, which was secured at his favourite stomping ground of Assen. It is limited to just 1,500 pieces worldwide, and is already completely sold out both with Minichamps itself and its UK importer. We ourselves have just nine pieces unaccounted for after fulfilling our customer pre-orders. And as, whisper it, this could turn out to be The Doctor’s last ever Moto GP win, that could make this set very desirable indeed. It would look great alongside Minichamps’ 1:12 bike and figure set commemorating his first 500cc win at Donington Park in 2000!


Monday 29th October

Unsurprisingly, the news today has been all about Lewis Hamilton, after he became only the third person ever to secure a fifth Formula One world championship in the Mexican Grand Prix yesterday. In the perfect timing department, Minichamps has just provided us with sample images of both its ou will be replicating the Lister-Jaguar Knobbly 1950s racing car in 1:43! There will be a 1:18 and 1:43 replicas of Lewis’s 2018 Mercedes F1 W09. The latest delivery information on these is that the 1:43 should be released during November, with its bigger brother scheduled to follow in the run up to Christmas. If you are interested in either of these then you will need to get moving now, as our website and phone lines have been inundated with pre-orders for them since Lewis sealed the deal yesterday evening. They will probably be sold out before they are actually released.


Friday 26th October

Today was one of those days when we got a really nice surprise, with the unexpected announcement of a particularly exciting replica. Thank you Matrix, for confirming that you will be replicating the Lister-Jaguar Knobbly 1950s racing car in 1:43! There will be a plain green and yellow version, as well as the #29 example that Stirling Moss took to victory in the 1958 Daily Express Trophy at Silverstone. Even Matrix’s most obscure 1:43 replicas sell out extremely quickly, and we can only see that trend being accelerated with a car as exciting as the Lister-Jaguar Knobbly, so don’t delay placing your pre-order. Matrix has also announced another 1:43 Stirling Moss racing car, in the form of the Mercedes 300 SLR that he famously drove to victory in the 1955 Mille Miglia.


Thursday 25th October

Today we learned that CMC’s next variation of its glorious 1:18 Ferrari D50 replica will be with us within a couple of weeks. In my view, this is the one with the most dramatic story behind it, as it is the #26 machine from the 1956 Italian Grand Prix. This is the car that Peter Collins originally started, before selflessly handing it over to his elder colleague Juan Manuel Fangio at a pit stop. If Collins had stayed behind the wheel, then he would have become that year’s Formula One champion. But by handing his car over to Fangio, he allowed the Argentinian to clinch the fourth of his five world titles in that very race. No doubt Collins felt that he had plenty more opportunities to become champion in the future, but tragically he would lose his life at the Nurburgring just a couple of years later. This version of CMC’s 1:18 Ferrari D50 was a complete sell-out with CMC almost within days of originally being announced, and we have less than 10 pieces spare after fulfilling our customer pre-orders. This one won’t be around for long.


Wednesday 24th October

Minichamps treated us to a handful of new 1:43 classic Formula One subjects today. First up are the 1982 Lotus 91s of Nigel Mansell and Elio de Angelis, the latter using his to take a narrow victory over Keke Rosberg in that season’s Austrian Grand Prix. You’ll be unsurprised to hear that any replica involving ‘our Nige’ always sells fantastically well for us, so this isn’t one to procrastinate about purchasing. Then we have the 1990 Williams FW13Bs of Thierry Boutsen, who won in Hungary that year, and Riccardo Patrese, who was victorious in San Marino. 1990 was the year that I started following Formula One racing, aged nine, so these two are right up my street!


Tuesday 23rd October

Today is a big day for collectors of two-wheeled replicas, as we received 1:12 models of two of the greatest riders ever to have graced the motorbike racing scene: Barry Sheene and Valentino Rossi! First up is Minichamps’ long-awaited (and at 12 years, I really do mean long-awaited!) 1:12 rendition of Barry Sheene’s 1977 500cc championship winning Suzuki RG500. This is one of the most significant diecast models released this decade, never mind this year. After fulfilling our customer pre-orders we are already down to just 48 pieces spare, and at the rate we’re getting through them we could well be sold out by the end of the month. The other new 1:12 is the latest Valentino Rossi model, which is his 2017 Yamaha YZR-M1. The 1:12 replicas of Vale’s 2013 to 2016 Yamahas sold out in the blink of an eye when they were released, and we have no reason to doubt that the 2017 version will go the same way.


Monday 22nd October

We can now confirm the identity of SMTS’s second 1:18 Stirling Moss replica, which is the car that he used to first make a name for himself on the world stage. It is the Cooper-JAP Mk.IV that he took to victory in the Formula 3 race that supported the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix. Despite being frustrated by having an engine that wasn’t performing at its peak, Moss took victory in both his heat and in the main event later on. International stardom beckoned. As SMTS is such a small company (there will only be about three model engineers working on this project), it is unlikely that the team will ever be able to produce enough examples to meet demand. Therefore a pre-order is essential if you want to be able to add this special model to your collection.


Friday 19th October

It’s SMTS news to the fore again today, as we are very excited to be working in partnership with the guys from Hastings on a brand new 1:43 series of cars driven by the Royal Family. The first five subjects have already been confirmed, with more to follow. The very first release will be Prince Philip’s 1954 Lagonda 3 litre drophead coupe. SMTS’s 1:43 replica will come complete with nice touches like the extra aerial at the rear of the car for the Duke’s radio telephone, as well as the extra vanity mirror at the top of the passenger’s side of the windscreen so that the Queen could check she looked suitably regal. This collection will grow into something really rather special indeed, so make sure you’re in at the beginning. The series will be limited to just 100 pieces per subject.


Thursday 18th October

Ultra-big news today, in that we have received a final pre-production sample of SMTS’s 1:18 replica of the Vanwall VW57 that Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks shared to win the 1957 British Grand Prix! This is the first time that a Vanwall Formula One car has ever been replicated in 1:18 scale, despite our repeated pleas to the various model manufacturers over the last decade or so. We couldn’t think of anyone better suited to undertake this project than SMTS though, as they know the classic F1 scene better than anybody, as well as obviously being ace model-makers.

We also learnt about some other exciting forthcoming SMTS projects in our meeting with them today, which we will divulge with you in the very near future.


Wednesday 17th October

Today was the big day, in that we received our 100% exclusive 1:18 replica of Mike Hawthorn’s winning Ferrari 246 from the 1958 Moroccan Grand Prix, the very race in which he became Britain’s first ever Formula One champion! On Monday I reported that we had just a couple of dozen pieces still available after fulfilling our customer pre-orders; well, that number has already come down to 19!

Tecnomodel released its quadrumvirate (that is a real word – I looked it up!) of 1:18 Jaguar XJS touring car replicas from the 1980s. We have less than six pieces of each example remaining after fulfilling our early bird customer pre-orders, so don’t think about it for too long.


Tuesday 16th October

We heard today that Minichamps’ 1:12 replica of Barry Sheene’s 1977 500cc championship winning Suzuki RG500 will be landing with the Minichamps UK importer on either Friday this week or Monday next week. We will receive it the day after the importer does, so the wait is almost over after 12 years since it was originally announced! We have bought up every last unaccounted for example both from Minichamps’ UK importer and its own warehouse in Aachen, Germany, and still wish that we could get hold of more!

On the same Minichamps shipment we will be receiving its 1:12 replica of Valentino Rossi’s 2017 Yamaha YZR-M1. This now marks the beginning of the third decade that Minichamps has been producing 1:12 replicas of Rossi’s grand prix bikes, going right back to his 125cc Aprilias of 1996 and ’97. The Minichamps replicas of Vale’s Yamaha YZR-M1s from 2013 to 2016 all sold out extremely quickly, and we expect this latest one to go the same way.


Monday 15th October

Our friends at Tecnomodel have just announced no less than four different 1:18 classic racing subjects. There will be four Bizzarrini P538s, four Ferrari 275 GTB/Cs, four Ligier JS2s, and five Porsche 909 Bergspyders. As usual, the limited editions are almost insultingly small, at between a mere 60 and 130 pieces each. So, as usual, pre-ordering is an absolute must to ensure that you don’t miss out.

In other news, our exclusive 1:18 replica of Mike Hawthorn’s winning Ferrari 246 from the 1958 Moroccan Grand Prix, the race when he became Britain’s first ever Formula One champion, will be arriving with us any day now. We have just a couple of dozen of pieces left unsold after fulfilling our customer pre-orders, so this is another one where if you move at a glacial pace you will be disappointed.


Friday 12th October

It’s big news for Ferrari Formula One fans again today, with the surprising release of Burago’s 1:18 replica of Sebastian Vettel’s 2018 SF71H. Why surprising? Because we had no idea that it was on its way until our shipment arrived through our warehouse doors this morning! At just £74.99, Burago has maintained its reputation for fantastic value for money with its replicas. This is also the first 1:18 F1 car we have seen with the controversial halo head protection device fitted, although most people seem to have got over that by now! Towards the end of November, we expect to see Kimi Raikkonen’s car in 1:18 (which will of course be his last ever Formula One Ferrari, and both drivers in 1:43.


Thursday 11th October

What an exciting way to start our new Daily Diecast Digest, with the release of a 1:18 Formula One world championship winning car that has never been replicated in that scale before! Courtesy of CMC, it is Juan Manuel Fangio’s 1956 Ferrari D50; specifically the long nose car that he took to victory at the Nurburgring in the German Grand Prix. We have also received team-mate Peter Collins’ winning short nose D50 from that year’s French Grand Prix. Both come with the kind of ridiculously high level of detail that you would expect from CMC. And both are available from us with a bit of a discount off of the RRP: £564.99 instead of £589.99.