As is usually the case, Minichamps, Spark and Look Smart have been quick off the mark in announcing their first glut of subjects from the 2021 Formula One season. These are all listed here for your pre-ordering pleasure!

Spark has just announced a pair of new 1:43 replicas of Jackie Stewart’s 1971 Tyrrell 003. They are from that season’s Monaco and French Grands Prix.

Tecnomodel recently confirmed that it will be replicating the 1976 Lotus 77 in 1:18. This storied F1 car has never been replicated in this scale before.

Tecnomodel has just announced that it will be replicating a very significant subject from the history of Formula One in 1:18 (another which has never been produced in this scale before). It is the Brabham BT33 from 1970, which was the legendary Jack Brabham’s last Formula One car.

The introduction of this ultra-exciting new 1:18 announcement from IXO has been a right rollercoaster! It is the first ever 1:18 replica of Colin McRae’s 1995 Subaru Impreza 555, which of course was the Scot’s first and only world rally championship winning machine.

One of Minichamps’ new 1:18 announcements for this year is Niki Lauda’s 1984 McLaren MP4/2. It’s about time, frankly, as this a world championship winning machine that has never been replicated in this scale before!

Schuco has just announced an absolutely massive 1:18 replica of the Mercedes O317 race transporter, as used by the Porsche team during the 1980s (SCH0328, £585.99). It will be a right leviathan, coming In at 55cm in length! It will feature a full gamut of opening parts, including doors both in the cockpit and at the back of the vehicle. Loading ramps will also be included.

Minichamps has now released its 1:18 and 1:43 replicas of the Mercedes F1 W08 that Valentino Rossi drove in his famous ‘Ride Swap’ with Lewis Hamilton at the Valencia circuit in Spain towards the end of 2019. Both are limited editions of just 804 pieces worldwide.

We are beyond excited that Formula One world champions (and legends of the sport) Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost will be signing 1:18 replicas exclusively for Diecast Legends once again.

Now, this is not normally our style. We would usually allow baseless tittle-tattle to go unchallenged, but we were so incensed by a recent round-robin circular from cut-price, German seller CK-Models that we felt obligated to respond.

Okay, so we all know that historically a lot of diecast has been cheaper in Europe. And that’s not because retailers in the UK are taking an unreasonable margin; in fact the truth is exactly the opposite. The reason that prices tend to be more expensive over here is that, in Europe, the manufacturers supply retailers direct. But when they sell into the UK, they use distributors; and these distributors take a margin that gets added on to the retail price. Of course, these companies provide a vital service for retailers, but they do cause our prices to sometimes be a bit higher than they are in mainland Europe.

BBR has just released its 1:18 replicas of the three works Ferrari 315 S entries from the 1957 Le Mans 24 Hours.

On the Monday after the recent Tuscan GP, we were inundated with enquiries asking if Minichamps would be replicating the Safety Car from the event. In that race, of course, the Mercedes AMG GTR ran in a one-off red livery, in order to commemorate Ferrari’s 1,000th world championship grand prix. It also got a lot of track time with all the various incidents during the race!

On the Monday after the recent Tuscan GP, we were inundated with enquiries asking if Minichamps would be replicating the Safety Car from the event. In that race, of course, the Mercedes AMG GTR ran in a one-off red livery, in order to commemorate Ferrari’s 1,000th world championship grand prix. It also got a lot of track time with all the various incidents during the race!

Tecnomodel announced one of its most interesting 1:18 subjects to date the other day, in the form of the only Ferrari to have ever competed in the famed Indianapolis 500. It is the 375 Indy from 1952.

At the 2020 Turkish Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton put in a sublime performance to not only take his 94th grand prix win, but also wrap up his seventh world championship. This latter statistic, of course, saw him equal Michael Schumacher’s all-time record.

The 1991 Le Mans 24 Hours was one of the most hotly contested editions of the race ever, with teams from Jaguar, Mercedes, Peugeot, Mazda and Porsche vying for victory. No-one had really considered the #55 Mazda a contender for the win before the race, but it proved to be the tortoise in a grid full of hares.

Tecnomodel has just announced that it will be replicating the stunning Ferrari 712 Can-Am racer in 1:18 scale. There will be four different versions produced.

The other day, Look Smart released its second 1:18 replica of what was essentially Lamborghini’s Formula One car; the Modena 291 from 1991. It is the version that was raced by Eric van de Poele in that year’s San Marino Grand Prix.

Before the year is out, we expect to receive our exclusively commissioned 1:18 replica of Stirling Moss’s winning Lotus 18 from the 1961 Monaco Grand Prix.