June - August 2004 Archive

28-August-2004  I apologise for the lack of updates over the last week however I have been taking a hard earned rest in Northern Italy where it seems Rothmans liveried models are still on open sale !

Whilst I was on my travels I did manage to stop off at a couple of decent model shops and made a couple of discoveries which will interest both Alfa Romeo and Mercedes collectors alike.  Firstly the Alfa Romeo's - RIPA the Italian Minichamps importer have issued two silver Alfa 155 promotional models both limited to 1,008 pieces.  One is a 155 Twin Spark with gold wheels and the second a 155 Q4 - both these models are similar to the previously released Kyosho models which appear as red versions pictured at the top of page 79 in the first edition of the the Japanese Minichamps book.  

The second discovery was made at the Mercedes Benz Boutique in Florence.  It seems at least four 'gift box' style models have been released as a limited edition entitled 'A Flash of a Car' which appear to capture famous film stars in Mercedes Benz cars.  The only ones I managed to get pictures of were a Black 300SL Roadster, Silver 190SL Roadster and this White 230SL Pagoda.  If anyone has any further information on these then please drop me an email.

I've also received several emails with instructions on the most effective way of removing the 'Racing' decals from the Porsche three car set.  Whilst several collectors report 100% success rates with their own special 'recipe' I've decided that the following one from Andy who runs www.rallymodels.co.uk is the one I'm going to print.   Now Andy spends most of his time converting existing models (Minichamps/IXO/Trofeu) to limited edition runs by removing factory fitted decals before re-applying the correct liveries.  He states that 99% of all decals will come off after soaking the area in hot water, and with the liberal use of a modelers paintbrush to get the water underneath it before gently teasing the offending item off however patience is called for.  

17-August-2004  I've just received details of the part number for the BMW Dealer Edition of the M1 two car set - 80 42 0 390 093.  Damon Hill BMW are already taking pre-orders for this item which will be due in the UK within the next few weeks.

The hot subject of discussion at the moment is of course how feasible it is to removed the "Racing" decals from the Le Mans Porsche 956 sets to reveal much cherished tobacco livery underneath.  Toronto Motorsports have posted details on their website advocating the use of a craft knife to peel back the top set of decals and then using a product called 'goo gone' in order to remove the remnants of the sticky stuff. 

I'm no model maker by any stretch of the imagination however you don't have to be a genius to know that one slip of a craft knife and it could have disastrous consequences.  As soon as a better alternative is available I will of course post the information.

14-August-2004  Our friends at Grand Prix Miniatures have just taken delivery of their allocation of Porsche 956 sets from Minichamps NA and as suspected they come without Rothmans markings.......well sort of.  It seems in order to avoid destroying the whole production run Minichamps have actually applied 'Racing' decals over the top of the existing 'Rothmans' markings however these are so thin the 'Rothmans' underneath are still clearly visible which appears to defeat the whole object of the exercise.

As we can see in the photograph below there is actually some 'ridging' caused by the outline of original decals underneath poking through the freshly applied ones.

Now the big question : is there anyone out there daring enough to attempt to remove the 'Racing' decals from their set ?  If this is possible please drop me an email with a full set of instructions and I will post the results. 

13-August-2004  The recent release of a BMW M1 25th Anniversary set by Minichamps has been mirrored by BMW with their stunning BMW dealer edition set containing a red road car and the previously unreleased Procar of Didier Pironi.  As you can see the insert contains an image of an M1 together with what can only be described as the most fantastic piece of engineering ever - Concorde.  (NB any emails suggesting more worthy contenders for the title of 'most fantastic piece of engineering ever' will be instantly deleted !!)  As soon as we have details of a part number we will of course post the information. 

09-August-2004  At Donington last weekend a few of us were chatting about the number of collectors who seem to be under the misapprehension that collecting models is a good way of investing money for the future.  The conversation all stemmed from a chance remark made by a dealer who said that he thought that a number of his customers actually purchased models because they thought they would go up in value and not because they liked the particular item.

The trend for some models since the late 90’s has been to rocket in value which is true of the F1 GTR’s. We have to be realistic however - Minichamps like any other collectable items are only worth what someone else is willing to pay on the day and even then we are looking at a very selective market i.e. other Minichamps collectors.  The only way to make money is if you purchased your models for normal retail prices when they were released (like the F1 GTR's) and you then decide to cash in and sell your collection when the prices are at their highest.

The people who are snapping up new releases in the hope of making money in the future are going to end up extremely disappointed as not everything is going to go in the same direction price wise as the F1 GTR's.  In certain circumstances a vast number of models are 'dumped' onto wholesalers at knockdown prices that of course has a knock on effect on the secondary market. If we look at the case of the Audi R8’s everyone including myself thought that when released this ‘new collection’ would go in the same direction as the McLarens however how wrong we were. Apparently if you go down to your local wholesaler and buy in bulk some of these actually work out at around one Euro per model!  So remember what it says in most financial literature – the value of your investment can do down as well as up!

On a different note I managed to pick up an Edition 2 Catalogue today and was interested to see a picture of new Takumo Sato Collection packaging and I must say I'm very impressed, lets hope there is more collections on the way.

07-August-2004  EXCLUSIVE ! We now have it on good authority (from Minichamps themselves no less) that the Rothmans liveried Le Mans Porsche 956 sets were only delivered to Japan via Kyosho before the threat of legal action from Rothmans.  It isn't known how many of the original 5,040 sets with tobacco markings made it to Japan however the rest of the world will receive sets with the 'Racing' livery within the next few weeks.

I've decided to have another 'readers poll'.  This time I want you to list the top five models in each of the following categories which you consider to be the rarest.  The three categories are as follows : F1, sports/GT cars & road cars.  

06-August-2004  A couple of new models have been announced within the last couple of days for release later this year.

P040119 Jordan Ford EJ14 - Timo Glock Canadian GP 2004

P940005 Benetton Ford B194 (Bitburger decals) - Michael Schumacher.  This model has never been released before and will be driverless - we assume it will form part of the new Benetton Collection.

P120483 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B 1938 Le Mans Sommer/Biodetti

P041328 Audi R8 Audi Sport Team Veloqx - Winners 12 Hr Sebring 2004 McNish/Biela/Kaffer

P751202 Alfa Romeo 33 TT12 Team WKRT - Winner 1000Km Monza 1975 - J Laffite

P936033 Porsche 911 Carrera Cup 1993 - Mika Hakkinen.

02-August-2004  We are a week further on and still no nearer in solving the mystery of the Porsche 956 Rothmans sets.  A few weeks back the first of these sets appeared on the Yahoo! Japan auction website however after speaking to a couple of dealers yesterday at Donington Park it seems the chance of these sets being released in either the UK or Europe are nil.  

One actually rang Amerang (the UK importer) last week and was advised that these sets will not be released through themselves for fear of legal action from the tobacco company.  How these sets can then be released in Japan is anyone's guess so if they are a non starter in the UK and Europe you may as well add USA and Canada to the list as their anti tobacco legislation is even tougher.  If anyone can clear up this mystery (especially from Japan) then please email me at the address below.   

25-July-2004  Well I asked you to email me with your feedback about anything Minichamps and you certainly obliged !  I have been literally inundated with emails over the last week and from the replies the feedback in most cases is almost identical.  

If Paul Lang or anyone else at Aachen takes the time to read this then please be aware that this is meant to be constructive feedback and has come from your customers - their way of telling you what they want not a criticism of your products.  In many cases your customers have come up with some fantastic suggestions which we hope you will take away and think about.  

This is what you said -

Gift Boxes 

• Far too many released often inappropriate plus far too expensive given that the edition numbers are normally many times higher than that of a normal model.  "Up there with Hot Wheels idea of a Limited Edition" was how one collector put it !  I've seen several released at a RRP of £42.99 only for them to appear a few months later discounted at £11.99 which proves that the edition numbers are far too high. 
• The packaging is too cumbersome and difficult to display.

Proposal : If gift boxes are to continue then reduce the production numbers, also give the collector a choice of packaging by releasing the same model in a normal box perhaps with an insert inside the case.

Formula One Models

• Since the loss of the Ferrari/MSC licence there have been far too many F1 models especially of non descript drivers and far too many of the lowly teams i.e. Minardi

• Far too many derivatives such as 'First Point' models.  These sort of models should only be used to mark a milestone in a drivers career such as their first Grand Prix Win or 100th, 150th or 200th race etc not a drivers first point.

• Pit stop dioramas - why release two per team which look identical when one for the lead driver would be more suitable ?

• Lack of  variation of model presentation - models such as the Raikkonen 1st Win or Alesi "Taxi" really stand out in your collection as something a bit different whereas the Montoya and Ralf Schumacher 1st win models are almost non descript and almost identical to everything else.  If the driver figure has the arm raised this would be a start or if the insert carried the flag of the country in which the race was won perhaps.

• Launch/Showcars should be driverless or with the driver sat on the sidepod which would be something different.  One idea would be to have only one launch car per team but in a larger box (like the Renault dealer models) but with two driver figures stood next to or behind the car.

• Text on the inserts to carry the year of the car thereby making it a good reference point.

• Do away with outer sleeves on cases - these have to be removed and stored elsewhere in order to display the model and can sometimes be lost.  Any special artwork to be on the insert which of course is inside the case. 

• Since the demise of the 'driver collections' ie MSC, RSC and HHF there has been nothing to replace them to date.

• The consensus is that collectors like collections !  The new Benetton Collection got a big 'thumbs up'.  You also pointed out that the thought of not being able to complete a collection in some cases made you think about giving up the hobby, all as a result of the numerous special models released which are not readily available ie Michelin models.

• The 'Classic F1' models were also given a thumbs up.

Release issues

• You found it frustrating having to wait until April/May for the previous years race specification cars.

• Announcement to release in some cases is too long. In the case of the Damon Hill Brabham this arrived two years after it was announced.  A similar situation with the Mazda 787B Le Mans Winning car too - in the meantime another manufacturer has managed to release it in three different formats.

• Release of 'obscure models' with very little appeal i.e. some of the Porsche hillclimb models which would only appeal to either Porsche collectors or someone who had attended the particular event some 40 odd years ago.

• Road cars to be issued in one colour at a time, also more subject matter i.e. US and UK cars, also you would like to know in advance which colours will be released.

• Inaccurate decals on historic race cars - they typically depict how the car stands now and not as it did on race day.

• If a model is preordered then the importer should go out of their way to ensure the order is fulfilled - in many cases dealers are placing orders with importers only to be let down at the last minute, this results in an unhappy customer who then has to pay over the odds via another source.  This happens on open releases as well as limited edition items and is something that Minichamps should address.

Miscellaneous issues

• Minichamps should make available for sale via retailers accessories such as spare perspex box lids to replace broken ones and also replacement stickers for the top of boxes.

• A Minichamps Collectors Club is one suggestion with a quarterly/half yearly magazine with the option to buy special models.  Failing that the catalogues could carry features i.e. peoples collections.  Don't forget not everyone has internet access !