March 2004 - May 2004 Archive
31-May-2004 How sexy is this ?
It seems Minichamps have scored a massive hit with collectors with all the classic F1 models they have been releasing of late - lets hope there are lots more in the not too distant future.
Please note the new email address - minichamps@ic24.net
24-May-2004 Another Modell Fahrzeug Porsche GT1 in pink has appeared on eBay - even with a missing wing mirror it reached a massive 412 Euros !
Unfortunately I can't see the fascination with these models at all and am amazed at the prices some collectors are willing to pay for them. Only last week another pink GT1 was up for offer on Yahoo! auctions Japan with a starting bid of around $1000 US and a 'Buy It Now' option of around $2000.
20-May-2004 There has been a complete lack of news to report over the last week however this item has been well worth the wait. It seems BMW have released not one but two BMW M1 Procars in full Marlboro livery ! The first is the Niki Lauda car pictured below and the second is the Mario Andretti (similar to the Regazzoni liveried car) both from the 1979 Procar series.
The part numbers for these models are as follows -
10-May-2004 A few dealers have received complaints from disgruntled collectors in relation to the Mercedes SLR set we featured a few weeks back. It appears the complaints were prompted by the fact that we revealed that one of the models was actually an Auto Art item. I must admit that that neither I nor the dealers in question were aware of this until our South of England office decided to unscrew the models in order to inspect them more closely. It seems strange that Minichamps would allow their packaging to be used to promote a rivals product alongside one of their own ?
The latest model in the Senna Colllection namely the FW16 Williams in full Rothmans livery is apparently becoming scarce - the reason for this we can reveal is that the bulk of the UK's allocation went directly to Grand Prix Legends who were responsible for the distribution and marketing of the original collection. One dealer advised me that he has done a roaring trade selling these and a large number have been shipped to Japanese collectors. As this latest model is number 20 in the Senna Collection this has prompted the original collection to become even more sought after.
I'm sure you will agree that my prediction about the Ford RS200 rally car was spot on with prices hitting the £200 mark over recent months - well after looking at another model yesterday I am going to stick my neck out and make another prediction. In this case the car was the star in what was arguably one of the greatest car chase movies of all time - 'Bullet'. What makes me think this will become highly desirable you may ask ? Well there are only 3,333 of these beauties in circulation and it's a well packaged model, something that will appeal to the 'non collector'. One interesting point with this model, the bulk of the shipment came to the UK as it was Amerang that actually requested the item to be produced.
05-May-2004 You may well remember last year the number of emails I received from disillusioned collectors in response to the release of the M-Creative Michelin models, well today I received this one which was prompted by the announcement of their latest McLaren releases.
"Thought I would just drop you a line
to let you know my thoughts on the Raikkonen MP4/18 Michelin Promo - it's a
feeling that seems to be ubiquitous amongst follow model collectors. As a
die-hard Kimi Raikkonen fan and an avid model collector, I have so far managed
to get all prior 15 Kimi 1/43 cars from various sources and at, on occasion,
very high prices. However, this Kimi model is one too many.
I feel that Minichamps are killing the market by allowing such models to go
ahead. Fair's fair - one Michelin model per year is just about acceptable, even
if their price to a UK collector like me is a bit of a problem. Releasing
a model based on a car that never even raced in anger is, however, not
acceptable. What will happen with the MP4/19 and 19B this season? Are we to
expect two versions of each variety of packaging? The cost, should this trend
continue, is going to go through the roof.
I am 21 years old, and just cannot justify the costs involved if models like
this are released. I like many collectors put high pride in keeping an
up-to-date and complete collection. Thus, released a limited edition Japan-only
model is highly unfair. Now I have to rely on one of my previous sellers that I
have dealt with getting the model in question in stock, or I will have to sit
and watch the prices sky rocket. If they must continue to release endless
variations, at least making sure that the models are released worldwide to give
collectors a fair chance at getting an example for a reasonable price would make
it sting a lot less. It seems, however, that this is a forlorn hope.
With this in mind, I yesterday put my Kimi collection for sale on Ebay. It has
been an adventure gathering them all, and I do get a lot of enjoyment from the
models. However, I feel that the current climate and amount of variaties of
packaging being released is unacceptable, and while this continues to this
extent I no longer have an interest in keeping a collection such as the one I
have.
Sorry to have bothered you, but I have read your excellent website for a good
while now and needed to say my piece. If you want to use any of my thoughts in
an entry on your site feel free - judging by the response I got from other
collectors on this matter I think it is getting a very large problem, not only
with Kimi cars, but Minichamps Formula One models as a whole"
If you do happen to read this Mr Lang then please take note - it's your
decision to allow a company to release just a few hundred of these promotional
items that may drastically affect your future profits when guys like this one
are not around to buy your models anymore.
04-May-2004 We have received confirmation on the Sato Collection models we mentioned the other day - apparently these are already being advertised in the latest edition of Modelcars magazine in Japan. The photograph they depict in the advert is of the black Valencia testcar and the anticipated release date is 3rd quarter 2004 as a limited edition high cover box
If you remember last week I put out an appeal for a complete list of the 1/43 Minichamps Indycars collection and I would like to say a big 'thank you' Lorne Romaniuk from Canada for taking the time to send me a complete list. The reason for this strange request was due to the fact that after spending about fifteen minutes surfing the various collector websites I was amazed how little information there was on the subject. As I had a few spare hours over the weekend I decided to do something about it and the Minichamps Indycar Collection was born however there is still some work to be done in the next week or so uploading photographs. I also hope to have a complete racing Porsche website and database up and running by the end of the year.
It is claimed that they also have some more models planned for the not too distant future so watch this space.
Another story doing the rounds in Japan at the moment is that Kyosho are planning to release a "Takuma Sato Collection" in 1/43 - you may have noticed that the recently announced BAR concept car for both Button and Sato have completely different UPC configurations which seems to support this claim. Apparently this collection will include all previously released Sato models repackaged in the special collection boxes.
Whilst on the subject of Takuma Sato you will remember we reported that the 1,000 piece Sato 6th Place model sold out in the first day of being released at the circuit - well rumour has it that one guy actually purchased a total of 504 models in cash ! That would mean him taking a full 84 boxes containing 6 models each ! It appears someone actually witnessed this event which would explain why this item is so difficult to come by and support why none of the major Japanese dealers were able to get sufficient numbers to supply their preorders.
27-April-2004 Here's a nice offer - Cooper Thames Ditton BMW are offering a discount to any collector who purchase models from them ! The person to contact is Mike Nichols the Assistant Parts Manager and he can be contacted at the following address michael.nichols@ir.inchcape.co.uk however if you wish to visit in person they are situated outside Kingston in Surrey.
Also I'm looking for a comprehensive list of all the 1/43 Minichamps/UT Indycars which includes all the variations of speedway and roadcourse wing configurations - whilst I have quite a few early catalogues I am aware that some were not produced in certain wing configurations so if anyone can either mail me a list or provide details of a decent website it would be greatly appreciated.
26-April-2004 It's seems diecast collectors are a crazy bunch and when you let them loose on eBay there is no telling what can happen. One example of this is a model currently up for auction on eBay at the moment. It's a grey BMW M1 dealer edition model currently standing at £27 with still some way to go on the auction however these models are still readily available from BMW Dealerships at £18 a time. Although the brochure states they are Auto Art models this is in fact a misprint so there is no reason to pay over the odds - it always pays to give your local dealer a call.
25-April-2004 Our Far Eastern branch reports that the Dauer Porsches available via the Art of Minichamps Volume II lottery have now started to arrive and are individually numbered - hardly surprising that they have already started to appear on the Yahoo! Auction site.
17-April-2004 As you have probably gathered from the lack of updates over the last week news has been very slow however you will be pleased to know we now have something to report. As if there weren't enough 1/43 F1 models planned already for 2004 there have been another five added to the list, all test cars.
All the above come in very low production numbers so if you are interested better put in a pre-order with your dealer.
A couple of 1/18 Corvettes have been announced to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Corvette however these will only be available via authorised North American Minichamps dealers. The first which is limited to 2,003 pieces is the Andy Pilgrim, Kenny Collins and Oliver Gavin 2003 Corvette C5R #50 (50 Years of Corvette) Le Mans GT class winning car. The second is the Ron Fellows, Johnny O'Connell and Franck Freon Corvette C5R #53 (1953 Birth of Corvette) Le Mans GT Class limited to 530 pieces - both models are individually numbered.
06-April-2004 Some sad news from McLaren - we have it on good authority that there will be no MP 4/18 Team Edition produced. In a phone call direct to Team McLaren by one of our reporters making a tentative enquiry about the release of the MP 4/18 Team Editions he was advised and I quote "We are not touching it". They added that they would however be releasing the MP 4/19 around November/December time in the Team Edition packaging.
It appears the SLR model in the Mercedes two car set featured yesterday is actually an Auto Art model and not a Minichamps produced item.
05-April-2004 I took the opportunity to have a lie in bed yesterday so delegated the trip to the NEC to our North Midlands and South of England offices who didn't let me down ! The Bahrain Inaugural GP and Mercedes SLR sets were available for sale from one dealer and we have a photograph of the latter for your perusal. The part number for this item is B6 604 5997 and is limited to 2,004 pieces.
The David Coulthard McLaren MP 4-18 Testcar (number 53 in the McLaren Collection) was available however the traditional McLaren Collection packaging has been abandoned in favour of the standard black and white 'checkered' insert complere with the McLaren logo on the back of the insert. Why Minichamps would want to change this so far into the collection is beyond me.
It wasn't just this McLaren that was selling fast today - the 1/43 Kimi Raikkonen First Win model was changing hands at £48 no problem. The latest McLaren F1 GTR's were selling fast too at £35 however we get the feeling that some dealers are holding them back in order to sell them later once the price has increased sufficiently.
04-April-2004 As promised some superb pictures of the Mercedes Benz Inaugural Bahrain Grand Prix set. Click Here!
02-April-2004 A couple of items spotted by one of our reporters at Techno Classica in Essen - it seems Minichamps have produced two Mercedes double car sets to be sold at the official Mercedes Benz Boutiques. The first set is to commemorate the inaugural Grand Prix in Bahrain and consists of a Mercedes Benz W196 "Winner GP France 1954" and an F1 McLaren from David Coulthard, is a limited edition set of 1,000 part number B6 604 5916. The second set (which we don't have a part number for yet) consists of an old Mercedes SL and a new SLR which is limited to 2,004 pieces.
We have also had an exclusive news scoop by from our Japanese office in Tokyo - M-Creative the company who produce the 'Michelin Man' models are now accepting pre-orders from Japanese dealers for the forthcoming release of the McLaren MP 4/18's of Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard. The Kimi model will be a limited edition of just 672 and the Coulthard 288 pieces! It seems they had planned to produce the Renaults but were unable to secure the rights so these were eventually cancelled.
Also the latest McLaren F1 GTR's released namely the 'Day Off' and 'EMI' longtail versions have completely sold out in Japan in less than a week. It appears Kyosho were unable to import enough to meet pre-orders from dealers - even some of the major Japanese diecast outlets received less than six of each model which doesn't bode well for when they hit the shops here making it possibly one of the fastest selling models of the year. This title was previously held by the Kimi Raikkonen First Win - according to a reliable source one major German dealer received an allocation of 100 models and sold them out in a day !.
31-March-2004 I've noticed a very annoying trend over recent weeks and that's the large number of the various 'gift box' packaged models being sold off at heavily discounted prices.
Only last week at Donington Park the Sauber Petronas C21 model complete with the sound chip was retailing at a lowly £11.99 which is less than a third of the original recommended retail price when launched. If this happens to a model limited to 5,555 pieces only a couple of months down the line then what chance do any future releases stand of holding their original prices ? Well the answer to that has to be very little.
If we look at some of the other models released over recent years you will see the Sauber isn't just a one off - let's take the Ayrton Senna 41/41 gift box for instance. A limited edition of 16,041 originally retailing at around £40 it wasn't long before this was selling just over the £20 mark. This month it's the turn of the Chaparrals, another limited edition run series this time of 9,999 pieces now selling at less than half price.
It doesn't take a genius to work out the reason why these items have to be discounted and that's because the production runs are far too high in the first place and the wholesalers want to offload any excess stock, good news if you want to buy but a kick in the teeth if you paid full price upon it's release. If the truth be known I'm not a big fan of gift box style presentation boxes simply because they are far too bulky and difficult to display - I've also read umpteen times on the various message boards that collectors refuse to buy these items as they say they are overpriced for what they are and after the recent dumping of discounted models who can blame them?
We know Minichamps have to make so many models from a particular mould in order to reach a break even point however however if they want to continue with this style of packaging then they need to do some market research in order to pitch the production numbers at a more sensible level.
23-March-2004 If you didn't make it to Donington Park at weekend then you didn't miss much to be honest. I'm not sure what is going on but the number of stallholders at these events is falling and those selling Minichamps now seem to be few and far between, maybe the dealers and punters are staying at home preferring to do business on the internet from the comfort of their own homes.
Apart from meeting up with a few friends one of the main reasons I attend these events is to obtain news items for the website however even the news items are thin on the ground - I did notice a lot of interest in the earlier silver boxed models and DTM cars which may coincide with the release of the second edition of the Japanese Minichamps book.
One incident that shouldn't go without a mention is the theft of a McLaren model from one stallholders table the moment his back was turned. According to reports the matter was reported to the organisers who in turn have had no option but to involve the local constabulary.
20-March-2004 A second Bentley two car set has been released, this time the 3rd and 4th placed cars from the Sebring 2003 race. This set is limited to 1,000 pieces and comes with a part number BL366.
It's off to Donington tomorrow for the first decent show of the year. If anyone fancies having a chat then a group of us usually meet up in the bar around 12.30.
16-March-2004 A couple of special items have been announced by Minichamps which will interest all Porsche collectors. The Jacky Ickx/Derek Bell Porsche 956L 1982 Le Mans winning car will be released in 1/18th scale complete with full Rothmans livery ! Also a limited edition Porsche 956L three car boxed set featuring the 1-2-3 finish of Ickx/Bell, Mass/Schuppan and Haywood/Barth from the 1982 race will be released in 1/43 scale again with full tobacco livery - expect these Q2 of 2004.
We now have the part number for the Bentley two car set we featured the other day - BL365 limited edition of 2003 pieces.
15-March-2004 The Edition 3 of the Minichamps on the Shelf online magazine is out now with some interesting articles on Ayrton Senna and BMW M1's to name but two.
Our Japanese office reports that the Sato BAR was only available at the Suzuka circuit shop and completely sold out in one day ! It seems that March 13th and 14th are Suzuka's Motor Sports Fan Thanks Day however due to the distance from Tokyo to Suzuka it seems that only a chosen few would have found the journey worthwhile - our source state that those who did purchased the model in multiples to re-sell on Yahoo or eBay. The part number for this item is 400 030 116.
13-March-2004 A Bentley two car set has been released via Bentley dealerships to commemorate the 2003 Le Mans race, limited to 2003 pieces it comes in the standard gift box style packaging .
12-March-2004 It finally appears we are turning the tide on the fakers who continue to rip off unsuspecting collectors. On the Official Minichamps website there is a 'pop-up' which states the following :
"Paul's Model Art GmbH & Co.KG /MINICHAMPS Gmbh & Co. KG reserves the right to institute legal proceedings against suppliers of such unauthorised models. Should you discover fake models on the internet, please send us an e-mail to the following address : ebay@Minichamps.de All evidences will be treated confidentially"
I just hope Minichamps will carry out their threat. The responsibility now lies with everyone who collects Minichamps to forward details to the above e-mail address should they have any suspicions about anything they see on eBay or anywhere else for that matter.
11-March-2004 It appears that there is a second version of the Takumo Sato BAR 005 Suzuka Test Car doing the rounds at the moment. If you look at the picture below you can clearly see that the following additional text has been added to the insert 'The 6th Place, Japanese GP in Suzuka 10-11-12 Oct 2003' Obviously this model has been produced after the race as it's a completely different insert to the original.
The latest BMW model release list landed on the doormat today courtesy of Damon Hill BMW and it contains some interesting items. As we know BMW have a habit of producing a nice line in 'Officials' vehicles which make up a nice sub-collection, well this years addition is a BMW X5 Moto GP Stewards Car in white complete with opening bonnet. Also planned are a further six 'Art Cars' !
06-March-2004 The second edition of the Japanese Minichamps book arrived at our office yesterday and I haven't been able to put the thing down since it really is that good ! It's well laid out and every aspect of racing is covered within it's own section within the book - I must say that the photography is absolutely 'top notch' and it's something any serious collector must have. As it has already long since sold out in Japan I would seriously consider buying one as soon as possible if you haven't done so already otherwise you may miss out.
It seems that there is some confusion over the Kimi Raikkonen Schuco promotional model which I feel I need to clear up once and for all. There have been instances in recent weeks where several MP 4-17D McLarens have been offered for sale on eBay however this model has never been released as a Schuco promotional item, only the MP 4-17. In other words if you are offered a MP 4-17D it's a phantom model which has never existed except in the minds of the people producing them. As you know it's a generic cardboard base so it is a simple task just to unscrew the existing model and replace it with the later car to produce a 'rare' model.
01-March-2004 We kick off a new month with some news just in from our Japanese reporter. It appears that Ei Publishing, the company responsible for the Minichamps book were requested NOT to import the English version to Japan via any official channels however it seems that Kyosho came by a whole bunch of these from another source. Once in receipt of these books they decided to sell them combined with a white Porsche GT1 model limited to 1,536 pieces.
.
As you can see the box is on the large side and combines both the book and the model - the preparation of this box actually delayed the book launch. These items were sold solely in model car shops at a price of JPY 9,800.
