by jclevering
on Dec 05, 2012
Not the first post on Chinese cars, today the story continues with a Tomica. Tomica intoduced a series of miniatures for the Chinese market, but they were not really interesting to me as they did not include cars from China itself. This changed with a series of 5 casts with 2 trucks, 2 busses and a limousine, all from FAW, China's First Auto Works and included the oldest Chinese car brand Hong Qi.
It is the Hong Qi CA7600J, which was used in celebrations for the People's Republic 60th birthday, I understand. Here it is:
by jclevering
on Nov 27, 2012
The World Rally Championship (WRC) ended in another title for Loeb. The latest generation WRC cars have been recreated by different manufacturers. Most popular is the Citroen DS3 WRC, which seems to bethe most succesful as well at the moment.
Norev has created at least 9 versions of this car already, this being the Rally Italy version. Other manufacturersof this car are Motorama and Mondo Motors.
As Christmas approaches, so does the last Toy auction of 2012, and with over a thousand lots, this is not a sale to be missed!
We have around 150 lots of Model Kits and also some examples of original Airfix artwork.
by jclevering
on Nov 26, 2012
2012 was an interesting year in diecast for me, how about you?
- In Europe, the market for real cars dropped considerably. Despite this, it seems we got more diecast this year.
- The new entries in the small-scale diecast-scene seemed to be making more detailed cars.
- For some, the time between presentation and actual availability was short, though there were some big dissapointments too in this regard.
- Majorette presented a huge amount of news in februari this year, but due to the factory flooding they came late to the market, even with some stop-gap fillers sourced from Loyal Bright.
- New to the market, at least for me, was Uni-Fortune. Having said that, they had a foray into the market around 2007, but with a series of "tuned" cars (big spoilers, huge wheels). The new series seem to be well detailed and some oddball choices.
- Norev was one of the brands that seemed to have no news during the year and a long time for presenting their cars. The new cars introduced on the Paris Motor Show remain to date difficult to source, the Februari news seem to be only available in selected stores.
- SIKU only had one real new small scale car. They seem to concentrate on the 1:50 tractors or actually the tractors full stop.
- Matchbox has been difficult to source. Some interesting choices, but it seems Mattel lost interest?
- Hot Wheels had some exciting news vehicles and the Boulevard-series are a personal favourite.
- RaStar seems to be trying an entry in this segment, though their RC-cars (also in small scale) seem to be getting the attention.
- Welly presented some new vehicles and for Welly they came to market quickly.
- Tomica remains difficult to source in Europe, though they seem to be getting more attention through their building-sets.
- Greenlight had some exciting new vehicles. They reported more exciting vehicles to come.
- Castline's M2 Machines also introduced some new vehicles, but are difficult to source in Europe.
- Johnny Lightning has dropped below the radar to me, introducing a handfull of ctual new casts, but they are yet to appear in Europe?
- Corgi re-entered the small-scale diecast market after years. The vehicles are well sourced, but rather crudely executed.
by jclevering
on Nov 25, 2012
Historically Welly has been always late to pop up in my region, but - maybe it's because I moved - I was able to found the latest Wellys in 1:60 scale in a local store. And they are nice. Rubber tyres, crisp prints and for the most part interesting cars.
The first I show is my favourite, the Aston Martin V12 Vantage. I believe a first in this scale?
This 1960's Ichida (Japan) Ford-Gyron remote control car will go under the hammer just in time for Christmas, in our 8th December toy auction.
The car is in great condition for its age and complete with original box.
Estimate: £100-£120
