January 11, 2014

After January's ToyFair in Germany, each year we see a blizzard of new product announcements from the major model companies and as all experienced collectors know, it's good not to get too excited. Generally, these new items do not appear right away. We'll see some of them this year, some next year and more the year after that.

And some (shudder).....well, maybe in Hillary Clinton's second term.

In any case, we will bring you these lists as soon as we get them and urge that you place your requests early and be patient. The wait is usually worth it.

TSM Model got ahead of the pack by announcing their 2014 lineup in mid-December. We were a bit occupied by the Christmas Rush at the time but managed to send out an email featuring their new 1/12 scale Porsche 917s, 911s and McLarens.

Today we posted the entire list at MotorsportCollector.com and listed their proposed 1/43 scale L&M Porsche 917/10s on our Online Shopping website. We'll add other appropriate items to Online Shopping as time permits (the 1/18 Senna McLaren looks pretty interesting) but in the mean time, please call or email your requests.

TSM has asked us to submit our pre-order by the end of the week so any input from you would be helpful.

As we mentioned above, sometimes items take a few years to appear. This week, we heard rumblings from several customers about some long lost items from TSM and Spark:

This TSM Signature Series Set featuring 1/43 scale models of the Chaparral 2D and Chaparral 2E from 1966 along with a plaque signed by Jim Hall was announced 3 years ago but it looks like it will finally be released to collectors soon.

This photo was forwarded by a customer who spotted it on a European website. (Thanks to all our spies out there!)

The US distributor confirmed that it would be coming soon but could not give us an exact date. Since the individual Chaparral 2D ($70.00) was released in December, we were hopeful this would follow close behind. Priced at just $163.00, this Limited Edition of 750 should sell out quickly after its release. Order HERE.

Two years ago, Spark Model announced 1/43 scale resin replicas of 5 Indianapolis 500 winners and it looks like the first of these has now been released in Europe ( I apologize to ck-modelcars for stealing their photo).

If the level of detail on Mark Donohue's 1972 Indy winning Sunoco McLaren is any indication of what we'll see on the others, the entire collection is bound to be one of the most popular 1/43 series of the year. And, we like the Indy themed packaging and base as well.

Reserve the Sunoco McLaren HERE for $74.00 plus shipping. Hopefully, we'll see them next month.

More long lost items are also on the way. We'll feature them next time.

GOODWOOD DVD UPDATE:

Late Friday afternoon, we received some good news from our shipper. Our 2013 Goodwood DVD shipment has been located and should arrive Tuesday or Wednesday. We'll ship all pre-orders as quickly as possible. Thank you for your patience.

2013 ANNUALS DUE THIS MONTH:

Autocourse 2013/14 - $79.95 - Reserve HERE

Automobile Year #61 - 2013/14 - $99.95 - Reserve HERE

2013 LeMans 24 Hours Official Book - $89.95 - Reserve HERE

We'll have more new arrival information for you next week.

Have a great weekend!

- Paul

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