By Maz Woolley
There seems to be a steady flow of new models reaching UK Wholesalers. Some of these are interesting models which we have not covered when they were announced.
Eligor
Eligor, of France, have recently issued two interesting large minibus type vehicles built on Iveco chassis. Eligor of recent years has tended to focus on commercial vehicles man of which are issued in conjunction with Hauliers in realistic liveries. Much of their success has been that they make many models for the promotional market, mostly to 1:43 scale where competitors often use 1:50 scale for their heavy vehicles.
They also do nice models to 1:43 scale of several of the less common French commercial vehicle ranges like Hotchkiss and Sinpar. Production is both in a French based Factory and at a plant in Guang Dong province in China.
The vehicles shown below are described as Minibuses but here in the UK they would probably be licenced as a small coach and need a Public Service Vehicle (PSV) licence to drive them
116637 Iveco Daily Minibus NP Hi-Matic White
116791 Iveco Daily Minibus Pompier Suisse
Spark
Spark of Macau continue to maintain a very tight control over model releases. They announce the releases and then drop then if demand is insufficient, or produce sufficient models to meet pre-orders. Spark Models do not carry extra stock so if a model is popular then it quickly becomes scarce.
Recent announcements from Spark include several models of the Alpine F1 team cars, driven by Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonzo, from the current racing season, but as yet no prototypes have been shown. to go with them Spark continue to chronicle historic F1 and F2 cars and with the companies French connections many are cars from French teams, or cars with French drivers. Pre-production prototypes of some of the latest proposed issues are shown below.
SF105 – 1:43 Matra F2 Winner Reims GP F2 1968
SF242 – 1:43 Brabham BT38 #5 GP Rouen F2 1972 Jean-Pierre Beltoise
SF243 – 1:43 Brabham BT38 #4 3E GP D’Albi F2 1972 Bob Wollek
SF246 – 1:43 Matra MS11-12 #90 Winner Course De Cote du Mont Dore 1970 Jean-Pierre Beltoise
GLM (Great Lighting Models)/Stamp Models
Announcements of the models to be issued in October for the final quarter of the year have been made. GLM is a Chinese based producer who first came to the public notice as producers of 1:43 scale resin models of mainly American subjects. However, they have started to spread their wings wider whilst at the same time creating Stamp Models which focuses on 1:43 US cars. The models shown are a mix of GLM and Stamp branded models. Stamp Model numbers are prefixed STM and Great Lighting Models are prefixed GLM. These are all sealed resin and photo etch models made to 1:43 scale. It should be noted that this group gets the most out of moulds. Multiple colours of each moulding are made available, and where it is a convertible hood up and down versions are sold separately.
Pre-production models from this group have often been criticised for inaccuracies on US bulletin Boards and I am not sure that the grille should be as flat on the Cadillac 62 or that the Caprice grille surround should push forward quiet as far as it does. However, photographs can sometimes be deceptive and production models may be slightly different too.
GLM101501 Lincoln Continental Town Car Dark Blue Irid 1973
GLM101502 Lincoln Continental Town Car White 1973
GLM101503 Lincoln Continental Town Car Ginger Moondust Irid 1973
STM49301 Cadillac Series 62 Convertible Black 1949 Open Top
STM49302 Cadillac Series 62 Convertible Black 1949 Closed Top
STM49303 Cadillac Series 62 Convertible Maroon 1949 Open Top
STM49304 Cadillac Series 62 Convertible Maroon 1949 Closed Top
STM49305 Cadillac Series 62 Convertible Blue 1949 Open Top
STM751001 Chevrolet Caprice Convertible Black 1975 Open Top
STM751002 Chevrolet Caprice Convertible Black 1975 Closed Top
STM751003 Chevrolet Caprice Convertible Orange Poly 1975 Open Top
STM751004 Chevrolet Caprice Convertible Orange Poly 1975 Close Top
STM751005 Chevrolet Caprice Convertible Medium Blue 1975 Open Top
There are of course many other models being issued from a wide range of suppliers and provided shipping starts to improve I think that a lot of models are likely to appear in the UK in the final quarter of the year.
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