TK Maxx is Fulvia of surprises

TK Maxx offer some absolute gems from time to time - mainly up to the Chrimbo rush, the shelves are abound with plenty of diecast procured from all sorts of places. Indeed as previously blogged before, I picked up a Minichamps 1/43 Cayenne Turbo for about £6.99, when the normal retail is around £35-ish.

I have to say I have a bit of a impulse 1/43 buying streak, so if I do see a model sometimes for next to nothing - even if it is summat like a Mondeo or a Golf in 1/43 and from a reputable manufacturer then I snap it up.

If memory severs me correctly I paid about £4.99 for this Norev effort of the Lancia Fulvia. Complete bargain if you ask me. It will not go on display, but I like the knowledge that it is parked in the garage.

Dom Torrreto's Charger - only in purple - Hot Wheels Dodge Charger R/T

I have got to love the Fast and the Furious franchise over the last decade. Mixing up Americana with some seriously tuned Japanese imports.

One car that has been a bit of a star in the first film was Dom Torreto's Charger R/T. In the first film, Dom tells Brian that he and his dad built the 900 horsepower car, but that he had never driven it, because according to him "scares the shit out of him".



This model - albeit in purple does homage very well to the car, and those classic HW wheels set the tone very nicely indeed. This is a very fine model and extremely chuffed to have picked it up. Have a look at the tampo-ing - really well done.

1/43 Minichamps Ford Focus RS500

The Focus RS500 is a hark back to the days of the outrageous Ford’s, such as the Escort Cossie, RS Turbo, and one can even say the X-Pack Capri. The Focus RS500 was launched in April 2010. A limited production run of 500 units (101 of them for Britain) will be produced. It will have a turbocharged 2.5 L5 petrol engine which produces 345 bhp (257 kW; 350 PS) and can do 0-62 mph in 5.4 seconds, with a top speed of 165 mph (266 km/h) making it the fastest Focus to date.

Minichamps have re-created this bad bwoy in 1/43 scale here, and was an instant addition to the 1/43 garage. In real life, all Focus RS500 vehicles are painted in a standard Panther Black metallic colour, before being shipped to a dedicated 3M facility near Frankfurt, Germany, where a special film will be applied to the bodywork to create the matte black effect.

This is well re-produced, but one thing that has actually annoyed me is the roof mounted aerial as can be seen from the pictures – it has a bit of a nasty glue smudge there, which from a certain angle can make the car look ghastly from the roof view. I suppose that this can be touched up with a little matt black paint, but at £35 a throw you would expect the model to be flawless.

I do like this model, and it does take residence within the display cabinet, but this wee QC issue still bugs me. Unless you remove the car from all the packaging for inspection before purchase, you could end up with more or less the same problem. “Schade” as they say in Germany.

Vanguards 1/43 Ford Granada 2.8i S

This has been a hotly anticipated model by myself. Hornby/Corgi didn't manage to get the MkIV Cortina right for some reason - again, but age old problem with the wheels had summat to do with it and their accuracy.

The model is well proportioned and my bugbear of inaccurate wheels has thankfully not been re-created here.

I do like the tampo-ing - clean and accurate, which is what I like to see on these type of models.

I actually don't have too much more to say on it to be honest - it is a good reproduction of this large Ford and how is sitting well with The Garage.

I am awaiting further variations on the Granada - 2.81 Ghia X Executive or a estate version. The casting also gives the template for a German LHD version in base spec or Polizei livery.