The Classic Carlectables range of 2012 Bathurst cars has been released, and I’ve bought all three. After hearing horror stories about their 1:18 offerings, it is disappointing to see their 1:43s have got similar, though less severe, issues.
Production figures for these ‘one off’ race versions are:
- Whincup/Dumbrell – 1500 pieces
- Lowndes/Luff – 2050 pieces
- Winterbottom/Richards – 1150 pieces
Classics has been using these same moulds for a few years now. Generally, they are pretty good models with what I would say are fairly accurate castings, however they do have some inaccuracies that the company doesn’t seem too eager to fix, such as exhaust outlets, windscreen wipers (on the Holden) and wheel camber & location to name a few.
The quality of the decoration, unfortunately, has slipped from what it was a year or so back. Luckily, the bricks-and-mortar retailer I buy these from had several in stock, so I could choose the better build of each model. Some of the others I left behind were terrible; one had a front wheel half hanging off, another had badly smudged decoration, and glue stains and heavily chipped decals were pretty common.
The chips in the models I decided to buy are almost all in the black areas, so at least that is easy to fix with a spot of paint.
My retailer said they’d sent back over a dozen of the 1:18s (ironically, these bad versions that are disappearing from the market are likely to become rare and highly collectable in the future. Something for the profiteers out there to think about…).
The cars appear to be painted one base colour, then almost entirely wrapped in decorated decal film. There appears to be very little mask painting (maybe only the side window surrounds?) or tampo printing (just the window insert?).
The wheels should be shiny machined alloy, and they are generally not too bad (and certainly a more accurate shape than the Apex version), but one of the wheels on the Vodafone car is almost a dull grey.
These are still decent models – but the quality is not what Classics have delivered in the past, and certainly falls below what a modern day limited edition collectable model should be.
Unfortunately, this batch seems particularly prone to bits of dust in and under the paint and decals, misaligned parts, plus minor scuffs and chipped decoration. I recall reading somewhere that Classics have had to change production factory? Well, management of the QC department need a good kick up the proverbial…
source – SPEED
wixy500 rating (out of 5)
- Collectability – 4.3 (after all, they’re Bathurst cars – one a winner, the other two rather unique ‘one-offs’)
- Finish – 1.9
- Accuracy – 3.0
- Value – 2.9 ($55 each)
- Overall – 3.0