I’ve been looking forward to finally getting a Majorette into my writing. When I joined the Lamley team and took on the mantle of covering the European and leftfield brands, I had many ideas about Majorette floating around in my head. Unfortunately due to a near non existent presence on the pegs of my local stockists in my part of the UK (TK Maxx and Home Bargains), I hadn’t managed to pick up anything from the modern Majorette catalogue in a long while. Thankfully that’s now changed as I’ve been able to obtain their take on the Toyota Celica GT Coupe. And what a car to get the ball rolling.
I took mine out during a weekend of fine weather here in the UK, a weekend where local classic car clubs were all making the most of the dry conditions. So I took a pocket classic along on a ride out through my home county of Lancashire into Yorkshire.
The Celica replicated by Majorette is a first generation A20/A30 model on sale from 1970 – 1977. The Celica was first shown at the 1970 Toyko Motor Show, and was designed with the American market in mind as competitor to Ford’s all conquering Mustang. Engine choices were a myraid of Inline-fours from 1.4 to 2.2 litre capacity, and the 1st generation Celica became a globally successful car and the first in a long line to carry the name. Majorette have replicated it here as part of their Vintage line, and they’ve done it very well indeed.
Right away the colour and stripes are very cool, and pretty much straight from the original Toyota options list. Wheel choice can make or break a car and Majorette have done a brilliant job here. They perfecly compliment the rest of the car and also there’s also a little bit of Majorette heritage there, but more on that later.
Back to the exterior of the Celica and there’s other neat touches all over the place: The flush fitting front and rear bumpers, the sharp decals including small details like a petrol filler cap and the Celica badging, the clear plastic front lights. The finish is pretty damn good. There are tiny issues with the decals. As clear as they may be, most Celicas I have seen have slightly mis-aligned indicator decals and the side stripes sometimes aren’t quite lined up, perhaps a consequence of them being printed seperately on the opening doors. But that’s really nitpicking, and these issues plague all diecast brands, budget or premium.
Opening those doors leads us nicely onto the rather well detailed interior. And the doors themselves function nicely, and sit flush with the body when closed, decent quality control is evident here.
It’s also really cool to see how Majorette have stuck with the formula and designs used with their older cars, the tri-spoke wheels that work so well here are a modern take on the Majorette wheels of the past. But there’s more references to times gone by, and to see this you have to flip the car over. Instantly familiar to anyone who’s owned one of the older Majorettes will be the visible metal spring forming the suspension. The modern cars still use utilise the old set up. Other cool nods to the past are the scale still listed in French (ECH for “Échelle”) and the 200 numbering system has been continued. They’re obviously proud of their heritage, and rightly so. The metal bases may be gone but these modern diecasts keep nicely in line with their predecessors.
Hopefully I’ll be working a lot more with Majorette in the future. I’m hoping to make more people aware of their work and to help UK collectors inparticular to locate stockists and news on future releases. And there is a lot to get excited about in that aspect. The resurgence of the brand is going well, and as we’ve seen with the Celica, the Vintage and Vintage Premium lines have some very cool cars in their ranks. And with some very cool Asia exclusives hitting Hong Kong soon and some super cool looking 911s now available, it’s a good time to be a Majorette fan.
Ironically I managed to pick up several of these gorgeous Celicas from TK Maxx last year. It’s still extremely frustrating that apart from a few independent toy shops scattered across the UK there are still no big retailers who stock the full Majorette line up. Morrison’s thankfully still persevere with a handful of basic Street Cars but TK Maxx only sell a big variety just once a year around September and Home Bargains the same but that was just 2017 and 2018. Smyths Toys look to be tentatively getting on board with their Muscle Cars 5 packs and sometime this month they will be stocking the new Porsche 5 pack.
As a big fan of Majorette for decades it’s great to see these new models. Unfortunately, a reintroduction into the U.S. was far too brief and seems to have died with the loss of Toys R Us. I’m happy to see the Celica but the body seems too short compared to the actual car. What do you think?
Wow great feature and photos, that’s the Ribblehead Viaduct isn’t it? Found a couple of the Celicas randomly at a TKMaxx in the Midlands last year… Its worth mentioning that you can order some Majorette cars direct from their website and the cost is fairly reasonable…
So did you manage to locate a retailer to buy this or was it from Majorette themselves? I’ve managed to get most of the new releases from Germany and Taiwan, and have ordered some Japan exclusives but it costs a small fortune using proxy shipping companies 🙁
It’s a great casting, Got it in black. I ended up opening it as i’m very much a tactile collectors like alot on here.