It’s hard to believe that I’ve been contributing at Lamley now for 7 months. Through that time it’s been my aim to try and make collectors more aware of the more obscure brands out there, to offer alternatives to the mainstream companies and to help UK collectors inparticular to make the most of the hobby by sharing news on stockists, availability and pricing.
And recently, Majorette have decided they’ll get on board with my crusade, and I’m hoping this will be the start of a fruitful working partnership for us all, and that UK collectors can take full advantage of the brilliant diecast on offer from the French brand. Majorette are open to bring more lines over to the UK if the interest is there. And judging by the lines already on offer to us here in Blighty, we should be interested.
We’ll start with a look at some of the 5 packs on offer now, and at least one of the vehicles will be familiar to you from a recent Lamley post of mine. That vehicle is the brilliant Toyota Celica GT Coupe.
It features in the “Vintage Cars” 5 pack, a stellar line up of classic vehicles from across the globe. As well as the Celica, the 5 pack contains the following vehicles:
- Volkswagen T1 bus
- Volkswagen Beetle “Oval Window”
- Ford Mustang fastback
- Porsche 934 RSR
It’s a strong pack, but the Porsche and Mustang will no doubt be the ones in high demand. All feature moving parts and collectors and customisers alike can geek out over the Volkswagen T1’s opening rear hatch and very cool roof rack with removable surf board. There are variations on the vintage pack line up, and I’m still trying to pin down with Majorette exactly what dicatates these as some 5 packs feature a fantastic Renault 5 Turbo and Citroën 2CV.
The Beetle and T1 feature again in Majorette’s Volkswagen gift pack, bookended by a T1 Panel Van, T6 Transporter and a New Beetle Cabriolet. The vans will be the stars here, the T6 inparticular is a brilliant model and a very popular vehicle on the roads here in the UK. A diecast version will no doubt have some owners scrabbling for their wallets. And rightly so. A cracking colour scheme and a tow hitch for compatability with the Majorette trailers give it real collectability, and no doubt the T6 will have a big appeal to diecast customisers.
The last 5 pack to cover is possibly the strongest: the American Muscle Cars pack.
The Mustang Fastback makes another appearance alongside its modern GT350 counterpart, a suitably Plum coloured Dodge Challenger and the Viper stablemate, and no modern muscle pack would be complete without a Camaro. Don’t let the slightly naff livery of the GT350 put you off, these are all brilliant castings, with definitely enough in them to be a very tempting alternative to the Mattel brands. The Viper and the Challenger are particularly strong in my opinion.
Both the Vintage and Muscle packs are available for UK collectors online via Amazon UK and Very, and the Muscle Car pack is available in store at Smyths Toys stores. For European collectors, my fellow Lamley contributor @willdiecast has seen the VW and Vintage Car packs in store in France so keep your eyes peeled in your local stores.
I’ve got more Majorette features in the pipeline including a better look at a few of the cars you’ve seen here, and a few you haven’t. And with some exciting releases on the horizon and an ever strengthening catalogue, Majorette should be firmly back on the radar, and I hope collectors both home and abroad can see an ever growing line up in the future.
Nice photography!
Thanks! 🙂
It is a shame these models are not 1/64.
True, but at generally 1:6x they more or less match other cars’ brands in scaling, and the size differences aren’t as pronounced as, say 1:5x scales. Besides, for a toy line, they do their jobs more competently than most at this price point, so unless you’re a stickler for scaling consistency (which I suppose you are, which I understand), you can’t go wrong with these. Certainly you’ll miss some true gangbusters castings coming this year and potentially the next.
If it helps, there are 1:63 (ex.: Renault Megane RS), true-64 (ex: Bentley Continental GT V8, arguably the best bang-for-buck rep of that particular car) and 1:65 (not sure there) versions that hit the mark with some precision without looking too big or too small.
The outdoor beach photography really works!
Thanks 🙂
I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on your posts. It’s crazy the full Majorette or even a decent sized choice isn’t available in any major UK retailer. I’ve heard the UK Majorette importer has been taken over by Simba Dickie and thus might see a better offering soon.
Thanks Craig.
I’m working with the UK distributor as best I can to try and improve things. They’ve got many retailers who hold the singles, but they’re not sharing this information anymore as last year they made full lists on the UK Majorette Facebook page and got a lot of negative feedback from people who complained the stockists were too thinly spread. They therefore recommend to contact your favoured stores to see if they hold their lines. It’s my hope they see some potential in the UK.
half the shops that they listed did not even supply majorette anymore, the new distributor which has only taken over this year and was due to do a push from April, stalled due to Covid, but i still buy mine from Thailand or Germany… in fact i am about to do a large order from Germany today…
I’m not sure what the issue was there. I just know that they are happy to improve things if the demand is there.
can someone explain why i leave posts, that never get posted, and the email i get to advise on posts never allows me to click the confirm button… this has been ongoing now for weeks, whereas it used to work properly.