About once a year collectors here in the UK rush to TK Maxx stores. Not for the bargain fashion, the horror designer items or the crab shaped desk bells, but for Majorette. The stores somehow manage to snag stray stock a couple of times a year. 2020, despite Covid restrictions, was thankfully no different. The star set for me in with the 13Cabs Toyotas and others that landed here was the Dubai Police set, available in a 5 pack or as carded singles. Majorette Dubai cars have been around for a couple of years, indeed there’s a few more castings like the Lamborghini Aventador, Nissan GTR and Audi R8 that have featured the police colours. But these are the most recent versions and It was a real coup for me to find them as normally in the UK they would be nearly unobtanium.
The Dubai Police vehicle inventory needs no introduction. They field the most expensive, powerful and fastest police vehicles on the planet. You know it’s a serious fleet when the bottom end of the scale is a Lexus GS. At the top end, the force can count on a Bugatti Veyron, and there’s a veritable dream list of metal inbetween: Aston Martin One-77. Pagani Huayra. Porsche 918. McLaren 650S. Nissan GTR. Lexus RC-F. Jaguar F-Type.
Contrary to popular belief, these cars aren’t fielded to hunt down speeding billionaires in their hypercars, but are more of a PR exercise intended to project a luxury and professional image of the Dubai Police to visitors. Thus they mainly patrol tourist hotspots and according to Dubai Police lieutenant Saif Sultan Rashed Al Shasmi: “These police cars don’t see duty at traffic accidents or engage in high-speed pursuits”.
Regardless, they’re seriously cool bits of kit. The juxtaposition of these poster boy supercars adorned with police liveries and lightbars just gives them a certain something. And Majorette have managed to bring that to miniature form. They’ve chose 6 of the Dubai fleet to replicate: the Brabus 700 G63 AMG, Porsche Panamera Turbo, Ford Mustang GT, McLaren 675LT, Mercedes SLS AMG and the Bentley Continental GT V8S.
Starting with the pair of big Mercedes, arguably two of the best castings. The hard working Mercedes G-Wagen casting stands in for the Brabus G63 that Dubai Police added to their stable in 2013. The Brabus badging is neat and while the wheels aren’t the best, they’re at least as gaudy as their counterparts on the real vehicle! It’s a chonk of a casting and one of my favourites of the set.
The other car wearing the 3 pointed star is the SLS-AMG. Despite the lack of any of the trademark Majorette moving parts the SLS is a very good looking diecast. Oh and before you bemoan the lack of a lightbar (something I have seen some collectors mention…) well, how do you open gullwing doors with a whopping big bit of plastic in the way? The real car has a strobe mounted at the top of the windscreen, so Majorette haven’t missed a trick here.
Next are the two Brits in the set: the McLaren 675LT and the Bentley Continental GT V8 S. The 675 provides perhaps the biggest contrast of 200mph capable supercar and the police livery and lightbar. And it looks brilliant. The stance is a little high but I think this is a really great model.
The Continental is also a very cool casting and I have to say it takes the title of my favourite of the set. It’s a smart looking thing without the police uniform in the standard Majorette lines but here there’s an added twist. The livery looks brilliant, there’s opening doors and the decals are superb: the Bentley badges are easily visible.
Next up is the Ford Mustang GT, a car that has serious attitude in police colours. I’d really not like to see it in my rear view mirror! A mean bit of kit and nice replica of the real Roush tuned car.
Lastly the Porsche Panamera Turbo, which is sadly a bit of a dud. While the tampos are crisp and the opening parts are present, the casting is a bit misshapen, and rides far too high on small wheels, giving it a very SUV like stance. The tow hook on the back is also an erroneous feature here, one that does little to flatter the already wonky lines. It’s necessary to complete a set, but otherwise there are better cars amongst the six.
Even with the Panemera, this is still a set I am very happy indeed to have in my collection, and by the time this post goes live I hope some of you UK collectors have also managed to seek it out, TK Maxx stores were still being restocked in December. If so maybe you even grabbed one of the two Eurocopter EC145s in Dubai Police livery or the sister Dubai Ambulance set featuring more supercars in working uniforms. Regardless, get hunting, there are some real finds to be had!
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(Find the Majorette Dubai Police cars on Ebay)
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