Is this toy gold Aston Martin the ultimate stocking filler?
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Model cars have moved far beyond the fiddly DIY kits and pots of paint of childhood memory. Today there’s a fast-growing market for them whether your budget stretches to a pocket-money Lego kit, a self-assembly 24-carat gold-plated Aston Martin DB5 for £24,999, or an ultra-rare pink 1969 prototype Hot Wheels Volkswagen Beach Bomb of the type that was valued at $150,000.
At the top end of the market, Amalgam Collection has made high-end replica model cars, boats and planes since 1995, counting Ralph Lauren and Sir Norman Foster among its clients. Its unique one-off service, which starts at $100,000, allows the commission of any car, boat or plane not available in its off-the-shelf collection. “We are making more bespoke and unique models than ever,” says co-founder Sandy Copeman. “Increasingly we are selling to people with extensive collections of high-value cars. The model will add value to the real car when they come to part with it, or it means they can keep the model as a memento of the car they once owned.”
Amalgam Collection’s Bugatti Type 59, £22,835 for 1:8 scale
Hot Wheels Aston Martin DB4GT, £2.30
Copeman oversaw the scaling down of Ralph Lauren’s Bugatti 57SC Atlantic and Bugatti Type 59, ensuring the desktop versions featured “wheels of watch-like complexity”. Amalgam’s range of 1:18 to 1:4 “off-the-shelf” models of racing and road cars, meanwhile, starts from £985.
Agora creates detailed, pre-painted model kits of cars such as the Ferrari 250 GTO, Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing and even a Routemaster bus (£1,299). This year, for the 60th anniversary of the Bond film Goldfinger, it has teamed up with Aston Martin and EON Productions to offer a 24ct gold-plated Aston Martin DB5 kit, complete with Bond’s most famous gadgets, including a functioning ejector seat, revolving number plate, and bulletproof screen. The model is limited to just seven examples costing £24,999, available either as a self-assembly kit or as a pre-made model. Or you could opt for Pocher’s latest kit for a 1:8 scale model of a Porsche 917 racer car (£789.99), made up of 312 high-quality metal, rubber, textile and plastic parts. The size of it might be intimidating, but it’s a relatively straightforward, rewarding and relaxing experience to bolt this Le Mans legend together.
At a more “family” price point, there’s Lego’s Technic range. Its latest offering is a 1:8 scale kit (£389.99) of the life-sized Lego McLaren P1 supercar that Lando Norris drove at Silverstone this year, made of 342,817 Lego pieces and powered by an electric motor. Alternatively, there’s the recently launched Lego Technic NASA Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle (£189.99), a Ferrari Daytona SP3 (£389.99) and Mercedes G-Wagen (£219.99). See also Lego’s Speed Champions range, with models between £19.99 and £44.99, which includes the Ferrari F40, the Nissan Skyline from the Fast and Furious films and a set with Aston Martin’s F1 and Vantage official Safety Car.
Playmobil offers cars such as Knight Rider’s KITT, Magnum, PI’s Ferrari 308 and The A-Team’s GMC Vandura van for £69.99, or an off-road Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7 at £59.99. With each set complete with lookalike plastic figurines, Playmobil has mastered a way to make its toys attractive to kids but also to the adults paying for them.
Another stocking filler that appeals to all ages is Hot Wheels, which recently launched a new pocket-sized salt-flat-racer Aston Martin DB4GT (£2.30). It’s just one of the cars from the company that’s produced more than eight billion since it started life in 1968. Buy small, dream big.
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