Why no 1/18 Ferrari 550s/575s?

723 Views 6 Replies 2 Participants Last post by Scuderia, May 31, 2005

R_Willis

Discussion Starter · May 30, 2005

Why have there been no 1/18th scale Ferrari 550/575s (ALMS/LeMans/LMES) made?

I know a lot of times when I email the big companies (Maisto, Autoart, Minichamps, etc) they claim tooling is just so expensive and it is hard to recoup their money, which I wouldn't doubt.

However, there are some brand names such as "Porsche" and "Ferrari" that are basically guaranteed sells. You know they would easily make profit on something like this.

Wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that Ferrari had no involvement in the racing of their 550s and didn't really support it. The CARE racing cars are said to basically have been bought off of EBAY, stripped of basically everything and rebuilt by PRODRIVE. Go figure though, after all the success that Ferrari would later bring out the 575 GTC and let Barron Conner and others race it with "some" factory help.

The 550 Ferraris of CARE racing (prodrive) along with the Olive Garden (rafanelli) car are some of the best looking race cars out there, not to mention they took the battle to the mighty C5Rs very well.

#80 & #88 Prodrive 550s @ 2003 Petit LeMans

#88 @ Road America 2003 ALMS

:ranting -I want my 1/18 550!!!!- :ranting

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· #2 · May 30, 2005

Well Basically hotwheels have all the rights. No other diecast manufacturer can (except for Kyosho and BBR) and this is very much restricted by hotwheels and with bigh selling prices for BBR.

We have to have more until the rights that Mattel have exhaust themselves, and more diecast companies will start making Ferraris as well (in 1:18) till then, we can just wait.... Hotwheels wont do a great job so there is really nothing to be done but wait.

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Ronan

· #3 · May 30, 2005

Believe it or not there are some 1:18th racing 550s and 575s, but they are made in resin I believe and are extremely expensive (around $300 USD+ from what I've seen) and made in limited numbers. I can't remember exactly who makes them (is it MDS perhaps???) but I think they are mostly small scale Italian resin model makers.

I've seen them in person (at the 2003 Techno Classica Essen) and they were fantastic, but not worth $300 I thought at the time. They would only be as good detail and looks wise as a 4-5 year old 1:18th diecast release and I don't think they have any opening parts.

BURN is unfortunately absolutely correct about Mattel. I say unfortunately as Mattel 1:18ths are on average pretty poor models, lacking in detail and just plan crap in my opinion! But they have a very tight deal with Ferrari which gives them a near monopoly on making 1:18th Ferraris. The only remotely affordable quality 1:18th Ferraris are made by Kyosho under a sub-licensing deal with Mattel, but to date they have not announced plans to do racing Maranellos. :cheers

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· #4 · May 31, 2005

Here is a picture of the 50 Ronan was referring to courtesy of John.

I am not sure who the maker is and I believe it to be a sealed model.

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· #5 · May 31, 2005

most of them are sealed, and they will be at LEAST $300. They basially take a bburago, maisto model of the car and start making parts from scratch to turn them into the race cars. The detail is ok, but not $300 worth. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

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R_Willis

Discussion Starter · #6 · May 31, 2005

MclarenF1 said:
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Yeah, agreed.

I want a 550 racecar in 1/18 really bad, and could afford $300+ if I wanted, but it just isn't worth that to me.

I'll wait and hope Kyosho, Minichamps, or Autoart eventually bring one to market.

R_Willis
-1/18th LeMans, ALMS, or LMES cars only-

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· #7 · May 31, 2005

The good folks at Mattel really don't care about the avid collector never have and never will. And so why would anyone expect Mattel to spend any of there hard earned profits into a decent R&D department and produce a really worthwhile model that bares the Ferrari badge.

Every year for the past 6 years they pump out their version of the F1 models and every year they are crap, and every year the collectors are disappointed... meanwhile the "real" model companies such as Minichamps, Kyosho, AutoArt keep getting better and better.

Mattel know that they have us by the family jewels and that if we a non-hand built model we have to buy the mattel version.

I also suspect that there is not one mattel staff that has any decisions on what models are produced or the level of detail go into each model on this or any diecast forum.

So as for producing a 550 or 575 or any race verison of any car other than F1 sorry but it will never happen. I guess Mattel is not interested in that license to print money!

Same old mattel saga ... the song remains the same

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